Divinity and Violence

Abstract

AbstractThe chapter opens with reference to Derrida questioning the name, ‘architecture’, wondering if a new name is required or if one is emerging. This concern with naming and memory introduces a key motif of the chapter concerning what memory and the name are for Walter Benjamin. Benjamin’s understanding of memory is contrasted to that of Hegel, in a detailed discussion of how both memory and experience are developed in Hegel’s Philosophy of subjective spirit and his Phenomenology of spirit. The title to this chapter alludes to Hegel: the divinity of the Absolute and the violence of self-consciousness, of its sovereign power (Gewalt). It might equally allude to Benjamin on divine violence and messianic redemption. Detailed engagement with Hegelian understandings of memory and knowing enable a close comparative reading of a number of Benjamin essays, including his Berlin childhood work and his essay on Proust. This leads to detailed discussion of Benjamin’s Trauerspiel study, commencing with its “Epistemo-critical prologue,” moving then to discussion of allegory and Trauerspiel. The chapter concludes on Benjamin’s discussion of the architectural drawings of Carl Linfert, addressing them from the notion of artistic-will (Kunstwollen) developed by Alois Riegl.