Criticism Volume 54 | Issue 4 Article 8 2012 Postcritical Theory? Demanding the Possible Jeff rP uchnic Wayne State University,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/criticism Recommended Citation Pruchnic, Jeff (2012) "Postcritical Theory? Demanding the Possible," Criticism: Vol. 54: Iss. 4, Article 8. Available at: http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/criticism/vol54/iss4/8 POSTCRITICAL “Post” indicates a very particular condition of afterness in which what Theory? is past is not left behind, but, on the DEMANDING THE contrary, relentlessly conditions, even POSSIBLE dominates, a present that neverthe- Jeff Pruchnic less also breaks in some way with this past. In other words, we use the term “post” only for a present whose past Walled States, Waning Sovereignty continues to capture and structure it. by Wendy Brown. New —Wendy Brown, York: Zone, 2010. Pp. 168, 10 Walled States (21) illustrations. $25.95 cloth. If learning to think is learning to Cosmopolitics I by Isabelle resist a future that presents itself as Stengers. Translated by Robert obvious, plausible, and normal, we Bononno. Posthumanities Series, cannot do so either by evoking an 9. Minneapolis: University of abstract future, from which every- Minnesota Press, 2010. Pp. 310. thing subject to our disapproval has $75.00 cloth; $25.00 paper. been swept aside, or by referring to a distant cause that we could and Fanaticism: On the Uses of an Idea should imagine to be free of any by Alberto Toscano. London: compromise. Verso, 2010. Pp. 304. $26.95 cloth. —Isabelle Stengers, Cosmopolitics I (10) Envisioning Real Utopias by Erik Olin Wright.