From disappointment to audience switch: Giorgio Agamben and the pandemic

Cultural sociologists have extensively studied the felicity conditions that make intellectual performances successful and enable intellectuals to drive momentous social transformations through their ideas. However, the dynamics of failed performances remain largely unexplored. In particular, little is known about what happens when intellectuals fail to win the approval of their traditional audiences and instead gain support from those who previously ignored or even despised them. This article examines one such case: Giorgio Agamben’s interventions during the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing on his theories of the state of exception and biopolitics, Agamben sharply criticized the Italian government’s response to the pandemic, which included lockdowns, mask mandates, and vaccination requirements. He portrayed science and medicine as threats to meaningful social life and argued that these measures represented an unprecedented attack on civil liberties. After situating Agamben’s pandemic interventions in the context of his intellectual trajectory, the article analyzes the backlash he faced from traditionally sympathetic audiences and the unexpected support he garnered from right-wing nationalists. The article argues that this shift in audience was not prompted by a change in Agamben’s political or theoretical views, but rather originates in long-term transformations that have affected both the left and the right since the publication of his most celebrated writings.