Alternative temporalities of revolution in the work of Walter Benjamin and Luce Irigaray
Every conception of history is invariably accompanied by a certain experience of time which is implicit in it, conditions it, and thereby has to be elucidated. Similarly, every culture is first and foremost a particular experience of time, and no new culture is possible without an alteration in this experience. The original task of a genuine revolution, therefore, is never merely to âchange the worldâ but also - and above all - to âchange timeâ. (Giorgio Agamben, âTime and History: Critique of the Instant and the Continuumâ, in Infancy and History: Essays on the Destruction of Experience, London, Verso,1993, p. 91). In this thesis I will be looking at the work of Walter Benjamin and Luce Irigaray as two examples of different attempts to âchange timeâ in the sense given by Giorgio Agamben above. I will be arguing that both of these thinkers theorise this âgenuine revolutionâ. I will also be arguing that there are useful parallels in their work which will help to bring about a more productive thinking of the temporalities of history and revolution. The first part of the thesis consists of a reading of Benjaminâs revolutionary philosophy of history and a study of the temporalities that emerge
Porter, James Ewan
JC Political theory ; HM Sociology
Alternative temporalities of revolution in the work of Walter Benjamin and Luce Irigaray. Every conception of history is invariably accompanied by a certain experience of time which is implicit in it, conditions it, and thereby has to be elucidated. Similarly, every culture is first and foremost a particular experience of time, and no new culture is possible without an alteration in this experience. The original task of a genuine revolution, therefore, is never merely to âchange the worldâ but also - and above all - to âchange timeâ. (Giorgio Agamben, âTime and History: Critique of the Instant and the Continuumâ, in Infancy and History: Essays on the Destruction of Experience, London, Verso,1993, p. 91). In this thesis I will be looking at the work of Walter Benjamin and Luce Irigaray as two examples of different attempts to âchange timeâ in the sense given by Giorgio Agamben above. I will be arguing that both of these thinkers theorise this âgenuine revolutionâ. I will also be arguing that there are useful parallels in their work which will help to bring about a more productive thinking of the temporalities of history and revolution. The first part of the thesis consists of a reading of Benjaminâs revolutionary philosophy of history and a study of the temporalities that emerge
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