On the Contemporary Relevance of Elias Canetti’s Theory of Power

This article discusses Canetti’s theory of power in the context of what Derrida has recently described as political autoimmunity. Its first part differentiates Canetti’s approach from the postmodernism of Bernhard. A detailed textual analysis of Die Blendung is the subject of the middle part of this article. The concluding part of the paper shows the impact of both Canetti’s satirical style and his theory of death and power on the postmodernism of Jelinek. Jelinek develops and deepens Canetti’s critique of an evolutionary and progressive account of history by citing this discourse. By means of montage and bricolage she subjects an opposition between the rational and irrational, between the primitive and the civilized, to satirical treatment. Jelinek refers to Canetti’s Masse und Macht in order to demystify the ideologies that govern contemporary global societies. Her depiction of the ruler as the radical individual who practices self‐preservation turned wild and reduces everything that does not resemble him to nothingness clearly goes back to Canetti’s fictional and nonfictional work. Her work thus proves the contemporary relevance of Canetti’s analysis of power as death.