This essay reviews (the German translations of) Elsa Dorlin's book Se defendre: Une philosophie de la violence (2017) and Judith Butler's volume The Force of Nonviolence: An Ethico-Political Bind (2020). While Butler envisages a new understanding of nonviolence, Dorlin emphasizes subaltern practices of counterviolence. The review shows that despite the different aims of Butler and Dorlin, their accounts can be read as largely complementary reflections on the problem of political vulnerability.

Sergej Seitz: "Verteidigbares Leben, betrauerbares Leben. Neue Ansätze zur Vulnerabilität bei Elsa Dorlin und Judith Butler," in: Le foucaldien, 7/1 (2021), DOI: 10.16995/lefou.8189