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The Misinterpellated Subject
James R. Martel
€ 187.11
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Description for The Misinterpellated Subject
Hardback. James R. Martel complicates Louis Althusser's theory of interpellation, using historical and literary analyses ranging from the Haitian Revolution to Ta-Nehisi Coates to examine the political and revolutionary potential inherent in the instances when people heed the state's call that was not meant for them. Num Pages: 344 pages. BIC Classification: HPS; JHMC; JPA; JPFC. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 5817 x 3887. Weight in Grams: 613.
Although Haitian revolutionaries were not the intended audience for the Declaration of the Rights of Man, they heeded its call, demanding rights that were not meant for them. This failure of the French state to address only its desired subjects is an example of the phenomenon James R. Martel labels "misinterpellation." Complicating Althusser's famous theory, Martel explores the ways that such failures hold the potential for radical and anarchist action. In addition to the Haitian Revolution, Martel shows how the revolutionary responses by activists and anticolonial leaders to Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points speech and the Arab Spring sprang from misinterpellation. He also takes up misinterpellated subjects in philosophy, film, literature, and nonfiction, analyzing works by Nietzsche, Kafka, Woolf, Fanon, Ellison, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and others to demonstrate how characters who exist on the margins offer a generally unrecognized anarchist form of power and resistance. Timely and broad in scope, The Misinterpellated Subject reveals how calls by authority are inherently vulnerable to radical possibilities, thereby suggesting that all people at all times are filled with revolutionary potential.
Product Details
Format
Hardback
Publication date
2017
Publisher
Duke University Press United States
Number of pages
344
Condition
New
Number of Pages
344
Place of Publication
North Carolina, United States
ISBN
9780822362845
SKU
V9780822362845
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days
Ref
99-50
About James R. Martel
James R. Martel is Professor of Political Science at San Francisco State University and the author of several books, most recently, The One and Only Law: Walter Benjamin and the Second Commandment.
Reviews for The Misinterpellated Subject
"In this brilliant new theory of political agency, James R. Martel pushes a politics for the failed, flawed, and damaged people we actually are. Rejecting the heroism that binds us to authority, he looks to the ones who show up, unexpected and unwanted. Through original readings of Althusser, Fanon, and others, Martel strips politics of all guarantees. Freedom is possible, if we want it."
Jodi Dean author of
Crowds and Party
"With its rich and provocative readings of diverse events and texts, Martel’s book would deserve wide-ranging praise simply for being a master-class in literary interpretation, but it goes much further in introducing and carefully developing a convincing theory of misinterpellation."
Smita A. Rahman
Theory & Event
“James Martel has given us a fine, well-written, and inspiring book, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone interested in subjectivity, ideology, recognition, representation, and resistance.”
Lasse Thomassen
Political Theory
"A work of great interest. . . . Althusser taught us to judge books by their theoretical and practical effects. The effect of James Martel’s The Misinterpellated Subject is to show that confronting the problem of subjection, and Althusser’s reflections on it, remains an unavoidable, even urgent, task."
Warren Montag
Postmodern Culture
Jodi Dean author of
Crowds and Party
"With its rich and provocative readings of diverse events and texts, Martel’s book would deserve wide-ranging praise simply for being a master-class in literary interpretation, but it goes much further in introducing and carefully developing a convincing theory of misinterpellation."
Smita A. Rahman
Theory & Event
“James Martel has given us a fine, well-written, and inspiring book, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone interested in subjectivity, ideology, recognition, representation, and resistance.”
Lasse Thomassen
Political Theory
"A work of great interest. . . . Althusser taught us to judge books by their theoretical and practical effects. The effect of James Martel’s The Misinterpellated Subject is to show that confronting the problem of subjection, and Althusser’s reflections on it, remains an unavoidable, even urgent, task."
Warren Montag
Postmodern Culture