Verlernen

by Marie Luise Knott

Shortlisted for the Tractatus Essay Prize, an examination of the innovative strategies Arendt used to achieve intellectual freedom
 
After observing the trial of Adolf Eichmann, Hannah Arendt articulated her controversial concept of the “banality of evil,” thereby posing one of the most chilling and divisive moral questions of the twentieth century: How can genocidal acts be carried out by non-psychopathic people? By revealing the full complexity of the trial with reasoning that defied prevailing attitudes, Arendt became the object of severe and often slanderous criticism, losing some of her closest friends as well as being labeled a “self-hating Jew.”  And while her theories have continued to draw innumerable opponents, Arendt’s work remains an invaluable resource for those seeking greater insight into the more problematic aspects of human nature.
 
Anchoring its discussion in the themes of translation, forgiveness, dramatization, and even laughter, Unlearning with Hannah Arendt explores the ways in which this iconic political theorist “unlearned” recognized trends and patterns—both philosophical and cultural—to establish a theoretical praxis all her own. Through an analysis of the social context and intellectual influences—Karl Jaspers, Walter Benjamin, and Martin Heidegger—that helped shape Arendt’s process, Knott has formed a historically engaged and incisive contribution to Arendt’s legacy.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Politics

151 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Ci · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know of Arendt only through a movie on her experience and writing of the Eichmann trial. I have not even got chance to read her work. Suffice to say, I am not the ideal reader for this immensely knowing book of Arendt's work and character. Yet, there are much to be learnt about life and work even without any pre-knowledge.

The emphasis of this book is Unlearning. According ML Knott, "unlearning ... a desperate struggle to drive out of one's head images and concepts whose traditional significancy inhibits thoughts". This unwinding, cleansing unlearning is inevitably painful in one's self and often clashes with one's inner circle. The edifice of one's culture often relies on ingrained reactions to symbols, slogans, and habits. The rejection of Arendt's Banality of Evil is largely expected since her worked departed from what is expected of her in Jewish community. Yet Arendt was a philosopher and political theorist. Her allegiance is with philosophical thoughts and reasoning.

The segment on "translation" is an enlightening one. Being bilingual myself, I have long noticed the vast difference of thoughts and emotions when embodied in the separate domains of two language - the other being Chinese. Arendt was a translator of philosophic thoughts, going from one language's insistent precision into another more ambiguous one. The challenge in linguistic expression must have been immense.

I found this book very worthy, if not entirely easy to read. I shall re-read it after studying more of Arendt.

[Drenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a little book with the commendable ambition of looking into ways to break the straightjacket of conventional thought. Marie Knott uses the work of Hannah Arendt to pursue this ambition, a thinker Knott obviously holds in great esteem. One path Knott proposes is translation, pursuing Arendt's conviction that translators should attempt to maintain as much as possible the foreign flavor of the original, using words that may seem out of place to the reader of the translated work. Arendt's history made for remarkable possibilities with creative translation: she first produced works in her native German, then wrote in English after she was forced to immigrate to America during the war. These works then had to be translated back into German if they were to be read on the Continent. In attempting to pursue the voices of other writers and texts that echoed in her mother tongue, she produced a new text that hopefully brought enough English resonance to break the spell of German convention.

One of the interesting results of Arendt's attempt to make words feel uncanny in their new setting was a criticism of "The Human Condition" that it showed her naivety in her new language, that she did not use English words quite right. Exactly.

[Kate Elliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

HEY. I think you would feel better if you put some of those articles aside and read this instead. Hannah gets it. I'm going to put it this way: sometimes you need to read about adjacent situations in order to process something. And Hannah is your big sister who knows some stuff. The translation is a little clunky, but you can tell that Knott's thought underneath it is elegant and pragmatic.

I'm serious. Don't click another article.
This is real bread.

[Ken Krimstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

fascinating and quite original in form

[Deanna-marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The chapter on Arendt's journey of unlearning a Christian "brotherly love" application of forgiveness and reconstructing a political version is particularly interesting and worth reading.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just finished “Unlearning with Hannah Arendt”. It’s a short but heavy read. She has an interesting story as an academic that swore off intellectualism...and yet identified as one. Her fame it seems has much to do with providing logical, and perhaps too forgiving, interpretations of Nazi testimonies to their actions, despite the backlash from her own Jewish communities. The book goes into Arendt’s strategies for thinking with a new perspective, even given currently held preconceived notions (especially regarding radically evil deeds, as defined by the masses). Her strategies in short are deeply understanding her bilingualism and the roots of words and their commonly associated thoughts, and spending much time studying the arts such as poetry and theatre, both of which apparently help audiences and authors alike think in a uniquely creative way. I don’t know if I’d recommend the book, but I am interested in learning more about her and her story.

[Annie Oosterwyk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Haven’t read a book of criticism since college. I see not much has changed🙂

[R.J. Gilmour · Rating 5 out of 5]

Knott's book is a study of Arendt's political philosophy. Using four concepts drawn from Arendt's work, Knott analyzes; laughing, translation, forgiveness and dramatization. Well written and exciting it is an important book for anyone interested in Arendt's thought.

When someday this long affliction
will have broken up, like ice,
it will be spoken of
as of the Black Death;
and how children on the heath
will build a man of straw
to burn delight from suffering
and light from ancient dread.
Gottfried Keller, ix
(WWII, AIDS epidemic?)

All words like Peace and Love,
All sane affirmative speech,
Had been soiled, profaned, debased
To a horrid mechanical screech.
W.H. Auden, x
(WWII, the Holocaust)

"Where certainty ceases, thinking begins; the knower sets off into uncertainty. Both traditional ideas and their inverse had to be abandoned as supports. As the life of Katzneslon shows, to achieve such freedom there has to be first the ability to allow oneself to be confused by intrusive reality along with diagnostic and intellectual courage." 59

"For art contains the possibility of restoring the connection to the world that has been severed by totalitarianism. Through the act of trans-porting, trans-lating them into fiction, artists are able to keep alive concepts, thoughts, and ideas that have lost their presence in the world." 72

[Simon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why did I buy this book?

[The Jewish Book Council]

Review by Marie Louise Knott for the Jewish Book Council.

[Tom Calvard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty short book that manages to derive four nice themes around how Hannah Arendt's work facilitates the 'Unlearning' of conventional thought patterns and creates new spaces for new understandings and honesty about confusion. The 4 themes are a great way of reading Arendt. My only minor gripe is that in places it is a bit literary and pretentious, getting carried away with flowery arguments that feel like padding and don't add much. But worth a look, whether you know Arendt or not, it will kindle or rekindle your interest.

TC