Mediating non-persons: on Daniel Heller-Roazen's Absentees

James  Purdon

doi:10.33137/cal.v9i2.39821

Mediating non-persons: on Daniel Heller-Roazen's Absentees

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article

Abstract

Daniel Heller-Roazen’s Absentees: On Variously Missing Persons (2021) develops a general theory of the “nonperson” through critical and philological analysis of legal, theological, and literary texts. This review-essay engages with Heller-Roazen’s arguments firstly by considering how social and political constructions of personhood and nonpersonhood have been mediated by processes and artifacts that are historically and culturally specific. Acknowledging the specificity of such forms is, the essay argues, of crucial importance if we are to understand historical and cultural differences in the allocation of both personhood and nonpersonhood. In its final part, the essay turns from historical specifics to the somewhat more abstract question of future persons, in order to consider how Heller-Roazen’s theorization of nonpersonhood might inform contemporary debates about the ethical claim of future generations to the attention and care of present societies.

Original language	English
Number of pages	9
Journal	Critical Analysis of Law
Volume	9
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.33137/cal.v9i2.39821
Publication status	Published - 12 Dec 2022

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Copyright 2022 The Author. Open Access. The work licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence (CC BY 3.0), which allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. To view the licence, visit: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.
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title = "Mediating non-persons: on Daniel Heller-Roazen's Absentees",

abstract = "Daniel Heller-Roazen{\textquoteright}s Absentees: On Variously Missing Persons (2021) develops a general theory of the “nonperson” through critical and philological analysis of legal, theological, and literary texts. This review-essay engages with Heller-Roazen{\textquoteright}s arguments firstly by considering how social and political constructions of personhood and nonpersonhood have been mediated by processes and artifacts that are historically and culturally specific. Acknowledging the specificity of such forms is, the essay argues, of crucial importance if we are to understand historical and cultural differences in the allocation of both personhood and nonpersonhood. In its final part, the essay turns from historical specifics to the somewhat more abstract question of future persons, in order to consider how Heller-Roazen{\textquoteright}s theorization of nonpersonhood might inform contemporary debates about the ethical claim of future generations to the attention and care of present societies.",

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AB - Daniel Heller-Roazen’s Absentees: On Variously Missing Persons (2021) develops a general theory of the “nonperson” through critical and philological analysis of legal, theological, and literary texts. This review-essay engages with Heller-Roazen’s arguments firstly by considering how social and political constructions of personhood and nonpersonhood have been mediated by processes and artifacts that are historically and culturally specific. Acknowledging the specificity of such forms is, the essay argues, of crucial importance if we are to understand historical and cultural differences in the allocation of both personhood and nonpersonhood. In its final part, the essay turns from historical specifics to the somewhat more abstract question of future persons, in order to consider how Heller-Roazen’s theorization of nonpersonhood might inform contemporary debates about the ethical claim of future generations to the attention and care of present societies.

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DO - 10.33137/cal.v9i2.39821

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JO - Critical Analysis of Law

JF - Critical Analysis of Law

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ER -

Mediating non-persons: on Daniel Heller-Roazen's Absentees

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