Doussan, Jenny. 2025. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner: A Meditation on Destituent Power. (des)troços: revista de pensamento radical, 6(1), e57394. ISSN 2763-518X [Article]

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Abstract or Description

This short essay ponders themes of Giorgio Agamben’s corpus through the story of Colin Smith, the protagonist of the short story The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1959) by Alan Sillitoe and the film of the same name by Tony Richardson (1962). The essay considers how Smith’s infamous refusal to cross the finish line is paradigmatic of Agamben’s destituent power. The essay, as a sort of love letter to Smith, further engages questions of thought and feeling in the face of the contemporary apparatuses with which, as Agamben phrases it, we are in hand-to-hand combat.

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.53981/destrocos.v6i1.57394
Keywords:	Agamben, destituent power, Alan Sillitoe
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Visual Cultures
Dates:	Date Event 9 June 2025 Accepted 23 July 2025 Published
Item ID:	39266
Date Deposited:	24 Jul 2025 08:39
Last Modified:	24 Jul 2025 08:39
Peer Reviewed:	Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/39266

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