Awards

• Runner-up for Sharon Harris Annual Book Award 2020 (UK)

Overview

Through a radical reading of Hegel’s oeuvre, The Architecture of Freedom sets forth a theory of open borders centered on a new interpretation of the German philosopher’s related conceptions of language and the aesthetic, mastery and servitude, and subjectivity and the state. The book’s argument turns on Hegel’s identification of “Africa” as a fluid, utopic space enabling the traversal of the East-West binary. As Hegel’s figure for the non-historical, Africa emerges as the negativity that propels the movement of the dialectic in time. Mirroring the “shrouded” continent’s relation to history, Kantian “architectonics” step out of the realm of logic in Hegelian thought and drive the historical unfolding of the aesthetic. In a foundational move, Hegel hypostatizes the aesthetic entanglement of built and linguistic form as the colossus of Memnon, an African warrior memorialized in ancient architecture, myth, and art. Reaching for freedom, the Memnon marks the architectonic modality through which the African slave, at the telos of history, will fulfill the spiritual promise of the human and bring about the politically mature state. The book examines the syncretic figure of the Memnon and slave across Hegel’s lecture courses, the Phenomenology of Spirit, the Encyclopedia, and the Philosophy of Right. Ultimately the book calls for a reassessment of a range of Hegelian philosophemes across disciplines in the humanities. This book will be of particular interest to scholars in philosophy, postcolonial and African studies, political theory, architecture, and historiography.

Full Product Details

9781350105799

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Reviews

Hassalany Ladha brilliantly demonstrates that the central role of aesthetics in Hegel's political philosophy extends to his concepts of freedom and subjectivity, allowing for a new reading of the slave/master dialectics and of Africa itself. The book offers crucial new developments that should radically influence all debates on slavery and Africa at the time of Enlightenment as well as post-colonial investigations. * Marie-Helene Huet, M. Taylor Pyne emerita Professor of French, Princeton University, US * Hassanaly Ladha's richly-detailed and wide-ranging book offers an important new perspective for contemporary readers on Hegel's image of Africa, exploring with a fresh eye the relevance of his philosophy for current discussions of race, art, language, history and politics. * Dr. Allen Speight, Boston University, USA * Ladha pursues Hegel's architectonic from aesthetic trace to international border, along the way positing the centrality of the slave and slavery, of non-European foreignness, to his historical and political philosophies. Beyond merely refuting Hegel's ostensible racism, the book reframes him as an exemplary thinker for the postcolonial present and future. * Emilio Spadola, Director, Program in Middle East and Islamic Studies, Colgate University, USA *

Hassalany Ladha brilliantly demonstrates that the central role of aesthetics in Hegel's political philosophy extends to his concepts of freedom and subjectivity, allowing for a new reading of the slave/master dialectics and of Africa itself. The book offers crucial new developments that should radically influence all debates on slavery and Africa at the time of Enlightenment as well as post-colonial investigations. * Marie-Helene Huet, M. Taylor Pyne emerita Professor of French, Princeton University, US *

Hassalany Ladha brilliantly demonstrates that the central role of aesthetics in Hegel's political philosophy extends to his concepts of freedom and subjectivity, allowing for a new reading of the slave/master dialectics and of Africa itself. The book offers crucial new developments that should radically influence all debates on slavery and Africa at the time of Enlightenment as well as post-colonial investigations. * Marie-Helene Huet, M. Taylor Pyne emerita Professor of French, Princeton University, US * Hassanaly Ladha's richly-detailed and wide-ranging book offers an important new perspective for contemporary readers on Hegel's image of Africa, exploring with a fresh eye the relevance of his philosophy for current discussions of race, art, language, history and politics. * Dr. Allen Speight, Boston University, USA *

Author Information

Hassanaly Ladha is Associate Professor in Literatures, Cultures, and Languages at the University of Connecticut, USA.

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