A century ago, in the winter of 1920/21, Walter Benjamin penned his essay "Critique of Violence," which has lost none of its fascination today, despite (or perhaps because of) its apodictic style, its opaque use of metaphor, and its erratic argumentation. During the last 30 years, it has become a common point of reference for an array of disciplines that are concerned with scope, shape, and function of the different forms of violence associated with the modern nation state as well as with perspectives of overcoming them. In addition, in the last decade or so, a new strand of critical theory has emerged that under the banner of “abolition” formulates a radical critique of state-sanctioned violence (prison, police, borders). In this class, we will carefully examine Benjamin's original text, explore its political context, become familiar with the major positions of the reception of the essay, and discuss its political relevance today. We will then attempt a dialogue with contemporary critiques of violence. We will read, among others, Agamben, Benjamin, Butler, Cavarero, Davis, Derrida, Gago, Gilmore, Hartman, and Menke.

Last modified

• 06/09/2022

Creator

• Loick, Daniel

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-hr5c-je10

Keyword

• Rechtstheorien und Rechtskritiken
• Frankfurter Schule
• Politische Philosophie und Sozialphilosophie

Date created

• 2021

Rights statement

• In Copyright

License

• Creative Commons BY-NC Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International