Deconstructing Postmodernist Nietzscheanism

Jan Rehmann is co-editor of Das Argument and of the Historical-Critical Dictionary of Marxism (HKWM). He has published (among others), Theories of Ideology: The Powers of Alienation and Subjection.

“Jan Rehmann is one of the last grand Critical Theorists rooted in the best of the sophisticated and flexible Marxist tradition. This powerful and persuasive critique of Postmodernist Nietzscheanism opens the door to more potent forms of counterhegemony in our time!”—Cornel West, Union Theological Seminary, New York“Jan Rehmann's book does something urgent and very difficult: it explores the readings of Nietzsche that subtend Deleuze's and Foucault's influential theorisations and asks critically about the consequences of their systematic erasure of the darker, less 'innocent' sides of Nietzsche's writings. Rehmann does so by traversing an immense canon of literature from the French, German and Anglophone context with admirable wit, clarity and nuance - and thereby shows us how philosophy as critical theory can be done in our current theoretical conjuncture.”—Svenja Bromberg, Goldsmiths University, London“In his eye-opening book, Jan Rehmann offers us a fascinating account of how one of the most elitist and anti-democratic opponents of modernity was elevated as a nomadic rebel and promoted as an alternative to Marxism and socialism. Rehmann’s careful study is therefore more than just a story about French intellectuals. It provides us with a critical history of the most significant intellectual shift of the post war period: postmodernism.”—Daniel Zamora Vargas, Université Libre de Bruxelles

• IntroductionPart I. Deleuze and the Construction of a Plural-Differential Image of Nietzsche1. Plural Differences Instead of Dialectical Contradictions2. Deleuze's Combination of Hume's Empiricism and Bergson's Vitalism3. Nietzsche as Anti-Dialectician?4. The Birth of the Postmodern 'Difference' out of the 'Pathos of Distance'5. The Debate About the 'Will to Power': Metaphysical or Plural?6. Nietzsche's Combination of Decentring and Hierarchisation7. Flattening out the Late Nietzsche's Departure from Spinoza8. The Confusion of Spinoza's Power to Act with Nietzsche’s Power of Domination9. Will to Power as Desire Production10. Primitive Inscriptions and State-Imperial Overcodings11. Faire de la pensée une machine de guerrePart II. The Death of Man and the Eternal Recurrence1. Survey of the Terrain: Uncritical Replication, Normative Critique, Leftist Helplessness2. The 'Age of History' and the 'Anthropological Sleep'3. Borrowings from Heidegger's Critique of Humanism4. The Reductionist Construction of an 'Anthropological' Age5. The Overcoming of Marxian Utopia by the Overman6. Excursus: Nietzsche's Reworking of Cultural Protestant Anti-Judaism - the Example of Wellhausen6.1 Wellhausen's Anti-Judaic Construction6.2 Nietzsche's Adoption and Modification of Anti-Judaism6.3 Anti-Semitism, Anti-Anti-Semitism - Revisiting a Stalled Debate7. Nietzsche's Eternal Recurrence as Religion8. Postmodern Reading of Nietzsche as Pious RetellingPart III. The Introduction of a Neo-Nietzschean Concept of Power and Its Consequences1. New Coordinates2. Survey of the Terrain: The Overcoming of Ideology Critique through the 'Diversity' and the 'Productivity' of Power3. The Dissolution of Ideology into 'Knowledge'4. The Neo-Nietzschean Alternative: 'Everything is Fake'5. Power as Dissimulation Machine6. Nietzsche's 'Genealogy', or: the Violent Construction of an 'Alternative Nietzsche'6.1 'Ursprung' versus 'Herkunft' with Nietzsche?6.2. Points of Support for the Foucauldian Interpretation in the 'Middle' Nietzsche6.3. The late Nietzsche's Verticalisation and its Suppression by Foucault7. The Affiliation with Left-Wing Radicalism in Paris8. The Enigmatic Issue of Power and its Anchorage in War9. Outlook: The Suppression of the Structurally Anchored Power RelationsPart IV. From Prison to the Modern Soul - 'Discipline and Punish' Revisited1. An (All Too) Cursory Meeting with 'Critical Theory'2. The Socio-Historical Approach of Georg Rusche and Otto Kirchheimer3. Advancement or Abandonment of a Social History of the Penitentiary System?3.1. From Function to Aspects of Functioning3.2. A Neo-Nietzschean Framework3.3. The Abstraction from Forced Labour3.4. A Narrowed-Down Genealogy of the Prison3.5. Foucault’s Elimination of Contradictions3.6. The Fixation of Critique on the Social-Pedagogisation of the Penal System3.7. Foucault's 'Dispositif' and the 'Political Economy' of the Body4. The Panoptical Nucleus of the Disciplinary Society4.1. The Panopticon as Diagram of Modern Hegemony?4.2. The Levelling of Repressive and Consensual Socialisation4.3. The Real-Imaginary of the Panopticon4.4. 'Economy ought to be the prevalent consideration' (Bentham)4.5. Bentham as Visionary of 'Disciplinary Neoliberalism'5. Foucault's Disciplinary Power in a Double-Bind Between 'Microphysics' and Omnipresent 'Phagocytic Essence' (Poulantzas)5.1. The Hidden Contradiction5.2. The Diversity of Power and the Problem of its Accumulation5.3. 'The Limits of Social Disciplining' (Peukert)5.4. The Removal of the 'Topography' from the Theory of Society (Althusser)6. Foucault's Metaphorisation of the Prison and the Reality of Neoliberal HyperincarcerationPart V. Forays into the Late Foucault1. Biopolitics — A New Power Enters the Stage2. Foucault's Distinction Between Techniques of Domination and Techniques of the Self3. The Mysterious Concept of 'Governmentality'4. A Sharp Turn Against Socialism5. Marx as Stalinism’s 'Truth'6. Foucault’s Affiliation with Neoliberalism6.1. Survey of the Terrain: Ambiguities and Opposite Interpretations6.2. Foucault’s Contribution to a Critical Analysis of Neoliberalism6.3. Fascinated by Neoliberalism's 'Post-Disciplinary' Governmentality6.4. The Assault on the Fordist Welfare State6.5. Foucault's Self-Techniques as Part of a Neoliberal TransvaluationAppendix: Governmentality Studies, or the Reproduction of Neoliberal IdeologyBibliographyName IndexSubject Index