Table Of Content“Stella Gaon explores howthe radicality ofDerrideandeconstructionlies in
its unwavering fidelity to the very conditions of reason. This is what drives
deconstruction to uncover the irreducible violence at the heart of every law,
but also every moral claim, with far-reaching consequences for political and
pedagogical theory and practice. For Gaon, deconstruction exemplifies cri-
tical thinking: the unflinching interrogation of the categories through which
good and evil, fact and fiction, the righteous and the reprehensible are
established. With admirable conceptual clarity Gaon’s captivating book
explores the pivotal ramifications of a deconstructive mode of analysis for
pedagogy, politics and ethics.”
—Elisabeth Weber, University of California, Santa Barbara
“Anyone still in doubt about the political and ethical relevance or force of
deconstruction will have to read Stella Gaon’s brilliant new work The Lucid
Vigil. Gaon demonstrates with a stunning lucidity and attentiveness of her
own that Derridean deconstruction was never a nihilistic attack on Enlight-
enment values but a relentless questioning of the foundations of ethical and
political legitimacy in line with the most exacting demands of reason
and self-critique. This work should set the record straight once and for all
and should cause anyone interested in questions of ethics and politics to
returntoDerrida’swork,bothearlyandlate,withrenewedattention,passion,
and urgency.”
—Michael Naas, DePaul University, Chicago
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The Lucid Vigil
Stella Gaon provides the first fully philosophical account of the critical
natureof deconstruction, and she does so by turning in an original way to
psychoanalysis. Drawing on close readings of Freud and Laplanche, Gaon
argues that Derridean deconstruction is driven by a normative investment
in reason’s psychological force. Indeed, deconstruction is more faithful to
the principle of reason than the various forms of critical theory prevalent
today. For if one pursues the classical demand for rational grounds vigi-
lantly, one finds that claims to ethical or political legitimacy cannot be
rationally justified, because they are undone by logical undecidability.
Gaon’sargumentisborneoutinthecasesofKantiandeontology,Deweyan
pragmatism, progressive pedagogy, Habermasian moral theory, Levinasian
ethics and others. What emerges is the groundbreaking demonstration that
deconstruction is impelled by a quasi-ethical critical drive, and that to
read deconstructivelyis to radicalize the emancipatory practice of reason
as self-critique.
This important volume will be of great value to critical theorists aswell
as to Derrida scholars and researchers in social and political thought.
Stella Gaon is Professor of Political Science and Adjunct Professor of
Women and Gender Studies at Saint Mary’s University. She is the editor
of Democracy in Crisis: Violence, Alterity, Community.
Psychoanalytic Political Theory
Edited by Matthew H. Bowker, Medaille College, and David W. McIvor,
Colorado State University
Psychoanalytic Political Theory provides a publishing space for the highest
quality scholarship at the intersection of psychoanalysis and normative
politicaltheory.Itoffersa forumfortexts thatdeepenour understanding of
the complex relationships between the world of politics and the world of
the psyche.
1. The Lucid Vigil
Deconstruction, Desire and the Politics of Critique
Stella Gaon
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
Psychoanalytic-Political-Theory/book-series/PPT
The Lucid Vigil
Deconstruction, Desire and the Politics
of Critique
Stella Gaon
Firstpublished2019
byRoutledge
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andbyRoutledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN
RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness
©2019Taylor&Francis
TherightofStellaGaontobeidentifiedasauthorofthisworkhasbeen
assertedbyherinaccordancewithsections77and78oftheCopyright,
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Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedor
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Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksor
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Gaon,Stella,1960-author.
Title:ThelucidVirgil:deconstruction,desireandthepoliticsof
critique/StellaGaon.
Description:NewYork,NY:Routledge,2019.|
Series:Psychoanalyticpoliticaltheory|Includesbibliographical
referencesandindex.|
Identifiers:LCCN2018048147(print)|LCCN2018060850(ebook)|
ISBN9780429465574(Master)|ISBN9780429879043(Adobe)|
ISBN9780429879036(ePub)|ISBN9780429879029(MobiPocket)|
ISBN9781138610828(hardback)|ISBN9780429465574(ebook)
Subjects:LCSH:Deconstruction.|Psychoanalysisandphilosophy.|
Reason.|Politicalpsychology.
Classification:LCCB809.6(ebook)|LCCB809.6.G362019(print)|
DDC149/.97--dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2018048147
ISBN:978-1-138-61082-8(hbk)
ISBN:978-0-429-46557-4(ebk)
TypesetinTimesNewRoman
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
In memory of Harry Gaon
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Contents
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction 1
PARTI
Naming the Stakes 19
1 The Danger of Rhetoric 21
2 The Apocalyptic Tone of Philosophy 40
3 Redefining the “Postmodern” 54
4 Deconstructing Kantian Critique 70
PARTII
The Ends of Education 89
5 From “Neo” to “Post”: Strategies in Theory 91
6 Neomodernist Critical Pedagogy 102
7 Pedagogy without Foundations: Feminism and Anti-Racism 125
8 The Habermasian Gambit: ACritique of Discourse Ethics 143
PARTIII
On Deconstruction and Justice 161
9 Responsibility as Messianic Injunction 163
10 Derrida Contra Levinas 180
11 Conscience and the Aporia of Subjectivity 199
