Andrey Zvyagintsev’s ‘Leviathan’: The Unbearable State of Nature

Karolina Gmerek — Thu, 01 Apr 2021 07:23:04 +0000

Mgr Katarzyna Krzyżanowska

European University Institute, Florence

Abstract: Leviathan by Andrey Zvyagintsev is a movie that depicts the world in a state of nature, with no prospects for creating a Hobbesian social contract. Set in the Russian peripheries, the film depicts a respected and caring family man who is gradually deprived of everything because of lack of political order with enforceable law and justice. The movie is a depiction of a contemporary “failed state”, equalized with the state of nature, where there is no legitimate power and violence remains the only tool to achieve goals both in private and public spheres. Religion consists of empty rituals that serve corrupt officials to maintain power. This world cannot last without innocent victims, scapegoats of the society, one of whom is the protagonist of the movie. This paper offers a legal and philosophical inquiry into the film, as it draws especially on the theory of the social contract proposed by Hobbes. It depicts a Russian town as a symbol of the state of nature as envisioned by Hobbes and describes the reasons why the social contract has not been made. According to Hobbes’s theory, in the state of nature concepts like justice and injustice do not convey any meaning; therefore, this paper investigates other: theological and anthropological concepts, to explore the meaning of Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan.

Keywords: Leviathan, Hobbes, Legendre, Agamben, crisis, ritual, religion, law

Language: English

Published: Number 1(26)/2021, s. 62-75.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2021.1.62

Ściągnij plik: Download
Liczba ściągnięć: 507

Apoliticality in Jurisprudence. The Crisis of the Idea and the Phenomenon of Populism

Redakcja — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 18:37:11 +0000

Prof. dr hab. Adam Sulikowski

University of Wrocław

Abstract: The topic of the article is the current crisis of the idea of the apolitical nature of jurisprudence and the relationship between this crisis and the phenomenon of populism. In the first part of the study, the author puts forward a thesis on the post-theological and liberal character of the idea, reconstructing its genealogy. The next part discusses the impact of first-wave populism (1930s and 1940s) on the status of the title idea, focusing primarily on authoritarian – Nazi and Stalinist – populisms. In the next part, the author diagnoses the causes of the current crisis of the title idea after the period of its demo-liberal reappointment.

Keywords: apoliticality, jurisprudence, discourse, populism, crisis, post-theology, liberalism

Language: Polish

Received: 13.06.2018
Accepted: 17.08.2018

Published: Number 3(18)/2018, pp. 74-85.