Between Cultures Tensions in the Struggle for Recognition

by Duttmann, Alexander Garcia; Woodgate, Kenneth B.; Laclau, Ernesto; Mouffe, Chantal

• ISBN13: 9781859842737
• ISBN10: 1859842739
• Edition: 00
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-04-17
• Publisher: VERSO
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Summary

Whenever an individual asks to be recognized, he asks for confirmation of what he believes himself to be. But he also asks for an establishing act which brings about what he is not yet and what he will be only once he has been recognized. Recognition is thus marked by a tension between two incompatible demands, a tension which triggers a struggle for recognition. Between Cultures is a philosophical attempt to discuss issues related to multiculturalism in the light of this struggle for recognition. Moving effortlessly between philosophy, psychoanalysis, sociology, political theory and literature, it refers to the work of Adorno, Derrida, Freud, Hegel, Heidegger, Rawls, Walzer and Wittgenstein to describe a historical and critical politics of recognition. It also addresses questions of national and sexual identities, with particular reference to the notion of a gay identity in the context of AIDS.

Author Biography

Alexander García Düttmann is Professor of Philosophy and Visual Culture at Goldsmiths, University of London. His books include The Gift of Language, The Memory of Thought: An Essay on Heidegger and Adorno, At Odds with Aids, and Between Cultures: Tensions in the Struggle for Recognition.

Ernesto Laclau is Professor of Political Theory in the Department of Government, University of Essex, and Distinguished Professor for Humanities and Rhetorical Studies at Northwestern University. He is the author of, amongst other works, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (with Chantal Mouffe), New Reflections of the Revolution of Our Time, The Populist Reason, Contingency, Hegemony, Universality (with Judith Butler and Slavoj Zizek), and Emancipation(s).

Chantal Mouffe is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Democracy at the University of Westminster. Her books include The Return of the Political; Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (with Ernesto Laclau); The Dimensions of Radical Democracy; Gramsci and Marxist Theory; Deconstruction and Pragmatism; The Democratic Paradox; and The Challenge of Carl Schmitt, all from Verso.

Table of Contents

Translator's note	ix
Diagnosis and thought	1	(201)
Between cultures
Cultural trash	3	(43)
The culture of quotation
What does recognition mean?	46	(19)
Between cultures
Hyphens	65	(38)
The culture of polemic
We're queer, we're here, so get fuckin' used to it	103	(18)
Between cultures
Aids	121	(16)
The culture of criticism
Recognition as presupposition and result	137	(30)
Between cultures
Plan of life: self-extinguishment	167	(14)
The culture of interpretation
Struggling for recognition	181	(21)
Irony and rescue	202	(34)
Appendix: selfhood
Notes on autonomy and recognition	214	(5)
Not always being good
Appendix to the English translation	219	(17)
About this book	236	(1)
Bibliography	237