Biopolitics and spatial segregation in Atlanta (eBook)

Essay from the year 2020 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,0, National University of Ireland, Maynooth (English Studies), course: Contemporary Literary Theory, language: English, abstract: Al Mills’ and Nnamdi O. Chukwuocha’s (The Twin Poets) poem “Dreams are Illegal” (2015) raises the still occurring problem of residential segregation especially by racial or ethnic groups in the United States. This problem can be exemplified by focusing on Georgia’s capital city Atlanta, a city whose history has been coined by the civil rights movement, also since it is Martin Luther King Jr.’s birth city.

Although the Fair Housing Act came into force in 1968, which prohibits discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, or national origin, there is still inequality and residential segregation that can be discovered in the demographics of the city’s neighborhoods. It is deeply connected to Foucault’s concepts of biopolitics, biopower and race, Agamben’s idea of Homo Sacer and Kristeva’s theory of the abject. The following essay will therefore focus on the interrelation of these concepts, the application on the occurring problems in the city of Atlanta and how they are presented in The Twin Poet’s poem.