The Althusserian Legacy

Edited By Kaplan, E. Ann and Sprinker, Michael

ISBN 10: 0860915948 / ISBN 13: 9780860915942

Published by Verso, 1993

About this Item

Type: Book On his death in October 1990, Louis Althusser remained one of the most controversial of the "master thinkers" to emerge from the Parisian intellectual scene of the 1960s. "The Althusserian Legacy" is a collective attempt to draw up a balance sheet, not on Althusser alone but on the questions that his work pushed to the forefront of Marxist theory. It brings together writing in history, philosophy, economics, sociology, and literary criticism, all of it deriving from or significantly inflected by Althusser. The volume contains an interview with Jacques Derrida, long-time friend and colleague of Althusser at the Ecole Normale in Paris, and concludes with two obituaries by Derrida and Gregory Elliott. The contributors include - Etienne Balibar, Alex Callinicos, Michele Barrett, Alain Lipietz and Gregory Elliott. 245pp. N.B. Previous owners inscription to ffep. Reading crease to spine.

Seller Inventory # 024869

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Althusserian Legacy
• Publisher: Verso
• Publication Date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0860915948
• ISBN 13: 9780860915942
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: No d/j as Published
• Seller catalogs:
  • PHILOSOPHY

About this title

Synopsis

Louis Althusser remained until his death in 1990 the most controversial of the "master thinkers" who emerged from the turbulent Parisian intellectual scene of the 1960s. The publication of his bestselling posthumous "autobiography", L'avenir dure longtemps, has now refueled some of these controversies. Hugely influential, whether lauded or vilified, Althusser occupies a unique place in contemporary philosophy. What is certain is that Althusserian themes and motifs continue to constitute a vital region in materialist thought.

The Althusserian Legacy is the first collective attempt to draw up a balance sheet, not on Althusser alone but on the questions that his work helped to bring to the forefront of Marxist theory. The volume brings together work in history, philosophy, economics, sociology, and literary criticism, all of it derived from or significantly inflected by Althusser. Taken together, the essays assess soberly, critically, but always generously, the full extent of his legacy.

The volume contains a lengthy interview with Jacques Derrida, a long-time friend and colleague of Althusser at the École Normale in Paris, and concludes with obituaries by Derrida and Gregory Elliott. Perhaps only now, more than a decade after his active intellectual life has come to a close, is it possible to render sound, just judgments on the meaning and significance of this much-debated body of work. The Althusserian Legacy is a rich beginning to that important task.

About the Authors

E. Ann Kaplan is Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Director of the Humanities Institute at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She is the author most recently of Rocking Around the Clock: Music Television, Postmodernism and Consumer Culture.

Michael Sprinker was Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. His Imaginary Relations: Aesthetics and Ideology in the History of Historical Materialism and History and Ideology in Proust are also published by Verso. Together with Mike Davis, he founded Verso's Haymarket Series and guided it until his death in 1999.

Alain Lipietz works at the Centre d'etude prospectives d' economie mathematique appliquees a Ia planification in Paris and is the author of L'Audace ou l'enlisement.

Étienne Balibar is a French Marxist philosopher and the most celebrated student of Louis Althusser. He is also one of the leading exponents of French Marxist philosophy and the author of Spinoza and Politics, The Philosophy of Marx and co-author of Race, Nation and Class and Reading Capital.

Gregory Elliott is a member of the editorial collective of Radical Philosophy and author of Althusser: The Detour of Theory and Labourism and the English Genius: The Strange Decay of Labour England?.