Alegal, Biopolitics and the Unintelligibility of Okinawan Life, Biopolitics and the Unintelligibility of Okinawan Life

Author

Shimabuku; Annmaria M.

Year

2019

Publisher

Fordham University Press

Language

English

Pages

Link

Last Update

25-Mar-2026

Keywords

Sociology ; History ; Asian Studies ; Political Science ; Language & Literature

Description

Alegal. The simplest definition of this unusual term that will be developed throughout the pages of this book is as follows: that which is irreducible to a binary of legal versus illegal or extralegal. The “a” preceding “legal” is analogous to the “a” preceding “moral”; a legal is neither legal nor illegal/extralegal, just as a moral is neither moral nor immoral. The function of the “a,” therefore, does not refer to what or where the law is not: Words already exist for that—namely, “illegal,” meaning that which is against the law, such as a criminal act, or “extralegal,”¹ meaning...