"Living Alongside Death": Torture, Detention, and the Intersubjective Body.

How does torture work? Scholarly consensus seems to agree that torture reaches into the body to undermine the fundamental core of the person, but rarely do we specify the mechanisms by which it achieves this effect. I propose to answer this question through a focus on the conditions of detention and...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Political Theory Vol. 53; no. 5; pp. 684 - 710
Autor principal: Kaku, Archana
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Sage Publications Inc. Oct2025
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: "Living Alongside Death": Torture, Detention, and the Intersubjective Body.
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        au: Kaku, Archana
        affil: College of William & Mary, Government Department, Williamsburg, VA, USA
      su:
        Torture
        Phenomenology
        Detention of persons
        Spacetime
        Sleep deprivation
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        subj:
          Torture
          Phenomenology
          Detention of persons
          Spacetime
          Sleep deprivation
      keyword:
        critical phenomenology
        politics of the body
        space
        time
        torture
        critical phenomenology
        politics of the body
        space
        time
        torture
      ab: How does torture work? Scholarly consensus seems to agree that torture reaches into the body to undermine the fundamental core of the person, but rarely do we specify the mechanisms by which it achieves this effect. I propose to answer this question through a focus on the conditions of detention and the ways in which these conditions are manipulated. I examine spatial dislocation, sleep deprivation, and dietary manipulation as prominent techniques of torture. Using what I call an "improper phenomenology," I show how these techniques work to subvert the detained person's relationships with space, time, and community. With reference to critical and feminist phenomenologists, I argue that these relationships are what structure and constitute the subject. These ties, in other words, are not only part of what enables us to exist but part of what makes us who and what we are. The unmaking or subversion of these relationships through techniques of torture not only undermines the stable subject but also has profound effects on those "beyond" the detention center.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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