The Subject of Violence

The Subject of Violence is a critical investigation of violence and the subjectifying capacities. It both relies on and explores the work of Hannah Arendt. At its background are feminist concerns, but also concerns with violence that press against the feminist problematic and push its boundaries. The book's main project is ethico-political "understanding" and, therefore, it is also about finding an ethico-political language for violence that escapes the standard idioms in which violence is spoken. Weaving biographical fragments with theory, the book addresses the very thinking of violence, the possibility and implications of its comprehension, genocide (the Nazi Judeocide in particular) and nationalism (especially in its Zionist form), as well as women's encounters with violence and second-wave feminist engagement with the martial arts.