Immanence, exception, life. Insights from the Benjaminian Trauerspiel through Kafka
Abstract
The contradictions of the contemporary legal and political order emphasize a moment of discontinuity with the modern tradition. On the one hand, the immanentization of forms makes sovereign molarity precarious; on the other hand, in many ways these very forms reveal the permanence of the sovereign exception and the destinal Gewalt of law. In other words, the present is a chiaroscuro age; it is a “baroque” age in its political sense: like that era, the present one represents a moment of discontinuity and a clash between two different historical balances, which radicalizes the contradictions of both. Using Kafka's work, we could maybe take some ideas from the pages Walter Benjamin dedicates to the Baroque, in order to provide an indispensable key to interpreting this age of lights and shades
Downloads
Article download
Crossmark
License
In order to support the global exchange of knowledge, the journal Res Publica. Revista de Historia de las Ideas Políticas is allowing unrestricted access to its content as from its publication in this electronic edition, and as such it is an open-access journal. The originals published in this journal are the property of the Complutense University of Madrid and any reproduction thereof in full or in part must cite the source. All content is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 use and distribution licence (CC BY 4.0). This circumstance must be expressly stated in these terms where necessary. You can view the summary and the complete legal text of the licence.
