Bloomsbury Genealogies of Speculation: Materialism and Subjectivity since Structuralism

Genealogies of Speculation looks to break the impasse between the innovations of speculative thought and the dominant strands of 20th century anti-foundationalist philosophy. Challenging emerging paradigms of philosophical history, this text re-evaluates different theoretical and political traditions such as feminism, literary theory, social geography and political theory after the speculative turn in philosophy. With contributions from leading writers in contemporary thought this book is a crucial resource for studying cultural and art-theory and continental philosophy. Review The philosophies of Speculative Realism come in two basic flavors: rationalist and non-rationalist, both of them largely opposed to the poststrucuralist currents that dominated the late 20th-century. While Avanessian and Malik align themselves firmly with the rationalist camp of SR, they also defend poststructuralism in a manner foreign to their fellow rationalists. In so doing, they have assembled a balanced collection of essays that breaks new ground in relating the thought of Althusser, Cavaillès, Lacan, Luhmann, Novalis, Peirce, Whitehead, analytic philosophy, and poststrucuralist feminism to the ideas of the Speculative Realists. This book should quickly become one of the authoritative anthologies in the field. --Graham Harman, Distinguished University Professor, American University in Cairo, EgyptClear, incisive, and invariably important, the chapters in this book debate the growing legacy of the new continental realisms for rethinking not just our access to the real, but to subjectivity, politics, and nature. Framed in terms of these realisms' relationship to poststructuralism and other philosophical predecessors, this book refuses the facile """"with us or against us"""" kind of debates often found around discussions of the new realisms, and in this way provides not just insightful essays on this new movement, but ways of rereading major figures of our recent philosophical past. Highly recommended. --Peter Gratton, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, CanadaThis is a stellar collection of papers; each is willing to reinvent the problems of modern philosophy, which is rare and invigorating, and demands an equally creative response. Iain Hamilton Grant, Senior Lecturer of Philosophy, University of the West of England, UK Rumors of Speculative Realism's demise have been greatly exaggerated; readers of Genealogies of Speculation will be in a position to marvel at the continuing reverberations of the intellectual revolution started by Quentin Meillassoux, Graham Harman, Iain Hamilton Grant, and Ray Brassier. --Jon Cogburn, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Louisiana State University, USA About the Author Dr. Suhail Malik is Reader in Critical Studies in the Department of Art, Goldsmiths, London, UK.Armen Avanessian is an Austrian philosopher, literary theorist, and political theorist. He has taught at the Free University of Berlin, Germany, the School of Critical Studies, California Institute of the Arts, USA, and at the Art Institute, HN Academy Basel, Switzerland. He is the co-editor, with Suhail Malik of Genealogies of Speculation (Bloomsbury 2016).