The Subject of Violence
Arendtean Exercises in Understanding
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Rowman & Littlefield
Published:23rd Apr '02
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

The Subject of Violence is a critical investigation of violence and the subjectifying capacities. It both relies on and explores the work of Hannah Arendt. At its background are feminist concerns, but also concerns with violence that press against the feminist problematic and push its boundaries. The book's main project is ethico-political "understanding" and, therefore, it is also about finding an ethico-political language for violence that escapes the standard idioms in which violence is spoken. Weaving biographical fragments with theory, the book addresses the very thinking of violence, the possibility and implications of its comprehension, genocide (the Nazi Judeocide in particular) and nationalism (especially in its Zionist form), as well as women's encounters with violence and second-wave feminist engagement with the martial arts.
An honest and uncompromising look at violence in a myriad of forms, and the ways that it shapes individuals, nation-states, and cultures. It explores significant issues for feminists, and is well worth reading. * Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy *
Recommended. * CHOICE *
Bat-Ami Bar On's stunning achievement in The Subject of Violence is to think, as Hannah Arendt did, 'without bannisters' about issues before which all too many minds stop, or retreat into conventional (including conventionally radical) categories. Bar On's personal questioning is fiercely passionate, radically open, widely and deeply knowledgeable: this is the work of a morally serious, courageously honest thinker. -- Elizabeth Minnich, Union Institute & University
ISBN: 9780847697717
Dimensions: 228mm x 149mm x 13mm
Weight: 304g
224 pages