Sir John Malcolm and the Creation of British India

Can modernity be imagined as a "war on affect" propelled by the unequal distribution of guilt and fear as major forces of containment? Exploring Walter Benjamin's early texts on violence and religion and bringing them to bear upon contemporary struggles, Herlinghaus argues that the flexible production of affective marginalities lies at the heart of the psycho-cultural dynamics of globalization. Analyzing new imaginaries in Latin American literature, music and film, Violence Without Guilt examines how ethical experience is being drastically reshaped in the realms where violence is an existential reality, especially in the lives and fantasies of those who find themselves today unprotected by Western perceptions of lawfulness and citizenship.