Description
Book SynopsisThis book develops a new conception of universality that helps us rethink political thought and action. Through a wide range of examples in contemporary politics, film, and history,
Universality and Identity Politics offers an antidote to the impasses of identity and an inspiring vision of twenty-first-century collective struggle.
Trade ReviewI used to be among those left-leaning academics who believe that universalism is problematic and that particularism represents a corrective to false universalism. Not anymore. McGowan shows that a genuinely emancipatory politics is intrinsically universalist, and he reveals the various ways in which identity politics inevitably serves the conservative establishment and traps us into a conception of politics as a struggle of one identity against others.
Universality and Identity Politics is a groundbreaking book. -- Mari Ruti, author of
Penis Envy and Other Bad Feelings: The Emotional Costs of Everyday LifePassionately yet patiently argued,
Universality and Identity Politics looks back at earlier debates surrounding the universal and mounts fresh defenses of it. More than timely, this book writes to the moment. -- Joan Copjec, author of
Imagine There’s No Woman: Ethics and SublimationWhat is universality? With his signature exactitude, Todd McGowan radiantly argues that universality is what we lack in common, the absent foundation for a nonetheless necessary sociality. Against the many theories conflating universality with positive content and violent oppression,
Universality and Identity Politics illustrates how movements beyond the particular are indispensable for solidarity. Ceaseless catastrophes now rain down; McGowan boldly underwrites new political imaginings of equality and freedom. -- Anna Kornbluh, author of
The Order of Forms: Realism, Formalism, and Social SpaceIn calm, level-headed formulations that are as elegant as they are clear, Todd McGowan presents a crucial insight into all emancipatory political efforts. Those who want to liberate themselves without at the same time aiming at liberating all others do not lead an emancipatory struggle. As a result, they do not even liberate themselves. -- Robert Pfaller, author of
On the Pleasure Principle in Culture: Illusions Without OwnersHe calls for uniting the process of emancipation for some with the universal project of emancipation for all. * Choice *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction: Finding Universality
1. Our Particular Age
2. The Importance of Being Absent
3. Universal Villains
4. Capitalism’s Lack and Its Discontents
5. This Is Identity Politics
6. This Is Not Identity Politics
Conclusion: Avoiding the Worst
Notes
Index
