The Highway of Despair: Critical Theory After Hegel PDF
Preview The Highway of Despair: Critical Theory After Hegel
THE HIGHWAY OF DESPAIR New Directions in Critical Theory NEW DIRECTIONS IN CRITICAL THEORY Amy Allen, General Editor New Directions in Critical Theory presents outstanding classic and contem- porary texts in the tradition of critical social theory, broadly construed. The series aims to renew and advance the program of critical social theory, with a particular focus on theorizing contemporary struggles around gender, race, sexuality, class, and globalization and their complex interconnections. Narrating Evil: A Postmetaphysical Theory of Reflective Judgment, María Pía Lara The Politics of Our Selves: Power, Autonomy, and Gender in Contemporary Critical Theory, Amy Allen Democracy and the Political Unconscious, Noëlle McAfee The Force of the Example: Explorations in the Paradigm of Judgment, Alessandro Ferrara Horrorism: Naming Contemporary Violence, Adriana Cavarero Scales of Justice: Reimagining Political Space in a Globalizing World, Nancy Fraser Pathologies of Reason: On the Legacy of Critical Theory, Axel Honneth States Without Nations: Citizenship for Mortals, Jacqueline Stevens The Racial Discourses of Life Philosophy: Négritude, Vitalism, and Modernity, Donna V. Jones Democracy in What State?, Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou, Daniel Bensaïd, Wendy Brown, Jean-Luc Nancy, Jacques Rancière, Kristin Ross, Slavoj Žižek Politics of Culture and the Spirit of Critique: Dialogues, edited by Gabriel Rockhill and Alfredo Gomez-Muller Mute Speech: Literature, Critical Theory, and Politics, Jacques Rancière The Right to Justification: Elements of Constructivist Theory of Justice, Rainer Forst The Scandal of Reason: A Critical Theory of Political Judgment, Albena Azmanova The Wrath of Capital: Neoliberalism and Climate Change Politics, Adrian Parr Media of Reason: A Theory of Rationality, Matthias Vogel Social Acceleration: The Transformation of Time in Modernity, Hartmut Rosa The Disclosure of Politics: Struggles Over the Semantics of Secularization, María Pía Lara Radical Cosmopolitics: The Ethics and Politics of Democratic Universalism, James Ingram Freedom’s Right: The Social Foundations of Democratic Life, Axel Honneth Imaginal Politics: Images Beyond Imagination and the Imaginary, Chiara Bottici Alienation, Rahel Jaeggi The Power of Tolerance: A Debate, Wendy Brown and Rainer Forst, edited by Luca Di Blasi and Christoph F. E. Holzhey Radical History and the Politics of Art, Gabriel Rockhill the H IG H WAY of D E SPA I R critical theory after hegel Robyn Marasco Columbia University Press New York Columbia University Press Publishers Since 1893 New York Chichester, West Sussex cup.columbia.edu Copyright © 2015 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Marasco, Robyn. The highway of despair : critical theory after Hegel / Robyn Marasco. pages cm. — (New directions in critical theory) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-231-16866-3 (cloth : alk. paper) — isbn 978-0-231-53889-3 (e-book) 1. Criticism (Philosophy) 2. Critical theory. 3. Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770–1831. 4. Dialectic. 5. Despair. I. Title. B809.3.M364 2015 190—dc23 2014014339 Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper. This book is printed on paper with recycled content. Printed in the United States of America c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Jacket design by Jennifer Heuer References to websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared. In loving memory of my father, Robert F. Marasco CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 PART 1. DIALECTICS AND DESPAIR 1. Hegel, the Wound 25 2. Kierkegaard’s Diagnostics 58 PART 2. DIALECTICAL REMAINS 3. Theodor W. Adorno: Aporetics 81 4. Georges Bataille: Aleatory Dialectics 114 5. Frantz Fanon: Critique, with Knives 140 Concluding Postscript 169 Notes 185 Index 219 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I have had the privilege to study and teach at great institutions and each has supported my scholarly work beyond measure. I was taught how to do political theory by Wendy Brown and her mentorship allowed me to believe that I might be suited to it. Wendy super- vised my work, wrote letters on my behalf, gave essential commen- tary on several drafts of this work, and responded to every single email. Beyond that, she offered steady encouragement and guid- ance, patience, and humanity. I am grateful to many other Berkeley faculty—Judith Butler, Martin Jay, Victoria Kahn, and Paul Thomas— for their feedback on my research. Many thanks, also, to the director and fellows at the Townsend Center for the Humanities and to Jean Day, the associate editor at Representations. The intellectual and personal relationships that I formed in my Berkeley years remain my most important and enduring. Sharon Stanley read this manuscript in its entirety and offered astute sug- gestions for revisions. Jimmy Klausen has been a steady and cher- ished interlocutor. Beyond that, both Sharon and Jimmy have offered that rare experience of friendship that confirms I am never alone. My thinking has been shaped by many conversations with Yves Winter, George Ciccariello-Maher, Abbey Ciccariello-Maher, Ivan Asher, Simon Stow, Dean Mathiowetz, Bibi Obler, James Martel, Libby Anker, Annika Thiem, Jack Jackson, Julie Cooper, Bob Taylor, Michael
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