Poststructuralist Agency: The Subject in Twentieth-Century Theory

Description

Does the poststructuralist decentring of the foundational subject permit a coherent account of agency? Gavin Rae shows that the problematic status of agency caused by the poststructuralist decentring of the subject is a prime concern for poststructuralist thinkers. First, Rae shows how this plays out in the thinking of Deleuze, Derrida and Foucault. He then demonstrates that it is with those poststructuralists associated with and influenced by Lacanian psychoanalysis that this issue most clearly comes to the fore. He goes on to reveal that the conceptual schema of Cornelius Castoriadis best explains how the founded subject is capable of agency. Contents Preface Introduction Part I. Decentring the Subject 1. Deleuze, Differential Ontology and Subjectivity 2. Derrida’s Différance: Deconstruction and the Sexuality of Subjectivity 3. Foucault I: Power and the Subject 4. Foucault II: Normativity, Ethics and the Self Part II. Turning to the Psyche 5. Butler on the Subjection of Gendered Agency 6. Lacan on the Unconscious Subject: From the Social to the Symbolic 7. Kristeva on the Subject of Revolt: The Symbolic and the Semiotic 8. Castoriadis, Agency and the Socialised Individual Conclusion Bibliography Index