Philosophy, Language and the Political

Poststructuralism in Perspective

Franson Manjali, Marc Crépon

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2026
• eBook ISBN:
  9781040864272
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Language in Philosophy

This book presents critical essays examining the intersection of philosophy, language, and politics in poststructuralist thought. The collection explores Jacques Derrida's philosophical legacy alongside contributions from leading scholars analyzing deconstruction, psychoanalysis, and political theory. Essays examine key thinkers including Foucault, Agamben, Blanchot, and Habermas, addressing themes of ethics, memory, and political critique. The subject matter of this book also includes:

• Examination of poststructuralist philosophy and its political implications in contemporary thought
• Critical analysis of Jacques Derrida's philosophical legacy and its influence on political theory
• Scholarly exploration of the relationship between language, deconstruction, and political critique
• In-depth study of key poststructuralist thinkers including Derrida, Foucault, Agamben, and Blanchot
• Interdisciplinary approach connecting philosophy, psychoanalysis, and political theory

The book investigates concepts of hauntology, spectrality, and the politics of language while offering contemporary perspectives on poststructuralist philosophy and its relevance to current political discourse.

This title has been co-published with Aakar Books. T&F does not sell or distrubute the print versions in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan, and Maldives.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• The Conference and the Book
• Preface Against the Call for Blood, the Call for Critique
• Thematic Introduction: Philosophical Critique and the Politico-Linguistic Aspects
• 1 The Invention of the Idiom: The Event of the Untranslatable
• 2 Jouis Anniversaire! (“scenes of inner life” for the tenth anniversary of the death of Jacques Derrida)
• 3 Can a Toolbox Go to War? The Political Legacy of Poststructuralism
• 4 Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida as “Good Europeans”
• 5 Cryptonymy: Deconstruction, Psychoanalysis, Politics
• 6 (De)constitutive Theories of Language and the Politics of Change
• 7 Resisting the Work of Mourning: Survival and Resurrection of Jacques Derrida
• 8 Fear of Spinoza: Derrida as Reader of Theological-Political Treatise
• 9 Not This, Not That...: Maurice Blanchot and Poststructuralism
• 10 ‘Being-outside and Yet Belonging’: Political Philosophy of Giorgio Agamben
• 11 Aporias of Ethics: Looking at the ‘Wholly Other’
• 12 Of Shame and Censure: Is An ‘other’ Politics Possible?
• 13 Body-Reparation-Invention: Cixous and Derrida on “Feminine Writing”
• 14 Ecce Animot: Notes on the Animal Stigmatext
• 15 Learning to Live with Specters: Hauntology, Memory and Language in Specters of Marx
• 16 De-cision: Resisting the ‘Tragic’ and Surviving the Subject
• 17 Wounding the Self—Writing the Other
• 18 Remembering “The Purloined Letter”: Letters from the Event Horizon
• 19 Foucault: Optics and the Folding of Light
• 20 This is (not) a Pipe: from Magritte to Bansky
• List of Contributors