1st Edition

Negativity and Politics Dionysus and Dialectics from Kant to Poststructuralism

By Diana Coole Copyright 2000
    282 Pages
    by Routledge

    282 Pages
    by Routledge

    First published in 2000. Although frequently invoked by philosophers and political theorists, the theory of negativity has received remarkably little sustained attention. Negativity and Politics: Dionysus and dialectics from Kant to poststructuralism is the first full length study of this crucial problematic within philosophy and political theory. Diana Coole clearly and skilfully shows how the problem of negativity lies at the heart of philosophical and political debate. First, she explores the meaning of negativity as it appears in modern and postmodern thinking. Second, she sets out the significance of negativity for politics and our understanding of what constitutes the political. A key theme of Negativity and Politics is the recurring hostility between the dialectical use of negativity found in Hegel and running through Marxism and critical theory, and the Dionysian use of negativity as developed by Nietzsche and found in important strands of French thought. Diana Coole shows how the appropriation of negativity in both cases threatens but also informs our understanding of politics and the political. A fascinating and bold intervention in political theory and philosophy, Negativity and Politics will be of interest to all those in politics, philosophy and contemporary social theory.

    Introduction: negativity and politics 1 Negativity and noumena: critical reason at the limit 2 Hegel and his critics: dialectics and difference 3 Nietzsche: negativity as will to power 4 Negativity as invisibility: Merleau-Ponty’s dialectical adventures 4 Negativity as invisibility: Merleau-Ponty’s dialectical adventures 5 Subject–object relations again: identity, non-identity and negative dialectics 6 Subjectivity and the semiotic: gendering negativity, Conclusion: politics and negativity

    Biography

    Diana Coole is Senior Lecturer in Political Theory and Head of Department at the Department of Politics, Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London.