Abstract

In this paper I intend to gather some ideas of biopolitical tradition that provide insights into the critical potential of the Cidade de Deus by Fernando Meirelles. To do this, first, I will examine how the ability to “leave to the death” subsists in the biopolitical government of life. Second, I will show that the government of life involves some “distribution of the sensible” that is expressed in the selective allocation of access to urban space. Third, I will evaluate how can coexist sovereign ability to create scenarios of legal exception and agency resisting the tanatopolitical effects of governmentality. With this goal in mind I intend to show how is that in some biopolitical horizons not only appears a renewed sovereign ability to “put to death”, but also the resources that enable critical agency capable of subverting such repressive scenarios.

Keywords: city | biopolitics | distribution of the sensible | agency