Jack Segbars and Maziar Afrassiabi presented this paper at the conference "Polemics of Ressentiment" organized by Sjoerd van Tuinen at the Centre of Art and Philosophy, Erasmus University.
The rise of populism, cynicism, fanaticism and fundamentalism challenges us to reconsider the problem of ressentiment, characterized by Nietzsche as the self-poisoning of the will by way of interiorization of trauma in the form of a postponed and imaginary revenge. Whereas its conceptualization dates back to the nineteenth century and has gradually dissolved in the course of twentieth century emancipatory processes, the concept of ressentiment is now making a comeback in political discourse. The aim of this conference is to dramatize the polemogenous and thus essentially divergent senses in which the concept of ressentiment has and can be used today.
Speakers: Maziar Afrassiabi, Joseph Cohen, Sjaak Koenis, Christoph Narholz, Saul Newman, Merijn Oudenampsen, Robert Pfaller, Marc Roelli, Simon Scott, Jack Segbars, Guillaume Sibertin-Blanc, Sjoerd van Tuinen, Frank Vande Veire, Guido Vanheeswijck, Daniel de Zeeuw
Co-organized with WORM