Revolt against Time: Jean Améry on the Constitution of the Self

Abstract

This article offers a new reading of Jean Améry’s idea of resentment, identifying resentment against time as another dimension of the concept alongside resentment against the perpetrators and the willingness of society to move on. This new facet of resentment is elaborated by showing the centrality of Frantz Fanon’s thought for Améry’s theory of self-constitution. In highlighting the relation between resentment and counterviolence, the article shows how Fanon’s influence on Améry goes beyond what has been recognized in current scholarship. Améry agreed with Fanon that counterviolence and revenge reattain the dignity of the victim. The problem of resentment emerges for Améry when revenge is no longer possible. Resentment is in this sense a revolt against time as an unstoppable force that blocks the way to revenge and hence to the reattainment of the dignity of the victim.