ALAN D. SCHRIFT (ED.

Poststructuralism and Critical Theory's Second Generation

Alan D. Schrift (ed.), Poststructuralism and Critical Theory's Second Generation, 466pp., vol. 6 of Alan
D. Schrift (ed.), The History of Continental Philosophy (8 vols.), University of Chicago Press, 2010,
2700pp., $800.00 (hbk), ISBN 9780226740461.

Reviewed byAntonio Calcagno, King's University College at The University of Western Ontario

Alan's Schrift's work, as scholar, philosopher and editor, is known for both its acuity
and rigour. This volume of his The History of Continental Philosophy is yet another
testament to Schrift's ability to gather leading scholars around an important theme,
ultimately producing an excellent history of and guide to more recent developments
in Continental philosophy. Volume 6: Poststructuralism and Critical Theory's Second
Generation consists of 17 entries that commence with the reception of Nietzsche's
thought into recent French philosophy and end with a discussion of Rorty among the
Continentals, covering a period of Continental philosophy from about 1945 to 2007.
The volume is also supplemented with a useful bibliography of major works relevant
to the period as well as a chronology that simultaneously lists major philosophical,
cultural and political events. This certainly helps situate thinkers, ideas and
movements within the context of events in general but also within the broader
developments in philosophy, including the Anglo-American and analytic traditions.

The volume opens with a preface by Schrift in which he explains the evolution of
Continental philosophy. He notes,

"Continental Philosophy" itself is a contested concept. For some, it is

understood to be any philosopher after 1780 originating on the European
continent . . . . Such an understanding would make Georg von Wright or
Rudolf Carnap . . . a "continental philosopher," an interpretation neither they
nor their followers would easily accept. For others, "continental philosophy"
refers to a style of philosophizing, one more attentive to the world of
experience and less focused on a rigorous analysis of concepts or linguistic
usage. (vii)

Rather than focus on a discussion of what constitutes Continental philosophy

proper, Schrift maintains that one way to approach the question is to focus on the
history of Continental philosophy, thereby avoiding nettling, polemical discussions
between analytic and Continental philosophers. What we have, then, is the
presentation of the content of a tradition broadly defined. This broad approach is
both comprehensive and yields much food for thought about the particular
philosophers discussed as well as the tradition as a whole, its past, present and
future.

Schrift is not only the General Editor for the History but he also serves as the Editor
of the poststructuralism volume. In total, there are eight volumes that constitute the
whole History. In his Introduction to the present volume, Schrift sets the stage for
poststructuralism, "French" Feminism and second-generation critical thinkers.
Though he is mindful that poststructuralism has roots that go deeper than the
turbulent years of the 1960s on the Continent, he begins with the theme of conflict
and change that mark those years. Key in the development of poststructuralism in
France was not only the death of philosophy as the master-discourse, mostly
through the structuralists' engagements with the social sciences, but also the death
of existentialism, which privileged subjectivity and consciousness. (5) Schrift
identifies Foucault, Deleuze and Derrida as laying the groundwork for what would
become dominant in the remainder of the twentieth century as Continental
philosophy.
The first entry, "French Nietzscheanism," is also written by Schrift, and justly so, as
he is a leading scholar of both Nietzsche and the reception of his work in twentieth-
century French thought. Though the "French Nietzsche" is largely associated with
later 1960s French thinkers, including Derrida, Foucault and Deleuze, Schrift's article
notes that the reception of Nietzsche into French thinking predates the 1960s. He
identifies three moments of Nietzschean thought in France. The first moment was
not located in philosophy. He was read largely outside the Academy and it was Henri
Lichtenberger (20) who first taught a course on Nietzsche, but in a German
Literature Department. Early works on Nietzsche appeared, including those of
Lichtenberger and Andler, but literature professors rather than philosophers wrote
these tomes. As philosophy at the French universities began to make the strong
distinction between professional, scientific philosophy and literature, Nietzsche
continued to be marginalised in philosophy.

Schrift identifies the second important moment of reception as marked by the work
of Bataille, Klossowski, Wahl and Lefebvre, who all had a huge influence in
sociological circles. Nietzsche continued to be ignored in philosophy through the 40s
and 50s, but it was in the 1960s, when French thinkers like Derrida, Foucault and
Deleuze began to read closely the work of thinkers like Bataille, that the third and
most powerful moment of French Nietzscheanism took root: Nietzsche returns to
philosophy. Nietzschean themes run through these three eminent philosophers,
including those of genealogy, power, the impotence of reason, etc., and Schrift
nicely identifies the relevant connections. He remarks,

"French Nietzscheanism" refers to more than the production of an enormous

amount of French philosophical scholarship on Nietzsche, however, and to
discuss "French Nietzscheanism" in its third moment is, I would argue, to go
to the heart of poststructuralist philosophy because in many ways it was in
their appropriation of Nietzschean themes that the dominant
poststructuralist philosophers -- Foucault, Deleuze, Derrida -- distinguished
themselves both from the structuralists who preceded them and from the
more traditional philosophical establishment in France, whose authority they
sought to challenge. (29)

The second article is on Louis Althusser and is written by Warren Montag. This essay
beautifully and poignantly makes the case that the impression of Althusser as a
"structural Marxist" is dated and, therefore, no longer sustainable. Also untenable is
the view that interest in Althusser is connected more with the murder of his wife
and his plea of insanity than with his philosophical corpus. (44)

Not only has an entirely new Althusser come to light, but the publication,
above all, of his "late" writings -- those written after 1980 -- on what he
called "aleatory materialism" or "the materialism of the encounter," has
succeeded in calling into question the meaning of Althusser's work as a
whole. (47-48)

Montag notes that we now possess lecture notes on Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau,
which helped form the substance of Althusser's "ideological interpellation." (48) By
focusing on the themes of the subject, structure and the origin (end), Montag
captures key elements that typify Althusser's thought as a whole, especially as it
develops from Althusser's early period to his later work, which has largely gone
unnoticed.

Timothy O'Leary's chapter on Michel Foucault chronicles the development of

Foucault's thought from its earliest stages to its development at the Collège de
France. Themes covered by O'Leary's articles include Foucault's writings on the
following: madness and society, the contingency of knowledge, politics, modern
power, sex, sexuality and the body, from power to biopower, ethics and self-
conduct, subjects and truth. O'Leary certainly captures and describes succinctly the
essence of Foucault's long and rich philosophical trajectory. His discussion of the
classification of Foucault's work is interesting, given that it crosses so many
disciplines and covers so many areas. (68) Despite this seemingly disparate image
of Foucault, O'Leary does make the argument that there is consistency in Foucault's
corpus as themes that were developed earlier reappear throughout his work:
knowledge, power and the self. (69)

Well-known Deleuze translator and scholar Daniel W. Smith's entry on Deleuze

succinctly presents the work of the philosopher. He chronicles not only Deleuze's
work on major figures in the history of philosophy, including Spinoza, Kant, Bergson
and Leibniz, but he also discusses Deleuze and Guattari's own philosophical
interventions. Smith focuses on what he calls dialectics or the theory of the idea in
order to discuss Deleuze'sDifference and Repetition. He then focuses on Deleuze's
aesthetic theory or theory of sensation by discussing Deleuze's engagement with
the work of the painter Francis Bacon, cinema and the philosophy of Leibniz. A
discussion of Deleuze's ethics or theory of affectivity follows and examines the
philosopher's writings on Nietzsche and Kant.

The penultimate section concentrates on Deleuze’s politics and critiques of

capitalism, especially as they are developed with Guattari in their co-authored
works Anti Oedipus and Thousand Plateaus. The chapter ends with a discussion of
Deleuze's treatment of the concept, which consists of three major components:
endo-consistency, exo-consistency, and self-referentiality. In a time when philosophy
is under attack as a legitimate university discipline, as witnessed by the growing
closure of departments of philosophy, Smith reminds us, through Deleuze, that
philosophy is its own discipline: "More than most of his contemporaries, Deleuze
insisted on the autonomy of philosophy as a discipline, arguing forcefully for the
irreducibility of philosophical concepts to scientific functions or logical propositions."
(108)

The next entry in the History is on Derrida. Samir Haddad rightly acknowledges both
the complexity and controversy that surround the inclusion of Derrida within
philosophy. Considered by analytic philosophers more whimsical and literary than
philosophical, even nonsensical, and considered to be more self-fashioning than
strictly philosophical by thinkers like Rorty, Derrida's long and prolific career along
with his vast corpus continue to challenge the very definition of philosophy while
also challenging all disciplines to examine closely what it is they claim to be
practicing and investigating. The chapter opens with a biography of Derrida and his
migration to France and the ENS in Paris. Haddad then turns to the meteoric rise of
Derrida within North American literary criticism circles at universities like Yale and
Johns Hopkins. Between 1962 and 1972, Derrida produced five significant texts: a
translation and commentary on Husserl's Origin of Geometry,Speech and
Phenomena, Of Grammatology, Margins of Philosophy and Writing and Difference.
(114) This early period marks the birth of Derridean deconstruction, a term that
Derrida was never quite happy with, especially in its North American reception.

The third period of Derrida's career, from 1973-2003, was never as prolific as his
early period, and this is the period in which Derrida began to comment on and give
readings of various texts by authors including Hegel (Glas), Freud and Lacan (The
Post Card), and Marx (Specters of Marx). Many of these texts, and I have only
named a few, could be seen as Derrida practicing his deconstruction. It is also
within this period that we get a more explicitly political Derrida, the thinker who
engages various questions concerning the sans-papiers, university education,
democracy, forgiveness, political friendship, etc. The final period, which Haddad
simply calls "Legacy," ponders the Derridean legacy as whole. He notes that
Derrida's impact within French academic philosophy as well as Anglo-American
philosophy has been minimal, but that he continues to have a strong influence
within North American Continental philosophy circles and disciplines outside
philosophy.
Particularly exciting are the next three entries on Jean-François Lyotard, Pierre
Bourdieu and Michel Serres. These three thinkers are today largely seen to be
marginal and it is commonplace to forget their impact both on the social and natural
sciences. Writings on their work appear less and less, but this does not mean that
these figures were not and do not continue to be relevant for understanding the
history of Continental philosophy as well as its future. James Williams' piece on
Lyotard begins by reminding readers that Lyotard was one of the great essayists of
the twentieth century and that he wrote on a vast variety of subjects. Williams
discusses the Lyotard’s analysis and views of: modernism and postmodernism,
resistance in art and philosophy, narrative and the unconscious, exclusion and
justice, time and the limits of knowledge, affects and matter, politics and aesthetics.
It was Lyotard who helped the social sciences, as well as philosophy, articulate the
postmodern critique of modernity, which included the death of grand narratives,
claims to absolute universality and necessity. It was Lyotard who introduced a
vibrant sense of language-games and the differend.

Derek Robbins's essay, "Pierre Bourdieu and the Practice of Philosophy," discusses
the development of Bourdieu's thought and its impact on sociology and other social
sciences. The relation between sociology and philosophy is one of the key
structuring themes of the essay, and Robbins employs it to discuss Bourdieu's
intellectual engagements with psychoanalysis, Leibniz, phenomenology, Marxism,
and other various topics. The author highlights the importance of practice,
especially action and habit, for Bourdieu's thought; practice structures who and
what we are, whether university student, farmer, worker, or scientist. Bourdieu
reminds us that the practice of philosophy is more than just the pursuit of certain
truths and ideals; it is embedded with certain social and political contexts that
ultimately colour the products and goals of philosophy itself, as in the case of Martin
Heidegger and his Nazism.

David F. Bell's essay on Michel Serres makes accessible in a very engaging manner
the complex and seemingly disparate work of Michel Serres. Undoubtedly one of the
most enigmatic and difficult philosophers of the twentieth century, Serres, Bell
emphasizes, reads science and the philosophy of science in unorthodox ways,
challenging the very status and structure of the sciences and what they purport to
study and discover. Bell examines the key and eclectic works of Serres, including Le
système de Leibniz, Le parasite, Hermès and Le contrat naturel. There is a fruitful
discussion of Serres' engagement with ancient materialism, including that of
Lucretius.

Christopher F. Zurn's detailed account of Habermas is most informative. He traces

Habermas' rise through the Frankfurt School and the changes within Habermas' own
philosophy. The chapter follows the periods of development of Habermas'
philosophy: present-oriented philosophy of history; epistemology via philosophical
anthropology; theory of communicative action; the discourse theory of morality;
systematic philosophical consolidation. The entry focuses on the "context of the
debates" (including Habermas' critiques of phenomenology, the debates around
language, modern and postmodern philosophy) that has shaped his philosophy. The
chapter also traces themes that are consistent within Habermas' oeuvre, including

a focus on communication as the immanent locus of the transcendental, an

insistence on the achievements of reason without ignoring the ravages of
modernity's one-sided employment of reason, and a conception of
philosophy as critical theory, that is, as reflective interdisciplinary theory
oriented toward human autonomy. (197-198)

One of the striking features of this essay is the discussion of Habermas' incredibly
broad range of interlocutors, which ultimately assists readers in understanding the
finer contours of Habermas' thinking.
Schrift appropriately places the next entry, James Swindal's "Second Generation
Critical Theory" right after the entry on Habermas. In an earlier volume of
the History, earlier critical theorists like Adorno and Horkheimer are treated. The
treatment of the second-generation critical theorists brings readers up to the
present by investigating the thought of theorists like Karl-Otto Apel, Albrecht
Wellmer, Oskar Negt and Claus Offe. Swindal briefly mentions the work of Michael
Theunissen as well as that of Ernst Tugendhat as being closely influenced by
second-generation critical theorists. Swindal notes that with the onset of the 1970's
the second generation of critical theorists began to expand geographically as well
as to cover broader topics. There is a more explicit engagement with pragmatic
theories of truth and communication (Peirce, for example) as well as a discussion of
the welfare state and the risk society. The discussion of Apel's contribution could be
augmented and, given the preceding discussion of Habermas, one would like to see
less reference to Habermas' and Adorno's ideas in this chapter and more of a
sustained focus on what is proper and original to these second-generation thinkers.
For example, what is it that precisely marks second-generation aesthetic theory as
different and more critical than, say, Adorno's theory or more contemporary
aesthetic theory?

Wayne J. Froman's entry, "Gadamer, Ricoeur and the Legacy of Phenomenology," is

well executed. This chapter was a challenge to write, I am sure. First, Froman had to
connect two very rich and often disparate thinkers. Second, one wonders whether
both phenomenology and hermeneutics are keys comprehensive enough to
contextualise the thought of both thinkers. The task is made even more difficult in
that both philosophers lived a long time and had prolific careers. Perhaps separate
chapters would have been more useful here, thereby allowing each philosopher to
receive his own treatment, thereby relieving the demanding burden imposed upon
the author of the entry as well as showing the broader developments of both
thinkers' thought. In the end, Froman does successfully show through both Gadamer
and Ricoeur the impact that hermeneutics had as a specific development within the
history of Continental philosophy.

Chapters 12 and 13 depart from the more traditional method of focusing on

Continental philosophers proper. The former chapter, written by Claire Colebrook,
examines the history of the linguistic turn in Continental philosophy, from Husserl
and Heidegger to Derrida, Deleuze and Guattari. Colebrook rightly notes that the
central place of language in both analytic and Continental philosophy throughout
the twentieth century provided much room for the intersection of the two traditions.
She chronicles the impact of thinkers like Wittgenstein, Searle and Austin on
Continental philosophy. The latter chapter, written by Rosi Braidotti and Schrift,
traces the development and impact of psychoanalysis on Continental philosophy.
They also discuss desire within this psychoanalytic framework, from the Hegelian
legacy in thinkers like Kojève, Bataille and Blanchot to desire in feminist thought.
They also bring to the fore the impact of Lacan's development of the master
signifier with respect to the thought of Derrida. It would have been interesting if the
chapter also briefly touched upon more recent developments in psychoanalysis and
their potential for contemporary Continental philosophy. I refer here to the work of
people like Winnicott, Laplanche, Green and Aulagnier.

Chapters 14 and 15 are devoted to four eminent women philosophers who have
significantly shaped the trajectory of Continental philosophy. Mary Beth Mader's
entry on Luce Irigaray demonstrates both the complexity and rich evolution of
Irigaray's philosophy. Mader shows how Irigaray, while famous for her feminist
thinking and for her writings on sex and gender, is, especially in her later thought,
also concerned with questions of alterity, love and the divine. She traces Irigaray's
critique of the history of Western philosophy and sexual identity, as well as her
engagement with the thought of Lévi-Strauss and anthropology and psychoanalysis.
The chapter ends with a brief description of Irigaray's more recent work on love,
poetry and ecology and ecofeminism.
The next chapter, Sara Heinäma's "Cixous, Kristeva, and Le Doeuff: Three 'French
Feminists,'" begins by noting that

The concept of French feminism emerged in the USA and Britain in the 1970s
when selections of the works of French theoreticians were translated into
English. The writers included in this category are all feminists in the sense
that they work to question traditional misogynistic conceptions of femininity
and masculinity, women and men. They operate, however, with different
theoretical and practical interests and within different disciplines:
philosophy, psychoanalysis, linguistics and semiotics, literature and history.
(359)

Heinäma also notes that, although all these women write in French, this does not
mean that they were all born in France. The name "French Feminists," then, is a
misnomer. Though Cixous, Kristeva and Le Doeuff are the main focus of her
attention, the author does note the importance of Wittig, Kofman and Clément.
(360) The entry proceeds thematically rather than focusing on each individual
author. Themes discussed include: embodiment, maternity and desire, subjectivity
and exclusion, and the imaginary of Western philosophy. Noteworthy is Heinäma's
attention to various figures and ideas within the history of philosophy and how
these feminist thinkers came to interpret, reject and even rework certain ideas,
thereby making an important contribution to the history of Continental philosophy.

The penultimate chapter of the History is written by Jeffrey T. Nealon and

concentrates on "Deconstruction and the Yale School of Literary Theory." One would
think that to topic of this chapter could have been easily discussed in the chapter
on Derrida. Certainly, Derrida's impact on literary criticism and theory was definitely
chronicled and noted in that chapter. But I feel the editor was very wise in devoting
a separate chapter to the Yale School of Deconstruction, which includes the work of
thinkers like Harold Bloom, Paul de Man, Geoffrey Hartman and J. Hillis Miller. It was,
in large part, through the practice and readings of deconstruction that three
important contemporary fields of inquiry and research were launched: postcolonial
studies, cultural studies, and theory and criticism, which includes robust theories of
reading, literature and critique. One cannot underestimate the impact of the work of
Derridean-inspired thinker Gayatri Spivak on postcolonial thinking and subaltern
studies.

The final chapter of the History is written by David R. Hiley and examines the work
of Rorty and his ties to Continental philosophy. Here, I am unsure as to whether this
discussion should be a separate chapter or be included in other sections, especially
the treatment of Derrida and deconstruction. Rorty is famous, of course, for turning
his back on analytic philosophy. Though he studied Heidegger and engaged
Derrida's ideas, Rorty was also critical of Continental philosophy. Though the
chapter is right to note Rorty's impact, especially on the relationship between
pragmatism and deconstruction, it seems that Rorty comes out more as an
independent thinker, pursuing philosophy his own way; he draws upon the whole
tradition of philosophy while not being afraid to cross perceived divides in academic
philosophy.

All in all, Schrift's Poststructuralism and Critical Theory's Second Generation is both
comprehensive and detailed while being accessible to a broad readership, from the
generalist interested in basic ideas and facts to the specialist, who may require new
perspectives on and approaches to specific thinkers and movements. This work is
not only a history; it also opens up future possibilities, showing emerging trends in
contemporary Continental philosophy. The volume nicely sets the stage for the next
volumes edited by Braidotti and byTodd May, After Poststructuralism: Transitions
and Transformations and Emerging Trends in Continental Philosophy, volumes 7 and
8, respectively, of the History.