Critical Resistance ― From Post-structuralism to Post-critique

This book serves as both an introduction to the concept of resistance inpoststructuralist thought and an original contribution to the continuing philosophical discussion ofthis topic. How can a body of thought that mistrusts universal principles explain the possibility ofcritical resistance? Without appeals to abstract norms, how can emancipatory resistance bedistinguished from domination? Can there be a poststructuralist ethics? David Hoy explores thesecrucial questions through lucid readings of Nietzsche, Foucault, Bourdieu, Derrida, and others. Hetraces the genealogy of resistance from Nietzsche's break with the Cartesian concept ofconsciousness to Foucault's and Bourdieu's theories of how subjects are formed through embodiedsocial practices. He also considers Levinas, Heidegger, and Derrida on the sources of ethicalresistance. Finally, in light of current social theory from Judith Butler to Slavoj Zizek, hechallenges "poststructuralism" as a category and suggests the term "post-critique" as a moreaccurate description of contemporary Continental philosophy.Hoy is a leading American scholar ofpoststructuralism. Critical Resistance is the only book in English that deals substantively with thetopical concept of resistance in relation to poststructuralist thought, discussions of which havedominated Continental social thought for many years.

David Couzens Hoy is Professor of Philosophy and Distinguished Professor of Humanities at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is the author of Critical Resistance: From Poststructuralism to Post-Critique (MIT Press, 2004).