Hoy 4/22/04 7:01 AM Page 1 “Hoy’s penetrating and multifaceted account of theories of resistance in post- Critical Resistance Nietzschean French philosophy is without equal. His analyses of genealogical From Poststructuralism to Post-Critique and deconstructionist modes of critique and his elaboration of the notion of David Couzens Hoy ‘critical resistance’ consistently evince the mastery we have come to expect from him. There is no better guide through the thickets of poststructualism This book serves as both an introduction to the and its aftermath.” concept of resistance in poststructuralist thought —Thomas McCarthy, Northwestern University Critical Critical Resistance and an original contribution to the continuing philosophical discussion of this topic. How can a “Critical Resistance offers fresh consideration of persistently vexing questions body of thought that mistrusts universal principles posed by poststructuralist philosophy: How is it possible to do away with explain the possibility of critical resistance? grounded norms and universal principles and at the same time offer a com- Without appeals to abstract norms, how can eman- pelling theoretical critique of the existing order of things? How can thinking cipatory resistance be distinguished from domina- practices that call all normativity into question also generate possibilities for From Poststructuralism tion? Can there be a poststructuralist ethics? David resistance to perceived domination or injustice? Indeed, how can such prac- Resistance Hoy explores these crucial questions through lucid tices perceive domination or injustice at all? This is a book to learn from, to to Post-Critique readings of Nietzsche, Foucault, Bourdieu, Derrida, teach, and to admire.” and others. He traces the genealogy of resistance —Wendy Brown, University of California, Berkeley from Nietzsche’s break with the Cartesian concept of consciousness to Foucault’s and Bourdieu’s theo- “In his new book David Hoy gives us an accomplished and compelling account ries of how subjects are formed through embodied of poststructural and post-critical thought by asking how it can account for the social practices. He also considers Levinas, possibility of critical resistance to moral and social ills when it denies universal Heidegger, and Derrida on the sources of ethical normative principles. Drawing on thinkers from Nietzsche to #i%ek, Hoy calls resistance. Finally, in light of current social theory for a ‘deconstructive genealogy’ that recognizes both the attractions and the from Judith Butler to Slavoj #i%ek, he challenges limits of moral pluralism. This book is a scholarly achievement and a valuable “poststructuralism” as a category and suggests the addition to Anglo-American discussions of the continental European tradition term “post-critique” as a more accurate description in philosophy. And its emphasis on the body’s powers of resistance also make of contemporary Continental philosophy. it an intensely personal search for philosophical meaning.” Hoy is a leading American scholar of poststruc- —Hans Sluga, Professor of Philosophy, University of California, Berkeley turalism. Critical Resistance is the only book in English that deals substantively with the topical concept of resistance in relation to poststructuralist Hoy thought, discussions of which have dominated Continental social thought for many years. David Hoy is Professor and Presidential Chair in Philosophy at the University of California, Santa The MIT Press Cruz. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142 http://mitpress.mit.edu ,!7IA2G2-aiddaa!:t;K;k;K;k 0-262-08330-2 David Couzens Hoy Critical Resistance Critical Resistance From Poststructuralism to Post-Critique David Couzens Hoy The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 2004 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. Set in Palatino by Binghamton Valley Composition. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hoy, David Couzens. Critical resistance : from poststructuralism to post-critique / David Couzens Hoy. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-262-08330-2 (alk. paper) 1. Critical theory. 2. Opposition, Theory of. I. Title. HM585.H698 2004 301'.01—dc22 2003060177 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 for Jocelyn, my most irresistible critic Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Resistance and Freedom 1 Why “Resistance” Now? 6 The Plan of the Book 12 1 Nietzsche: “Who Interprets?” 19 Deleuze: The Beginnings of Poststructuralism 21 The Poststructuralist Nietzsche 31 Pluralism and the Possibility of Critique 41 The Body as Multiple Interpretations 46 Post-Critique: Different Stories 53 2 Foucault: “Essays in Refusal” 57 The Body as Resistance 59 Normalization 64 The Historicity of Ethics 69 The Life-and-Death Struggle in Bio-Power 72 Foucault’s Social Ontology of Resistance 81 Critique as Desubjectivation 87 Post-Critique: Judith Butler 93 viii Contents 3 Bourdieu: “Agents, Not Subjects” 101 Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology 102 Bourdieu: Habitus and Field 105 Agents vs. Subjects 114 Bourdieu vs. Derrida 123 Bourdieu’s Social Ontology of Resistance 131 Post-Critique: Philosophy and Race 139 4 Levinas and Derrida: “Ethical Resistance” 149 Levinas: Intersubjectivity and the Face 149 Levinas: “Guiltless Responsibility” 159 Derrida and the Deconstruction of ‘Death’ 163 Heidegger on Being-toward-Death 168 Levinas’s Critique of Heidegger 171 Derrida’s Rejoinders 173 Ethics without Foundations? 178 Post-Critique: Derrida and the Messianic 185 5 Post-Marxism: “Who Is Speaking?” 191 Resisting “False Consciousness” 191 Critical Theory 197 Hegemony Theory: Laclau and Mouffe 201 Critical Debates 205 Deconstructing the Future 207 Post-Critique: Slavoj Zizek 214 Postscript: On Deconstructive Genealogy 227 The Limits of Pluralism 231 Why It Matters 234 Notes 241 Bibliography 257 Index 263 Acknowledgments Although this book is produced with the present waves of resistance in mind, I have been thinking about these issues for a long time. Bits and pieces of the material here are revised from earlier publications. In particular, portions of lectures that I gave at an NEH Summer Institute appeared as “Critical Resistance: Foucault and Bourdieu” in a Routledge volume edited by Honi Haber and Gail Weiss, Perspectives on Embodiment: The Intersections of Nature and Culture (1999). Other ideas were explored in Philosophy and Literature (vol- ume 18) and in New York Literary Forum (volume 8/9). I received generous support from the National Endow- ment for the Humanities and from the University of Califor- nia at Santa Cruz. The students in my graduate seminar in the winter of 2002 helped me to think through the material. Most of all, Jocelyn and Meredith Hoy have been invaluable interlocutors during the writing of this book, and I appreci- ate their support, patience, and critical resistance. Critical Resistance Introduction Resistance and Freedom “How is freedom measured in individuals and peoples?” asks Friedrich Nietzsche. “According to the resistance which must be overcome,” he answers, “according to the exertion required, to remain on top.”1 Resistance and free- dom on this view are linked both conceptually and practi- cally. To the extent that attempts to build freedom into the social structure miscarry, resistance will arise. The motiva- tion for resistance comes from encountering constraints on freedom. These constraints cannot be absolute, however, and resistance would not be possible unless some degree of freedom remained. Nietzsche’s pithy analysis may provide an answer to the question of what freedom is by showing the conceptual linkage of freedom and resistance. But then the question becomes “What is resistance?” While this question is not a canonical one in the Anglophone tradition, resistance has been a central theme in the political and social theory of a group of French philosophers whose work became influen- tial during the political disturbances of the 1960s and the 1970s. North Americans were quick to label these philoso- 2 Introduction phers ‘poststructuralists’—a word that, for reasons that will become apparent, is problematic and finally inadequate in the present-day context. This book is intended as a historical and topical guide through the different ways in which these French philosophers have asked about what resistance is and how it is possible. Nietzsche’s deceptively clear answer to these questions will in the end prove to be cogent; how- ever, before his answer can be seen as a prefiguration of poststructuralism, the history of Nietzsche’s influence on and reception by Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Derrida must be explained. Note, for instance, that resistance as Nietzsche understands it can go in two direc- tions. The resistance can be to domination, and in the name of emancipation. But it can also be domination’s resistance to emancipatory efforts. In the quotation above, Nietzsche uses ‘resistance’ to refer to the opposition that emancipation meets. In this book, in contrast, I will be using ‘resistance’ in the sense that is heard most often in connection with post- structural social theory: as the emancipatory resistance to domination. The word ‘resistance’ does not of itself distin- guish between emancipation and domination.