The Concept of Terror in the Writing of Paul Gilroy and Hannah Arendt

Isaac A Reed, University of Virginia

Part of a larger project on the phenomenology of hierarchy, this paper focuses on the significance of the concept of terror for 20th century social and political theory. In choosing to use the concept of terror in key passages in The Origins of Totalitarianism and The Black Atlantic, Hannah Arendt and Paul Gilroy (1) suggested an account of modern politics irreducible to the political science of power, and (2) provided a new understanding of the formation of subjectivity. In so doing, they articulate the relevance of the Atlantic world’s catastrophes for contemporary social and political theory.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 158. Power and Normativity in Society and History III: Counterfactuals, Counterconcepts, and Moral Representation in Social Research