The New Wild West: Risk, Viral Politics, and the Emergence of Epigenetics

Abstract:This paper argues that taking an historical perspective on perceived risks to bodies—be they guns, bedbugs, or viruses—exposes shifts in our understanding of both corporeal and vital ontologies, especially the extent to which it is considered bounded or porous and the effect that has on a body's relationship to its milieu. Modes of political power implemented to respond to, or manage, these threats—from the managerial, microbiopolitical, or surveillance- and information-based control society forms to viral politics and emerging epigenetic theories—form a feedback loop that in turn remodulates both the logics of political response and the underlying ontologies.