DRESSCODES 18
Dressing Biopolitics: Notes on Power, Bodies, and Vulnerability
Can we afford to overlook – or worse, dismiss – dress from a critical analysis of the relationship between biopolitics, life, and the body? Starting from this provocative question, in this seminar, Nicola Brajato will share some theoretical reflections from his current postdoctoral project, “The Biopolitics of the Dressed Male Body”. Over the past three decades, also following the rediscovery and translation of Michel Foucault’s genealogical investigation of power, the concept of biopolitics has characterized a lively and dynamic debate based on the idea that in our society, life is one of the privileged objects of the exercise of power. These conversations have identified the body as the battleground of this rationale of power. However, a critical aspect has been overlooked: this biopolitical body has yet to be "dressed”. By exploring the intersection of biopolitics, the dressed body, gender, and sexuality, this seminar will therefore invite us to consider dress as another pivotal battleground of biopolitics.
