February 13, 2005

being cast adrift

This article, by Lars Iyer in the Journal of Cultural and Religious Theory is courtesy of Matt over at pas au-delà. It caught my eye because of the reference to Blanchot and the link back to nihilism.

Entitled, 'The City and the Stars: Politics and Alterity in Heidegger, Levinas and Blanchot', it address the decay of nomos, the polis being cast adrift and our condition becoming disastrous. Lars says:

"My aim is to show how the overcoming of certain nostalgia for a lost authority, tradition or religion exhibited in different ways in Heidegger and Levinas might permit us to rethink our relation to others and to the world. Both thinkers offer a partial solution to the question as to how we might live in the midst of a growing secularism and dissatisfaction with existing models of politics."

Lars says that Blanchot names a way of being together that is no longer fixed upon older models of the political. Blanchot opens up the possibility of articulating a disastrous politics,that would permit us to look out for new spaces of freedom that break open in our present and to stand guard against the foreclosure of the political space.


Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at February 13, 2005 08:23 PM | TrackBack
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