Sovereignty:an Investigation On Agamben’s Theory

The concept of sovereignty lies in the core of Giorgio Agamben’s thoughts. The relative concepts he used to explain sovereignty-example, exception, the state of exception, law and bare life are theoretically connected by their structural similarity with language and potentiality. This paper aims at combining them logically with the former two elements.Three chapters are of great importance in this paper:the first chapter illustrate the structural similarity between language and politics as well as language and law with the concepts of example and exception; the second chapter begins with the suspended law in the state of exception and then explains its relevance with bare life; the third chapter shifts into the concept of sovereignty and clarifies its identity as the modern representative of the highest human power; the last chapter explains the concept of (im)potentiality which works to combine all these former concepts and shows the writer’s own understanding of the ever-lasting question:How to act politically?...