The Revolution as a Biopolitical Necessity in Bruno Jasieński’s Works

One of the main concerns of Bruno Jasieński’s works is the role of the flesh and the violence against it. For Jasieński, the phantasm of revolution is intertwined with physiology, especially with hunger and glut. The dialectical materialism is overshadowed by biological necessity. The violence that necessity brings is presented as abstract arithmetics or as something that concerns the flesh and not the person. Jasieński divides the society into the suffering from unjust violence hungry masses (the proletariat), and the overfed (the aristocracy, the clergy and the bourgeoisie). The latter are shown as a not entirely human group against which the proposed acts of violence are legitimate. The concepts established decades after Jasieński’s death make it possible to analyze his works as a biopolitical project. The key terms in that analysis are bios, dzoe, and homines sacri (people, who can be killed without a murder being committed).

One of the main concerns of Bruno Jasieński’s works is the role of the flesh and the violence against it. For Jasieński, the phantasm of revolution is intertwined with physiology, especially with hunger and glut. The dialectical materialism is overshadowed by biological necessity. The violence that necessity brings is presented as abstract arithmetics or as something that concerns the flesh and not the person. Jasieński divides the society into the suffering from unjust violence hungry masses (the proletariat), and the overfed (the aristocracy, the clergy and the bourgeoisie). The latter are shown as a not entirely human group against which the proposed acts of violence are legitimate. The concepts established decades after Jasieński’s death make it possible to analyze his works as a biopolitical project. The key terms in that analysis are bios, dzoe, and homines sacri (people, who can be killed without a murder being committed).