The Transcendent and the Postcolonial: Violence in Derrida ...

Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self- Article 11
Knowledge

Volume 5
Issue 3 Reflections on Fanon

6-21-2007

The Transcendent and the Postcolonial: Violence
in Derrida and Fanon

Andreas Krebs

University of Ottawa, [email protected]

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The Transcendent and the Postcolonial

Violence in Derrida and Fanon

Andreas Krebs

University of Ottawa, Canada
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

[email protected]

Abstract: In his article “The Force of Law: the Mystical Foundation of Authority,” Jacques Derr-
ida introduces the concept of divine violence. The conditions of, and possibility for, the manifes-
tation of divine violence, however, remain unclear. This article aims to elucidate divine violence
through an appeal to Frantz Fanon’s writings on anticolonial violence, arguing that anticolonial
violence is a direct manifestation of Derrida’s concept of divine violence. I will also argue that
both Derrida and Fanon introduce complementary concepts of transcendence in their discussion
of anti-colonial/divine violence which works against the violence of the state and towards a pol-
itics that crushes vertical structures of domination. For Derrida, only divine violence has the
capacity to escape recreating the violence of the state; for Fanon, anticolonial violence escapes
this recreation through constructing a “national consciousness,” a shared subjectivity that cir-
cumvents the work by nationalist leaders to recapture power and re-institute the violence of the
colonial apparatus. This synthetic reading will introduce a new framework for the analysis of
anti-colonial violence, and show that Fanon and Derrida may be read complimentarily for a
decolonization of colonized minds, bodies and spaces.

I. INTRODUCTION preted widely by legal and political
scholars (see LaCapra 1990; Cornell 1993;
In his article “The Force of Law: the Maley 1999; McCormick 2001; Corson
Mystical Foundation of Authority” (2002) 2001), the possibility for the manifestation
Jacques Derrida presents his most compre- of divine violence remains unclear.
hensive statement on violence, law, and the
state, and makes the argument that the just I will attempt to address the possibility
exercise of force by the state is impossible. of this divine violence proposed by Derrida
There remains in his text a problematic con- through an introduction of Frantz Fanon’s
cept of violence which has not been suffi- analysis of anti-colonial violence, showing
ciently dealt with either by him or in the that anti-colonial violence allows for a
interpretive literature: divine violence. Al- manifestation of divine violence. I will also
though Derrida’s article has been inter- argue that both Derrida and Fanon intro-
duce a certain transcendence in their dis-
cussion of anti-colonial/divine violence

Andreas Krebs is a Ph.D. candidate in political thought at the École des études politiques, University of
Ottawa, Canada. His thesis, titled “Colonialism and the Psychic Life of the Canadian Citizen Subject,” exam-
ines how colonialism persists through the formation of the dominant subjectivity in the Canadian context.

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90 ANDREAS KREBS

which works against the violence of the fore the legal establishment, depends on an
state and towards a politics that crushes exercise of violence for its very existence;
vertical structures of domination. Both au- this violence is at once a preservation of the
thors recognize that revolutionary violence power of the state and a constant founda-
has little hope of anything but recreating tion of it. Every founding act includes in it
the violent conditions against which it al- the requirement of preservation, of general-
legedly works. To move beyond this cycle ization, and every preservation refounds
requires, for Fanon, a horizontal spread of the order which it preserves. Derrida is
power through universal action against co- thus denying both the possibility of found-
lonial violence; for Derrida, a Levinasian ing a state without recourse to violence,
recognition of the universal value of the and of moving beyond this initial violence
Other. Thus both authors appeal to the once a state has been founded. The revolu-
transcendent: for Derrida, this is God, for tionary and therefore terribly violent mo-
Fanon, the ‘national consciousness.’ ment of every founding act, when the
previous order is overturned, remains em-
I will attempt to show that these con- bedded within every action of the newly
ceptions of the transcendental are comple- founded state. These founding acts are al-
mentary, and, through their mutual denial ways justified, but only through self-refer-
of the violent domination of the state, are ential, circular arguments. Thus they are
potential means towards a truly postcolo- justified, or rationalized, but can never
nial situation. Finally I will briefly analyze claim to be just. The only potentially just vi-
recent violence committed against Western olence is transcendental: only God can
targets by Islamic militant groups given the commit just violence. This divine violence,
preceding discussion of divine violence. linked with the Judeo-Christian-Islamic
Through this synthetic reading, I hope to tradition, strikes without warning and
introduce a new framework for the analysis treats every case as unique. It is bloodless
of anti-colonial violence, and show that and expiatory while at the same time anni-
Fanon and Derrida may be read compli- hilatory; “divine violence is exercised on all
mentarily for a decolonization of colonized life […] for the sake of the living” (Derrida
minds, bodies, and spaces. 2002: 288).

II. JACQUES DERRIDA AND DIVINE Contrasted with the justice of divine vi-
VIOLENCE olence is the mythic violence of the state:
the state creates its foundational myth in
Derrida’s article “Force of Law” is an order to preserve itself; its violence is an ex-
indictment of the state and the legal estab- pression and a desire for power. The vio-
lishment as inherently violent. His argu- lence of the state is fateful, which is to say
ment begins with a decoupling of law and arbitrary; this arbitrariness pervades each
justice in which he questions the very pos- action committed by the state, from its
sibility of justice being enacted through foundation through to its daily exercise of
law. This is followed by an interpretation of bureaucratic and judicial process. The
Walter Benjamin’s “Critique of Violence” foundational myths which sustain its legit-
(1978), in which Derrida addresses how the imacy have no essential or universal con-
violence of the law manifests itself. Accord- tent; the foundational story serves simply
ing to Derrida (and Benjamin) this violence as a placeholder for the requisite self-refer-
is not only displayed in the specifics of the ential justification of legal violence, or the
state’s power, such as the death penalty or acquisition and monopolization of power.
the figure of the police. The state, and there-
This discussion of mythic and divine
violence in the second section of “Force of

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THE TRANSCENDENT AND THE POSTCOLONIAL 91

Law” is preceded by an interpretation of formed by the desire to be implicated in the
two other distinctions made by Benjamin: foundational moment. They both also work
between founding and preserving violence, for something that, as it is founded, must be
and between the general political strike and preserved.
the general proletarian strike. Founding vi-
olence is expressed in the moment when a Thus Derrida holds that anti-founda-
new political order asserts itself, in the pro- tional or revolutionary violence can only
cess destroying the old order. Preserving result in a re-creation of the violence of the
violence is at root the “exercise of violence state, and is therefore actually founda-
over life and death” (Benjamin 1978: 286) tional. These foundations become myths,
by the state; it threatens action while retain- acting to immortalize the state, ensuring its
ing a sense of arbitrary action, a sense of survival through an ideological recovery of
fate. Benjamin holds that this mixture of the founding moment after the fact. These
founding and preserving violence in the foundations/preservations are instances of
police is an “ignoble, ignominious, revolt- mythic violence: “the manifestation of di-
ing ambiguity” (Derrida 2002: 277). Derr- vine violence in its mythic form founds a
ida, however, goes further than Benjamin law […] rather than ‘enforces,’ an existing
and (characteristically) denies the distinc- law” (Derrida 2002: 287). Mythic violence
tion between founding and preserving vio- founds a law without representing a law; it
lence altogether. The problem with is based on privilege, manifested in royal
Benjamin’s distinction is that of iterability, authority, which is itself totally arbitrary.
which predicts and requires a preservation This mythic violence corresponds directly
in every act of foundation, and every pres- with all founding actions, and lays the
ervation of the founding act is likewise groundwork for the means for law to justify
foundational. its use of violence. Legitimating of such vi-
olence always works backwards from the
This discussion of founding and pre- legislation or decision in question to the
serving violence, and their collapse into a founding moment (cf. Cornell 2003).
singular type of violence, state violence,
that always founds and preserves itself in This mythic violence is contrasted dia-
acting, is informed by a discussion of the metrically with divine violence. Divine vio-
general strike. Following Georges Sorel, lence is pure violence, the expression of
Benjamin distinguishes between two types violence as pure means and without the
of general strike: the general political strike, possibility of rational recuperation, “the
and the general proletarian strike. The manifestation of self, the in some way dis-
former corresponds with a desire to re- interested, immediate and uncalculated
found the state, the latter to destroy it. For manifestation of anger” (Derrida 2002:
Benjamin, the political general strike is sim- 287). This uncalculated anger, which pre-
ply a change of masters, while “the prole- sents itself solely for its own presentation
tarian general strike sets itself the sole task (and cannot be re-presented) destroys all
of destroying state power” (Benjamin 1978: that mythic violence seeks to found: law,
291). Derrida, however, denies that the pro- limits, boundaries. “[I]nstead of leading to
letarian general strike is without an end in fault and expiation, it causes to expiate; in-
mind. As with Benjamin’s distinction be- stead of threatening, it strikes” (ibid: 288).
tween founding and preserving violence, This purely divine violence works for the
Derrida argues that there is no distinction sake of life and of the living, as opposed to
between these types of general strike; both mythic violence, which is exercised against
seek to refound the state, to initiate a new life, and for the sake of power. Importantly,
set of rules to be followed. Both are in- divine violence works beyond the level of
judgment; as Derrida indicates, the biblical

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92 ANDREAS KREBS

imperative against murder is one which Thus divine violence is aligned with
does not sanction violent retribution in case justice and with decidability; mythic vio-
of its contravention. Finally, divine violence lence is aligned with law’s inherent unde-
is distinguished from mythic violence in its cidability, and the inherent impossibility of
relationship to blood. Divine violence anni- justice in systems of law. The undecidabil-
hilates without bloodshed; mythic violence ity of law refers to its incapacity to adhere
ritualizes bloodshed in the form of sacri- to one or the other of the poles in the found-
fice. ing violence/preserving violence dialectic.
This undecidability ultimately leads to the
This point about bloodshed is impor- auto-destruction of law through a constant
tant for Derrida’s interpretation of divine weakening of founding violence through
violence, and the linkages to be made be- the refounding present in preservation. The
tween it and anti-colonial violence. In shed- decidable in divine violence is defini-
ding blood, mythic violence makes the tional—divine violence is the only possibly
sacrificial victim representative, denying just decision that can be made. All other de-
the uniqueness of the individual. This is the cisions depend on recourse to prefigured
threat principle at work; the victims of rules, no matter how much they account for
mythic violence ensure that the potential the particularity of each situation. This pre-
for violence remains foregrounded by the sents a problem which is located in the es-
state. Divine violence strikes without sence of the divine. Derrida points out that
bloodshed; however, this lack of bloodshed in the final pages of Benjamin’s text, the po-
must be viewed as a figurative statement. tential of revolutionary violence to be pure,
Literally, divine violence must shed blood immediate, unmediated, divine violence is
in the course of its annihilatory expiation.1 spoken of in the conditional. This potential
However, this shedding of blood is not for is always conditional precisely because the
the sake of any representational effect it decision to define violence as divine is not
would have. In annihilating for the sake of open to any human individual. To proclaim
the living, divine violence liberates both the a violence as divine is an example of a ratio-
victim and the living: “it never attacks—for nal justification of that violence, a mytholo-
the purpose of destroying it—the soul of gizing of it, and a founding of a new order
the living” (ibid). Mythic violence works based on that violence. This problem of de-
towards domination, of continual conver- cidability means that divine violence re-
gence of politics around the state. Divine mains only a possibility, as does justice, in
violence annihilates the limits to politics the realm of politics.
imposed by the state, ushering in “a new
political era on the condition that one not III. FRANTZ FANON’S ANTI-
link the political to the state” (ibid: 290). COLONIAL VIOLENCE

1 In the post-scriptum of Derrida’s article, Frantz Fanon’s ground breaking theo-
he seems to condemn the vagueness of Ben- rizing on subjectivity, violence, and revolu-
jamin’s concept of divine violence. This con- tion has inspired debate by critics and
demnation is a result of the bloodless nature of theorists from a wide range of theoretical
the horrible techniques of the “final solution.” backgrounds (Ziarek 2002). Being informed
However, Derrida’s argument denies the func- by psychiatry, psychoanalysis, phenome-
tion of the Nazi system which worked to dehu- nology and Marxism, Fanon’s approach to
manize (deny the uniqueness) of its victims, politics and the self moves beyond the uni-
numbering them, essentializing them based on a versal humanism of historical materialism,
single identity category. I hold that this violence,
although bloodless, does not correspond to the
other facets of divine violence; in this case,
blood does not “make all the difference” (Derri-
da 2002: 288).

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THE TRANSCENDENT AND THE POSTCOLONIAL 93

and recognizes the multiplicity of the sub- means towards the transformation of the
ject. However, in the colonial situation, the Manichean framework and therefore the
self-identities of both colonized and colo- individual consciousnesses which consti-
nizer are essentialized through their race. tute it and are constituted by it. This trans-
Fanon characterizes this situation as Man- formation allows for the inculcation of
ichean rather than dialectical; the nature of previously impossible agency, and the tran-
colonialism divides identities based on scendent recognition of the national con-
their ‘essential’ characteristics: black/ sciousness. The following section explains
white, settler/native (Gibson 2003). This first how this anti-colonial violence enables
essentialism overdetermines the colonized, the realization of the agent, and second
reducing any potential action or thought of how this violence corresponds to Derrida’s
the colonized individual to race. This concept of divine violence.
makes reciprocity impossible, and there-
fore denies dialectical movement towards Through the colonial process, the colo-
mutual recognition. nized individual’s physical and mental en-
ergies are bound. The daily violence of the
Any capacity of the colonized for self- colonial police and military forces, of apart-
realization or agency is thus nullified heid and poverty, contain the mental and
through the colonial process. The colonizer physical potential of the colonized. These
is likewise trapped in his relationship with energies never cease working towards ex-
the colonized. Fanon adopts a Lacanian ap- pression and release. Even the dreams of
proach to identity formation in contending the colonized reveal this desire for release:
that humanism, the intellectual current “les rêves de l’indigène sont des rêves mus-
most responsible for the definition of the culaires, des rêves d’action, des rêves
European self, relies upon the antonym of agressifs. Je rêve que je saute, que je nage,
the non-European for its own definition. que je cours, que je grimpe” (Fanon 2002:
Homi Bhabha elaborates: the “post-En- 53). The expression of these energies is ini-
lightenment man [is] tethered to, not con- tially realized with a death-reflex, an auto-
fronted by, his dark reflection, the shadow destruction (Seshadri-Crooks 2002); this is
of colonized man” (2004: 62). Fanon claims the spontaneous lashing out by colonized
that the only means of moving beyond this individuals against themselves and their
intransigence is through action on the part own communities.
of the colonized. In some respects, this re-
flects the means through which Fanon Fanon also states that the dreams of the
came to terms with his own psychological colonized constantly turn towards the de-
injuries, which were linked to his experi- sire to take the place of the colonizer. This
ence as a black man in white French society. desire of ‘becoming-Other’ is mirrored in
For Fanon, the action which he prescribes the colonizer, who wants to become the col-
was expressed in the writing of his autobio- onized, making the colonized into the threat
graphical, phenomenological account of to the ‘natural order’ (Krautwurst 2003).
the inferiority complex of the black, Peau This mutual desire of becoming is also a
noir, masques blancs (1951). In order to heal, mutual desire of destruction. The colonizer,
the individual must come to terms with his says Fanon, would like nothing better than
injuries, and this coming to terms can only to annihilate the colonized:
be through action (Bulhan 1985). However,
unlike his own experience of healing le colon demande à chaque
through writing, Fanon’s later work Les représentant de la minorité qui
damnés de la terre, explains how violent ac- opprime de descendre 30 ou 100 ou
tion against the symbols of colonialism is a 200 indigènes [et] il s’aperçoit que
personne n’est indigné et qu’à l’ex-

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94 ANDREAS KREBS

trême tout le problème est de as determined by universal humanism. The
savoir si on peut faire ça d’un seul necessary violence to which the colonized
coup ou par étapes. (Fanon 2002: resorts is a process of becoming. Through
81-82) this process, the colonized becomes an
agent, experiences that which is required to
However, this annihilation would re- realize oneself in the world. This agent-
sult in suicide. The colonizer requires the making, anti-colonial violence works
colonized at two levels of existence: eco- against the existing structures of violence,
nomic and psychological. The labour both colonial and humanist. Through this
power of the colonized is required in order violence there transpires a mutual transfor-
for the colony to be viable. Also, elimina- mation of both sides of the previously Man-
tion of the colonized would be elimination ichean binary. As will be discussed in the
of the opposite end of the colonizer’s iden- final section, the transformative, anti-colo-
tifying binary. Similarly, the logic of the col- nial violence is accompanied by the blos-
onized is couched in the capacity of soming of a ‘national consciousness’ which
swallowing the colonizer through the sheer is neither exclusionary nor a refounding of
force of numbers. the violent structures of the state.

This desire for mutual destruction As Kalpana Seshadri-Crooks states,
marks the beginning of anti-colonial vio- anti-colonial violence as presented by
lence and decolonization—not just of land, Fanon is “utterly beyond good and evil
but also of mind and body. Anti-colonial vi- [and] does not avail of a self-justifying
olence, for Fanon, is a kind of “self-rehabil- meta-narrative” (2002: 85). This recognition
itation of the oppressed [which] begins in of the pure nature of anti-colonial violence
directly confronting the source of his dehu- is the opening necessary for a discussion
manization” (Bulhan 1985: 147). This reha- linking it to Derrida’s concept of divine vi-
bilitation is expressed through the act of olence. The spontaneous outbursts of vio-
violence. This violence demonstrates to the lence that are the initial expressions of anti-
colonized that the colonial structures are colonial violence have no ends in mind; this
not impervious to harm, and that her infe- is violence as pure means, as pure expres-
riority, entrenched through colonial ideol- sion, as pure anger, it has “no other aim
ogy, is not essential. What becomes than to show and show itself” (Derrida
essential is that both colonized and colo- 2002: 287). Anti-colonial violence destroys
nizer are mortal, and that both shed blood. the colonial law, the expression of universal
Thus through (violent) action against the humanism, through demonstrating its un-
symbols of colonialism, the colonized be- tenable inconsistencies. The boundaries of
comes more than a mere thing or animal. the colonial state are destroyed; violence
begins to be perpetrated in the métropole
Therefore, at some level, Fanon is con- itself (viz. the café bombings in France dur-
cerned with the transformation of the colo- ing the Algerian war of independence). The
nized individual into ‘man,’ which boundaries between colonizer and colo-
corresponds to a certain humanism in his nized are likewise destroyed. As men-
thought: “la ‘chose’ colonisé devient tioned, each becomes no less mortal than
homme dans le processus même par lequel the other. In language strangely similar to
elle se libère” (Fanon 2002:40). However, as that used by Derrida, Fanon states that
his thought develops over the course of Les once anti-colonial violence begins, the “en-
damnés de la terre, it becomes clear that this terprise of mystification” practiced by the
‘becoming man’ by no means corresponds “demagogues, opportunists, magicians”
to a simple desire for recognition by the col- becomes “practically impossible” (Fanon
onizer, or to fit within the category of ‘man’

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THE TRANSCENDENT AND THE POSTCOLONIAL 95

2002: 91; translation mine). This channeling comes for the most part
The violence against the colonial struc- from the national (colonized) bourgeoisie
and nationalist political parties, who at-
ture pits divine violence against mythic vi- tempt to pacify the colonized, and seize the
olence; as the thousands of colonized are role of ‘interlocutor’ between those work-
felled by machine gun fire, the founding/ ing against the colonial structures, and
preserving mythic violence of the colonial those representing those structures. These
state works against itself. Its arbitrary na- actors work to re-orient the violence of the
ture becomes clear through its constant colonized towards a non-radical, passive
shedding of representative blood. Each vic- acceptance of the terms of decolonization as
tim of colonial violence represents all colo- determined by the colonizing power itself.
nized individuals, in the consciousness of Fanon characterizes the national bourgeoi-
the colonizer and colonized. For the colo- sie and mainstream political actors as “une
nizer this is because the shapeless masses of sorte de classe d’esclaves libérés individuel-
the colonized are indistinguishable one lement, d’esclaves affranchis” (Fanon 2002:
from the other; for the colonized, colonial 60-61). This ideological recuperation of
massacres work as the threat principle of spontaneous, divine, anti-colonial violence
the state. In this orgy of violence, which is results not in the potential for a complete
at once both founding and preserving, the annihilation of the violence of colonial/
colonial state drives itself towards suicide. state structures, but a recreation of them.
The foundational becomes all the more Just as Derrida states that “all revolutionary
present in each preservation of order, and situations, all revolutionary discourses […]
necessarily demystifies the foundation of justify the recourse to violence by alleging
the colonial state from the sheer quotidian the founding, in progress or to come, of a
presence of mythic fate. Each victim of anti- new law, of a new state” (2002: 269), Fanon
colonial violence, however, is killed with- recognizes that:
out warning, without threat. Anti-colonial
violence does not threaten, and is never ar- [l]e militant qui fait face, avec des
bitrary. This violence is expiatory: through moyens rudimentaires, à la ma-
his death, the colonizer receives the capac- chine de guerre colonialiste se rend
ity for atonement for his complicity in the compte que dans le même temps
violence of the colonial structure. The only où il démolit l’oppression coloniale
possible characteristic of divine violence il contribue par la bande à constru-
outlined by Derrida which presents a prob- ire un autre appareil d’exploitation
lem is bloodshed; for Derrida, “[b]lood (2002: 138-9)
would make all the difference” (2002: 288).
Anti-colonial violence does not seem capa- For Fanon, prevention of the founding
ble of escaping from the shedding of blood. of a new ‘apparatus of exploitation’ is only
However, it is clear that, as with divine vio- possible through the inculcation of a na-
lence, anti-colonial “violence is exercised tional consciousness. This national con-
on all life but to the profit of for the sake of sciousness denies the accumulation of
the living” (ibid). power, and the rational recuperation, of the
foundational violence of the state through a
The lack of a “self-justifying meta-nar- horizontal spread of capacity, responsibil-
rative” (Seshadri-Crooks 2002: 85) in anti- ity and agency. This links with the mutual
colonial violence, far more than bloodshed, recognition achieved through the transfor-
seems to really ‘make all the difference.’ mative process of anti-colonial violence,
This is not to say that Fanon does not recog- and with Derrida’s requirement of a recog-
nize that attempts are constantly made to
ideologically channel anti-colonial violence.

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96 ANDREAS KREBS

nition of the unique in any possible non-vi- This sudden reference to God
olent politics. above reason and universality, be-
yond a sort of Auflklärung of law, is
IV. THE POSSIBILITY OF THE nothing other, it seems to me, than
TRANSCENDENT IN DERRIDA AND a reference to the irreducible singu-
FANON larity of each situation. And the au-
dacious thought, as necessary as it
The preceding has attempted to show is perilous, of what one would here
that the void left in both Derrida’s article call a sort of justice without law, a
and the interpretive literature surrounding justice beyond law […] is just as
it regarding the problematic concept of di- valid for the uniqueness of the in-
vine violence can be filled through recourse dividual as for the people and for
to the work of Frantz Fanon. Certain ques- the language, in short, for history
tions remain, especially relating to the po- (ibid: 286).
tential for divine violence to truly escape
the violent political structures of the state. Divine violence, in annihilating the
This escape is dealt with differently by each state, is an expression of justice without
theorist, but their approaches share a cer- law, but is also necessarily accompanied by
tain transcendental character. For Fanon the transcendental recognition of the divine
and Derrida the transcendental is both the in each unique individual. This recognition
result of divine violence and what makes it ensures that once divine violence has anni-
possible. For Derrida, this is clear through hilated the state, the vertical structures of
the name given to divine violence—it auto- domination will not find their founding
matically appeals to the transcendent, myth; through each recognizing the
which allows for and initiates divine anni- uniqueness in each individual and in each
hilation of violent political structures. For situation, the possibility of accretion of
Fanon, the transcendent appears through power and proceduralizing of justice is de-
the inculcation of a national consciousness, nied.
which instantiates itself through anti-colo-
nial violence, and is also the only means of Likewise, Fanon’s conceptualization of
preventing a slip from the postcolonial, national consciousness works to deny the
horizontal relationships of recognition back refounding of the state’s structures of dom-
to further exploitation in a neo-colonial ination. The verticality of colonial violence
state. This final section will explore these becomes horizontal among the colonized
two approaches to the possibility of tran- (Bulhan 1985). In committing violent ac-
scendental politics and how they relate. tion, the colonized acts independently,
spontaneously, but her actions are paral-
Derrida associates justice with a wel- leled in the actions of all colonized individ-
coming of the Other, quoting Levinas: “the uals who commit anti-colonial violence.
relation with the other—that is to say, jus- This creates an organic linkage between
tice” (2002: 250). This Levinasian ethic them, which makes the formation of the na-
stresses a recognition of the uniqueness of tional consciousness possible. This is con-
the Other, and a commitment to treat all sit- trasted with the verticality of the violence
uations as particular. Only through this of the colonial structure, which has as its
commitment can human interaction be apex the overseas métropole, with all other
deemed just. Derrida spells this out explic- actions existing only as representations of
itly later, while discussing Benjamin’s in- this supreme authority. While the colonial
troduction of divine violence: soldier gains his authority from the mythol-
ogies of foundation of the colonial state, the

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THE TRANSCENDENT AND THE POSTCOLONIAL 97

colonized committing anti-colonial vio- litical structures) realizes its goal.
lence has no need of authority, since her ac- The transcendence of the national
tions are not representations but, as seen
previously, pure means. consciousness is witnessed by its relation-
ship with phenomenological experience
The horizontal nature of the national and the denial of the Cartesian basis for
consciousness, linking all who have selfhood. Fanon’s phenomenology denies
worked in some way against the violence of the separation between mind or spirit and
colonial oppression, effectively precludes body. This privileges the lived experience
the possibility of re-instantiating verticality of the individual; however, the colonized
in the postcolonial political community. Fa- individual, through participation in anti-
non makes the point that “[q]uand elles ont colonial violence, is also transcending the
participé, dans la violence, à la libération flesh (Gibson 2003). The overdetermination
nationale, les masses ne permettent à per- of the colonized through her racialized
sonne de se présenter en ‘libérateur.’” identity is no longer possible once the
(Fanon 2002:91). In the collective enterprise mutual mortality of colonized and colo-
contra the structures of colonialism, the nizer are made clear through anti-colonial
domination of the state disintegrates violence. The disintegration of the immor-
through the formation of a community of tality/universality of colonial structures
mutual recognition. This is perhaps the introduces an infinite possibility and
only real possible postcolonial situation, potential immanent in the (previously)
where the institutional domination of the colonized body. This links the unique (lived
state is denied a means of entering social experience) to the transcendent (infinite
consciousness. potential), paralleling Derrida’s appropria-
tion of Levinasian transcendental ethics.
This is meant to be more than simply The mixture of the surmounting of overde-
an ‘imagined community’ (Anderson termination by each colonized individual
1991)—which would be imagined through and the collective experience of the exercise
a process of ideological creativity, of my- of anti-colonial violence links the unique
thologizing. Fanon “is far too aware of the and the transcendent. Thus a reconciliation
dangers of the fixity and fetishism of iden- between phenomenology and transcenden-
tities within the calcification of colonial cul- tal ethics may be possible, despite Derrida’s
tures to recommend that ‘roots’ be struck in early condemnation of phenomenology
the celebratory romance of the past or by (see Derrida 1978).
homogenizing the history of the present”
(Bhabha 2004: 13). Thus Fanon’s national V. CONCLUSION
consciousness has little to do with national-
ism as usually characterized; it is also not The preceding attempt to fill the void in
based on any essential characteristic, par- Derrida’s “Force of Law” through recourse
ticularly race. The formation of national to Fanon’s concept of anti-colonial violence
consciousness is linked to the process of leaves numerous questions unresolved.
anti-colonial violence; this means that the Here I will attempt to address some of these
creation of national consciousness does not issues which present themselves.
stop with the initial spontaneous boiling
over of the sentiment of the colonized: “[l]e First, and perhaps most blatantly, the
peuple vérifie que la vie est un combat in- problem of decidability remains. As stated,
terminable” (Fanon 2002: 90). This process Derrida’s concept of the divine denies the
is therefore never complete, there is never a possibility of making a decision on the di-
point at which anti-colonial struggle (strug- vinity of violence; to name a violent act as
gle against domination, against vertical po- such is itself an act of rationalizing, ideolog-

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98 ANDREAS KREBS

ically recuperating, and thereby mytholo- of Law,” he seems to retreat from an en-
gizing it. Under Derrida’s terms, there can dorsement of divine violence, opening the
be no such thing as a mortal judgment on possibility of its association with the tech-
the divinity of a violent act. This impossibil- niques of the Shoa (see note 1 above). But
ity of judgment does not, however, mean this may be seen as remaining consistent
that anti-colonial violence cannot be divine. with his insistence of the problem of decid-
The characterization of anti-colonial vio- ability. Denouncing violence, unveiling the
lence by Fanon matches Derrida’s charac- violence of law and of the state, is a neces-
terization of divine violence; however it is sity, since not to do so is to remain complicit
the action, and not the characterization, that in the mythic violence structuring modern
cannot be assuredly affirmed as divine. Di- political life. Divine violence, however, can-
vine violence cannot be recognized as such, not be named and remains exterior to hu-
and of course its recognition has no bearing man understanding. In this way, Derrida’s
on its fact or presentation. Recognizing the seeming inconsistency may be retrieved.
divine in an action has not the slightest im-
portance in relation to recognition of the di- Finally, there remains a difficulty in rec-
vine in the Other. onciliation between the two projects at the
level of the individual’s subjectivity/
Second, violence in Fanon and Derrida agency. Even the most creative interpreta-
remains an intensely ambivalent thing. tion of Fanon cannot completely mould him
Even though Fanon espouses violence em- into a poststructuralist. He undoubtedly re-
phatically for its salutary effects on the indi- mains committed to a certain realization of
vidual consciousness, he realizes that the ‘man in the world’ that perpetuates modern
same violence has the potential for horrible views of the cause/effect relationship. My
damage to that consciousness. His experi- own characterization of anti-colonial vio-
ences treating torturers and torture victims lence as agent-making reinforces this aspect
at the Blida hospital in Algeria is testament of Fanon. However, although Fanon him-
to this. But Fanon’s concept of violence has self states that anti-colonial violence is sub-
been interpreted in numerous ways in the ject-creating violence, I take issue with this
literature (Gibson 2003); in fact, anti-colo- characterization. It is my view that anti-co-
nial violence, in its correspondence with the lonial violence works to destroy both sub-
Hegelian concept of ‘work’ by Fanon, may jecthood and subjectivity in all senses of the
even include non-violent action (such as term. First, through the use of violence the
Fanon’s own writing project). Of course this colonized agent affirms that she is no longer
does not solve the problem of his insistence subject to the laws of the colonial state. Sec-
on the necessity of violence to rupture the in- ond, through a crushing of the Cartesian
transigence of the Manichean colonial dualism inherent in colonialism and hu-
structure. However, recognition of the ex- manism,2 the subject/object dichotomy be-
tremity of the case of Algeria, to which comes irrelevant. Fanon’s phenomenology
Fanon often specifically referred, may allow is one that simultaneously unifies the indi-
for a continuum between non-violent anti- vidual through a lived experience of the
colonial action and anti-colonial violence, flesh, and fragments her through recogni-
all of which may have the same positive ef-
fect on the consciousness of the colonized. 2 Viz. the mutually defining relationship be-
In Derrida’s case, his entire project has been tween colonizer and colonized, which is an ex-
working against violence, first in the acad- pression of the value laden binary of mind/
emy, then, during the last years of his life, in body. Also, through the overdetermination of
the more overtly political realm. This may the colonized through her skin, the binary Car-
be why, in the post-scriptum to “The Force tesian experience is crushed into a conscious-
ness which does not separate the physical
experience from the mental. See Khalfa 2004.

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THE TRANSCENDENT AND THE POSTCOLONIAL 99

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