The Letter of Violence Essays on Narrative, Ethics, and Politics [Paperback]

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.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.Introduction: 20th Century Thinking on Violence * Specters of Walter Benjamin: Mourning, Labor, and Violence in Jacques Derrida * Torture, Confession, and the History of Truth: From Plato to Pinochet * Ethics Across Neocolonial Borders: Jorge Luis Borges and the International Division of Intellectual Labor * Transculturation and Civil War: The Origins of the Novel in Colombia * Afterword: On Violence, Law, and Justice

Excellent, ground-breaking ... The topic of The Letter of Violence is a timely one, and one to which Avelar does justice. - George Yudice, Director, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, New York University

The Letter of Violence addresses crucially important topics - violence, torture,truth and war - as they are scrutinized in contemporary political theory,philosophy, ethics and literature. Drawing on recent Latin American history and literature, Avelar goes beyond the regional scenario to explore the links between rhetorical,literary, political and juridical instances of violence. Rejecting functional or cause-and-effect explanations, he debates issues raised by Derrida, Virilio,ScarrylÓR