Genocide, or the Aporia of Collective Violence
in Creating DestructionSearch for other papers by Leonhard Praeg in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Sofortzugang erwerben (PDF-Download und unbegrenzter Online-Zugang):
Sofortzugang erwerben (PDF-Download und unbegrenzter Online-Zugang):
From the theoretical perspective of René Girard, Walter Benjamin and Jacques Derrida, the Rwanda genocide of 1994 may be interpreted as an instance of foundational violence. Given the constant reference in genocide discourse to the failed revolution of 1959, we are perhaps presented with a case of deferred foundational violence. Useful as this notion of ‘foundational violence’ may be, as theoretical category it is also hugely challenging because the implicit claim is not just historical (‘states are routinely founded on such violence’) but analytical (‘founding moments are by definition violent’). The result is a profound tension between, on the one hand, the need to understanding the event as somehow typical of the founding of new sociopolitical orders and, on the other hand, the need to judge it as an ‘outrage,’ as a crime against humanity. In this chapter I treat this tension as aporetic, that is, as a profound puzzle consisting of two equally valid imperatives which are nonetheless mutually exclusive. What follows is an attempt to find a way beyond the impasse.