Debt, à la Lettre: The Promise of Debt and the Duty of the Indebted
| dc.contributor.author | Richards, Serene | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2017-01-18T02:01:03Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2017-01-18T02:01:03Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2017 | en |
| dc.description.abstract | This paper demonstrates that the logic of debt is founded on an infinite task, amounting to a process of continual repayment with never an end in sight. This infinite task expresses as its inner contradiction: “borrow, spend, and be guilty.” Through the formula “I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of…”, inscribed on every banknote in the UK, I show how the juridico-political apparatuses function to maintain the force of the utterance. Through Agamben’s archeology of the oath, I show how the ‘I promise’ functions as a performative speech act, that ultimately acts as a commandment, or an order-word. Therefore, the notion of debt can only be conceptualised as that which is constituted by the force of language, which is simultaneously reliant on a secondary threat of physical force in order to maintain the primary force of the utterance. The incorporeal transformation that results from this renders each of us perpetually indebted persons. | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10092/13087 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://dx.doi.org/10.26021/316 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.rights | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. | en |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | |
| dc.subject | Agamben, Debt, Promise, Oath, Speech Act, Deleuze, Order Word, Force of Language, Commandment | en |
| dc.title | Debt, à la Lettre: The Promise of Debt and the Duty of the Indebted | en |
| dc.type | Journal Article |