Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides an overview of sorts of Hannah Arendt’s political thought, and a helpful overview of Arendt’s reconceptualization of the political, by way of a consideration of the profound and significant contradictions that seem to run through her thought. It discusses the apparent contradiction between Arendt’s elitist and democratic tendencies. The book explores Arendt’s relationship to Immanuel Kant, specifically with respect to her conception of political judgement, which is grounded in her reading of Kant’s notion of reflective judgement. It examines the poststructuralist elements of Arendt’s thought in an effort to counter the Habermasian reading of her as a dialogical/communications theorist. The book focuses on Arendt’s analysis of totalitarianism, and attempts to build a model for a politics of sexuality out of Arendt’s reflections on her Jewish identity.