Martin Hägglund
Encyclopedia
Martin Hägglund is a Swedish philosopher, literary theorist, and scholar of modernist literature
, currently a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows
. Hägglund is the author of Kronofobi: Essäer om tid och ändlighet (Chronophobia: Essays on Time and Finitude, 2002), and Radical Atheism: Derrida and the Time of Life (2008).
Radical Atheism is a major intervention in deconstruction
. Against the prevalent notion that there was an ethical or religious “turn” in the thinking of Jacques Derrida
, Hägglund argues that a radical atheism informs his work from beginning to end. Atheism
has traditionally limited itself to denying the existence of God and immortality, without questioning the desire for God and immortality. In contrast, radical atheism seeks to demonstrate that the so-called desire for immortality dissimulates a desire for survival that precedes it and contradicts it from within. Rather than being dependent on a transcendent ideal, all our commitments presuppose an investment in and care for the finite. Developing a deconstructive account of time, Hägglund shows how Derrida rethinks the constitution of identity, the violence of ethics, the desire of religion, and political emancipation in accordance with the condition of temporal finitude.
Radical Atheism was the subject of a conference at Cornell University
, The Challenge of Radical Atheism: Critical Responses, of a special issue of CR: The New Centennial Review, Living On: Of Martin Hägglund, and numerous debates with responses by Derek Attridge
, John Caputo, and Ernesto Laclau
. Responding to the book, Laclau wrote that Hägglund's "analysis reaches what we could call the zero degree of deconstruction, the point at which deconstructive logics show their internal potential and cannot be assimilated to any of the various discourses—ethicist, religious, and so forth—which have tried to hegemonize it" and Jonathan Culler
called it "a decisive rejoinder to those seeking to capture deconstruction for religion.”
Hägglund is currently completing a book manuscript entitled Chronolibido, which offers new readings of the problem of temporality in the writings of Marcel Proust
, Virginia Woolf
, and Vladimir Nabokov
, and develops a deconstructive thinking of desire through a critical engagement with Sigmund Freud
and Jacques Lacan
. He is also at work on The Negativity of Time, a sequel to Radical Atheism which turns from a critique of transcendence to a critique of immanence by engaging Henri Bergson
and Gilles Deleuze
on fundamental questions of time, life, and desire.
Modernist literature
Modernist literature is sub-genre of Modernism, a predominantly European movement beginning in the early 20th century that was characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional aesthetic forms...
, currently a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows
Harvard Society of Fellows
The Harvard Society of Fellows is a group of scholars selected at the beginning of their careers by Harvard University for extraordinary scholarly potential, upon whom distinctive academic and intellectual opportunities are bestowed in order to foster their individual growth and intellectual...
. Hägglund is the author of Kronofobi: Essäer om tid och ändlighet (Chronophobia: Essays on Time and Finitude, 2002), and Radical Atheism: Derrida and the Time of Life (2008).
Radical Atheism is a major intervention in deconstruction
Deconstruction
Deconstruction is a term introduced by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in his 1967 book Of Grammatology. Although he carefully avoided defining the term directly, he sought to apply Martin Heidegger's concept of Destruktion or Abbau, to textual reading...
. Against the prevalent notion that there was an ethical or religious “turn” in the thinking of Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida was a French philosopher, born in French Algeria. He developed the critical theory known as deconstruction and his work has been labeled as post-structuralism and associated with postmodern philosophy...
, Hägglund argues that a radical atheism informs his work from beginning to end. Atheism
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
has traditionally limited itself to denying the existence of God and immortality, without questioning the desire for God and immortality. In contrast, radical atheism seeks to demonstrate that the so-called desire for immortality dissimulates a desire for survival that precedes it and contradicts it from within. Rather than being dependent on a transcendent ideal, all our commitments presuppose an investment in and care for the finite. Developing a deconstructive account of time, Hägglund shows how Derrida rethinks the constitution of identity, the violence of ethics, the desire of religion, and political emancipation in accordance with the condition of temporal finitude.
Radical Atheism was the subject of a conference at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
, The Challenge of Radical Atheism: Critical Responses, of a special issue of CR: The New Centennial Review, Living On: Of Martin Hägglund, and numerous debates with responses by Derek Attridge
Derek Attridge
Derek Attridge FBA is a British academic in the field of English literature and the current Professor of English at the University of York; a post he has held since 2003.-Education:...
, John Caputo, and Ernesto Laclau
Ernesto Laclau
Ernesto Laclau is an Argentine political theorist often described as post-Marxist.He studied History in Buenos Aires, graduating from the Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires in 1964, and received a PhD from Essex University in 1977.Since the 1970s he has been Professor of Political Theory at the...
. Responding to the book, Laclau wrote that Hägglund's "analysis reaches what we could call the zero degree of deconstruction, the point at which deconstructive logics show their internal potential and cannot be assimilated to any of the various discourses—ethicist, religious, and so forth—which have tried to hegemonize it" and Jonathan Culler
Jonathan Culler
Jonathan Culler is a class of 1966 Harvard graduate and Professor of English at Cornell University. He is an important figure of the structuralism movement of literary theory and criticism.- Background and career:...
called it "a decisive rejoinder to those seeking to capture deconstruction for religion.”
Hägglund is currently completing a book manuscript entitled Chronolibido, which offers new readings of the problem of temporality in the writings of Marcel Proust
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...
, Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
, and Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist...
, and develops a deconstructive thinking of desire through a critical engagement with Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
and Jacques Lacan
Jacques Lacan
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who made prominent contributions to psychoanalysis and philosophy, and has been called "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud". Giving yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, Lacan influenced France's...
. He is also at work on The Negativity of Time, a sequel to Radical Atheism which turns from a critique of transcendence to a critique of immanence by engaging Henri Bergson
Henri Bergson
Henri-Louis Bergson was a major French philosopher, influential especially in the first half of the 20th century. Bergson convinced many thinkers that immediate experience and intuition are more significant than rationalism and science for understanding reality.He was awarded the 1927 Nobel Prize...
and Gilles Deleuze
Gilles Deleuze
Gilles Deleuze , was a French philosopher who, from the early 1960s until his death, wrote influentially on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volumes of Capitalism and Schizophrenia: Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus , both co-written with Félix...
on fundamental questions of time, life, and desire.