April 1, 2023

Critical Conversations 8 – Theory In Action – The Art Of “Doing” Theory With Jonathan Fardy

This conversation took place March 16, 2021. Full transcript is provided below. Critical Conversations 8 presents some compelling topics addressed by Jonathan Fardy in his recent text, Althusser and Art (Zer0 Books, 2020). Far from simply being a book about Louis Althusser, the book addresses questions concerning theory in general, and traditional distinctions between theory and praxis.  […]

Critical Conversations 8 – Theory In Action: The Art Of “Doing” Theory With Jonathan Fardy (Announcement)

Participants are invited to join us live in the eighth of a monthly series of “Critical Conversations” (Zoom webinars) with eminent scholars from around the globe. If you are interested in joining us, please contact us by email at editor.thenewpolis@gmail.com. If you have not participated in previous seminars, please provide us with a brief sentence or two […]

Althusser And Baudelaire: Flânerial And Utopian Theory (Jonathan Fardy)

This essay sprang from an effort to understand one of the more obscure passages in Louis Althusser’s contribution to Reading Capital of 1965. Althusser’s commitment to anti-humanism – inaugurated by Marx according to Althusser – demanded a new concept of theoretical production voided of the humanist concept of the subject (qua consciousness). I argue that this […]

Meditations On Aesthetics In The Wake Of The 2019 State Of The Union Address (Roger K. Green)

It is easy to debate the usefulness of commenting on the 2019 State of the Union Address.  In a media sphere mostly concerned with who said what in a fleeting instance, what is the importance of the decorum and epideictic rhetoric surrounding the occasion of the State of the Union and its “strength”? Donald Trump […]

Text, Body, and the Ethics of Raymond Federman’s Spectator (Roger Green)

In this post, I argue that postmodern writer, Raymond Federman’s reluctant commitment to text, his necessity to return to and interrupt narrative and to make text, emphasizing its artificial nature, exhibits a Jewish ethical commitment to resist representation.  In doing so, Federman continues longstanding themes in Jewish hermeneutics as well as presenting examples of what […]

Craft Theory And The Creation Of A New Capitalism (Jonathan P. Morgan)

This essay is about capitalism. It is not a call for the absolute destruction of it, nor is it a listing and demonstration of its evils and failures. It is a plea for us to heal capitalism rather than abandon it. While rife with opportunities for exploitation and dehumanization, numerous sources reflect a trend of […]

A Reply To Derrida’s Post Card (Jonathan Fardy)

This post is, in a sense, a reply to Derrida’s Post Card. I want to make an attempt at a non-philosophical reply in the sense that François Laruelle has given the term “non-philosophy.” To begin, as many people know, Derrida’s Post Card is one of his most “experimental” texts, especially the Envois section – a selection […]