ID | 108021 |
Title Proper | Arendt on culture and imperialism |
Other Title Information | response to klausen |
Language | ENG |
Author | Gundogdu, Ayten |
Publication | 2011. |
Summary / Abstract (Note) | In his essay on Arendt's "antiprimitivism," Jimmy Casas Klausen partly agrees with scholars such as Anne Norton and Norma Claire Moruzzi who suggest that especially the discussion of "Hottentots" in The Origins of Totalitarianism is replete with racial prejudice. 1 Yet, to the extent that racial explanations cannot fully account for why and how Arendt also targets "Boers," Klausen argues, these criticisms are lacking. He contends that what is ultimately the problem is Arendt's antiprimitivist notion of culture that chastises Boers for their indolence and turns Hottentots into barely human primitives without history. In what follows, I take issue with this characterization of Arendt as an antiprimitivist situated in the German tradition of culture as Bildung. Arendt's essays on culture, which Klausen cites to support his argument, actually include several criticisms of this tradition. More importantly, it is hard to maintain this charge of antiprimitivism given that these essays, in line with the arguments in The Human Condition, raise serious concerns about using the realm of cultural production as a yardstick of humanity. |
`In' analytical Note | Political Theory Vol. 39, No. 5; Oct 2011: p. 661-667 |
Journal Source | Political Theory Vol. 39, No. 5; Oct 2011: p. 661-667 |
Key Words | Imperialism ; Totalitarianism ; Germany ; Klausen ; Culture |