«Историю пишут побежденные»: мессианство Вальтера Беньямина

Abstract

The article discusses the relationship between the concepts of violence and messiahship in Walter Benjamin' early work, Critique of Violence (1921), and in his later text, Theses on the Philosophy of History (1940), which oppose and deconstruct each other. The interpretation of the texts proceeds by bringing together or comparing certain phrases, their variations within a given text or between texts, with the aim of explicating the logic according to which these texts are constructed. Thus, we see that in the argumentation of Benjamin's Critique of Violence the term "victory" appears several times at decisive moments. The resulting image suggests that the text forms a structure or articulation invisible to the naked eye. Trying to expose the way Critique of Violence is constructed, we will not be able to avoid a number of appropriations that comprise its intertext, nor the play of intrareferences of which it consists. Translated onto the problem of messiahship (heroism, responsibility, sovereignty, Judaism, nostalgia, pacifism, revolution, piracy, sacrifice, victory, revenge, etc.), the question investigated in this paper is whether there is a link between violence (war) and the coming of the Messiah (justice, democracy, order, peace). Thus seen, how much violence is necessary? What are the figures of violence suitable for this? Is messianic acting possible? Is it necessary to act violently in order to bring about a new epoch? These are the conditions for transitioning to something "other," whilst simultaneously rejecting it. In that sense, philosophy as praxis is already political action that has a messianic or revolutionary potential. It calls us to joint action due to its tendency to include and associate all, to introduce everyone into active becoming, or, what amounts to the same - to allow no one to remain passive. It demonstrates an urgency of the swiftest possible construction of the just city. Even the very possibility of the arrival of a new historical epoch gives us reason enough to continue reading and producing philosophy. The coming of the former is inseparable from the future of the latter. © 2018 Gaidar Institute Press. All rights reserved.