The Misinterpellated Subject

James R. Martel

Published by Duke University Press 2017

The Misinterpellated Subject

James R. Martel

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822373438

Overview
Contents

About this book

James R. Martel complicates Louis Althusser's theory of interpellation, using historical and literary analyses ranging from the Haitian Revolution to Ta-Nehisi Coates to examine the political and revolutionary potential inherent in the instances when people heed the state's call that was not meant for them.

Author / Editor information

James R. Martel is Professor of Political Science at San Francisco State University and the author of several books, most recently, The One and Only Law: Walter Benjamin and the Second Commandment.

Reviews

"In this brilliant new theory of political agency, James R. Martel pushes a politics for the failed, flawed, and damaged people we actually are. Rejecting the heroism that binds us to authority, he looks to the ones who show up, unexpected and unwanted. Through original readings of Althusser, Fanon, and others, Martel strips politics of all guarantees. Freedom is possible, if we want it."

-- Jodi Dean author of Crowds and Party

"With its rich and provocative readings of diverse events and texts, Martel’s book would deserve wide-ranging praise simply for being a master-class in literary interpretation, but it goes much further in introducing and carefully developing a convincing theory of misinterpellation."

-- Smita A. Rahman Theory & Event

“James Martel has given us a fine, well-written, and inspiring book, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone interested in subjectivity, ideology, recognition, representation, and resistance.”

-- Lasse Thomassen Political Theory

"A work of great interest. . . . Althusser taught us to judge books by their theoretical and practical effects. The effect of James Martel’s The Misinterpellated Subject is to show that confronting the problem of subjection, and Althusser’s reflections on it, remains an unavoidable, even urgent, task."

-- Warren Montag Postmodern Culture

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction. Unsummoned! When the Call Is Not Meant for You Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I. Ssubjects of the call
1. From “Hey, You There!” to “Wait Up!”: The Workings (and Unworkings) of Interpellation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
2. “Men Are Born Free and Equal in Rights”: Historical Examples of Interpellation and Misinterpellation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	58
3. “Tiens, un Nègre”: Fanon and the Refusal of Colonial Subjectivity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	96
Part II. The one(s) who showed up
4. “[A Person] Is Something That Shall Be Overcome”: The Misinterpellated Messiah, or How Nietzsche Saves Us from Salvation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	133
5. “Come, Come!”: Bartleby and Lily Briscoe as Nietzschean Subjects Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
6. “Consent to Not Be a Single Being”: Resisting Identity, Confronting the Law in Kafka’s Amerika, Ellison’s Invisible Man, and Coates’s Between the World and Me Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	198
7. “I Can Believe”: Breaking the Circuits of Interpellation in von Trier’s Breaking the Waves Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	243
Conclusion. The Misinterpellated Subject: Anarchist All the Way Down Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	266
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	275
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	309
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	317

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 344

eBook

Published: February 2, 2017
ISBN: 9780822373438