Overview

The “structuralist” theories of power show that the subject is produced and reproduced by the investment of power: but how then can we then think of the subject’s resistance to power? Based on this fundamental question, Power and Resistance interprets critically the (post-)structuralist theory of power and resistance, i.e., the theories of Foucault, Deleuze/Guattari, Derrida and Althusser. It analyses also the mechanism of power and the strategies of resistance in the era of neoliberalism. This meticulous analysis that completely renewed the theory of power is already published in French, Japanese, and Korean with success.

Full Product Details

9781839763519

Table of Contents

Reviews

Sato has taken on the impressive task of isolating, with analytical precision, the sources of resistance within generally conceived structuralist theory. His thesis offers a masterful and erudite reading of Foucault, Freud, Deleuze, Lacan, Derrida, and Althusser, among others. His explanation of a sample of texts by these authors is quite illuminating. Indeed, Sato succeeds in showing that the theory of the subject, if understood in its relation to a constitutive death drive, carries with it the possibility of resisting the cruelty of the law and providing the basis for a general theory of resistance. He further shows that structuralism should not be seen as a 'static' description of social and linguistic structures, and that what is needed is rather a diachronic view of structures that takes into account-without domesticating-the forces of contingency. Starting from the death drive and the contingency of structures, and through an argument that is as erudite as it is enlightening, Sato constructs an explanation of resistance in structuralism (but also for it and its future), thus reviving a debate that has unfortunately been bogged down for some time in cliches and misconceptions. -Judith Butler

Author Information

Yoshiyuki SATO is associate professor at University of Tsukuba (Japan), and did his PhD in philosophy at University of Paris X Nanterre. His recent publications are: Philosophy of Abandoning Nuclear Power (in Japanese, coauthored with Takumi Taguchi), Three revolutions: Political Philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari (in Japanese, coauthored with Jun Fujita Hirose).

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available