Political philosopher Noëlle Mc Afee proposes a powerful new political theory for our post-9/11 world, in which an old pathology-the repetition compulsion-has manifested itself in a seemingly endless war on terror. Mc Afee argues that the quintessentially human desire to participate in a world with others is the key to understanding the public sphere and to creating a more democratic society, a world that all members can have a hand in shaping. But when some are effectively denied this participation, whether through trauma or terror, instead of democratic politics, there arises a political unconscious, an effect of desires unarticulated, failures to sublimate, voices kept silent, and repression reenacted. Not only is this condition undemocratic and unjust, it may lead to further trauma. Unless its troubles are worked through, a political community risks continual repetition and even self-destruction.
Mc Afee deftly weaves together her experience as an observer of democratic life with an array of intellectual schemas, from poststructural psychoanalysis to Rawlsian and Habermasian democratic theories, as well as semiotics, civic republicanism, and American pragmatism. She begins with an analysis of the traumatic effects of silencing members of a political community. Then she explores the potential of deliberative dialogue and other ‘talking cures’ and public testimonies, such as the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, to help societies work through, rather than continually act out, their conflicts.
Democracy and the Political Unconscious is rich in theoretical insights, but it is also grounded in the practical problems of those who are trying to process the traumas of oppression, terror, and brutality and create more decent and democratic societies. Drawing on a breathtaking range of theoretical frameworks and empirical observations, Democracy and the Political Unconscious charts a course for democratic transformation in a world sorely lacking in democratic practice.
Tabella dei contenuti
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Sociosymbolic Public Sphere
1. The Political Unconscious
2. Modernity’s Traumas
3. Targeting the Public Sphere
4. The Repetition Compulsion or the Endless War on Terror
5. Recovering Community
6. Deliberative Democracy
7. Feminist Theory, Politics, and Freedom
8. Public Knowledge
9. Three Models of Democratic Deliberation
10. The Limits of Deliberation, Democratic Myths, New Frontiers
11. Media and the Public Sphere
Epilogue
Notes
Works Cited
Index
Circa l’autore
Noëlle Mc Afee is a visiting associate professor of philosophy at George Mason University and the associate editor of the
Kettering Review. Her previous publications include
Habermas,
Kristeva, and Citizenship;
Julia Kristeva; and most recently a special issue of
Hypatia on feminist engagements in democratic theory.
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