Special Study Literary:

Catalog description

In the famous phrase by Michael Foucault, the modern state can be defined by the fact that it has the right 'to make live and to let die', in contrast to the sovereign state of the older variety that 'take life or let live'. According to Foucault, the modern state functions primarily as a 'biopower' whose justification is that it secures the survival of the human masses, of the human species. However, the 'natural' death of any given individual is passively accepted by the state as an unavoidable event and thus treated as a private matter of this individual. But what would happen if the biopower were to radicalise its claim and combat not only collective death but also individual, 'natural' death — with the ultimate goal of eliminating it entirely. Admittedly, this kind of demand sounds utopian, and indeed it is. But this very demand was expressed by many Russian authors before and after the October Revolution. The Russian Cosmists required as basic human rights: immortality, regular rejuvenation and free movement in the cosmic space. In the seminar, the texts of Russian Cosmists will be read and discussed, including the texts by A.O. Nikolay Fedorov, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Alexander Svyatogor and Alexander Bogdanov.