E-Book Overview
An intellectual event, "Derrida and the Time of the Political" marks the first time that leading scholars have come together to critically assess Jacques Derrida's political and ethical writings since the philosopher's death in 2004. Scepticism about the import of deconstruction for political thought has been widespread among American critics since Derrida's work became widely available in English in the late 1970s. While Derrida expounded political and ethical themes from the late 1980s onward, there has been relatively little Anglo-American analysis of that later work or its relation to the philosopher's entire corpus. Filling a critical gap, this volume provides multiple perspectives on the political turn in Derrida's work, showing how deconstruction bears on political theory and real-world politics. The contributors include distinguished scholars of deconstruction whose thinking developed in close proximity to Derrida's, as well as leading political theorists and philosophers who engage Derrida's thought from further afield. The volume opens with a substantial introduction in which Pheng Cheah and Suzanne Guerlac survey Derrida's entire corpus and position his later work in relation to it. The essays that follow address the concerns that arise out of Derrida's analysis of politics and the conditions of the political, such as the meaning and scope of democracy, the limits of sovereignty, the relationship between the ethical and the political, the nature of responsibility, the possibility for committed political action, the implications of deconstructive thought for non-Western politics, and the future of nationalism in an era of globalization and declining state sovereignty. The collection is framed by original contributions from Helene Cixous and Judith Butler.
E-Book Content
Derrida and the time of the political
Derrida and the time of the political
Edited by Pheng Cheah and Suzanne Guerlac
duke university press Durham and London 2009
∫ 2009
duke university press
All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper $ Designed by Amy Ruth Buchanan Typeset in Carter + Cone Galliard by Keystone Typesetting, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-inPublication Data appear on the last printed page of this book. Satoshi Ukai’s piece was previously published in French as ‘‘De beaux risques ou l’esprit d’un pacifisme et son destin’’ in La democratie à venir. ∫ Editions Galilée, 2004. Reprinted with permission. Rodolphe Gasché’s piece previously appeared in Critical Inquiry 33, no. 2 (2007): 291–311. ∫ 2007 by the University of Chicago. Reprinted with permission.
Contents
vii 1
Acknowledgments pheng cheah and suzanne guerlac
Introduction: Derrida and the Time of the Political
part i. Openings 41
hélène cixous
Jacques Derrida: Co-Responding Voix You
part ii. The à-venir: Undoing Sovereignty and Teleology 57
étienne balibar
Eschatology versus Teleology: The Suspended Dialogue between Derrida and Althusser 74
pheng cheah
The Untimely Secret of Democracy 97
geoffrey bennington
Sovereign Stupidity and Autoimmunity 114
wendy brown
Sovereign Hesitations
part iii. Responsibilities within and without Europe 135
rodolphe gasché
European Memories: Jan Pato˘cka and Jacques Derrida on Responsibility
158
anne norton
‘‘Call me Ishmael’’ 177
soraya tlatli
Algeria as an Archive 196
satoshi ukai
Fine Risks, or, The Spirit of a Pacifism and Its Destiny
part iv. Between Ethics and Politics 215
marcel hénaff
The Aporia of Pure Giving and the Aim of Reciprocity: On Derrida’s Given Time 235
martin jay
Pseudolo