Thinking Past Terror : Islamism and Critical Theory on the Left

by Buck-Morss, Susan

• ISBN13: 9781859845851
• ISBN10: 1859845851
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-07-17
• Publisher: Verso

Summary

Renowned critical theorist Susan Buck-Morss argues convincingly that a global public needs to think past the twin insanities of terrorism and counter-terrorism in order to dismantle regressive intellectual barriers. Surveying the widespread literature on the relationship of Islam to modernity, she reveals that there is surprising overlap where scholars commonly and simplistically see antithesis. Thinking Past Terror situates this engagement with the study of Islam among critical contemporary discoursesfeminism, post-colonialism and the critique of determinism. Reminding us powerfully that domination and consensus are maintained not by the lack of opposing ideas but by the disorganization of dissent, Thinking Past Terror presents the empowering idea of a global counter-culture as a very real possibility. If the language of a global, radically cosmopolitan Left is not presumed but its attainment struggled for, if the Leftist project is itself this struggle, then democracy defines its very core.

Author Biography

Susan Buck-Morss is Professor of Political Philosophy and Social Theory at Cornell University.

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND CREDITS	ix
INTRODUCTION	1	(20)
ONE A GLOBAL PUBLIC SPHERE?	21	(20)
TWO CRITICAL THEORY AND ISLAMISM	41	(22)
THREE A GLOBAL COUNTER-CULTURE?	63
FOUR ART IN THE AGE OF TECHNOLOGICAL SURVEILLANCE	61	(31)
FIVE CAN THERE BE A GLOBAL LEFT?	92	(21)
SIX INTERVIEW: SUSAN BUCK-MORES WITH LAURA MULVEY AND MARQ SMITH	113	(22)
BIBLIOGRAPHY	135	(6)
INDEX	141