Distillations : Theory, Ethics, Affect

Intro; Title Page; Copyright Page; Contents; Acknowledgments; Author's note; Introduction; Chapter 1: The posthumanist universal: Between precarity and rebellion; The crisis of multiculturalism; The ethical tensions of the face; The revival of universalism; The singular and the universal; The victim versus the immortal; Sara Ahmed's brick wall; But what is the universal?; Historically specific universalism; The radicalness of the universal; Breaking with tradition, culture, and custom; Chapter 2: The bad habits of critical theory: On the rigid rituals of thought; Slaying the humanist subject.;"Distilling into concise and focused formulations many of the main ideas that Mari Ruti has sought to articulate throughout her writing career, this book reflects on the general state of contemporary theory as it relates to posthumanist ethics, political resistance, subjectivity, agency, desire, and bad feelings such as anxiety. It offers a critique of progressive theory's tendency to advance extreme models of revolt that have little real-life applicability. The chapters move fluidly between several theoretical registers, the most obvious of these being continental philosophy, psychoanalytic theory, Butlerian ethics, affect theory, and queer theory. One of the central aims of Distillations is to explore the largely uncharted territory between psychoanalysis and affect theory, which are frequently pitted against each other as hopelessly incompatible, but which Ruti shows can be brought into a productive dialogue."--Bloomsbury Publishing. Title Page......Page 4 Copyright Page......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 Acknowledgments......Page 7 Author’s note......Page 10 Introduction......Page 12 Chapter 1: The posthumanist universal: Between precarity and rebellion......Page 24 The crisis of multiculturalism......Page 25 The ethical tensions of the face......Page 28 The revival of universalism......Page 30 The singular and the universal......Page 34 The victim versus the immortal......Page 38 Sara Ahmed’s brick wall......Page 43 But what is the universal?......Page 46 Historically specific universalism......Page 49 The radicalness of the universal......Page 52 Breaking with tradition, culture, and custom......Page 56 Chapter 2: The bad habits of critical theory: On the rigid rituals of thought......Page 62 Slaying the humanist subject......Page 65 Is the subject precarious or arrogant?......Page 69 Why do we want to kill the subject?......Page 71 The rewards of antinormativity......Page 74 Cleansing the plate......Page 77 The failings of relationality......Page 80 The problems of antinormativity......Page 83 Posthumanist ethical aporias......Page 86 The historicity of normative ethics......Page 90 Badiou’s ethics of the event......Page 93 Chapter 3: Why some things matter more than others: A Lacanian explanation......Page 100 The hermeneutics of suspicion......Page 102 When satisfaction dissatisfies......Page 107 When dissatisfaction satisfies......Page 110 Lacan’s ethics of desire......Page 114 Two types of desire......Page 116 The echo of the thing......Page 119 Outshining the lures of capitalism......Page 122 The Thing’s code of ethics......Page 126 Why is there so much anxiety?......Page 129 Desire as a remedy to anxiety......Page 133 Chapter 4: Rupture or resignation? Lacanian political theory versus affect theory......Page 138 The event, the act......Page 139 The sublimity of failure......Page 141 The phallus as lack......Page 146 Different levels of negation......Page 149 Who can afford rupture?......Page 153 Negotiating with power......Page 155 What is agency?......Page 160 Refusing to answer to comrade......Page 165 What’s good about feeling bad?......Page 166 The inadequacies of grieving......Page 168 Chapter 5: Socrates’s mistake: Lacanians on love, Lacan on Agálmata......Page 172 Romance versus love......Page 173 Badiou’s amorous event......Page 174 Love’s traumatic dimensions......Page 178 Why love is not a good investment......Page 184 Socrates’s Agálmata......Page 187 Why is Socrates mistaken?......Page 190 The psychoanalytic partial object......Page 195 The event of love: Where two dignities meet......Page 197 Loving the lack in the other......Page 200 The overvaluation of love......Page 204 Chapter 6: Is suffering an event? Badiou between Nietzsche and Freud......Page 208 Nietzschean forgetting......Page 211 Releasing strangulated affects......Page 213 The legitimacy of resentment......Page 214 Clearing the slate......Page 217 Remembering as a way to forget......Page 220 Keeping suffering at a distance......Page 223 Living next to trauma......Page 224 Are we all traumatized?......Page 227 Is suffering an event?......Page 232 Can an event be planned?......Page 236 Bibliography......Page 240 Index......Page 246 Distilling into concise and focused formulations many of the main ideas that Mari Ruti has sought to articulate throughout her writing career, this book reflects on the general state of contemporary theory as it relates to posthumanist ethics, political resistance, subjectivity, agency, desire, and bad feelings such as anxiety. It offers a critique of progressive theory's tendency to advance extreme models of revolt that have little real-life applicability. The chapters move fluidly between several theoretical registers, the most obvious of these being continental philosophy, psychoanalytic theory, Butlerian ethics, affect theory, and queer theory. One of the central aims of Distillations is to explore the largely uncharted territory between psychoanalysis and affect theory, which are frequently pitted against each other as hopelessly incompatible, but which Ruti shows can be brought into a productive dialogue. Mari Ruti is Distinguished Professor of Critical Theory and of Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Toronto, Canada, and, in 2016-2017, Visiting Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University, USA (a position she also held in 2014-2015). She is the author of eleven books, including Between Levinas and Lacan (Bloomsbury, 2015), The Age of Scientific Sexism (Bloomsbury, 2015), and The Ethics of Opting Out (2017). She is co-series editor of the book series Psychoanalytic Horizons (Bloomsbury).