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Walter Benjamin’s 'Zur Kritik der Gewalt' (‘On the Critique of Violence’): reception, relevance, and a mis-diagnosis?

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posted on 2023-06-09, 16:59 authored by Valerie Whittington
Walter Benjamin’s early essay Zur Kritik der Gewalt [Zur Kritik] first published in 1921 is a notoriously difficult text, but its relevance to contemporary politics makes it a text to which theorists repeatedly return. This reading takes issue with those critics, notably Axel Honneth, who see Benjamin’s project in Zur Kritik as fatally, dangerously flawed. It is suggested here that Benjamin’s text, despite the difficulties, still posits the possibility of a ‘lookout point’ - not prescriptive per se and certainly not metaphysical, but in keeping with his abiding interest in literature, metaphorical and exegetical. Even if it may seem inevitable when there is no ground on which to stand that does not in effect constitute the lookout point of the place and times of the lookout, this reading suggests that the Benjaminian lookout point, suggested in Zur Kritik is, the lookout which is never fixed because it is not ‘looking out’ on but towards others, and is not merely addressing and prescribing for the masses, but talking with itself and others. That Benjamin embraces religious language to effect this move, perhaps suggesting, a lookout in judgment from a fixed point, from some ‘higher’ (transcendental) ground, certainly might be troubling for some, but it will be suggested these anxieties are misplaced.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Studies in Social and Political Thought

ISSN

2398-3884

Publisher

University of Sussex

Issue

28

Volume

2018

Page range

44-62

Department affiliated with

  • Philosophy Publications

Research groups affiliated with

  • Centre for Social and Political Thought Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2019-02-25

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2019-02-25

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2019-02-22

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