Subjectivity and identity : between modernity and postmodernity

345 Pages·2015·2.58 MB·English

by  Zima

Subjectivity and Identity
i
By the same author
Deconstruction and Critical Th eory
Modern/Postmodern: Society, Philosophy, Literature
What is Th eory?
Th e Philosophy of Modern Literary Th eory
ii
Subjectivity and Identity
Between Modernity and Postmodernity
Peter V. Zima
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
iii
Bloomsbury Academic
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BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published 2015
© Peter V. Zima, 2015
Peter V. Zima has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to
be identifi ed as Author of this work.
This book is an augmented and updated translation by the author of ‘Theorie des Subjekts.
Subjektivität und Identität zwischen Moderne und Postmoderne’, Tübingen, Francke-UTB,
2010 (3rd ed.)
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British Library Cataloguing-i n-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
I SBN: HB: 978-1-78093-780-9
e PDF: 978-1-78093-827-1
e Pub: 978-1-78093-732-8
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A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Series: Bloomsbury Studies in Philosophy
Typeset by Refi neCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk

iv
To Veronica – once more
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Contents
Preface x
I Th eories of the Subject: Defi nitions of the Term and the State of the
Debate 1
1 Th e concept of subject and the subject of theory 3
(a) Individual and collective subjects in society and language 3
(b) Subject and actant: Infra- individual, individual, artifi cial
and supra- individual actants as subjects 6
(c) Individual and collective subjects as discursive instances:
Subjectivity, individuality, identity 10
(d) Th e subject of theory 17
2 Th e state of the debate 20
(a) From existentialism to postmodernity: Philosophy 21
(b) From the lonely crowd to the social movement: Sociology 28
(c) From psychoanalysis and the theory of personality to social
psychology: Th e discontent in culture and society 33
(d) Individual subjectivity in linguistics and the theory of
literature 42
3 Aporias of the individual subject in modernity and postmodernity 50
II Subjectivity Between Metaphysics and Modernism: Th e Subject as a
Fundamental, Subjugated and Disintegrating Instance 65
1 Subjectivity from Descartes and Kant to Fichte: ‘Monsieur Teste’ 67
2 From Hegel to Marxism: Omnipotence and impotence of
the subject 73
3 Vischer, Stirner and Kierkegaard as critics of Hegel:
Particularity, contingency, chance and dream 80
4 Nietzsche’s criticism of the metaphysical concept of subject:
Ambivalence, particularization and nature 86
5 From Nietzsche and Kierkegaard to Sartre: Sartre’s critique of
surrealism and psychoanalysis 92
6 From Nietzsche to Critical Th eory: Subjectivity, mimesis, alterity 98
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viii Contents
7 Adorno, Freud and Broch: Th e ‘weakness of the I’, the ‘discontent
in civilization’ and the ‘theory of mass hysteria’ 102
8 Th e crisis of the subject in the literature of modernism: Nature
and contingency as menace and liberation 108
9 From modernism to postmodernism: A Clockwork Orange 115
III Disintegration and Submission of the Individual Subject in
Postmodernity: Philosophy and Psychology 133
1 From Adorno to Lyotard: Th e ambivalence of the sublime
between modernity and postmodernity 135
2 Th e linguistic subversion of subjects: Between iterability and
iterativity 141
3 From Laing to Vattimo: ‘Divided self’ and s oggetto scisso 147
4 From Laing to Goff man and Foucault: Stigmatization and
organized experience 152
5 Ideological reifi cation and ‘normalization’ of the subject: From
Foucault and Althusser to ‘normalism’ 158
6 From Althusser to Lacan: Th e ‘decentred subject’ as a subjugated
and disintegrating instance 167
7 Psychosociology of narcissism: Th e individual subject in
postmodern indiff erence 174
8 Feminist concepts of subjectivity between modernity and
postmodernity: From Virginia Woolf to dialogical subjectivity 179
IV Th e Dialectics of Individual Subjectivity from a Sociological
Viewpoint 201
1 Th e crisis of individual subjectivity in late modern sociology 203
2 Th e decline of subjectivity in a media world: From Bourdieu to
Baudrillard 209
3 Th e liquidation of the subject by its omnipresence:
Niklas Luhmann 217
4 Alain Touraine’s alternative: Subject and movement 229
V Th eory of the Subject: Towards a Dialogical Subjectivity 249
1 Subjectivity as dialogue 251
(a) Ambivalence and negation 252
(b) Dialogue and refl exivity 254
(c) Identity as semantics and narrativity 256
(d) Th e ambivalence of chance 260
Contents ix
2 Th e subject of Dialogical Th eory 262
(a) Particularism vs. universalism: Lyotard and Habermas 263
(b) From the particular to the universal: Critical testing 267
(c) Interdiscursive theorems: Consensus and dissent 270
(d) Th e practice of dialogue: Psyche, language, politics
(metacommentaries to a discussion) 274
3 ‘Th e dialogue or Europe’ 278
(a) Language and subjectivity 279
(b) Movement and historicity 281
(c) Towards European politics 284
Bibliography 293
Index 305