Avital Ronell

Avital Ronell (born 1952) is an American philosopher who contributes to the fields of continental philosophy, literary studies, psychoanalysis, feminist philosophy, political philosophy, and ethics. She is a University Professor in the Humanities and in the Departments of Germanic Languages and Literature and Comparative Literature at New York University.

Quotes

• For Luther judgment was a real problem, because everyone gets off on judgment, according to Luther. In fact you have to put a restraining order, a gag order, on those, and that's everyone, who want to judge everyone and everything at top speed. So that when you have a rush to judgment, ... it's also the rush of judgment. ... I'd like us to consider the libidinal investment that Luther sees in judgment and legislates against.
  • "Kafka's Before the Law: The Law of the Father" (2011) 13:10

• According to Luther everyone judges everyone. This is because there's an intense desire to be judging. Then those of us on the masochistic side of things want to be judged. Thus we publish. We teach. We learn. We beg to be judged and decimated.
  • "Kafka's Before the Law: The Law of the Father" (2011) 15:16