The Promise of Memory
History and Politics in Marx, Benjamin, and Derrida
- 263 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
About This Book
Rereading Marx through Walter Benjamin and Jacques Derrida, The Promise of Memory attempts to establish a philosophy of liberation. Matthias Fritsch explores how memories of injustice relate to the promises of justice that democratic societies have inherited from the Enlightenment. Focusing on the Marxist promise for a classless society, since it contains a political promise whose institutionalization led to totalitarian outcomes, Fritsch argues that both memories and promises, if taken by themselves, are one-sided and potentially justify violence if they do not reflect on the implicit relation between them. He examines Benjamin's reinterpretation of Marxism after the disappointment of the Russian and German revolutions and Derrida's "messianic" inheritance of Marx after the breakdown of the Soviet Union. The book also contributes to contemporary political philosophy by relating Marxist social goals and German critical theory to debates about deconstructive ethics and politics.
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Table of contents
- The Promise of Memory
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Exordium
- Introduction
- 1. Benjaminâs Reading of Marx
- 2. Derridaâs Reading of Marx
- 3. The Critique of Violence
- 4. The Claim of the Dead on the Living
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index