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Militant Universality: Absolutely Postcolonial

Nick Nesbit

in Caribbean Critique: Antillean Critical Theory from Toussaint to Glissant

Analyzes the key concepts of universality and the transcendental in Peter Hallward's critique of postcolonial theory, Absolutely Postcolonial. Argues, following Nathan Brown, that his ‘transcendental ... More

Analyzes the key concepts of universality and the transcendental in Peter Hallward's critique of postcolonial theory, Absolutely Postcolonial. Argues, following Nathan Brown, that his ‘transcendental deduction’ of human relationality must itself be historicized, rather than positing such human attributes as atemporal absolutes.Less

Hans Arp: Resistance and the Philosophy of Virtual Creation

Dafydd W. Jones

in Dada 1916 in Theory: Practices of Critical Resistance

As an artistic movement, Zurich Dada offers very little visual residue. What remains is uneven and inconsistent but is wholly redeemed by the remarkable works that Hans Arp, and then Sophie Taeuber, ... More

As an artistic movement, Zurich Dada offers very little visual residue. What remains is uneven and inconsistent but is wholly redeemed by the remarkable works that Hans Arp, and then Sophie Taeuber, produced during this phase. In this chapter, Arp’s so-called ‘chance’ collages are documented in terms of visual strategies of cultural resistance, read through Deleuzian schizoanalysis as correlates for creation itself, and detouring to Herman Melville’s short story ‘Bartleby’, along with Deleuze’s readings of a passive yet destructive resistance thoroughly revised in their historical context.Less

Aristide and the Politics of Democratization

Nick Nesbit

in Caribbean Critique: Antillean Critical Theory from Toussaint to Glissant

Analyzes the political philosophy of Jean-Bertrand Aristide as interpreted in the studies of Alex Dupuy (The Prophet and the Power) and Peter Hallward (Damming the Flood). Focuses on the problem of ... More

Analyzes the political philosophy of Jean-Bertrand Aristide as interpreted in the studies of Alex Dupuy (The Prophet and the Power) and Peter Hallward (Damming the Flood). Focuses on the problem of political violence in contemporary Haiti and its relation to the struggle for democratization following the fall of Duvalier in 1986.Less

Freedom Through Constraints: On the Question of Will

Tracy McNulty

in Wrestling with the Angel: Experiments in Symbolic Life

This chapter examines the function of constraints with respect to the will and how it differs from a mere negation or exclusion of will. Peter Hallward takes issue with a long genealogy of political ... More

This chapter examines the function of constraints with respect to the will and how it differs from a mere negation or exclusion of will. Peter Hallward takes issue with a long genealogy of political philosophy that opposes the negativity of law and limits—or the finitude of lack—to a will understood as an irrational agency that must be circumscribed by laws and constitutional limits or diluted by mediating forms of representation. Hallward questions to what extent Alain Badiou is invested in the subject and its will to effect change. This chapter argues that Hallward fails to consider that the repudiation of constraints might go hand in hand with a marginalization of the subject. It analyzes what is likely a prime object of Hallward's critique: Hannah Arendt's account of political will in Eichmann in Jerusalem. It also analyzes what Juliet Flower MacCannell describes as the “unbearable relation of voice to superegoic law” and concludes by discussing Immanuel Kant's views on will and constraint, along with the literary practice of the group called Oulipo.Less

Édouard Glissant: From the Poétique de la relation to the Transcendental Analytic of Relation

Nick Nesbit

in Caribbean Critique: Antillean Critical Theory from Toussaint to Glissant

Focuses on Glissant's later writings since Poétique de la relation (1990). Argues that Glissant's late conception of Relation is primarily aesthetic and depoliticized.