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SUMMARY:Roots of the Concept of the Anarch in the Weimar-era Writing of Er
 nst Jünger - Michael D Rogers
DTSTART:20110517T163000Z
DTEND:20110517T180000Z
UID:TALK31056@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Christian Schlaepfer
DESCRIPTION:As John Locke wrote\, "the actions of men are the best interpr
 eters of their thoughts." Yet\, in the compelling case of Ernst Jünger\, 
 scholars have struggled to make sense of the relationship between his acti
 ons and his often mercurial political thought. This paper will argue that 
 a concept only articulated late in Jünger's long career\, that of the "an
 arch"\, a kind of anti-heroic ideal that forms the theme of the 1977 novel
  Eumeswil\, can be read as a crystallization of an important strand of his
  thought with roots stretching back to his first publication\, 1920's In S
 tahlgewittern. Crucial to this concept\, this paper will argue\, is a coll
 apsing of the distinction between ruler and ruled through a perspective th
 at views human agency as a material force and a concomitant valorization o
 f the absolute distinction between the particular and the general\, with s
 eparate sets of laws applying to each. The concept of the political espous
 ed by Jünger's friend and interlocutor Carl Schmitt is\, in the concept o
 f the anarch\, reduced to a singularity wherein the individual retains an 
 irreducible power over life and death. This paper will trace the roots of 
 this concept to Jünger's Fronterlebnis\, within which the anarchic sense 
 of self-determination\, experienced with utmost intensity within the no-ma
 n's-land on the border/front between warring states\, provides an experien
 tial basis for a concept of individual sovereignty that can be seen to inf
 orm Jünger's development through Weimar\, the Third Reich and beyond.\n\n
 \n
LOCATION:Seminar Room N7\, Pembroke College
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