Molly A. Rothenberg

The Excessive Subject

A New Theory of Social Change

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

In The Excessive Subject: A New Theory of Social Change ,Molly Anne Rothenberg uncovers an innovative theory of socialchange implicit in the writings of radical social theorists, suchas Pierre Bourdieu, Michel de Certeau, Judith Butler, ErnestoLaclau, and Slavoj ?i?ek. Through case studies of these writers work, Rothenberg illuminates how this new theory calls intoquestion currently accepted views of social practices, subjectformation, democratic interaction, hegemony, political solidarity,revolutionary acts, and the ethics of alterity.
Finding a common dissatisfaction with the dominant paradigms ofsocial structures in the authors she discusses, Rothenberg goes onto show that each of these thinkers makes use of Lacan sinvestigations of the causality of subjectivity in an effort tofind an alternative paradigm. Labeling this paradigm extimatecausality , Rothenberg demonstrates how it produces anondeterminacy, so that every subject bears some excess;paradoxically, this excess is what structures the social fielditself. Whilst other theories of social change, subject formation,and political alliance invariably conceive of the elimination ofthis excess as necessary to their projects, the theory of extimatecausality makes clear that it is ineradicable. To imagine otherwiseis to be held hostage to a politics of fantasy. As she examines theimportance as well as the limitations of theories that put extimatecausality to work, Rothenberg reveals how the excess of the subjectpromises a new theory of social change.

By bringing these prominent thinkers together for the first timein one volume, this landmark text will be sure to ignite debateamong scholars in the field, as well as being an indispensable toolfor students.

---

Hinweis: Dieser Artikel kann nur an eine deutsche Lieferadresse ausgeliefert werden.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Wiley & Sons
• 1. Auflage
• Seitenzahl: 224
• Erscheinungstermin: 19. Januar 2010
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 230mm x 154mm x 24mm
• Gewicht: 462g
• ISBN-13: 9780745648248
• ISBN-10: 074564824X
• Artikelnr.: 26840599

Autorenporträt

Molly Anne Rothenberg is professor of English at Tulane University. She is a nationally certified psychoanalyst with teaching and scholarly interests that include British literature, gender and sexuality studies and post-Freudian psychoanalytic theory. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Flex Award for research at the University of Edinburgh.

Inhaltsangabe

Acknowledgments.
Foreword by Slavoj Zizek.
Introduction: The Excess of Everyday Life.
Chapter One: What Does the "Social" in Social Change Mean?
Chapter Two: Extimate Causality and the Social Subject of Excess.
Chapter Three: The Social Structures of Bourdieu and de Certeau.
Chapter Four: Butler's Embodied Agency.
Chapter Five: Laclau's Radical Democracy.
Chapter Six: Zizek's Political Act.
Chapter Seven: Sinthomic Ethics and Revolutionary Groups.

Rezensionen

"The dagger that begins it cuts through Rothenberg's book with a fine precision. It dissects in the works of several of the most influential theorists of our day a powerful and new concept of cause which often gets away from the authors who struggle to define it. Rothenberg's astute argument is richly woven, lucid, and highly compelling." -- Joan Copjec, author of Imagine There's No Woman

"We still don't know what a subject can do. We still don't know how to think subjective agency together with social causality. Rothenberg's path-breaking and systematic study of 'extimate causality,' combining psychoanalysis and emancipatory social theory, goes a long way towards formulating decisive new answers to these perennial questions." -- Peter Hallward, Middlesex University

"Rothenberg's insights into the structure of the subject and its relevance for social and political theory are peerless. For anyone beginning to study the themes and thinkers covered in this book, this is the place to start." -- Ed Pluth, California State University