Making Space for Violence

This essay presents a theorization of the quotidian violence that is Brent Shaw’s subject. Through a re-reading of some of the accounts of specific acts of violence that Shaw uses as evidence, it strives for ethical engagement with the moment of violence; drawing upon Hannah Arendt’s analysis of “the human condition” and of the “space of appearance” in which politics is played out, it focuses especially upon what happens when the space of appearance becomes a space for violence, and upon the vulnerability of the individuals involved.