Beyond representation and participation. Pushing Arendt into postmodernity

Whereas Arendt's work has been traditionally received, both by its critics and its admirers, as of one piece, this article uses her proposals for some sort of `organic representation' in On Revolution as a lever to break open that unity and show that it comprises two lines of thought that as such contradict one another. On the one hand her misgivings about representation betray a political version of the metaphysics of presence Derrida has taught us to deconstruct. On the other hand her concept of political freedom and of the role of the public realm goes against the very presuppositions of that metaphysics. That this tension goes unnoticed is largely due to the weight Arendt attached to the theme of participation. By shifting that weight to some of the less prominent themes in her work, I try to give it a different relief, more apt to confront the difficult pluralism of our times.