A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Another Language: The Relationship Between War and Politics in Ernst Jünger’s Early Political Writings




AuthorsPankakoski, Timo

PublisherDuke University Press

Publishing placeNew York

Publication year2024

JournalNew German Critique

Journal name in sourceNEW GERMAN CRITIQUE

Journal acronymNGC

Volume51

Issue2

First page 135

Last page165

ISSN0094-033X

eISSN1558-1462

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1215/0094033X-11165823

Web address https://doi.org/10.1215/0094033X-11165823


Abstract

This article analyzes the linguistic means Ernst Jünger employed to construct the relationship between war and politics in his early political writings. These include military metaphors, the topos of transferring elements from war to politics, depicting politics as the continuation of war by other means, the pen/sword opposition, and the topos of “another language.” Jünger relied on expressions from Clausewitz, yet inversed Clausewitz’s arguments, considering war the primary category even in peace. He “temporalized” the quasi-Clausewitzian continuity thesis, arguing that nationalistic politics should be merely an extension of WWI violence. His interrelated arguments downplayed the differences between war and politics, indirectly justifying political violence. Given his explicit rejection of any characteristically political means, we should read Jünger as a military thinker calling for the continuation of war by the same means, rather than a theorist of autonomous politics. This is a rhetorically constructed and self-imposed problem, resulting from his chosen argumentative framework.



Last updated on 2024-26-11 at 20:31