The Refusal of Politics

A radical, elliptical essay in political theory This book belongs to a particular tradition of radical thought, at the crossroads of French leftism, Italian contemporary philosophy and English-speaking academic activism. Laurent Dubreuil develops a conceptual critique of today's totalitarian democracy. He claims that while we need to elaborate a forceful and precise attack against present forms of domination, we may, at the same time, locate their roots within politics itself. In other words, if differences between regimes, societies, and subjective productions do exist, the deeds of all sorts of known politics ultimately derive from the very nature, structure, and destination of political order. Dubreuil provocatively proposes an extremist rethinking of the limits of politics - toward a break from politics, the political and policies. Rather than yet another re-articulation, he calls for a refusal of politics, suggesting a form of apolitics that would make our lives more livable. Laurent Dubreuil is Professor of French, Francophone and Comparative Literature at Cornell University. Cory Browning is Assistant Professor of French at the University of Oregon.