The letter of violence : essays on narrative, ethics, and politics / Idelber Avelar.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Avelar, Idelber, 1968-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Violence.

Violence--Philosophy.

Torture.

Violence in literature.

Latin American literature--History and criticism.

Latin American literature.

Ethics.

Physical Description:

x, 194 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

Summary:

This book traces the theory of violence from nineteenth-century symmetrical warfare through today's warfare of electronics and unbalanced numbers. Surveying such luminaries as Walter Benjamin, Frantz Fanon, Hannah Arendt, Paul Virilio, and Jacques Derrida, Avelar also offers a discussion of theories of torture and confession, the work of Roman Polanski and Borges, and a meditation on the rise of the novel in Colombia.

Contents:

Chapter 1 From Plato to Pinochet: Torture, Confession, and the History of Truth 25

Chapter 2 Thinking Ethics across Neocolonial Borders: Borges, Ethical Theory, and the International Division of Intellectual Labor 51

Chapter 3 Specters of Walter Benjamin: Mourning, Labor, and Violence in Jacques Derrida 79

Chapter 4 Transculturation and Civil War: The Origins of the Novel in Colombia 107

Afterword: Violence, Law, and Justice 155.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [175]-189) and index.

ISBN:

1403967415

1403967423

OCLC:

55109180