Post-deconstructive Subjectivity and History
Post-deconstructive Subjectivity and History

Author: Aniruddha Chowdhury

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2013-09-19

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 9004260048

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In Post-Deconstructive Subjectivity and History, Aniruddha Chowdhury argues that deconstruction is not only not a dissolution of subject, as it is often opined, but an affirmation of the singular (ethical) subject and singular history, singularity conceived as alterity, difference and non-identity. Part of the emphasis of the singular history is to conceive the historical relation as figural and as one of repletion with difference. One of the distinctive aspects of the book is that it not only focuses on the tradition of phenomenology, but also extends deconstruction to critical theory, and postcolonial theory. Through his intimate reading of the canonical texts of the Continental philosophical tradition (phenomenology and critical theory), and postcolonial thought Chowdhury illuminates pertinent issues in Continental thought, and postcolonial theory.

Deconstructive Subjectivities
Deconstructive Subjectivities

Author: Simon Critchley

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 1996-01-01

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 9780791427231

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Explores the meanings of subjectivity in continental philosophy in the wake of post-structuralism and critical theory.

Post-Subjectivity
Post-Subjectivity

Author: Andrew German

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2014-04-11

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 144385932X

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Modern thinkers have often declared the end, or even the “death,” of the subject and have been searching for new ways of “being a self.” Indeed, many contemporary scholars regard this search as one of the most significant effects of the general crisis of secularity. Post-Subjectivity is a contribution to that search, conducted with a renewed attention to the centrality of religion, in a pluralistic and global context. This volume of essays guides the reader through, but also beyond, the crises of modernity and postmodernity, toward an attempt to “resurrect” the subject in new forms. The volume resonates with voices from across the humanistic disciplines: the theological turn in recent phenomenology, new directions in Christian and Jewish theology, and reappraisals of figures in the history of philosophy, psychoanalysis, and the study of sexuality—all are represented in an attempt to rethink, from the beginning, what it is to be a “self.”

Self-Consciousness and the Critique of the Subject
Self-Consciousness and the Critique of the Subject

Author: Simon Lumsden

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2014-08-26

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0231538200

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Poststructuralists hold Hegel responsible for giving rise to many of modern philosophy's problematic concepts—the authority of reason, self-consciousness, the knowing subject. Yet, according to Simon Lumsden, this animosity is rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of Hegel's thought, and resolving this tension can not only heal the rift between poststructuralism and German idealism but also point these traditions in exciting new directions. Revisiting the philosopher's key texts, Lumsden calls attention to Hegel's reformulation of liberal and Cartesian conceptions of subjectivity, identifying a critical though unrecognized continuity between poststructuralism and German idealism. Poststructuralism forged its identity in opposition to idealist subjectivity; however, Lumsden argues this model is not found in Hegel's texts but in an uncritical acceptance of Heidegger's characterization of Hegel and Fichte as "metaphysicians of subjectivity." Recasting Hegel as both post-Kantian and postmetaphysical, Lumsden sheds new light on this complex philosopher while revealing the surprising affinities between two supposedly antithetical modes of thought.

The Riddling between Oedipus and the Sphinx
The Riddling between Oedipus and the Sphinx

Author: Yuan Yuan

Publisher: UPA

Published: 2016-04-12

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 0761866639

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The issue of the other has always been an urgent one, especially since 1980’s, when the political debates over race, gender, class, culture, ethnicity, and post-colonialism took the central stage. The Riddling between Oedipus and the Sphinx, Ontology, Hauntology, and Heterologies of the Grotesque probes the polemic status of the other and the dubious nature of the subject from a heterodox perspective of an emblematic grotesque figure, the Sphinx—the mystical trickster and the guardian of sacred knowledge in Egyptian culture. In Greek mythology, Oedipus, the epitome of Western logos, solved the Sphinx’s riddle with a single word, “Man.” This evocation for the phantom of a solipsistic subject discloses, in effect, Oedipus’ latent grotesque disparity. The book explores the encounter of this unlikely pair to inquire the riddling relationship between the singular subject and the grotesque other in the context of modern discourses of the subject and postmodern theories of the other.

A Critique of Postcolonial Reason
A Critique of Postcolonial Reason

Author: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 1999-06-28

Total Pages: 464

ISBN-13: 0674504178

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Are the “culture wars” over? When did they begin? What is their relationship to gender struggle and the dynamics of class? In her first full treatment of postcolonial studies, a field that she helped define, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, one of the world’s foremost literary theorists, poses these questions from within the postcolonial enclave. “We cannot merely continue to act out the part of Caliban,” Spivak writes; and her book is an attempt to understand and describe a more responsible role for the postcolonial critic. A Critique of Postcolonial Reason tracks the figure of the “native informant” through various cultural practices—philosophy, history, literature—to suggest that it emerges as the metropolitan hybrid. The book addresses feminists, philosophers, critics, and interventionist intellectuals, as they unite and divide. It ranges from Kant’s analytic of the sublime to child labor in Bangladesh. Throughout, the notion of a Third World interloper as the pure victim of a colonialist oppressor emerges as sharply suspect: the mud we sling at certain seemingly overbearing ancestors such as Marx and Kant may be the very ground we stand on. A major critical work, Spivak’s book redefines and repositions the postcolonial critic, leading her through transnational cultural studies into considerations of globality.

Ethics, Politics, Subjectivity
Ethics, Politics, Subjectivity

Author: Simon Critchley

Publisher: Verso

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 9781859848494

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In Ethics–Politics–Subjectivity, Simon Critchley takes up three questions at the centre of contemporary theoretical debate: What is ethical experience? What can be said of the subject who has this experience? What, if any, is the relation of ethical experience to politics? These questions are approached by way of a critical confrontation with a number of major thinkers, including Lacan, Genet, Blanchot, Nancy, Rorty and, in particular, Levinas and Derrida. Critchley offers a critical reconstruction of Levinas's notion of ethical experience and, questioning the religious pietism and political conservatism of the dominant interpretation of Levinas's work, develops an ethics of finitude which, far from being tragic, opens on to an experience of humour and the comic. Using this reading of Levinas as a way of unlocking the rich ethical potential of Derrida's work, Critchley outlines and defends the political possibilities of deconstruction. On the basis of Derrida's recent work, Critchley attempts to rethink notions of friendship, democracy, economics and technology.

(Post)Critical Methodologies: The Science Possible After the Critiques
(Post)Critical Methodologies: The Science Possible After the Critiques

Author: Patti Lather

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2017-02-03

Total Pages: 377

ISBN-13: 1317214234

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In the World Library of Educationalists series, international experts themselves compile career-long collections of what they judge to be their finest pieces – extracts from books, key articles, salient research findings, major theoretical and practical contributions – so the world can read them in a single manageable volume. Readers will be able to follow the themes and strands and see how their work contributes to the development of the field. (Post)Critical Methodologies forms a chronology through the texts and concepts that span Patti Lather’s career. Examining (post)critical, feminist and poststructural theories, Lather’s work is organized into thematic sections that span her 35 years of study in this field. These sections include original contributions formed from Lather’s feminism and critical theory background. They contain her most cited works on feminist research and pedagogy, and form a collection of both early and recent writings on the post and post-post, with a focus on critical policy studies and the future of post-qualitative work. With a focus on the implications for qualitative inquiry given the call for scientifically based research in education, this compelling overview moves through Lather’s progressive thoughts on bridging the gap between quantitative and qualitative research in education and provides a unique commentary on some of the most important issues in higher education over the last 30 years. This compilation of Lather's contribution to educational thinking will prove compelling reading to all those engaged in student learning in higher education worldwide.

Deconstruction and Critical Theory
Deconstruction and Critical Theory

Author: Peter V. Zima

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2002-06-01

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 1847140386

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This book surveys the main schools and theorists of deconstruction, establishing their philosophical roots and tracing their intellectual development. It analyses their contribution to the understanding of literature and ideology, comparing their critical value and exploring the critical reaction to deconstruction and its limitations. The text is designed for students who wish to understand how and why deconstruction has become the dominant tool of the humanities. Deconstruction and Critical Theory marks a new stage in the reception history of Derrida's work and in the wider philosophical debate around deconstruction. Zima's study makes a strikingly original contribution to our better understanding of deconstruction and its various philosophic sources. Christopher Norris, University of Wales at Cardiff. Deconstruction And Critical Theory: surveys the main schools and theorists of deconstruction; establishes their philosophical roots; traces their intellectual development; analyses their contribution to the understanding of literature and ideology; compares their critical value; explores the critical reaction to deconstruction and its limitations. This is the ideal text for students who wish to understand how and why deconstruction has become the dominant tool of the Humanities.

Feeling in Theory
Feeling in Theory

Author: Rei Terada

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-07-01

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 0674044290

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Because emotion is assumed to depend on subjectivity, the "death of the subject" described in recent years by theorists such as Derrida, de Man, and Deleuze would also seem to mean the death of feeling. This revolutionary work transforms the burgeoning interdisciplinary debate on emotion by suggesting, instead, a positive relation between the "death of the subject" and the very existence of emotion. Reading the writings of Derrida and de Man--theorists often seen as emotionally contradictory and cold--Terada finds grounds for construing emotion as nonsubjective. This project offers fresh interpretations of deconstruction's most important texts, and of Continental and Anglo-American philosophers from Descartes to Deleuze and Dennett. At the same time, it revitalizes poststructuralist theory by deploying its methodologies in a new field, the philosophy of emotion, to reach a startling conclusion: if we really were subjects, we would have no emotions at all. Engaging debates in philosophy, literary criticism, psychology, and cognitive science from a poststructuralist and deconstructive perspective, Terada's work is essential for the renewal of critical thought in our day.