Abstract

CASTRO, Edgardo. For a Genealogy of Italian Biopolitics: Roberto Esposito and the Early Reception of Michel Foucault’s Lectures. Tópicos (México) [online]. 2024, n.69, pp.257-283.  Epub Aug 16, 2024. ISSN 0188-6649.  https://doi.org/10.21555/top.v690.2606.

This paper deals with the reception of the Foucauldian notion of governmentality in Roberto Esposito’s thought by taking into account the Italian translation of Foucault’s lectures of 1977 and 1978 at the Collège de France. First, the different contexts of reception of these lectures are presented, in particular the Anglo-Saxon studies of governmentality and the crisis of Italian Marxism in the late 1970s. Secondly, Foucault’s position in his courses of these years is analyzed from the perspective of the opposition between Machiavellianism and anti-Machiavellianism, precisely in view of the Italian reception. Finally, this paper analyses the reception of the notion of governmentality by Roberto Esposito in his 1980 work La politica e la storia. The paper shows the importance of this early reception of Foucault’s lessons regarding the formation of the Italian biopolitical current and its specificities.

Keywords : Roberto Esposito; Foucault; governmentality; biopolitics; Machiavellianism; Antimaquiavellianism.

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