cover image Unlearning With Hannah Arendt

Unlearning With Hannah Arendt

Marie Luise Knott, trans. from the German by David Dollenmayer. Other, $22.95 (160p) ISBN 978-1-59051-647-8

German political theorist Hannah Arendt (1906%E2%80%931975) took the philosophical line of questioning to the extreme when she advised that we not just question, but unlearn what we know. Journalist and translator Knott focuses on four concepts Arendt extensively unlearned%E2%80%94laughter, translation, forgiveness, and dramatization%E2%80%94drawing on her books, essays, and conversations and correspondence with other thinkers of the time. Through unlearning with Arendt, laughter transforms from a reaction to a comical situation to a way of identifying absurdity, evil, or serious matters. Forgiveness becomes a necessary path to the future instead of a mere forgetting of the past. Language proves to be limiting, especially when rebuilding politics or law with imprecise terminology. But Arendt's bilingual life, alternating between English and German, identifies the strengths and weaknesses of each. Intent on showing Arendt's words to be re-readable and re-learnable, Knott does the same with her own overview of Arendt's reeducation. (May)