Arresting Language: From Leibniz to BenjaminStanford University Press, 2001 - 379 pages Speech act theory has taught us "how to do things with words." Arresting Language turns its attention in the opposite directionÂ--toward the surprising things that language can undo and leave undone. In the eight essays of this volume, arresting language is seen as language at rest, words no longer in service to the project of establishing conventions or instituting legal regimes. Concentrating on both widely known and seldom-read texts from a variety of philosophers, writers, and criticsÂ--from Leibniz and Mendelssohn, through Kleist and Hebel, to Benjamin and IrigarayÂ--the book analyzes the genesis and structure of interruption, a topic of growing interest to contemporary literary studies, continental philosophy, legal studies, and theological reflection. Beginning with an exposition of Hölderlin's rigorous account of interruption in terms of the "pure word," in which the event of representation alone appears, Arresting Language identifies critical moments in philosophical and literary texts during which language itselfÂ--without any identifiable speakerÂ--arrests otherwise continuous processes and procedures, including the process of representation and the procedures for its legitimization. The book then investigates a series of pure words: the fatal verdict (arrêt) of divine wisdom in Leibniz, the performance of Jewish ceremonial practices in Mendelssohn, the issuing of unauthorized arrest warrants in Kleist, fraudulent acts of storytelling in Hebel, the eruption of tragic silence and the "mass strike" in Benjamin, and the recurrence of angelic intervention in Irigaray. At the center of this volume is a detailed explication of Benjamin's effort to transform Husserl's program for a phenomenological epoche into a paradoxically nonprogrammatic, paradisal epoche, by means of which the structure of paradise can be exactly outlined and the Messianic momentÂ--as the ultimate event of arresting languageÂ--can at last appear to enter into its own. |
Contents
The Fate of the Name in Leibniz | 13 |
The Temporality | 80 |
Kant Schelling | 98 |
Schiller | 129 |
Toward Kleists | 152 |
On Benjamins | 174 |
Tragedy and Prophecy in Benjamins | 227 |
Toward | 249 |
Notes | 271 |
345 | |
Sources | 370 |
Other editions - View all
Arresting Language: From Leibniz to Benjamin Peter David Fenves,Professor Peter Fenves No preview available - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
absolute according Aesthetic anecdote angels antonomasia appear arrest Benjamin Cantor character Cohen color communication condition continuum corresponds Critique dialogue divine doctrine especially essay essence everything exposition fable fatum finite German Mourning Play Giorgio Agamben guage Hausfreund Hebel Heinrich von Kleist historical languages Hölderlin human Husserl idea infinite insofar intuition Johann Peter Hebel JubA Kabbalah Kant Kant's Kantian Kleist legal order Leibniz linguistic mathematics Mendelssohn metaphor Metaphysics metonymy moral Moses Mendelssohn nature Nietzsche numbers object onomatopoeia origin palace of fates papess paradox perspective philosophical philosophical style poet possible Preliminary Dissertation principle proper name pure means Quintilian reason relation right to semblance Schelling Schiller Schwärmer Schwärmerei sense Sextus singularity space speak speech sphere story synecdoche term Theodicy Theodore theory things thought tion tragedy tragic transcendental translation Trauerspiel treatise trope truth turn understood violence Volksgemeinschaft Walter Benjamin Werke word writes Zundelfrieder