Lubricity : power, sovereign violence and erotic hope

Abstract

The original impulse sparking this project - namely the paradox of suffering and violence in the twentieth century- guides the reader along an unexpected set of detours, occasionally drawing one away from the usual watering holes of political theory. Along the course, we contemplate the powers of force and facilitation, violence and sovereignty; don overalls and embark on a scenic tour of the inner workings of an internal combustion engine; scramble under razor wire to glimpse the terror of camps and torture complexes; contemplate the soul and its relation to violence and life; creep into 'a delightful boudoir', spying acts of reciprocity and consensuality that are capable of pleasurably making possible what was previously impossible; navigate vast tributaries of lubricative flows, across administrative systems, bureaucracies and governments; find ourselves caught amidst the excitement and terror of a surge of flooding bodies; and discover secreted away from the grinding friction of opposing forces, spaces of pure reciprocity capable of generating a true peace. The course of this inquiry necessitates an expansive search through fields of pain and pleasure, of force and facilitation,, of violence and hope.

Date of Award	2005
Original language	English