Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2003 09:17:42 +0100
Subject: MB: Capitalism and Philosophy Lab: Blanchot and Communism, 28 June


4th Capitalism and Philosophy Lab
Saturday 28 June, 2-6 pm
Room A116, Middlesex University, Tottenham Campus, White Hart Lane, 
London N17. White Hart Lane BR.
Admission Free. ALL WELCOME.


Theme: Communism and Friendship on the Work of Maurice Blanchot

Speakers:	Dr Lars Iyer, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne
		Dr William Large, College of St Mark and St John


'Writing passes through the advent of communism.'
		Blanchot, The Infinite Conversation

Maurice Blanchot's turn to the consideration of political questions 
from the late 1950s onwards and his active interventions in French 
political life might surprise those who know him as a literary critic 
and novelist. But to those familiar with The Space of Literature or 
The Book to Come, it is clear that he never contents himself with 
upholding the value of the great work of art or the great literary 
artist, or indeed the literary institution itself. His concern, 
rather, is to attest to the literary, understood in terms of a 
certain experience of language inseparable from communism; for 
instance the literary practice of Bataille, which attests to an 
opening to the Other, to a certain community or communitarian demand. 
This promise of communism, and it can only be a promise for Blanchot, 
is inseparable from friendship. This is not a friendship of 
recognition or familiarity, but of coming into contact with what is 
most strange and unknown in the friend, and this 'impossible 
friendship' becomes the basis of a new way of thinking the social and 
political.


The Capitalism and Philosophy Lab is a regular workshop on post-1968
philosophical approaches to capitalism. For those who believe that genuine
philosophical advances were made in 1960's and 70's France (in
the work, for instance, of Deleuze, Badiou, Lacan, Laruelle,
Lyotard), there is an ever more pressing need to explore and test
seriously the contribution these developments make (and can
make) to Marxist theory and the analysis of contemporary
capitalism. New theoretical tools are needed for the future of
Marxist thought. We suggest that one crucial way forward is to
rebut the common but one-sided perception that the
abovementioned philosophical developments are essentially
antagonistic to Marxist philosophy. (One exegetical aim of the
workshop is to place Althusserianism back into its proper
philosophical context.)

As well as critical and directed work on texts and key
concepts, these sessions aim to identify and explore vital
components in the current phase of capitalism. One central focus
for discussion will be the relations between technoscience and
capital. What implications do developments and accelerations in
technoscience have for philosophy and Marxism together?
Our hope is that, taken together, these lines of
investigation might provide powerful and new theoretical concepts
in the struggle against contemporary capitalism.

Enquiries: R.Brassier-AT-mdx.ac.uk or C.Kerslake-AT-mdx.ac.uk


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