Christopher Fynsk here offers a sustained critical reading of texts written by Martin Heidegger in the period 1927-1947. His guiding concerns are Heidegger's notions of human finitude and difference, which he first addresses through an analysis of the role played by Mitsein in Being and Time. This analysis in turn affords a critical perspective on Heidegger's own interpretive encounters with Nietzsche and Hölderlin. In a reading of Heidegger's Nietzsche, Fynsk points to a far more ambivalent interpretation than the one commonly attributed to Heidegger. After further elaboration of the problematic of finitude in the context of Heidegger's writings of the 1930s on politics and art, Fynsk looks closely at Heidegger's commentary on Hölderlin. He calls into question Heidegger's claims for the gathering and founding character of poetry, and seeks to raise some basic questions in respect to the nature of the text and the act of interpretation. Presenting a critical confrontation with Heidegger that places itself within what Fynsk refers to as a contemporary "thought of difference," this book should be of interest not only to all students of Heidegger but also to anyone concerned with contemporary literary theory or modern Continental philosophy.
Writing, Maurice Blanchot taught us, is not something that is in one's power. It is, rather, a search for a non-power that refuses mastery, order, and all established authority. For Blanchot, this search was guided by an enigmatic exigency, an arresting rupture, and a promise of justice that required endless contestation of every usurping authority, an endless going out toward the other. "The step/not beyond" ("le pas au-dela") names this exilic passage as it took form in his influential later work, but not as a theme or concept, since its "step" requires a transgression of discursive limits and any grasp afforded by the labor of the negative. Thus, to follow "the step/not beyond" is to follow a kind of event in writing, to enter a movement that is never quite captured in any defining or narrating account. Last Steps attempts a practice of reading that honors the exilic exigency even as it risks drawing Blanchot's reflective writings and fragmentary narratives into the articulation of a reading. It brings to the fore Blanchot's exceptional contributions to contemporary thought on the ethico-political relation, language, and the experience of human finitude. It offers the most sustained interpretation of The Step Not Beyond available, with attentive readings of a number of major texts, as well as chapters on Levinas and Blanchot's relation to Judaism. Its trajectory of reading limns the meaning of a question from The Infinite Conversation that implies an opening and a singular affirmation rather than a closure: "How had he come to will the interruption of the discourse?
The most recent version of the “linguistic turn,” the revolution in language theory shaped by Saussure’s structural linguistics and realized in a sweeping revision of investigations throughout the humanities and social sciences, has rushed past the most basic “fact”: that there is language. What has been lost? Almost everything of what Heidegger tried to approach under the name of “ontology” until the word proved too laden by common misapprehension to be of use. Most immediately, this is everything of language that exceeds the order of signification, together with the subject’s engagement with this “excess” that is the (non)ground of history and the material site of all relationality, beginning with that unthought that is widely termed “culture.” Language and Relation returns to this site in close readings of meditations on language by Martin Heidegger, Luce Irigaray, Paul Celan, Walter Benjamin, and Maurice Blanchot. It seeks to move with these authors beyond the order of signification and toward the an-archic grounds of relation (of all relations between self and other, and of relation in general), exploring the possibility for a strong link between issues in modern philosophy of language and contemporary socio-political concerns.
First sustained critical reading of Lacoue-Labarthes Phrase, which provides insights into a philosophically inspired work of prose poetry. This book presents an interpretation of a volume of poetry and theoretical reflections (Phrase) by the late Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, who is widely known as one of the major contributors to thinking about the relation between philosophy and literature in the continental tradition. His work has shaped the deconstructive approach to the question of the subject and has opened important paths of research relating to the topic of literary mimesis. Along with Jean-Luc Nancy, he made very important contributions in the areas of romantic literary theory and psychoanalytic theory. Christopher Fynsks analysis of Phrase focuses principally on two of its key motifs. Fynsk first deals with the theme of infancy and draws forth the deep relation to Blanchot that is revealed in this text. The second motif which organizes the narrative of the autobiographical component of Phrase (which Lacoue-Labarthe entitles a history of renunciation) names the condition of modern poetic speech. Thus, Fynsk interprets the history of renunciation and elucidates the meaning of what Lacoue-Labarthe terms literature. This is a unique study on the interrelation between the literary and the theoretical that answers to the equally singular quality of Lacoue-Labarthes writing. Susan Bernstein, Brown University If there are still some who would have it that the heady stuff of theory is necessarily arid, this book should forever put that fallacy to rest. From the beginning, its hard-won arguments are compelling, provocative, and moving. Jan Plug, University of Western Ontario
This is an account of Jacques Derrida's involvement in debates about the university. Derrida has long argued that philosophy simultaneously belongs and does not belong to the university. This book asks whether a broader tension between 'belonging' and 'not belonging' also forms the basis of Derrida's political thinking and activism.
Philosopher, literary critic, translator (of Nietzsche and Benjamin), Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe is one of the leading intellectual figures in France. This volume of six essays deals with the relation between philosophy and aesthetics, particularly the role of mimesis in a metaphysics of representation. Comment [1997] "Typography is a book whose importance has not diminished since its first publication in French in 1979. On the contrary, I would say, it is only now that one can truly begin to appreciate the groundbreaking status of these essays. The points it makes, the way it approaches the questions of mimesis, fictionality, and figurality, is unique. There are no comparable books, or books that could supersede it." Rudolphe Gasché, State University of New York, Buffalo "Lacoue-Labarthe's essays still set the standards for thinking through the problem of subjectivity without simply retreating behind insights already gained. But this book is much more than a collection of essays: it constitutes a philosophical project in its own right. Anybody interested in the problem of mimesiswhether from a psychoanalytic, platonic, or any other philosophical anglecannot avoid an encounter with this book. Lacoue-Labarthe is a philosopher and a comparatist in the highest sense of the word, and the breadth of his knowledge and the rigor of his thought are exemplary." Eva Geulen, New York University Review "In demonstrating how mimesis has determined philosophical thought, Lacoue-Labarthe provokes us into reconsidering our understanding of history and politics. . . . Together with the introduction, these essays are essential reading for anyone interested in Heidegger, postmodernism, and the history of mimesis in philosophy and literature." The Review of Metaphysics
Christopher Fynsk here offers a sustained critical reading of texts written by Martin Heidegger in the period 1927-1947. His guiding concerns are Heidegger's notions of human finitude and difference, which he first addresses through an analysis of the role played by Mitsein in Being and Time. This analysis in turn affords a critical perspective on Heidegger's own interpretive encounters with Nietzsche and Hölderlin. In a reading of Heidegger's Nietzsche, Fynsk points to a far more ambivalent interpretation than the one commonly attributed to Heidegger. After further elaboration of the problematic of finitude in the context of Heidegger's writings of the 1930s on politics and art, Fynsk looks closely at Heidegger's commentary on Hölderlin. He calls into question Heidegger's claims for the gathering and founding character of poetry, and seeks to raise some basic questions in respect to the nature of the text and the act of interpretation. Presenting a critical confrontation with Heidegger that places itself within what Fynsk refers to as a contemporary "thought of difference," this book should be of interest not only to all students of Heidegger but also to anyone concerned with contemporary literary theory or modern Continental philosophy.
First sustained critical reading of Lacoue-Labarthes Phrase, which provides insights into a philosophically inspired work of prose poetry. This book presents an interpretation of a volume of poetry and theoretical reflections (Phrase) by the late Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, who is widely known as one of the major contributors to thinking about the relation between philosophy and literature in the continental tradition. His work has shaped the deconstructive approach to the question of the subject and has opened important paths of research relating to the topic of literary mimesis. Along with Jean-Luc Nancy, he made very important contributions in the areas of romantic literary theory and psychoanalytic theory. Christopher Fynsks analysis of Phrase focuses principally on two of its key motifs. Fynsk first deals with the theme of infancy and draws forth the deep relation to Blanchot that is revealed in this text. The second motif which organizes the narrative of the autobiographical component of Phrase (which Lacoue-Labarthe entitles a history of renunciation) names the condition of modern poetic speech. Thus, Fynsk interprets the history of renunciation and elucidates the meaning of what Lacoue-Labarthe terms literature. This is a unique study on the interrelation between the literary and the theoretical that answers to the equally singular quality of Lacoue-Labarthes writing. Susan Bernstein, Brown University If there are still some who would have it that the heady stuff of theory is necessarily arid, this book should forever put that fallacy to rest. From the beginning, its hard-won arguments are compelling, provocative, and moving. Jan Plug, University of Western Ontario
Writing, Maurice Blanchot taught us, is not something that is in one's power. It is, rather, a search for a non-power that refuses mastery, order, and all established authority. For Blanchot, this search was guided by an enigmatic exigency, an arresting rupture, and a promise of justice that required endless contestation of every usurping authority, an endless going out toward the other. "The step/not beyond" ("le pas au-dela") names this exilic passage as it took form in his influential later work, but not as a theme or concept, since its "step" requires a transgression of discursive limits and any grasp afforded by the labor of the negative. Thus, to follow "the step/not beyond" is to follow a kind of event in writing, to enter a movement that is never quite captured in any defining or narrating account. Last Steps attempts a practice of reading that honors the exilic exigency even as it risks drawing Blanchot's reflective writings and fragmentary narratives into the articulation of a reading. It brings to the fore Blanchot's exceptional contributions to contemporary thought on the ethico-political relation, language, and the experience of human finitude. It offers the most sustained interpretation of The Step Not Beyond available, with attentive readings of a number of major texts, as well as chapters on Levinas and Blanchot's relation to Judaism. Its trajectory of reading limns the meaning of a question from The Infinite Conversation that implies an opening and a singular affirmation rather than a closure: "How had he come to will the interruption of the discourse?
Philosopher, literary critic, translator (of Nietzsche and Benjamin), Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe is one of the leading intellectual figures in France. This volume of six essays deals with the relation between philosophy and aesthetics, particularly the role of mimesis in a metaphysics of representation. Comment [1997] "Typography is a book whose importance has not diminished since its first publication in French in 1979. On the contrary, I would say, it is only now that one can truly begin to appreciate the groundbreaking status of these essays. The points it makes, the way it approaches the questions of mimesis, fictionality, and figurality, is unique. There are no comparable books, or books that could supersede it." Rudolphe Gasché, State University of New York, Buffalo "Lacoue-Labarthe's essays still set the standards for thinking through the problem of subjectivity without simply retreating behind insights already gained. But this book is much more than a collection of essays: it constitutes a philosophical project in its own right. Anybody interested in the problem of mimesiswhether from a psychoanalytic, platonic, or any other philosophical anglecannot avoid an encounter with this book. Lacoue-Labarthe is a philosopher and a comparatist in the highest sense of the word, and the breadth of his knowledge and the rigor of his thought are exemplary." Eva Geulen, New York University Review "In demonstrating how mimesis has determined philosophical thought, Lacoue-Labarthe provokes us into reconsidering our understanding of history and politics. . . . Together with the introduction, these essays are essential reading for anyone interested in Heidegger, postmodernism, and the history of mimesis in philosophy and literature." The Review of Metaphysics
The most recent version of the “linguistic turn,” the revolution in language theory shaped by Saussure’s structural linguistics and realized in a sweeping revision of investigations throughout the humanities and social sciences, has rushed past the most basic “fact”: that there is language. What has been lost? Almost everything of what Heidegger tried to approach under the name of “ontology” until the word proved too laden by common misapprehension to be of use. Most immediately, this is everything of language that exceeds the order of signification, together with the subject’s engagement with this “excess” that is the (non)ground of history and the material site of all relationality, beginning with that unthought that is widely termed “culture.” Language and Relation returns to this site in close readings of meditations on language by Martin Heidegger, Luce Irigaray, Paul Celan, Walter Benjamin, and Maurice Blanchot. It seeks to move with these authors beyond the order of signification and toward the an-archic grounds of relation (of all relations between self and other, and of relation in general), exploring the possibility for a strong link between issues in modern philosophy of language and contemporary socio-political concerns.
Samuel Beckett and the Terror of Literature addresses the relevance of terror to understanding the violence, the suffering, and the pain experienced by the narrative voices of Beckett's major post-1945 works in prose: The Unnamable, Texts for Nothing, How It Is, Company, Ill Seen Ill Said, and Worstward Ho. Through a sustained dialogue with the theoretical work of Maurice Blanchot, it accomplishes a systematic interrogation of what happens in the space of literature when writing, and first of all Beckett's, encounters the language of terror, thereby giving new significance - ethical, ontological, and political - to what speaks in Beckett's texts.a a
This book resituates the political correctness debates in the humanities branch of the academy. It contends that conservatives have tainted entire academic disciplines to cause university humanists to go from irrelevant to dangerous overnight.
While in no way oversimplifying its complexity or glossing over the challenges it presents, Norris's book sets out to make deconstruction more accessible to the open-minded reader.
This is an important new critical analysis of Derrida's theory of writing, based on close readings of key texts. It reveals a dimension of Derrida's thinking that has been neglected in favor of those "deconstructionist" cliches favored by much recent literary criticism. Christopher Johnson highlights the special character of Derrida's philosophy that comes from his contact with contemporary natural science and with systems theory. This study casts new light on an exacting set of intellectual issues facing philosophy and critical theory today.
The history of Asian American literature reveals the ongoing attempt to work through the fraught relationship between identity politics and literary representation. This relationship is especially evident in literary works which claim that their content represents the socio-historical world. The Semblance of Identityargues that the reframing of the field as a critical, rather than identity-based, project nonetheless continues to rely on the logics of identity. Drawing on the writings of philosopher and literary critic Georg Lukacs, Christopher Lee identifies a persistent composite figure that he calls the "idealized critical subject," which provides coherence to oppositional knowledge projects and political practices. He reframes identity as an aesthetic figure that tries to articulate the subjective conditions for knowledge. Harnessing Theodor Adorno's notion of aesthetic semblance, Lee offers an alternative account of identity as a figure akin to modern artwork. Like art, Lee argues, identity provides access to imagined worlds that in turn wage a critique of ongoing histories and realities of racialization. This book assembles a transnational archive of literary texts by Eileen Chang, Frank Chin, Maxine Hong Kingston, Chang-rae Lee, Michael Ondaatje, and Jose Garcia Villa, revealing the intersections of subjectivity and representation, and drawing our attention to their limits.
Maurice Blanchot occupies a central though still-overlooked position in the Anglo-American reception of 20th-century continental philosophy and literary criticism. On the one hand, his rigorous yet always-playful exchanges with the most challenging figures of the philosophical and literary canons of modernity have led thinkers such as Georges Bataille, Emmanuel Levinas, Jacques Derrida, and Michel Foucault to acknowledge Blanchot as a major influence on the development of literary and philosophical culture after World War II. On the other hand, Blanchot's reputation for frustrating readers with his difficult style of thought and writing has resulted in a missed opportunity for leveraging Blanchot in advancing the most essential discussions and debates going on today in the comparative study of literature, philosophy, politics, history, ethics, and art. Blanchot's voice is simply too profound, too erudite, and too illuminating of what is at stake at the intersections of these disciplines not to be exercising more of an influence than it has in only a minority of intellectual circles. Understanding Blanchot, Understanding Modernism brings together an international cast of leading and emergent scholars in making the case for precisely what contemporary modernist studies stands to gain from close inspection of Blanchot's provocative post-war writings.
During the Enlightenment, Western scholars racialized ideas, deeming knowledge based on reality superior to that based on ideality. Scholars labeled inquiries into ideality, such as animism and soul-migration, “savage philosophy,” a clear indicator of the racism motivating the distinction between the real and the ideal. In their view, the savage philosopher mistakes connections between signs for connections between real objects and believes that discourse can have physical effects—in other words, they believe in magic. Christopher Bracken’s Magical Criticism brings the unacknowledged history of this racialization to light and shows how, even as we have rejected ethnocentric notions of “the savage,” they remain active today in everything from attacks on postmodernism to Native American land disputes. Here Bracken reveals that many of the most influential Western thinkers dabbled in savage philosophy, from Marx, Nietzsche, and Proust, to Freud, C. S. Peirce, and Walter Benjamin. For Bracken, this recourse to savage philosophy presents an opportunity to reclaim a magical criticism that can explain the very real effects created by the discourse of historians, anthropologists, philosophers, the media, and governments.
These essays break from decades of dominant “postmodern” readings of poetry, highlighting the 21st century renaissance in anticapitalist poetic activity, and forging new models for reading poems against the backdrop of capital’s deep contradictions.
Christopher Nealon’s reexamination of North America’s poetry in English, from Ezra Pound and W. H. Auden to younger poets of the present day, argues persuasively that the central literary project of the past century was to explore the relationship between poetry and capitalism—its impact on individuals, communities, and cultures.
Drawing primarily on the work of Alain Badiou and Jean-Luc Nancy, plus Quentin Meillassoux and Slavoj Zizek, Watkin explores the theme of atheism through the ideas of the death of God and nihilism in contemporary French philosophy.
In What's Wrong with Postmodernism Norris critiques the "postmodern-pragmatist malaise" of Baudrillard, Fish, Rorty, and Lyotard. In contrast he finds a continuing critical impulse—an "enlightened or emancipatory interest"—in thinkers like Derrida, de Man, Bhaskar, and Habermas. Offering a provocative reassessment of Derrida's influence on modern thinking, Norris attempts to sever the tie between deconstruction and American literary critics who, he argues, favor endless, playful, polysemic interpretation at the expense of systematic argument. As he explores leftist attempts to arrive at an accommodation with postmodernism, Norris addresses the politics of deconstruction, the issue of men in feminism, Habermas' quarrel with Derrida, narrative theory as a hermeneutic paradigm, musical aesthetics in relation to literary theory, and various aspects of postmodern debate. A chapter on Stanley Fish brings several of these topics together and offers a generalized statement on the function of current criticism.
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