The Identity in Question

ISBN-13: 9780415906180 / Angielski / Miękka / 1995 / 296 str.

John Rajchman

Opis

The words identity, diversity, multiculturalism, and Eurocentrism have become familiar to us through a process of political and cultural transformation. In the United States, a great national debate rages over fears that the country will fall apart and sacrifice its free speech to political correctness. In Europe, a related discussion has focused on the resurgence of xenophobia and ethnic nationalism. Undoubtedly, these debates touch on issues which, after the collapse of Cold War geopolitics, are likely to remain with us for some time. The Identity in Question provides a theoretical analysis of this issue and the questions it raises about critical theory. The contributors to this collection look behind the familiar words of the discourse to rethink notions of universality and agency and the traditions of liberalism, nationalism and pluralism. They investigate the meanings of democracy and radical democracy. They also ask how such notions relate to questions of sexual orientation. More generally, the book explores how the new critical theories and methods that have taken shape over the last 20 years figure in these debates, along with their conceptions of otherness.

Spis treści

Part 1a Debate; Chapter 1 Multiculturalism and the Politics of Identity, Joan W. Scott; Part 1b Debate; Chapter 2 A Matter of Life and Death, Cornel West; Part 1b1 Debate; diss1 Discussion; Part 1c Debate; Chapter 3 Democratic Politics and the Question of Identity, Chantal Mouffe; Part 1d Debate; Chapter 4 Freedom’s Basis in the Indeterminate, Hom Bhabha; Part 1e Debate; Chapter 5 Politics, Identification, and Subjectivization, Jacques Rancière; Part 1f Debate; Chapter 6 The Inevitability of Nation: Germany after Unification, Andreas Huyssen; Part 1f1 Debate; diss2 Discussion; Part 1g Debate; Chapter 7 Universalism, Part icularism and the Question of Identity, Ernesto Laclau; Part 1h Debate; Chapter 8 Reflections on Identity, Stanley Aronowitz; Part 1h1 Debate; dis3 Discussion; Part 2a Elaborations; Chapter 9 The New Cultural Politics of Difference, Cornel West; Part 2b Elaborations; Chapter 10 Culture and Identity (Working Notes), Etienne Balibar, J. Swenson; Part 2c Elaborations; Chapter 11 Wounded Attachments: Late Modern Oppositional Political Formations, Wendy Brown; Part 2d Elaborations; Chapter 12 Subjection, Resistance, Resignification: Between Freud and Foucault, Judith Butler; Part 2e Elaborations; Chapter 13 On Cultural Studies, Fredric Jameson;

O autorze

John Rajchman