Overview

With the collapse of the bipolar system of global rivalry that dominated world politics after the Second World War, and in an age that is seeing the return of ethnic cleansing and identity politics, the question of violence, in all of its multiple ramifications, imposes itself with renewed urgency. Rather than concentrating on the socioeconomic or political backgrounds of these historical changes, the contributors to this volume rethink the concept of violence, both in itself and in relation to the formation and transformation of identities, whether individual or collective, political or cultural, religious or secular. In particular, they subject the notion of self-determination to stringent scrutiny: is it to be understood as a value that excludes violence, in principle if not always in practice? Or is its relation to violence more complex and, perhaps, more sinister? Reconsideration of the concepts, the practice, and even the critique of violence requires an exploration of the implications and limitations of the more familiar interpretations of the terms that have dominated in the history of Western thought. To this end, the nineteen contributors address the concept of violence from a variety of perspectives in relation to different forms of cultural representation, and not in Western culture alone; in literature and the arts, as well as in society and politics; in philosophical discourse, psychoanalytic theory, and so-called juridical ideology, as well as in colonial and post-colonial practices and power relations.

Full Product Details

Author:   Hent de Vries ,  Samuel Weber
Publisher:   Stanford University Press
Imprint:   Stanford University Press
Edition:   New edition
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.562kg
ISBN:  

9780804729963

ISBN 10:   0804729964
Pages:   416
Publication Date:   01 December 1997
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

Introduction Hent de Vries and Samual Weber 1. Violence and testimony: on sacrificing sacrifice Hent de Vries 2. Monastic violence M. B. Pranger 3. Characteristic violence, or, the physiognomy of style Marian Hobson 4. Wartime Samuel Weber 5. The camp as the Nomos of the modern Giorgio Agamben 6. Enlightenment and Paranomia Stathis Gourgouris 7. Cannibals all: the grave wit of Kant's perpetual peace Susan M. Shell 8. Otherwise than self-determination: the mortal freedom of Oedipus Asphaleos Michael Dillon 9. The victim's tale: memory and forgetting in the story of violence Peter van der Veer 10. Eroticism, colonialism, and violence Ali Behdad 11. Traumatic awakenings Cathy Caruth 12. Habeas corpus: the law's desire to have the body Anselm Haverkamp and Cornelia Vismann 13. On the politics of pure means: Benjamin, Arendt, Foucault Beatrice Hanssen 14. Marx, mourning, messianicity Peter Fenves 15. Violence, identity, self-determination, and the question of justice: on Specters of Marx Peggy Kamuf 16. One to many multiculturalisms Werner Hamacher 17. ... and pomegranates Jacques Derrida Notes.

Reviews

Author Information

Hent de Vries holds the Chair of Metaphysics and its History in the Department of Philosophy of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Amsterdam, and is Professor of Modern European Thought in the Humanities Center of the School of Arts and Sciences at The Johns Hopkins University.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Countries Available

All regions