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(2016) Subjectivation in political theory and contemporary practices, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
After the subject is before the subject
on the political meaning of subjectivation in Nancy and Lacoue-Labarthe
Artur R. Boelderl
pp. 27-46
Boelderl examines the current state of political theories as developed by "deconstructionist" French philosophers Jean-Luc Nancy and Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe regarding their respective stances on the political role of the subject. The dereliction of the subject, meaning the process of recognizing its inner weakness right within the enactment of its highest capacities, reveals itself to be the very condition of the possibility of acting politically, because political action always already implies acknowledging the permanent (ontological) groundlessness of the subject, which in turn calls for its continuous becoming. Given this insight, Boelderl concludes with the question if the subject, rather than being able of giving its life a (political) sense, might not be political in itself insofar as it is required to give its sense a life.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1057/978-1-137-51659-6_2
Full citation:
Boelderl, A. R. (2016)., After the subject is before the subject: on the political meaning of subjectivation in Nancy and Lacoue-Labarthe, in A. Oberprantacher & A. Siclodi (eds.), Subjectivation in political theory and contemporary practices, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 27-46.
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