Exile: Interview with Toni Negri

Abstract

This interview with Italian philosopher Antonio Negri was conducted in Rome in July 2003. The central theme is the condition of exile understood in the interstitial, postmodern sense of the nomadism and métissage of the third millennium as well as the mutations of cosmopolitanism. On the basis of Negri's interpretation of the Spinozist concept of productive imagination, exile (exilium: outside this place) is discussed as a liberating journey, implying the nonplace to come, the possibility of ethical action and the conditions of Utopia. Tradition is also an important theme of discussion, specifically relating to Italian ideas and movements in the twentieth century.