The Exceptionalist State and the State of Exception: Herman Melville's Billy Budd, Sailor

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The Exceptionalist State and the State of Exception rethinking theory Stephen G. Nichols and Victor E. Taylor, Series Editors WWWWWWWWWWWWWW The Exceptionalist State and the State of Exception Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, Sailor WILLIAM V. SPANOS The Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore ∫ 2011 The Johns Hopkins University Press All rights reserved. Published 2011 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The Johns Hopkins University Press 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363 www.press.jhu.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Spanos, William V. The exceptionalist state and the state of exception : Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, sailor / William V. Spanos. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn-13: 978-0-8018-9849-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) isbn-10: 0-8018-9849-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Melville, Herman, 1819–1891. Billy Budd. 2. Melville, Herman, 1819–1891— Political and social views. 3. Melville, Herman, 1819–1891—Knowledge—History. 4. Melville, Herman, 1819–1891—Knowledge—United States. 5. Imperialism in literature. 6. National characteristics, American, in literature. 7. Exceptionalism—United States. 8. Literature and history—United States—History—19th century. I. Title. ps2384.b7s55 2011 813%.3—dc22 2010019682 A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Special discounts are available for bulk purchases of this book. For more information, please contact Special Sales at 410-516-6936 or specialsales@press.jhu.edu. The Johns Hopkins University Press uses environmentally friendly book materials, including recycled text paper that is composed of at least 30 percent post-consumer waste, whenever possible. All of our book papers are acid-free, and our jackets and covers are printed on paper with recycled content. To my beloved Assimina Karavanta this testament of fidelity from our crippled zone This page intentionally left blank Yet in the light of recent events it is possible to say that even slaves still belonged to some sort of human community; their labor was needed, used, and exploited, and this kept them within the pale of humanity. To be a slave was after all to have a distinctive character, a place in society—more than the abstract nakedness of being human and nothing but human. Not the loss of specific rights, then, but the loss of a community willing and able to guarantee any rights whatsoever, has been the calamity which has befallen ever-increasing numbers of people. Man, it turns out, can lose all so-called Rights of Man without losing his essential quality as man, his human dignity. Only the loss of a polity itself expels him from humanity. — hannah arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism [T]he reign of ethics is one symptom of a universe ruled by a distinctive [singulière] combination of resignation in the face of necessity together with a purely negative, if not destructive, will. It is this combination that should be designated as nihilism. — alain badiou, Ethics The fact that must constitute the point of departure for any discourse on ethics is that there is no essence, no historical or spiritual vocation, no biological destiny that humans must enact or realize. This is the only reason why something like an ethics can exist, because it is clear that if humans were or had to be this or that substance, this or that destiny, no ethical experience would be possible—there would be only tasks to be done. — giorgio agamben, The Coming Community This page intentionally left blank ...