Fordham Lincoln Center -- Lowenstein 309

April 10, 5:30-7:00

From pop phenomena such as Game of Thrones and The Hunger Games to the literary triumph of Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones, the microeconomic mode redefines human being as the intersection of inescapable embodiment, threats to survival, and what Elliott has called binary life, or the conviction that humans always choose to exist at the expense of other life. In this talk Elliott will consider the consequences of binary life for longstanding debates regarding the role of suffering, spectatorship and compassion in the recognition of universal personhood, via readings of recent films such as Wind River (2017), and Avengers: Infinity War (2018). In contrast to the dramas of inclusion and exclusion that structure narratives regarding the extension of personhood to formerly excluded forms of life, binary life produces a perversely universal version of humanity equality, in which every single conscious human being must choose whether to stay alive at someone else’s expense. This radically absolute definition of human equality interrupts the hierarchical transactions of the sentimental imagination at the same time and for the same reason that it enables a new, powerful justification for profoundly asymmetrical access to thriving. The presumptions of binary life might be seen to shape narratives framing the border policies of the Trump regime.