Radical French Thought and the Return of the "Jewish Question"

153 Pages·2015·5.55 MB·English

by  Éric Marty

RADICAL FRENCH THOUGHT
and the RETURN of the
“JEWISH QUESTION”
STUDIES I N A NTISEMITISM
Alvin H. Rosenfeld, editor
R ADICAL FR ENCH
THOUGHT and th e
R ETUR N of t he
“JEW ISH Q UESTION”
Éric Marty
Translated by Alan Astro
Indiana University Press
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Sources of the translated texts:
Chapter 1: Jean Genet’s Anxiety in the Face of the Good: “Jean Genet à
Chatila” in Bref séjour à Jérusalem (© 2003 Gallimard), pp. 89–193.
Chapter 2: Alain Badiou: The Future of a Denial: “Alain Badiou: L’avenir d’une néga-
tion” in Une querelle avec Alain Badiou, philosophe (© 2007 Gallimard), pp. 41–94.
Chapter 3: Saint Paul among the Moderns: Symbolic Universal or Mimetic Universal?
History and Metahistory: “Saint Paul et les modernes: universel symbolique, universel
mimétique,” Cités, vol. 1, no. 53 (2013), pp. 167–86.
Chapter 4: On Giorgio Agamben’s State of Exception: “À propos d’État d’exception de
Giorgio Agamben” in Une querelle avec Alain Badiou, philosophe (© 2007 Gallimard),
pp. 131–55.
Chapter 5: Foucault, Deleuze, the Jews, and Israel: “Foucault, Deleuze, les juifs et
Israël” in Une querelle avec Alain Badiou, philosophe (© 2007 Gallimard), pp. 156–84.
Used with permission of the copyright holders.
Compilation and translation © 2015 by Indiana University Press
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isbn 978-0-253-01672-0 (cloth)
isbn 978-0-253-01678-2 (paperback)
isbn 978-0-253-01684-3 (ebook)
1 2 3 4 5 19 18 17 16 15
À mes amis américains
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J’avais trouvé dans le Traité théologico-politique [de Spinoza]
l’exemple le plus éclatant mais aussi le plus méconnu de la
connaissance du “troisième genre”, la plus haute, qui fournit
l’intelligence d’un objet à la fois singulier et universel: celle de
l’individualité historique et singulière d’un peuple (je pense que
Spinoza visait dans le “troisième genre” la connaissance de toute
individualité singulière et en son genre universelle), celle du
peuple juif.
[Above all, what I found in the Tractatus Theologico-politicus
was the most striking and, at the same time, the least known
example of knowledge of the “third order.” . . . The understand-
ing achieved was that of the unique historical individuality of
a people, that of the Jewish people (I believe that in his “third
order” Spinoza was aiming at knowledge of all unique and, in its
way, universal individuality).]
Louis Althusser, L’avenir dure longtemps (The Future Lasts Forever)
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Contents
Foreword by Bruno Chaouat xi
To My American Readers xxi
1 Jean Genet’s Anxiety in the Face of the Good 1
2 Alain Badiou: The Future of a Denial 53
3 Saint Paul among the Moderns: Symbolic Universal
or Mimetic Universal? History and Metahistory 80
4 On Giorgio Agamben’s State of Exception: Guantánamo
and Auschwitz 96
5 Foucault, Deleuze, the Jews, and Israel 112
Index 125