Date: Wed, 16 Aug 95 11:53 BST
From: WIDDER-AT-VAX.LSE.AC.UK
Subject: Re: Nietzsche's Politics?


Chris,

OK, so Bell Hooks wasn't meant to be cited as a posty (though you referred
to the article as posty whinings about Tarantino).  Obviously you like to
cite Derrida, but we've had that argument over whether Derrida's actually
articulating anything recuperable in the concept of differance, and there's
no point in going over that again.

I guess that means you want to take Derrida as an icon of postyism.  What about
Foucault?  What are Foucault-inspired political theories?  (This, by the way,
has relevence to Steven's question about Nietzsche's politics as Foucault (1)
isn't easily classified among the traditional categories of politics, but is
clearly something along the lines of the 'left', to the extent that the term
has any meaning after people like Nietzsche and Foucault are introduced into
the picture; and (2) Foucault (along with Deleuze) is one of the people who
made it not quite so crazy to talk about a left-wing Nietzschean).

I suspect that Foucault would cause some real problems for your 
characterization of post-whatever, Chris, because (1) he is quite political
(consider all his interviews concerning the role of intellectuals in politics,
grass-roots movements, etc.); (2) You might be able (with a lot of stretched
readings) to keep Deleuze and Derrida separate enough for you to simply 
separate Deleuze from post-structuralism (though I'm not sure what the point
would be), but I suspect you can't really do that with Foucault and Deleuze.

Since I have long claimed that my 'postyism' is drawn from Foucault, Deleuze
and Nietzsche far more than Derrida, I'd be interested, Chris, in your thoughts
on Foucault's conception of otherness.  Is it recuperable or non-recuperable?
Is is alterity or not?  What, by the way, (echoing Steven's question) is your 
understanding of alterity?  You don't mean some sort of Otherness that is
simply beyond a boundary (and possibly recuperable into that boundary?), do
you?  This is certainly not Derrida's understanding of it.


All for now.

Nathan
widder-AT-vax.lse.ac.uk


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