The proto-politics of reconciliation: Lefort and the aporia of forgiveness in Arendt and Derrida

Abstract

Reconciliation is often suspected of being an inherently ideological concept in the sense that it fosters acquiescence to a social order that is neither necessary nor desirable. In particular, it is sometimes argued that this is because reconciliation is a religious concept that has been transposed into political discourse. This transposition is seen to be inappropriate because reconciliation presupposes a prior social unity that needs to be restored when, in fact, no such unity has ever existed between historical antagonists. In this article, I argue that the presupposition of a social unity is, indeed, always in danger of becoming ideological to the extent that this unity is conflated with the nation. However, the invocation a counterfactual social unity or ‘polity’ also potentially enables the staging of a reconciliatory politics in a way that politicises the terms of association between former antagonists.