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Krzysztof Nawratek

Place, Autonomy and Revolution: territorial conditions of untimely thinking

 

In his book Occidental Eschatology, Jacob Taubes analyses Jewish Theology, in particular the influence of its revolutionary messianic strand. The fundamental issue Taubes considers is the relationship between historical existence in time and actual existence in space. Taubes discusses 'natural' existence, founded on the mythical 'eternal return of the same' with a rootedness in place, in a contrast with Jewish nomadism which has an existence that is uprooted from place, but is rooted historically within the Word (Logos). Jacob Taubes states that the Jewish messianic tradition rebels against 'natural order', by going beyond established (conservative), rooted and placed 'sameness'. Jewish philosophy reaches beyond nature and is founded on absolute freedom and therefore suggests it is capable of revolution. In the context of clear opposition between place and time described by Taubes one should question the use of this theory as a method of investigating the possibility of spatial autonomy and if so what this autonomy might look like. 

This paper argues that Taubes notion of place is not essentially anti-spatial, but rather allows us to re-define our understanding of place to move beyond a reactionary, often Heideggerian, position. Reactionary understandings of place could be connected with a rejection of universal logic and with seeking exactitude. It could lead to the establishment of a 'place of exception', so well described by Giorgio Agamben who uses concentration camps as an obvious illustration of the consequences of such an approach.  Using Taubes notion this paper argues that a place is not a point of arrival, but departure, it is not a place to rest but could be seen as an anomaly, allowing untimely, revolutionary thinking to connect with a 'chosen' moment in time (and history). Taubes notion of being rooted in ‘Logos’ and history goes beyond the primitive dichotomy whole/universal – fragment, yet avoids also Deleuzian nomadism. Ultimately this paper argues that if place is established as a hybrid of a particular territory, a universal, transcendental Absolute then it could become a space and sphere of revolutionary, untimely thinking.

 

 

Dr. Krzysztof Nawratek is Master of Architecture programme leader, lecturer, School of Architecture, Design and Environment at Plymouth University, UK. His fields of interest and expertise: architecture, urbanism and urban theory. He is the author of 'City as a political idea', University of Plymouth Press 2011 and 'Holes in the Whole. Introduction to the Urban Revolutions', Zer0 Books 2012.

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