Thinking with Balibar: A Lexicon of Conceptual Practice

Ann Laura Stoler, Stathis Gourgouris, Jacques Lezra

Fordham University Press, 2020 - Literary Criticism - 317 pages

This volume, the first sustained critical work on the French political philosopher Étienne Balibar, collects essays by sixteen prominent philosophers, psychoanalysts, anthropologists, sociologists, and literary critics who each identify, define, and explore a central concept in Balibar's thought. The result is a hybrid lexicon-engagement that makes clear the depth and importance of Balibar's contribution to the most urgent topics in contemporary thought.

The book shows the continuing vitality of materialist thought across the humanities and social sciences and will be fundamental for understanding the philosophical bases of the contemporary left critique of globalization, neoliberalism, and the articulation of race, racism, and economic exploitation.

Contributors: Emily Apter, Étienne Balbar, J. M. Bernstein, Judith Butler, Monique David-Ménard, Hanan Elsayed, Didier Fassin, Stathis Gourgouris, Bernard E. Harcourt, Jacques Lezra, Patrice Maniglier, Warren Montag, Adi Ophir, Bruce Robbins, Ann Laura Stoler, Gary Wilder

About the author

Ann Laura Stoler is Willy Brandt Distinguished University Professor of Anthropology and Historical Studies at The New School for Social Research, Founding Director of its Institute for Critical Social Inquiry since 2014, and one of the founding editors of Political Concepts: A Critical Lexicon. Her books include Race and the Education of Desire (1995), Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power (2002), Along the Archival Grain (2009), and Duress (2016). Stathis Gourgouris is Professor of Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University. He is author of Dream Nation: Enlightenment, Colonization, and the Institution of Modern Greece; Does Literature Think?: Literature as Theory for an Antimythical Era; Lessons in Secular Criticism; and Epsilon;nu;delta;epsilon;chi;omicron;mu;έnu;omega;sigmaf; alpha;tau;alpha;xi;ίepsilon;sigmaf; (Contingent Disorders). His most recent book is The Perils of the One. Jacques Lezra is Distinguished Professor in the Departments of English and Hispanic Studies at the University of California, Riverside. His most recent publications are República salvaje (2019), On the Nature of Marx's Things (2018), Untranslating Machines: A Genealogy for the Ends of Global Thought (2017), and Contra todos los fueros de la Muerte (2016).

Bibliographic information

• Title: Thinking with Balibar: A Lexicon of Conceptual Practice; Idiom (Fordham University Press); Idiom: inventing writing theory
• Editors: Ann Laura Stoler, Stathis Gourgouris, Jacques Lezra
• Publisher: Fordham University Press, 2020
• ISBN: 082328848X, 9780823288489
• Length: 317 pages
• Subjects: Literary Criticism / Semiotics & Theory; Philosophy / History & Surveys / Modern; Philosophy / Political; Political Science / General; Political Science / History & Theory