Pathokinesis, War’s (In)humanity, and Rebellion: A Transactional–Necropolitical Reading of Bury the Dead

Abstract

This paper offers a theoretically grounded reading of Bury the Dead by Irwin Shaw through the combined frameworks of Louise Rosenblatt’s aesthetic–efferent continuum and Achille Mbembe’s concept of necropolitics. It argues that the interpretive depth of the play emerges from the interplay between aesthetic engagement and efferent understanding, through which readers both experience and reflect upon the text’s representation of sovereign violence.

The aesthetic reader becomes engaged with the emotional and sensory dimensions of the play, perceiving the affective exchanges between the living and the dead. In contrast, the efferent reader draws from this experience a critical understanding of war’s structural inhumanity. The six soldiers, suspended between life and death, exemplify a condition of abandonment that aligns with necropolitical power. Their unfulfilled desires and interrupted lives underscore the severity of their situation and the broader violence of war.

At the same time, their refusal to accept burial represents a form of resistance that challenges established authority. This act disrupts the conventional structures through which war and death are understood, presenting the corpse not as passive, but as a site of defiance. The paper concludes that such resistance calls into question the ideological foundations of war and encourages a reconsideration of the ethical dimensions of sovereignty and mortality.