Refuting the Single Story of Political Action in Hannah Arendt: Navigating Arendt\u27s Eurocentrism and Anti-Black Racism

In this dissertation, I argue for a reconceptualization of political action according to Hannah Arendt that relies on more than her text often read text, The Human Condition. I argue that a monolithic understanding of political action which solely relies on The Human Condition allows for a narrow and ineffectual account of the concept. Taking up the analogy of one-dimensional blueprints, I claim that using The Human Condition alone only provides one perspective on and version of political action. I promote, instead, a multi-dimensional perspective of political action much like an architectural rendering software such as AutoCAD provides, or renders, a three-dimensional view of a building. In order to achieve such a view, we need to turn to other texts which inadvertently explicate and demonstrate political action, as well as incorporate minoritized perspectives on Arendt and political action. With a three-dimensional rendering of political action, we are better prepared to follow what I claim are different versions of political action—one tied to The Human Condition which is idealized and exclusive and the other which is nonideal and in turn more inclusive