In this dissertation, I argue that the emergence of aesthetics is central to a modern biopolitical definition of man that serves to enable particular forms of identitarian oppression. I utilize Foucault's analysis of the formation of man in The Order of Things, to examine aesthetics as a discourse that subjects the anarchic range of human praxis to a regime that produces the figure of man in its modern form and, in doing so, has never ceased to produce Man's human others. I further employ this historical analysis to examine contemporary forms of affect theory which mediate similar problems under the conditions of late capitalism, but ultimately displaces the political into the realm of ontology. Instead, I formulate a Marxist understanding of the problematic through an analysis of figures of non-anthropophorous humanity--beings within the range of the human who do not bear the proper name of Man--produced under late capitalism, and contained in the Chinese coolie in Latin America and the historical zombie that originates in Haiti. While I draw deeply on historical materials, my immediate concern is with politics in the present. The political, as Jacques Rancière is not the sphere of consensual agreement, but the realm of conflict at the basis of determining who belongs within the limits of the polis and who resides beyond its limits, who can be recognized as having the capacity for speech and who can produce only the animal cry of pleasure or pain. In this way, Man itself is the central arena of the political, and a facile liberal humanism serves to obscure the constant power that must be exerted to maintain the limits of Man. Throughout my analyses, I examine the genealogical and etymological traces in the concepts of aesthetics and of politics in order to formulate them anew in a manner that remains faithful to the ever-present alterity of the human. This alterity cannot be dismissed by a simple posthumanism that seeks to abolish the name of Man, but instead places the human as a point upon our horizon which is, and perhaps must remain forever, yet to come.
An extensively researched, comprehensive biography of Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek, one of the twentieth century’s most powerful and controversial figures Chiang Kai-shek (1887–1975) led the Republic of China for almost fifty years, starting in 1926. He was the architect of a new, republican China, a hero of the Second World War, and a faithful ally of the United States. Simultaneously a Christian and a Confucian, Chiang dreamed of universal equality yet was a perfidious and cunning dictator responsible for the deaths of over 1.5 million innocent people. This critical biography is based on Chiang Kai-shek’s unpublished diaries, his extensive personal files from the Russian archives, and the Russian files of his relatives, associates, and foes. Alexander V. Pantsov sheds new light on the role played by the Russians in Chiang’s rise to power in the 1920s and throughout his political career—and indeed the Russian influence on the Chinese revolutionary movement as a whole—as well as on Chiang’s complex relationship with top officials of the United States. It is a detailed portrait of a man who ranks with Stalin, Roosevelt, Hitler, Churchill, and Gandhi as leaders who shaped our world.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.