Dissensus

Rewarding in its scholarly engagement with Derrida, Arendt, Lyotard et al ... [Rancire] has a certain sardonic precision. -- The Guardian "Steven Corcoran has provided a timely and coherently organized collection of Rancire's short writings, one that can stand as a solid introduction to the author's thought...There is a distinct shift of emphasis that occurs in Rancire's writings around the late 1990's, however, and the task of a good collection would be to capture both periods and the thematic interaction between them. The writings gathered here, which date from 1996 to 2004, perform both tasks admirably...For those who seek to get a sense of both the richness and the breadth of the work of one of the most significant thinkers of our time, Dissensus provides a valuable resource. I can think of no better starting point than this collection." -Todd May, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews An accessible introduction to Rancire's thought and an essential collection of his essays. -- Marx & Philosophy Review of Books Title mention in Times Higher Education, January 2010

Jacques Ranciere taught at the University of Paris VIII, France, from 1969 to 2000, occupying the Chair of Aesthetics and Politics from 1990 until his retirement. Steven Corcoran is the editor and translator of Alain Badiou's Polemics (Verso, 2006) and Jacques Ranciere's Hatred of Democracy (Verso, 2007). He is currently completing his doctoral studies in Continental Philosophy at the University of New South Wales, Australia.

Editor's Introduction; Part I: The Aesthetics of Politics; 1. Ten Theses on Politics; 2. Does Democracy Mean Something?; 3. Who is the Subject of the Rights of Man?; 4. From the Actuality of Communism to its Inactuality; 5. The People or the Multitudes: Interview with Eric Alliez; 6. Biopolitics or Politics?: Interview with Eric Alliez; 7. 9/11 and Afterwards: A Rupture in the Symbolic Order; 8. Of War as the Supreme Form of Advanced Plutocratic Consensus; Part II: The Politics of Aesthetics; 9. The Aesthetic Revolution and its Outcomes: Emplotments of Autonomy and Heteronomy; 10. The Politics of Art; 11. The Politics of Literature; 12. The Secrets of the Monument (Deleuze and Art's 'Resistance'); 13. The Emancipated Spectator; 14. The Ethical Turn of Aesthetics and Politics; Part III: Response to Critics; 15. The Usage of Distinctions; Author's Afterword; Index.