Hannah Arendt: Life is a Narrative

109 Pages·2001·3.69 MB·English

by  Julia Kristeva

Hannah Arendt
Life Is a Narrative
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Hannah Arendt
Life Is a Narrative
JULIA KRISTEVA
Translated by Frank Collins
UNIVERSITY OF TRONIO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo Londom
www.utppublishing.com
© University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2001
Toronto Buffalo London
Printed in Canada
ISBN 0-8020-3521-3
Printed on acid-free paper
The Alexander Lectures
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Kristeva, Julia, 1941-
Hannah Arendt: life is a narrative
(The Alexander lectures, ISSN 0065-616X)
ISBN 0-8020-3521-3
1. Arendt, Hannah - Philosophy. 2. Political science - Philosophy.
I. Collins, Frank. II. Title. III. Series: Alexander lectures.
JC251.A74K742000 191 COO-932412-7
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to
its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the
Ontario Arts Council.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its
publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book
Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP).
CONTENTS
PREFACE
vii
ONE
Life Is a Story
1
TWO
Arendt and Aristotle: An Apologia for Narration
11
THREE
Narrating the Twentieth Century
31
FOUR
'Who'and the Body
53
FIVE
Judgment
73
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PREFACE
First of all I would like to thank Professor Nesselroth,
who invited me to the Centre for Comparative Literature
and gave me the chance to get to know and to appreciate
the high quality of University of Toronto students and
faculty. My gratitude goes very specifically to Professor
Paul Perron of University College, who took the initiative
to invite me to give these prestigious Alexander Lectures,
and to Professor Frank Collins, who translated them.
In these lectures, I deal with some philosophical
aspects of Hannah Arendt's work - her understanding of
such concepts as language, self, body, political space, and
life. I do not comment extensively on her already well
known and very seriously discussed political writings
such as The Origins of Totalitarianism, Eichmann in Jerusa-
lem, or Crises of the Republic. But I have them permanently
in mind, and I would invite you to have them in mind,
too, while listening to my argument. I hope that my more
philosophical than political considerations will help -
indirectly - to clarify some Arendtian contradictions as
well as some misapprehensions of her positions.
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CHAPTER ONE
Life Is a Story