Em busca da revolta perdida

Camus e Benjamin entre a medida e ruptura

Abstract

This article investigates how revolt — an ethical and existential gesture affirming human dignity — can deteriorate into dogmatic and violent revolution. Drawing on a dialogue between Albert Camus and Walter Benjamin, it examines how the “hybris” inherent to revolt, conceived as lucid and measured transgression, may drift toward two extremes: blind fury (ménis) or dehumanized reason (logismós). Camus distinguishes revolt from revolution by warning that the pursuit of justice may sacrifice the very ethical principle that sustains it. Benjamin, a critic of the notion of continuous historical progress, introduces the concept of Jetztzeit (now-time), in which the memory of the defeated erupts as a moral demand. By articulating these perspectives with Dostoevsky’s literature and the audiovisual representation of the series Patria, the article explores the possibility of a revolution that preserves the “fine trace” of revolt: an ethics of memory, limit, and responsibility toward the othersize.

Keywords: Benjamin; Camus; Revolt; Ethics; Memory; Revolution.