The Profane Land of the Happy: On the Messianic Promise in the Work of Giorgio Agamben

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Agamben's oeuvre demands a high degree of reading comprehension, as many of his points are implied rather than explicitly stated. In fact, many familiar concepts are rendered unfamiliar by "cloaking" them in new terminology discussed in unexpected settings (i.e., Roman law, the Franciscan order, medieval theology, etc). The author successfully connects many unconnected dots in Agamben's work to explain how "happiness" relates to profanation/the coming community. In my opinion, the author has an expert understanding of Agamben's work. Putting aside the article's many typos, I have no recommendations for revision. This is valuable, high-quality work that I hope will be published.

This article is riddled with typos, and there are a couple grammar issues, but the copy edit will easily fix these. 

Author Response

Dear colleague,

Many thanks for your supportive review. I am delighted to read that you find the article of high quality. I will be sure to proofread the text with extra care before handing in the final version.

Reviewer 2 Report

This paper was exceedingly well researched and written. It showed a nuanced grasp of Agamben's writing. I am less convinced of the harmony between WB and GA on the question of happiness and its source.  I think that the historical materialism of WB is an abiding and helpful critique against the generative optimism of "whatever potentialities" in GA. I believe that GA is more indebted to Heidegger on that score. Agata Bielek-Robson has made similar critiques of Agamben's project and I would love to hear how the author would respond to this, but in another paper or perhaps the forthcoming book. As it stands, this paper is eminently publishable. 

Lovely, fluid prose.  Good command of the Agambenian lexicon and its theological antecedents. 

A few possessive apostrophes missing that I am sure will be taken care of in copyediting. 

Author Response

Dear colleague,

Many thanks for your supportive review, I am delighted to read that you find the article of high quality. Thanks also for pointing out the possible tension between WB and GA as regards their evaluation of generative potentialities. This would indeed be very interesting to explore and I will surely read Agata Bielek-Robson's work on this matter. As for the current article, I will take care to more explicitly state that I am here concerned more with Agamben's use of Benjamin's texts than with Benjamin's work in its own right.