Without Mastery engages the pleasures and rigours of reading, invoking Shakespeare’s Weird Sisters, Plato’s Lady Necessity, Freud, Derrida, Cixous, animals, angels, ghosts and children to explore our desire for mastery - especially the omnipotence of thoughts. Masterful thinking has brought the planet into environmental crisis. The acquiescence of reading, Wood shows, allows us to make contact with the unthinkable.Key Features:Provides a challenge and an alternative to ‘masterful’ or technical approaches to theoryDemonstrates that writing and power can work productively togetherDraws on the power of poetry and fiction to help us think and puts this to work in the book''s own practice of creative critical writingPresents original new readings of canonical literary writers

A new work of scholarship in the practice of rhetorical readingThis monograph provides readings of literary and philosophical texts that work through the rhetoric of tropes to the material inscription at the origin of these texts. The book focuses on the practice and pedagogical value of rhetorical reading. Its readings follow an itinerary from poetic texts (such as those by Wordsworth and Keats) through theoretical or philosophical texts (by Descartes and Nietzsche) to narrative fiction (by Henry James). The book also contains two essays on Paul de Man and literary theory and an interview on the topic of "Deconstruction at Yale." All three of these latter texts are explicitly about the inescapable function and importance of the rhetoric of tropes for any critical reading or literary study worthy of the name. As Andrzej Warminski demonstrates, ‘rhetorical reading’ is a species of ‘deconstructive reading’—in the full ‘de Manian’ sense—but one that, rather than harkening back to a past over and done with, would open the texts to a different future.Key Features:New readings of texts by Wordsworth, Keats, Descartes, Nietzsche, and Henry JamesEssays and an interview on Paul de Man and ‘Deconstruction at Yale’ Reflects on and exemplifies the pedagogical value of ‘de Manian’ rhetorical readingAttempts to open a future for ''deconstructive'' or ''de Manian'' reading

A new work of scholarship in the practice of rhetorical readingThis monograph provides readings of literary and philosophical texts that work through the rhetoric of tropes to the material inscription at the origin of these texts. The book focuses on the practice and pedagogical value of rhetorical reading. Its readings follow an itinerary from poetic texts (such as those by Wordsworth and Keats) through theoretical or philosophical texts (by Descartes and Nietzsche) to narrative fiction (by Henry James). The book also contains two essays on Paul de Man and literary theory and an interview on the topic of "Deconstruction at Yale." All three of these latter texts are explicitly about the inescapable function and importance of the rhetoric of tropes for any critical reading or literary study worthy of the name. As Andrzej Warminski demonstrates, ‘rhetorical reading’ is a species of ‘deconstructive reading’—in the full ‘de Manian’ sense—but one that, rather than harkening back to a past over and done with, would open the texts to a different future.Key Features:New readings of texts by Wordsworth, Keats, Descartes, Nietzsche, and Henry JamesEssays and an interview on Paul de Man and ‘Deconstruction at Yale’ Reflects on and exemplifies the pedagogical value of ‘de Manian’ rhetorical readingAttempts to open a future for ''deconstructive'' or ''de Manian'' reading

Readings of de Man’s critique of aesthetic ideology and the strange ‘materiality’ that emerges from itThis volume explicates Paul de Man’s late project of a critique of aesthetic ideology and attempts to extend it in ways productive for critical thought. After a reading of de Man’s work in all its rigour - and hence also the aesthetic theory of Kant, Schiller, and Hegel- the book goes on to uncover a ‘material moment’ in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit that lives on in Marx and in the Marxist tradition. The book also elucidates de Man’s critical reading of Heidegger on the example of Hölderlin—a moment essential for de Man’s shifts to the question of rhetoric and then to the question of ideology—and ends with a reading of Derrida’s ‘last’ text on de Man and its uncanny self-inscription in Rousseau’s episode of the stolen ribbon.Key Features:Rigorous explications of Paul de Man’s late work on aesthetic ideology and the politicalNew readings of Kant, Schiller, and Hegel that extend de Man’s projectDemonstrates how a certain already ‘Marxian’ self-undoing of Hegelian dialectics leaves traces in Kojève and in Marxists like Lukács and Jameson Presents accounts of disagreements and altercations between de Man and Heidegger and de Man and Derrida

Readings of de Man’s critique of aesthetic ideology and the strange ‘materiality’ that emerges from itThis volume explicates Paul de Man’s late project of a critique of aesthetic ideology and attempts to extend it in ways productive for critical thought. After a reading of de Man’s work in all its rigour - and hence also the aesthetic theory of Kant, Schiller, and Hegel- the book goes on to uncover a ‘material moment’ in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit that lives on in Marx and in the Marxist tradition. The book also elucidates de Man’s critical reading of Heidegger on the example of Hölderlin—a moment essential for de Man’s shifts to the question of rhetoric and then to the question of ideology—and ends with a reading of Derrida’s ‘last’ text on de Man and its uncanny self-inscription in Rousseau’s episode of the stolen ribbon.Key Features:Rigorous explications of Paul de Man’s late work on aesthetic ideology and the politicalNew readings of Kant, Schiller, and Hegel that extend de Man’s projectDemonstrates how a certain already ‘Marxian’ self-undoing of Hegelian dialectics leaves traces in Kojève and in Marxists like Lukács and Jameson Presents accounts of disagreements and altercations between de Man and Heidegger and de Man and Derrida

Analyses how modern conceptions of politics, ethics, and critical thought may be re-evaluated through the question of pain.Through a series of rigorous encounters with key critical figures, this monograph argues that modern thought is, in a double sense, the thought of pain. The book investigates the idea that modern European philosophy after Kant offers less the conceptual equipment to tackle pain in explanatory terms, than an experience of thought that participates in the forms of pain and suffering about which it speaks. Perhaps surprisingly, the question of pain establishes a ground from which to examine key debates in twentieth-century European philosophy, most recently between forms of post-structuralist and ethical thinking imagined to be in crisis and the resurgence of discourses of political emancipation arising from traditions of thought associated with Marxism.  Key features:• Offers a systematic account of the modern European tradition’s relationship to the question of pain and suffering• Suggests new readings of ‘ethics’ and ‘evil’• Evaluates the politics of contemporary critical theory• Sets new agendas for reading post-Kantian philosophy

Without Mastery engages the pleasures and rigours of reading, invoking Shakespeare’s Weird Sisters, Plato’s Lady Necessity, Freud, Derrida, Cixous, animals, angels, ghosts and children to explore our desire for mastery - especially the omnipotence of thoughts. Masterful thinking has brought the planet into environmental crisis. The acquiescence of reading, Wood shows, allows us to make contact with the unthinkable.Key Features:Provides a challenge and an alternative to ‘masterful’ or technical approaches to theoryDemonstrates that writing and power can work productively togetherDraws on the power of poetry and fiction to help us think and puts this to work in the book''s own practice of creative critical writingPresents original new readings of canonical literary writers

A new work of scholarship in the practice of rhetorical readingThis monograph provides readings of literary and philosophical texts that work through the rhetoric of tropes to the material inscription at the origin of these texts. The book focuses on the practice and pedagogical value of rhetorical reading. Its readings follow an itinerary from poetic texts (such as those by Wordsworth and Keats) through theoretical or philosophical texts (by Descartes and Nietzsche) to narrative fiction (by Henry James). The book also contains two essays on Paul de Man and literary theory and an interview on the topic of "Deconstruction at Yale." All three of these latter texts are explicitly about the inescapable function and importance of the rhetoric of tropes for any critical reading or literary study worthy of the name. As Andrzej Warminski demonstrates, ‘rhetorical reading’ is a species of ‘deconstructive reading’—in the full ‘de Manian’ sense—but one that, rather than harkening back to a past over and done with, would open the texts to a different future.Key Features:New readings of texts by Wordsworth, Keats, Descartes, Nietzsche, and Henry JamesEssays and an interview on Paul de Man and ‘Deconstruction at Yale’ Reflects on and exemplifies the pedagogical value of ‘de Manian’ rhetorical readingAttempts to open a future for ''deconstructive'' or ''de Manian'' reading

A new work of scholarship in the practice of rhetorical readingThis monograph provides readings of literary and philosophical texts that work through the rhetoric of tropes to the material inscription at the origin of these texts. The book focuses on the practice and pedagogical value of rhetorical reading. Its readings follow an itinerary from poetic texts (such as those by Wordsworth and Keats) through theoretical or philosophical texts (by Descartes and Nietzsche) to narrative fiction (by Henry James). The book also contains two essays on Paul de Man and literary theory and an interview on the topic of "Deconstruction at Yale." All three of these latter texts are explicitly about the inescapable function and importance of the rhetoric of tropes for any critical reading or literary study worthy of the name. As Andrzej Warminski demonstrates, ‘rhetorical reading’ is a species of ‘deconstructive reading’—in the full ‘de Manian’ sense—but one that, rather than harkening back to a past over and done with, would open the texts to a different future.Key Features:New readings of texts by Wordsworth, Keats, Descartes, Nietzsche, and Henry JamesEssays and an interview on Paul de Man and ‘Deconstruction at Yale’ Reflects on and exemplifies the pedagogical value of ‘de Manian’ rhetorical readingAttempts to open a future for ''deconstructive'' or ''de Manian'' reading

Readings of de Man’s critique of aesthetic ideology and the strange ‘materiality’ that emerges from itThis volume explicates Paul de Man’s late project of a critique of aesthetic ideology and attempts to extend it in ways productive for critical thought. After a reading of de Man’s work in all its rigour - and hence also the aesthetic theory of Kant, Schiller, and Hegel- the book goes on to uncover a ‘material moment’ in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit that lives on in Marx and in the Marxist tradition. The book also elucidates de Man’s critical reading of Heidegger on the example of Hölderlin—a moment essential for de Man’s shifts to the question of rhetoric and then to the question of ideology—and ends with a reading of Derrida’s ‘last’ text on de Man and its uncanny self-inscription in Rousseau’s episode of the stolen ribbon.Key Features:Rigorous explications of Paul de Man’s late work on aesthetic ideology and the politicalNew readings of Kant, Schiller, and Hegel that extend de Man’s projectDemonstrates how a certain already ‘Marxian’ self-undoing of Hegelian dialectics leaves traces in Kojève and in Marxists like Lukács and Jameson Presents accounts of disagreements and altercations between de Man and Heidegger and de Man and Derrida

Readings of de Man’s critique of aesthetic ideology and the strange ‘materiality’ that emerges from itThis volume explicates Paul de Man’s late project of a critique of aesthetic ideology and attempts to extend it in ways productive for critical thought. After a reading of de Man’s work in all its rigour - and hence also the aesthetic theory of Kant, Schiller, and Hegel- the book goes on to uncover a ‘material moment’ in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit that lives on in Marx and in the Marxist tradition. The book also elucidates de Man’s critical reading of Heidegger on the example of Hölderlin—a moment essential for de Man’s shifts to the question of rhetoric and then to the question of ideology—and ends with a reading of Derrida’s ‘last’ text on de Man and its uncanny self-inscription in Rousseau’s episode of the stolen ribbon.Key Features:Rigorous explications of Paul de Man’s late work on aesthetic ideology and the politicalNew readings of Kant, Schiller, and Hegel that extend de Man’s projectDemonstrates how a certain already ‘Marxian’ self-undoing of Hegelian dialectics leaves traces in Kojève and in Marxists like Lukács and Jameson Presents accounts of disagreements and altercations between de Man and Heidegger and de Man and Derrida

Analyses how modern conceptions of politics, ethics, and critical thought may be re-evaluated through the question of pain.Through a series of rigorous encounters with key critical figures, this monograph argues that modern thought is, in a double sense, the thought of pain. The book investigates the idea that modern European philosophy after Kant offers less the conceptual equipment to tackle pain in explanatory terms, than an experience of thought that participates in the forms of pain and suffering about which it speaks. Perhaps surprisingly, the question of pain establishes a ground from which to examine key debates in twentieth-century European philosophy, most recently between forms of post-structuralist and ethical thinking imagined to be in crisis and the resurgence of discourses of political emancipation arising from traditions of thought associated with Marxism.  Key features:• Offers a systematic account of the modern European tradition’s relationship to the question of pain and suffering• Suggests new readings of ‘ethics’ and ‘evil’• Evaluates the politics of contemporary critical theory• Sets new agendas for reading post-Kantian philosophy