Glossarartikel über die Philosophin und Professorin für politische Theorie Hannah Arendt mit besonderer Berücksichtung ihrer Positionen zur Frauenfrage

Der Vortrag wurde zum 20. Todestag von Hannah Arendt, am 12.12.1995 gehalten.

Dans ce mémoire, nous nous appuierons sur les concepts d'espace public et de culture pour penser le rôle de la radio publique d'expression francophone du Québec. D'abord, nous entendons faire ressortir la complémentarité entre les positions théoriques de Jürgen Habermas et Hannah Arendt au sujet de l'espace public et de la culture. L'objectif est de montrer que leur pensée respective permet de jeter un regard neuf sur l'objet radiophonique. Notre projet est donc d'approcher cette figure à travers le prisme de la pensée conceptuelle d'intellectuels intéressés par les médias et porteurs d'un projet d'émancipation politique et sociale fondée sur la délibération, le dialogue, l'apprentissage et la critique. Ceci, en plus d'une reconstitution historique des origines de la radio de Radio-Canada, nous permettra de suggérer un idéal radiophonique duquel nous pourrons évaluer les conséquences la disparition de la Chaîne culturelle de Radio-Canada, survenue en 2004. Finalement, notre travail va dans le sens d'une théorie critique de la radio publique québécoise, le rapport de l'institution à la culture ayant changé, comme en témoigne l'analyse des mutations de son rôle dans l'espace public. Mots clés : Jürgen Habermas, Hannah Arendt, Radio-Canada, espace public, culture

Buscamos establecer un paralelo entre algunos conceptos del psicoanálisis freudiano y el concepto kantiano del «mal radical», el cual fue adoptado por Hannah Arendt para referirse a las atrocidades cometidas por el régimen totalitario nazi contra los judíos en la Shoah. Arendt considera el nazismo como un régimen totalitario basado en una ideología racial que proporcionó la «ficción creíble» que argumenta que gracias a las Leyes de la Naturaleza surgió la raza aria - «superior y pura» - para la cual su objetivo principal fue destruir a su contraparte, el pueblo judío «infrahumano». Los nazis utilizaron campos de concentración y exterminio para eliminar a millones de personas consideradas «superfluas» y «prescindibles». En este artículo analizamos la obsesión de los nazis de exterminar a los «infrahumanos», utilizando, entre otros, el concepto psicoanalítico freudiano de la «pulsión de muerte» y sus subrogados, fenómenos de la psicología individual que se aplican a las masas colaboradoras de los nazis. Entendemos el «mal radical» utilizado por Arendt como un constructo que abarca aspectos socio-económicos, políticos, filosóficos e históricos; simbólicamente, el mundo externo, mientras que los conceptos freudianos dan cuenta de la dinámica intrapsíquica inconsciente como sustrato del comportamiento destructivo, que representan el mundo interno. Argumentamos que ambos mundos: interno y externo se encuentran en permanente dinámica e interacción. Encontramos semejanzas y aspectos complementarios en los aportes de ambos Arendt y Freud. Creemos que, en el sustrato inconsciente de los perpetradores nazis, ocurrieron los fenómenos psicológicos antes señalados, y además, que las acciones nazis fueron el producto del proceso secundario, del pensamiento consciente, con pleno uso de libertad de elección y de una voluntad pervertida. Reiteramos que la implementación del «mal radical» por los nazis es imputable. / In this work, we aim to establish a parallel between some elements in Freudian Psychoanalysis and the Kantian concept of «radical evil» adopted by Hannah Arendt to give an account of the atrocities committed by the Nazis against the Jews during the Holocaust. Arendt considers Nazism to be a totalitarian regime based on a racist ideology which provided the so-called «credible fiction» which argues that thanks to the Laws of Nature, the «superior and pure» Arian Race emerged, for which its main objective was the destruction of its counterpart: the «subhuman» Jewish People. The Nazis used concentration and extermination camps for the elimination of millions of people considered superfluous and disposable. We also analyze the Nazi obsession with the extermination of the «subhuman» using, among others, the psychoanalytic Freudian concept of the «death drive» and its subrogates, concepts that describe a phenomenon of individual psychology applied to the masses which collaborated with the Nazis. We understand the concept of «radical evil» used by Arendt as a construct that encompasses socio-economic, political, philosophical and historical aspects, symbolizing the external world, while the Freudian concepts give rise to an intra-psychological dynamic unaware of its role as the substrate of destructive behavior, representing the internal world. We argue that both worlds: the external and the internal, exist in perpetual interactive dynamics. We thus find similarities and complementary aspects in the contributions of Freud and Arendt. We believe that in the unconscious substrate of the Nazi perpetrators of evil the above mentioned psychological phenomena took place. Moreover, the explicit actions undertaken by the Nazis were the product of a secondary process, of conscious thought, with full use of freedom of choice and an evil will. Therefore, we reiterate that the implementation of the «radical evil» by the Nazis is imputable.

This dissertation explores the relationship of two of the most prominent women intellectuals of the twentieth century, Hannah Arendt and Susan Sontag. While they are not commonly considered to be related figures – Arendt is mainly recognized as a political thinker, Sontag is an icon of postwar popular culture – it has been anecdotally noted that they lived and worked in the same intellectual environment in postwar New York City, where their paths crossed a few times. However, a comprehensive systematic study of their relationship is missing. Starting from their Benjamin portraits of 1968 and 1978, I argue that Arendt’s and Sontag’s relationship is significant in terms of the German and US American tradition of literary criticism: Both women acted as transatlantic critics invested in cultural transfer between postwar US and Germany, and they employed similar styles of citation and editorial strategies to create and inscribe themselves into an authoritative literary tradition. With Arendt and Sontag, I discuss the critic’s task in terms of citational style and as a matter of taking care of literary traditions beyond national borders. As I demonstrate through comprehensive, in-depth archival analysis and close readings, Arendt and Sontag intervened with their Benjamin portraits in a heated debate about critical methods surrounding the editorial management of Benjamin’s estate and legacy through Theodor W. Adorno and Gershom Scholem in late 1960s Germany. Arendt’s portrait made Benjamin’s work available to an English-speaking audience for the first time and Sontag popularized his prominence in the US even further. Both stage Benjamin as a literary figure rather than a philosopher. Stylistically, they employ related strategies of citational mimicry to create an intimate connection between their voices and Benjamin’s, granting even unfamiliar readers access to Benjamin’s complex writing. Through constant dialogue with his work, their affective and affirmative mediation has significant editorial qualities. By preserving and promoting Benjamin as a critic in the US, Arendt and Sontag created a transatlantic tradition of literary criticism in which they inscribed themselves to gain critical authority in singular yet similar ways. Tracing the relationship between the portraits archivally, I argue that their similar citational creation of discursive authority results from Sontag’s comprehensive study of Arendt’s work and is thus an example of critical skill building through stylistic imitation. Rendering the hidden citational traces between the portraits transparent, I show how this line of influence ironically yields a lack of credit to Arendt on Sontag’s part. Like Arendt, Sontag reifies rather than breaks patriarchal citational chains. Illuminating what Arendt calls a “hidden tradition” – consisting in stylistically visible yet inexplicit commonalities – I draw on terminology gained from the current debate on critical method in Western literary studies to argue that the portraits afford a concept of criticism between such polemic poles as “surface” versus “depth” reading, “description” versus “interpretation” or “affirmation” versus “suspicion.” Characterizing this critical nuance with Arendt and Sontag as related critics, my study delineates a genealogy of a transatlantic mode of close reading with hermeneutic roots and a feminist twist.