The Weight of Violence

The essays collected in this volume deal with one central theme: How do we now make sense of existence in a world that is constantly threatened by destruction of sense. The contributors, exploring answers to this complex problematique from different disciplinary perspectives maintain that the question concerning the sense of existence and its destruction is essentially tied up with the question of violence: violence as radical destruction of sense for and of existence. Responses to this question, however, can be as irreducible and singular as can they be varied and multiple. Taking up the religious and linguistic forms of violence as their main focus, these essays argue that the place of violence in our contemporary historical condition has accelerated to an ever immeasurable measure, and that this demands urgent responses from intellectuals and activists alike.