After the subject is before the subject

on the political meaning of subjectivation in Nancy and Lacoue-Labarthe

Artur R. Boelderl

pp. 27-46

in: Andreas Oberprantacher, Andrei Siclodi (eds), Subjectivation in political theory and contemporary practices, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016

Abstract

Boelderl examines the current state of political theories as developed by "deconstructionist" French philosophers Jean-Luc Nancy and Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe regarding their respective stances on the political role of the subject. The dereliction of the subject, meaning the process of recognizing its inner weakness right within the enactment of its highest capacities, reveals itself to be the very condition of the possibility of acting politically, because political action always already implies acknowledging the permanent (ontological) groundlessness of the subject, which in turn calls for its continuous becoming. Given this insight, Boelderl concludes with the question if the subject, rather than being able of giving its life a (political) sense, might not be political in itself insofar as it is required to give its sense a life.

Cited authors

Nancy Jean-Luc

Lacoue-Labarthe Philippe