Bloomsbury Towards the Critique of Violence: Walter Benjamin and Giorgio Agamben (Bloomsbury Studies in Continental Philosophy)

In the past two decades, Walter Benjamin's early essay Critique of Violence (1921) has taken a central place in the politico-philosophical debate. The complexity and perhaps even the occasional obscurity of Benjamin's text have undoubtedly contributed to the divergence, conflict, and richness of contemporary readings,with interest heightened following the attention that philosophers such as Jacques Derrida and Giorgio Agamben have devoted to it. Agamben's own interest started early in his career with his 1970 essay, On the Limits of Violence and continues to be a fundamental reference in Agamben's work. Written by leading scholars, Towards the Critique of Violence is the first book to explore different aspects of Benjamin's Critique of Violence and of Agamben's readings of it. Topics include mythic violence, the techniques of non-violent conflict resolution, the relation between justice and thinking and Agamben's use of certain Benjaminian themes such as Judaism and law, the violence of sacrifice,language and philosophic decision, ending with the English translation of Agamben's On the Limits of Violence.