Theorizing the Emergence of the Rabble: A Genealogy of Redemptive Violence in Late Capitalism

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorElliott, Kevin
dc.contributor.supervisorShukin, Nicole
dc.date.accessioned2014-01-02T19:36:15Z
dc.date.available2014-01-02T19:36:15Z
dc.date.copyright2013en_US
dc.date.issued2014-01-02
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of English
dc.degree.levelMaster of Arts M.A.en_US
dc.description.abstractSeizing upon G.W.F. Hegel’s unresolved problem of poverty, and more generally, of politics, in his Philosophy of Right, I theorize the emergence of Hegel’s “irrational” rabble in ostensibly incomprehensible violent riots. Specifically, I argue that such violence functions redemptively by latently symbolizing a Hegelian demand for recognition and, via Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek, as a catalyst in a lineation of riots that gestures towards transformative possibilities. Violence compels self-reflective thought to interrogate the hegemony of immaterial labour that excludes the rabble under late capitalism, a speculative game with winners and losers: financial capitalists and society’s underclass. I conclude by explicating an implicit connection between Hegel’s political theory and Walter Benjamin’s philosophy and argue that this connection responds to Hegel’s own political impasse. In the context of contemporary politics, I contend that the rabble’s emergence in a Benjaminian light illuminates new means for critique against the system of late capitalism.en_US
dc.description.proquestcode0593en_US
dc.description.proquestcode0422en_US
dc.description.proquestcode0615en_US
dc.description.proquestemailelliokd@gmail.comen_US
dc.description.scholarlevelGraduateen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1828/5119
dc.languageEnglisheng
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.rights.tempAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.subjectDivine Violenceen_US
dc.subjectHegelen_US
dc.subjectLate Capitalismen_US
dc.subjectPolitical Theoryen_US
dc.subjectRabbleen_US
dc.subjectRiotsen_US
dc.titleTheorizing the Emergence of the Rabble: A Genealogy of Redemptive Violence in Late Capitalismen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Elliott_Kevin_MA_2013.pdf
Size:
771.79 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.74 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download

Collections

Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD)
 
University of Victoria Libraries

We acknowledge and respect the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Esquimalt) Peoples on whose territory the university stands, and the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.