The Absolute Drought of Critique

Abstract

This chapter looks at Walter Benjamin's essay “Critique of Violence” in 1921. In the essay, it explains that violence is representational sovereignty that declares the state of exception, be it to found or to conserve regimes of representation. It points out how more foundation, representation, and catastrophe involves becoming more regular and familiar with violence. Absolute knowledge and recollection would be the absolute drought of critique or destruction. The chapter highlights the “Critique of Violence”, which is a critique of sovereign right itself and a critique of the violent opening of initiation in which it consists. It further explains Benjamin's essay and its discussion on violence as the dialectic that puts exception to work for the triumphal cortege of representation, establishing a continuum between violation and progress.