Para una lectura crítica de Hacia la crítica de la violencia de Walter Benjamin: Schmitt, Kafka, Agamben

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to assess in a critical fashion the way Giorgio Agamben reads Walter Benjamin's essay on violence. I will particularly focus on the way Agamben relates this essay to other works by Carl Schmitt and Franz Kafka. Given his effort to steer Benjamin towards the concepts of «mere life» and certain qualities of the homo sacer, I will try to relocate Benjamin where his political essay belongs and, at the same time, re-read Agamben at his strongest points, but also at his weakest.