Interpassivity

Robert Pfaller is Professor of Philosophy and Cultural Theory at the University of Art and Industrial Design of Linz, Austria. His publications are mainly in German but his most recent book is in English The Pleasure Principle in Culture: Illusions without Owners (Verso, 2014). His German books include Umazano Sveto in Cisti Um. (Ljubljana: Analecta, 2009), Wofuer es sich zu leben lohnt. Elemente materialistischer Philosophie (Fischer, 2011), Das schmutzige Heilige und die reine Vernunft. Symptome der Gegenwartskultur (Fischer, 2008), Die Ästhetik der Interpassivität. (Hamburg: philo fine arts, 2008) and Die Illusionen der anderen. Über das Lustprinzip in der Kultur (Suhrkamp, 2002).

New concepts are rare in social thinking, and interpassivity is arguably the only true concept that emerged in the last two decades. The idea that others can not only act for us but that they can also be passive for us, that we can enjoy, believe, laugh and cry through others, provides the key to understand the paradoxes of our cynical-hedonist era. So let’s not beat around the bush: Interpassivity is simply one of the great founding texts of social thought, on a par with works of classics like Max Weber.

• Introduction: Interpassivity TodayThe Work of Art that Observes ItselfThe Parasites of Parricide. Living Through the Other when Killing the Father: Interpassivity in Brothers KaramazovLittle Gestures of Disappearance. Interpassivity and the Theory of RitualInterpassivity and Misdemeanours. The Art of Thinking In Examples and the Zizekian ToolboxAgainst ParticipationMatters of Generosity: On Art and LoveWhat Reveals the Taste of the City. On Urbanity Bibliography