What About Schmitt? Translating Carl Schmitt's Theory of Sovereignty as Literary Concept

Abstract

A loosely allegorical, albeit perhaps somewhat self-indulgent, reading of the hot tub scene in the 2002 movie About Schmidt might serve as a point of entry to the subject of this review. What about Schmitt? In other words, how did we ever find ourselves watching, with a mix of humor and perhaps a little unease, as a retired, conservative, obedient, flabby and grumpy old man (played by Jack Nicholson) suddenly finds himself propositioned in a hot tub by a topless, corpulent, new age liberal (played by Kathy Bates) who is the mother of the hapless dolt whom Schmidt's daughter is about to marry? In other words, how did the recent fascination with Carl Schmitt come about? The explosion of scholarship and the courtship of Carl Schmitt over the last 15 years by the left and the right alike has been staggering. A bibliographical search on Schmitt carried out over ten years ago by Tracy B. Strong, the author of the