Temporalities of Power: Re-Reading Walter Benjamin’s Essay Zur Kritik der Gewalt

I am examining the concept of ‘Violence/Gewalt’ in Benjamin’s essay by paying attention to its temporality and various interdisciplinary layers and forms of critique that are embedded in this single conception. I will suggest that in “Toward a Critique of Violence” essay, the violence is not criticized as such. There is no violence ‘as such’, instead, the use and understanding of violence is mostly contextual. In Benjamin’s essay, there are various political, historical, philosophical, and conceptual reflections that are attached under the temporal ‘umbrella’ of the concept of power/violence. The different conceptions of violence (Gewalt) in Benjamin’s essay from 1921 are for instance state power/violence, mythical violence, divine violence, juridical power, structural power, and sovereign power. All these conceptions can be actualized in our present time, taken account the heterogeneity of power/violence is apparent in 2020’s conflicts and wars. I am proceeding by firstly discussing the background of the essay by discussing Benjamin shortly with Max Weber and John Dewey. Next, I am proceeding with conceptual reading and will point out the different connections and temporality that are embedded in Benjamin’s concept of Gewalt in the 1921 essay. In the end of my chapter, I discuss shortly Benjamin’s philosophy of language and will point out why the connection between mimesis, language and divine power provide an essential link in understanding the temporal character of the violence.