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Article ID: CBB177523472

Introduction: Immunity, Society, and the Arts (2017)

De Cauwer, Stijn (Author)
Hendrickx, Kim (Author)

Configurations: A Journal of Literature, Science, and Technology
Volume: 25
Issue: 3
Pages: 265-277

URI: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/662620

DOI: 10.1353/con.2017.0019

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Biopolitics Metaphors; analogies Immunology Science and literature Literary analysis Immunity (sociopolitical construct)

Few concepts possess as much multivocal resonance across different realms of thought and practice as the concept of "immunity." Immunity is mobilized in the life sciences (including the biomedical sciences), social sciences, humanities, and the arts. Medical practitioners, ethnography-inspired scholars, cultural theorists, historians, philosophers, fiction writers, and artists all engage in different, yet often related, ways with the concept. Within all of these voices, immunity refers to the materiality of the human body and its proximity to other bodies, both human and nonhuman, while also referring to a more general way in which modern societies conceive of those bodies and enact them through biopolitical practices of difference. One might wonder whether the multiple layers of immunity are inherent in the concept itself or the result of a long heritage of borrowing and translating from an original source and single meaning of "immunity." Can a concept really make sense across so many realms, or has the term fallen victim to conceptual inflation at some point? But how can one judge that? Such a judgment would imply that one offers a definite and original definition of "immunity." In making this special issue, we have sought no definite answer to the question of what immunity is, and we have taken care not to judge any use of the concept as "unwarranted"—at least not a priori. With respect to what, exactly, would one judge the "correct use" of a complex notion like immunity? Whether immunity is meaningfully mobilized as a concept can only be assessed, we feel, by looking at where it leads our thinking and understanding. This, however, does not mean that the history of the concept does not matter. On the contrary, it is this history that indicates how the concept gained traction in modern culture and the imagination.

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