Dos artículos sobre los desafíos teóricos y políticos del martirio
Señalamos a continuación dos artículos de Andrew R. Murphy, catedrático de estudios políticos de la University of Michigan y experto de los vínculos entre lo político y lo religioso. El autor está desarrollando una reflexión teórica sobre el martirio como categoría de la política, un objetivo que le llevó a acercarse de dos casos que marcaron la historia reciente de los EEUU: el afroamericano George Floyd (2020) y la trumpista Ashli Babbitt (2021). Se trata de dos trayectorias muy comentadas en los círculos políticos y mediáticos, pero que suscitaron poquísimos estudios de ciencias sociales (destaca al respecto el artículo de Matteo Caponi sobre los “Black Martyrs”, descargable en acceso abierto).
Se señala entonces:
- El recién publicado “The Death and Afterlives of George Floyd and Ashli Babbitt. Political Martyrs, Political Movements, and the Politics of Memory“, Perspectives on Politics (2025)
Resumen: In this paper, I explore how two recent politically charged deaths-those of George Floyd and Ashli Babbitt-illuminate the broader dynamics inherent in the concept of political martyrdom and its relationship to American democracy. Political martyrdom (as distinct from that associated with religious communities) offers martyrs a life beyond the grave, not by promising eternal life or paradise, but by ensuring them a role in a community’s collective memory. It involves three components: death, in what we might call “unnatural” circumstances, generally connected to an individual’s identity (or identities) or political commitments; consecration of that death, embedding it in a community’s collective memory and ascribing to it transcendent meaning; and transmission, the passing down of martyrdom narratives over time through media, ritual, and commemorative practices. The paper uses the examples of Floyd and Babbitt to illustrate the value of this conceptual category, one that focuses less on the personal qualities of individuals and more on communities’ narrations of their lives and deaths; highlights such narratives’ capacity to build collective identities over time, often in contexts far removed from the martyrs’ own lives and deaths; and offers new interpretive lenses for considering twenty-first-century issues of systemic violence and structural injustice.
- Otro artículo anterior, más de teoría: “Theorizing Political Martyrdom: Politics, Religion, Death, and Memory“, Political Theology (2023)
Resumen: From its emergence in early Christianity to its invocation in twentyfirst century debates, martyrdom has always highlighted the complex relationship between politics, religion, death, and memory. A specifically political notion of martyrdom beyond the world’s faith traditions would facilitate the concept’s more capacious application and analysis. Political martyrdom, I argue, consists of several components: (1) a death, occurring in what we might call “unnatural” circumstances, connected in some way to an individual’s identity(ies) or political commitments; (2) consecration of that death by a community or sub-community; and (3) transmission of accounts of that death across time, through processes of commemoration. This essay illuminates the ways by which political communities enshrine certain deaths in their collective memory, where they subsequently contribute to communal solidarity, identity formation, and political mobilization. I conclude by reflecting on how political martyrdom offers new insights into the intersection of politics, religion, death, and memory.
OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Pierre M. Delpu (6 mars 2025). Dos artículos sobre los desafíos teóricos y políticos del martirio. Aspects du martyre politique. Consulté le 23 janvier 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/13fek


