Description
Brown and Halley have assembled essays from diverse contributors-law professors, philosophers, political theorists, and literary critics-united chiefly by their willingness to think critically from the left about left legal projects. The essays themselves vary by topic, by theoretical approach, and by conclusion. While some contributors attempt to rework particular left legal projects, others insist upon abandoning or replacing those projects. Still others leave open the question of what is to be done as they devote their critical attention to understanding what we are doing. Above all, Left Legalism/Left Critique is a rare contemporary argument and model for the intellectually exhilarating and politically enriching dimensions of left critique-dimensions that persist even, and perhaps especially, when critique is unsure of the intellectual and political possibilities it may produce.
Contributors: Lauren Berlant, Wendy Brown, Judith Butler, Drucilla Cornell, Richard T. Ford, Katherine M. Franke, Janet Halley, Mark Kelman, David Kennedy, Duncan Kennedy, Gillian Lester, Michael Warner
A reader aimed at revitalizing left legal and political critique.
About the Author
Wendy Brown is Professor of Political Science and Women's Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of States of Injury: Power and Freedom in Late Modernity.
Janet Halley is Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She is the author of Don't: A Reader's Guide to the Military's Anti-Gay Policy, published by Duke University Press.
Reviews
"Is it possible to imagine a left legalism that is both politically efficacious and intellectually responsible in the face of the contemporary corruptions of neoliberal political order? In the essays collected here Brown and Halley have assembled a powerful response to hegemony of a liberalism that lacks conviction. They succeed in advancing both a critique of the limits of legalism and a space for thinking of legal struggle as a positive force for projects of liberation."-Thomas Dumm, Amherst College
"This collection organizes well-known theorists from many fields into an energizing project mapped by their coordinating passions and concerns. The essays in Left Legalism/Left Critique together form a new interdisciplinary field of left critique."-Dana D. Nelson, author of National Manhood: Capitalist Citizenship and the Imagined Fraternity of White Men
Book Information
ISBN 9780822329688
Author Wendy Brown
Format Paperback
Page Count 456
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 658g