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"It is the singular virtue of this superb collection that it refuses to dismiss the terms 'terror' and 'consensus' as simple rhetorical posturing, using them instead to dig deep into the debates that structure the current Franco-American critical scene." --Peter Starr, University of Southern California
List of contents
Introduction Jean-Joseph Goux and Philip R. Wood; 1. Parameters of an ongoing crisis Barbara Cassin; 2. Terror on the run Jean-Fancois Lyotard; 3. Subversion and consensus: proletarians, women, artists Jean-Joseph Goux; 4. Situations of current French thought: the end of 'The French Exception' Marc Auge; 5. The terror of consensus Francoise Gaillard; 6. Democracy and totalitarianism in contemporary French thought: neoliberalism, the Heidegger scandal and ethics in post-structuralism Philip R. Wood; 7. Postmodernity and the politics of multiculturalism: the Lyotard-Habermas debate over social theory Mark Poster; 8. Performative universalism and cultural diversity: French thought and American contexts Francoise Lionnet; 9. Mission and limits of the Enlightenment Jean-Marie Apostolides; 10. The intellectual sublime: Zola as archetype of a cultural myth Susan Rubin Suleiman; 11. Is the West the universal model for humanity? The Baruya of New Guinea between change and decay Maurice Godelier; Reference matter; Notes; Index.
Summary
This volume of twelve essays focuses on two interrelated issues: first, it addresses the historical and cultural determinants that have given rise to what frequently has been described as the French exception; second, the contributors assess the exhaustion of this tradition in recent years.
Additional text
“It is the singular virtue of this superb collection that it refuses to dismiss the terms ‘terror’ and ‘consensus’ as simple rhetorical posturing, using them instead to dig deep into the debates that structure the current Franco-American critical scene.”—Peter Starr, University of Southern California
