S. Newman: ‘Anarchism, Poststructuralism and the Future of Radical Politics’

Saul Newman’s essay “Anarchism, Poststructuralism and the Future of Radical Politics” discusses, as one might expect, the possibilities for radical politics after such politics are subjected to the critiques of poststructuralism. Newman comes out in favor of a “post-anarchism” that embraces the core values of classical anarchism while incorporating the post-structuralist critiques. If one can [...]

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J.C. Hayes: Unconditional Translation: Derrida’s Enlightenment-to-Come

Julie Candler Hayes’s Unconditional Translation: Derrida’s Enlightenment-to-Come focuses on the role of lumieres (enlightenment) in Derrida’s “metapolitical” thought. The a-venir (to-come) quality of Derrida’s democracy is, in his later work, extended to his concept of Enlightenment. The aporetic structure (or stricture) [...]

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R. Benjamin, H. Chang: ‘Jacques Derrida, The Last European’

This article can be separated into two parts, the masculine argument about Europe and the components that define European, within the context of the last European, and the feminine argument about globalization and the new international. This doesn’t suppose one is superior or inferior, but it is an essentialist claim [...]

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G. Hull: ‘The Jewish question revisited- Marx, Derrida and ethnic nationalism.’

Hull begins his essay with Marx’s ‘Jewish Question’ in order to speak about nationalism. Hull asserts that Marx is not the first to speak of nationalism. Benedict Anderson finds evidence of what is called the ‘nation’ in the middle ages. Marx believes that to formulate a question properly is to answer it, which [...]

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tangents on foucault, history, identity politics, etc…

When reading Spectres of Marx and coming across the phrase “the time is out of joint” again and again, I recalled the explorations of Foucault in Society Must Be Defended.

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Did Marxism Die?

The central assumption of Derrida’s argument in Specters of Marx is that Marxism died with the collapse of “Soviet” Communism. (I put soviet in quotations for reasons that are central to my argument here.) For Derrida, it is the empirical fact that Marxism died with the USSR that allows Marx/ism to now occupy a [...]

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Derrida: Event-as-Herald or Event-as-Promise?

So on class Wednesday I tried to raise the point that Derrida is subject to his own criticism. I would like to develop that point in this post. First I will go over my argument in terms of the discussion in class, and then I will try to ground it more in the text (which [...]

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Ghost Conjurer, Ghost Conqueror

I’m glad we’re talking about ghosts. I really am. I think the meaning and significance of ghosts might tell us nearly everything we need to know.
It is also an occasion for reopening a question about Derrida’s specific meditations in Specters of Marx: is the consideration largely, or even completely, Eurocentric?

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Spectres in Santiago

As I mentioned in class, the BBC has an interesting short feature on new civil unrest in Santiago de Chile. I find it interesting, of course, because I have a long-standing interest in Latin American culture and politics (some of you know this). At the same time, and more relevant to our space here, it [...]

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