Jonathan Fardy - Böcker

François Laruelle emerged from the hallowed generation of French postwar philosophers that included luminaries such as Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze, Luce Irigaray, and Jean Baudrillard, yet his thinking differs radically from that of his better-known contemporaries. In Laruelle and Art, Jonathan Fardy provides the first academic monograph dedicated solely to Laruelle’s unique contribution to aesthetic theory and specifically the ‘non-philosophical’ project he terms ‘non-aesthetics’. This undertaking allows Laruelle to think about art outside the boundaries of standard philosophy, an approach that Fardy explicates through a series of case studies. By analysing the art of figures such as Julia Margaret Cameron, Anish Kapoor, Dan Flavin, and James Turrell as well as the drama of Michael Frayn, Fardy’s new book enables new and experienced readers of Laruelle to understand how the philosopher’s thinking can open up new vistas of art and criticism.

François Laruelle emerged from the hallowed generation of French postwar philosophers that included luminaries such as Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze, Luce Irigaray, and Jean Baudrillard, yet his thinking differs radically from that of his better-known contemporaries. In Laruelle and Art, Jonathan Fardy provides the first academic monograph dedicated solely to Laruelle’s unique contribution to aesthetic theory and specifically the ‘non-philosophical’ project he terms ‘non-aesthetics’. This undertaking allows Laruelle to think about art outside the boundaries of standard philosophy, an approach that Fardy explicates through a series of case studies. By analysing the art of figures such as Julia Margaret Cameron, Anish Kapoor, Dan Flavin, and James Turrell as well as the drama of Michael Frayn, Fardy’s new book enables new and experienced readers of Laruelle to understand how the philosopher’s thinking can open up new vistas of art and criticism.

The Real is Radical is centrally concerned with the explication and development of François Laruelle’s theory of “non-standard Marxism.” Fardy assembles a constellation of concepts designed to put Laruelle’s work into dialogue with diverse theoretical perspectives, including Althusser, Tronti, Adorno, Baudrillard, Kolozova and others while demonstrating the novelty and theoretical saliency of Laruelle’s work. The Real is Radical provides a much-needed introduction to non-standard Marxism and a useful starting point for the development of its theoretical potential.

The Real is Radical is centrally concerned with the explication and development of François Laruelle’s theory of “non-standard Marxism.” Fardy assembles a constellation of concepts designed to put Laruelle’s work into dialogue with diverse theoretical perspectives, including Althusser, Tronti, Adorno, Baudrillard, Kolozova and others while demonstrating the novelty and theoretical saliency of Laruelle’s work. The Real is Radical provides a much-needed introduction to non-standard Marxism and a useful starting point for the development of its theoretical potential.

Ideology and Interpellation examines the relation between ideology, the humanist subject, interpellation, and the role of theory. Placing the work of Althusser, Rancière, Baudrillard, and Laruelle into dialogue, this book offers a useful starting point for understanding the demands and possibilities for ideological critique after the deconstruction of the subject.With chapters devoted to each French theorist’s critique, the book first examines the historical and political roots of Althusser's theory of ideology, then placing focus on Rancière's historiographic work in the following chapter. Coming hot on the heels of his blistering critique of his teacher, Althusser, in Althusser's Lesson, Rancière argues that reformers' failure to “interpellate” or recruit workers was due to their work-centric attitude and failure to understand the workers' dreams of lives devoted to unwaged aesthetic and philosophical labour. The fifth chapter shows how Baudrillard disrupts Althusser's fundamental belief that ideology can be unmasked to reveal true structures, by exposing how a society of simulation realizes the untrue by integrating it into the fabric of experience. Finally, Fardy explores how Laruelle calls into question Althusser's presumption that “standard philosophy” is sufficiently guarded against the lures of ideology. On the contrary, Laruelle suggests that this view is in fact that of the ideology of standard philosophy.Shedding light on the continuing relevance of post-Althusserian Marxist thought, Ideology and Interpellation further demonstrates the need today for a rigorous theory of ideology, traces of which can be found in Althusser's legacy.

Ideology and Interpellation examines the relation between ideology, the humanist subject, interpellation, and the role of theory. Placing the work of Althusser, Rancière, Baudrillard, and Laruelle into dialogue, this book offers a useful starting point for understanding the demands and possibilities for ideological critique after the deconstruction of the subject.With chapters devoted to each French theorist’s critique, the book first examines the historical and political roots of Althusser's theory of ideology, then placing focus on Rancière's historiographic work in the following chapter. Coming hot on the heels of his blistering critique of his teacher, Althusser, in Althusser's Lesson, Rancière argues that reformers' failure to “interpellate” or recruit workers was due to their work-centric attitude and failure to understand the workers' dreams of lives devoted to unwaged aesthetic and philosophical labour. The fifth chapter shows how Baudrillard disrupts Althusser's fundamental belief that ideology can be unmasked to reveal true structures, by exposing how a society of simulation realizes the untrue by integrating it into the fabric of experience. Finally, Fardy explores how Laruelle calls into question Althusser's presumption that “standard philosophy” is sufficiently guarded against the lures of ideology. On the contrary, Laruelle suggests that this view is in fact that of the ideology of standard philosophy.Shedding light on the continuing relevance of post-Althusserian Marxist thought, Ideology and Interpellation further demonstrates the need today for a rigorous theory of ideology, traces of which can be found in Althusser's legacy.

Material Thought recovers the legacy of ‘formalist’ art and theory of the mid-20th century, taking as its point of departure François Laruelle’s project of ‘non-standard aesthetics.’ Carrying out what Laruelle names a ‘mutation’ of formalism, recovering its radical politics whilst dismantling its reified façade, Jonathan Fardy operationalises a radical flattening of the division between making and thinking which he then applies to the work of select artists and critics: Clement Greenberg, Harold Rosenberg, Helen Frankenthaler, Julia Margaret Cameron, Giulio Paolini, Mario Merz, and Pino Pascali. Tending to works that both predate and postdate the high-water mark of formalist art and theory, he recovers and renews a theoretical impetus that proceeded the idealist tendency of ‘high formalism’ - i.e., the drive to incarnate a materialist aesthetics that took the materiality of art as its critical point of departure. Through his attention to what he calls this ‘materialist-formalism,’ Fardy restores to 20th-century formalism a vital theoretical and political significance that has been hitherto overshadowed by ‘pure’ formalism and its depoliticised abstractions.