Opus Dei: An Archaeology of Duty PDF
Preview Opus Dei: An Archaeology of Duty
P S El MERIDIAN CTrossing Aesthetics Werner Harnacher Editor Translated by AdaIn Kotsko Stanford University Press Stanford, California 20I3 P S El An Archaeology of'Duty Giorgio Agamben Stanford University Press Stanford, California English translation © 2013 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. AlI rights reserved. Opus Dei: An Archaeology ofD utY was originally published in ltalian under the tide Opus Dei. Archeologia dell'ufficio © 2012 by Giorgio Agamben. Originally published by Bollati Boringhieri editore, Torino. This book was negotiated through Agnese Incisa Agenzia Letteraria, Torino. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system withour the prior written permission of Stanford University Press. Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Agamben, Giorgio, 1942-aurhor. [Opus Dei. English.] Opus Dei: an archaeology of dut y / Giorgio Agamben ; translated by Adam Kotsko. pages cm. - (Meridian : crossing aesthetics) "Originally published in ltalian under the tide Opus Dei. Archeologia deU 'ufficio." ISBN 978-0-8047-8403-0 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-8047-8404-7 (pbi<.. : aIle paper) 1. Liturgies. 2. Duty. 3. Ontology. 1. Kotsko, Adam, translator. II. Tide. III. Series: Meridian (Stanford, Calif:) BV176.3·A43I3 2013 264'·02-dc23 2013007602 ISBN 978-0-8047-8856-4 (electronic) Contents Translators Note lX Preface Xl Liturgy and Poli tics l Threshold 27 2 From Mystery to Effect 29 Threshold 63 3 A Genealogy of Office 65 Threshold 87 4 The Two Ontologies; or, How Dut y Entered into Ethics 89 Threshold 126 Bibliography I3I Translator's Note One difficulty facing the translator of this work was the mul tiplicity of ltalian terms connoting the concept of "duty ." The first is ufficio, which primarily connotes" dut y" but can also me an "office" in the sense, for example, of holding a political office. (Though the English term office can carry connotations of" dut y," this meaning is somewhat antiquated.) Like the Latin term offi cium, which plays a decisive role in Agamben's archaeological investigation, this term can also refer to the "Divine Office" or liturgy. 1 have rendered this term as "office," "duty ," or "office or dut y," depending on the context, and have frequendy left the ltal ian word in brackets. Most notably, the term ufficio is rendered as "duty " in the subtide of the work as a whole but as "office" in the tide of the third chapter. A related word is do vere, a noun meaning "duty " and also the infinitive of the ltalian auxiliary verb meaning "must, should, ought to, to have to." One challenge in translating this term cornes in Agamben's references to two ontologies, one of essere and one of dovere-essere. This distinction is often captured in Eng lish by juxtaposing the terms is and ought, but that conventional translation lacks the connotations of the imperative or command that Agamben associa tes with the ontology of dovere-essere. Thus 1 translate this contrast as one between "being" and "having-to-be." Finally, a much less frequent term is vece, which carries conno tations of dut y, as weIl as alteration and vicarious action (as in the zx x Translators Note phrase fore le veci, to act in someone's place or stead). \lVhen this term occurs, 1 have translated it according to the context but left the Italian word in brackets. Another difficulty stems from words related to the Latin term effectus: the Italian effettu a le, effettu a lità , etc. In Italian these terms are generally translated with words like real, actual, or true, but to emphasize the etymological connections Agamben is mak ing, 1 have chosen to translate them more literally with the Eng lish terms effective or effèctiveness. Works are cited according to the page number of the origi nal text, followed by the page number of the English translation (where applicable), or else by a standard textual division that is consistent across translations and editions. AlI translations from the Bible are based on the New Revised Standard Version. Trans lations have been frequently altered throughout for greater con formity with Agamben's usage. Where no English translation is listed in the bibliography, the translations are my own. Where the main text is a close paraphrase of a Latin quotation or where Agamben's purpose in quoting a Latin text is simply to demon strate the presence of a particular term or phrase in that text, 1 have often opted not to provide an English translation in order to avoid redundancy. 1 would like to thank Giorgio Agamben, Kevin Attell, Colby Dickinson, David U. B. Liu, and Harold Stone for their suggested improvements; Virgil Brower and the rest of the Paul of Tarsus lnterdisciplinary Working Group at Northwestern University for inviting me to discuss a portion of the translation; Junius Johnson for providing his translation of Agamben's quotations from Inno cent IlI's De sacro altaris mysterio; Michael Hollerich for providing his translation of Peterson's Theological Tractates; HenrikWilberg and Kieran Healy for bibliographical assistance; and Emily-Jane Cohen, Emma Harper, and the rest of the staff of Stanford Uni versity Press.
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