On the Brink : Language, Time, History, and Politics

Werner Hamacher, one of the most important and original theorists working in literary criticism and continental philosophy, explores topics at the intersection of philosophy, literary studies and politics.

As its title suggests, this collections of essays by one of the foremost theorists working today takes as its theme the edge or limit between language, time, history, and politics. These are essays that are all on the brink, about the edge, the very extreme at which one can no longer say where one is located, neither on the cliff, say, nor over the edge. To be on the brink, then, is to take up that extreme limit, the point of contamination or indetermination where language, time, history, and politics all converge upon one another.

The book begins with a consideration of Kant’s treatment of time as representation, before moving toward more explicitly political themes as it engages political theology and messianism in Hegel and Hölderlin. The second section explores the questionof language in a variety of manifestations—from translation to complaint and greeting—and through a number of literary and cultural forms, from the work of Mallarmé to email. The volume concludes with an interview in which Hamacher offers a revealing overview of his work, beginning with an account of his early writings and moving up to his most recent essays.