{"title":"Clues to Posthuman Kant: Deleuze-Foucault’s Kantianism without Humanity","authors":"Young-gwang Yoon","doi":"10.19116/theory.2024.29.1.117","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19116/theory.2024.29.1.117","url":null,"abstract":"Rather than simply breaking up with Kant, Deleuze and Foucault endeavored to delineate lines of thought that originated from Kant but extended beyond the limits set by Kant himself. Two pivotal inquiries, supplanting the foundational question of Kantian philosophy, “What is the human being?” guide this movement from within Kant to without: “What can a subject outside of the human-form be?” and “What can a faculty beyond the limits of the human-form do?”. This paper aims to explore the prospect that such a project of Kantianism beyond Kant could serve as the starting point for the task of rethinking Kant within the context of posthuman conditions and, conversely, contemplating the posthuman world through a Kantian lens. Consequently, this essay is not preoccupied with expressing sympathy for or offering counter-criticisms of the prevailing critiques of Kant’s humanism in numerous posthumanist theories. Instead, the principal objective of this paper is to problematize the oversimplified nature of this binary opposition. In essence, it seeks to elucidate the intricate relationship between posthumanity and Kantian philosophy that eludes the rigid constraints of the confrontational framework. This is accomplished through an examination of the works of Foucault and Deleuze, who, situated within Kant’s philosophical anthropology, identified vectors that problematize the very notion of the human, and employed them to develop new theories of subjectivity and faculties that transcend the conventional boundaries of anthropology.","PeriodicalId":409687,"journal":{"name":"The Criticism and Theory Society of Korea","volume":"2001 19","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140416510","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Theoretical Suggestion to Investigate Cultural Discontent and Conditions of Class Struggle—Relative Fixed Labor-power and Cultural Fix","authors":"J. Yoon","doi":"10.19116/theory.2023.28.2.223","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19116/theory.2023.28.2.223","url":null,"abstract":"In an era when the effectiveness of collective class struggle is questioned, this paper presents a way to retheorize the conditions of the struggle at the structural level based on Stephen Shapiro’s theoretical suggestion. This paper first reviews the discourses of existing Marxist cultural studies and examines their limitations: humanistic and somatic materialism with a focus on human labor as a sensuous human activity, as well as culturalism that understands capitalism as articulations of various social elements, experiences, and practices. As a comparison, this paper investigates how Shapiro draws upon Karl Marx’s Capital and theorizes the way in which economic and sociocultural conditions, or base and superstructure, are interrelated as a framework to consider cultural fix alongside the economic fix of capitalism and the conditions of class struggle. This paper argues that Shapiro’s discussion extends a theoretical spectrum of cultural studies, and it presents a way of understanding the economic dynamics of the capitalist world-system as historical objectivity while distancing from economic determinism, and of comprehending consensus, discontent, conflict, and antagonism between the economic and the cultural as conditions of struggle.","PeriodicalId":409687,"journal":{"name":"The Criticism and Theory Society of Korea","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117044695","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Affect and the Response of Animals","authors":"Sung-hei. Choi","doi":"10.19116/theory.2023.28.2.331","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19116/theory.2023.28.2.331","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, I explore the concept of affect based on Deleuze’s definition of affect as a new ‘mode of thought’ and examine its role in encounters with animals. To do so, I investigate the concepts of affect from Spinoza to Deleuze and Massumi, who are central figures in the prevailing theories of affect, and explore the possibilities that this concept opens up in encounters between animals and humans. The issue of animals is, without exaggeration, a problem of separation, as the long-established ‘separation between humans and animals’ continues to perpetuate the problem. In essence, the problem of separation is a problem of encounter. The history of separation between animals and humans raises the question of how they encounter each other, encompassing both the physical space-time of encounter and the manner of their encounter. ‘Affect’ is, therefore, the necessary mode of thought when attempting to discuss encounters that transcend the separation of animals and humans. For a long time, and still today, animals could not be seriously considered as a subject of ‘thought.’ Affective approaches to animals suggest the possibility of transcending our preconceived notions. This possibility will be explored through the scenes and actions of encounters with animals in Derrida and Haraway’s works, as well as their inquiry into the responses and responsibilities of animals and humans.","PeriodicalId":409687,"journal":{"name":"The Criticism and Theory Society of Korea","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126418319","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Topology of Literary Theory 2: A Citation and Semantic Network Analysis of The Journal of Criticism and Theory (1996-2020)","authors":"Yongsoon Kim","doi":"10.19116/theory.2023.28.2.77","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19116/theory.2023.28.2.77","url":null,"abstract":"This paper performs a semantic network analysis of the nouns from the titles of all papers published in The Journal of Criticism and Theory from 1996 to 2020, and attempts an additional citation network analysis for papers from 2016 to 2020, building on the same kind of analysis (1996-2015) in the previous study (2022). Noun networks are composed of the relationships between words with meaning, and thus are helpful in understanding the overall distribution of topics and their interconnections, compared to citation networks only with the names of scholars. These two methods generally show similar results in terms of the global landscape and change of theoretical topology while highlighting different aspects. The noun network from 1996 to 2015 shows outcomes similar to the citation network, but reveals new aspects such as the existence of aesthetic theory centered on “literature,” Derrida’s peripheral status, and the emergence of university discourse. Analysis of papers from 2016 to 2020 suggests that the theoretical paradigm which dominated the previous 20 years is collapsing and that new theories and themes are being sought. The citation network reveals the strong consolidation of the Deleuzian group and the rise of Butler along with the rapid contraction of existing theories while the noun network captures the emergence of scientific and technological discourses such as digital humanities and neuroscience in the context of exploring new possibilities. Drawing the theoretical topography of The Journal of Criticism and Theory is part of the grand task of grasping the knowledge field and history of Korean English literary studies. Hopefully, this research will be extended to other academic journals, leading to a macroscopic view of English literary studies in Korea.","PeriodicalId":409687,"journal":{"name":"The Criticism and Theory Society of Korea","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130158825","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"We with-in/out Us","authors":"Suk Kim","doi":"10.19116/theory.2023.28.2.53","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19116/theory.2023.28.2.53","url":null,"abstract":"How to make sense of what happened in Itaewon on October 29th? In hindsight, the catastrophic event which claimed the lives of 159 youths on the Halloween eve appears to have been a dire forecast of bizarre administrative debacles that were to follow under South Korea’s current regime. Yet if it seems too simplistic, or morally disingenuous, to shift the entire blame to the incompetence and misrule of the powers that be, it is because the tragedy, like so many others preceding it in Korea’s turbulent modern history, once again raises to the fore the problematic nature of communal being of which we are, even in the age of hyperreal modernity, still essentially constituted. By retracing a number of key themes running through the historic debate that took place between Jean-Luc Nancy and Maurice Blanchot in 1983 concerning the possibility (or the impossibility) of community―namely, myth, work, unworking, friendship, the death of the other, number, etc.―the present inquiry attempts to bring to bear the theoretical implications divulged in the debate upon the late Itaewon tragedy. If, as the two philosophers claim, one fundamental aspect of communal being consists in the responsibility to maintain the impossible memory the other, the other immemorially gone as well as imminently to come, then I argue that that unrepresentable other must encompass, as Derrida once argued, the non-human others.","PeriodicalId":409687,"journal":{"name":"The Criticism and Theory Society of Korea","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132180759","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Negativity and Difference: Adorno and Deleuze’s Philosophical Perspectives in the Kafkaesque World","authors":"Dae-joong Kim","doi":"10.19116/theory.2023.28.2.31","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19116/theory.2023.28.2.31","url":null,"abstract":"This essay aims to comparatively discuss the differences and similarities between the ideas on difference and identity put forth by two prominent Western thinkers of contemporary theories: Gilles Deleuze, a French philosopher, and Theodore Adorno, a German philosopher. Rather than a purely philosophical comparative study, this research focuses specifically on the comparison of both thinkers’ discussions of Kafka’s works. Adorno has been regarded as the philosopher of negativity, while Deleuze is seen as the philosopher of positivity and life. Although both philosophers perceive the world differently, they both strive to deconstruct Western ideas of identity in order to revive the concept of ‘difference.’ Identity and difference have been topics of extensive philosophical discussion and hold relevance in contemporary areas such as community, politics, and ethics. The essay begins by presenting the thoughts of Hegel and Heidegger on difference and identity, before delving into Adorno’s deconstruction of these ideas and his exploration of negativity as a means to disrupt identity. In comparison to Adorno, Deleuze develops the notion of difference itself as a pathway to the realm of becoming. The latter half of the essay compares both thinkers’ discussions of Kafka’s world: Adorno’s analysis of the Kafkaesque in light of non-identity, and Deleuze’s examination of minor literature and the concept of the line of flight.","PeriodicalId":409687,"journal":{"name":"The Criticism and Theory Society of Korea","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124919128","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cultural Studies and Quantum Mechanics","authors":"Hyun Seok Lee","doi":"10.19116/theory.2023.28.2.253","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19116/theory.2023.28.2.253","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p />","PeriodicalId":409687,"journal":{"name":"The Criticism and Theory Society of Korea","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132966884","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The biopolitics of ‘Italian theory’ and ‘community’ discourses: Focusing on Agamben and Esposito","authors":"M. Park","doi":"10.19116/theory.2023.28.2.171","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19116/theory.2023.28.2.171","url":null,"abstract":"Esposito’s “immune paradigm” and Agamben’s concepts of “Homo sacer” and “biosecurity” have gained increasing attention in the wake of the coronavirus 2019 pandemic. The biopolitics presented by these Italian philosophers has been discussed actively on a global scale and not merely in the Italian context. This study aims to examine whether Agamben and Esposito’s discourse on community can be universalized. Agamben and Esposito represent the individuality and non-mainstreamness of Italian philosophy, called “Italian theory,” which Negri visualized in The Italian Difference in 2005. This is different from the so-called European universal philosophy. To this end, this study examines the individuality and non-mainstreamness of Italian philosophy in the construction of modern philosophy as well as the boundaries and characteristics of what is now known as “Italian theory.” It further discusses the ways in which Agamben and Esposito’s collective discourse, which represents it, has been discussed on a global scale.","PeriodicalId":409687,"journal":{"name":"The Criticism and Theory Society of Korea","volume":"66 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131901871","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Aporias of Habermas’s Political Philosophy","authors":"Kwangtaek Han","doi":"10.19116/theory.2023.28.2.363","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19116/theory.2023.28.2.363","url":null,"abstract":"The aim of this essay is to critically examine the aporias in Jürgen Habermas’s concept of “universal consensus,” which has played a central role in the discussion of deliberative democracy. The first section analyzes the constitutive lacuna and exception, the fundamental dilemma in political ontology that impede the realization of practical universal consensus due to the enduring and irreconcilable political conflicts embedded in democratic conditions and contexts. The second section delves into the fallacy of universal consensus and its psychoanalytic significance, illuminating how Lacanian notion of fantasy constructs illusory plenitude, manipulates causality, and validates the substantive pursuit of elusive substance. Drawing upon Immanuel Kant’s notion of aesthetic consensus and common sense, which posit an imaginary common consensus shaped by affective reactions, the following section serves to examine an intersection between Kantian aesthetics and the conceptual and practical aporias of Habermas’s philosophical and political notion. Lastly, this essay concludes by suggesting affective hegemony as a new framework for comprehending the intricate dynamics of modern affective politics.","PeriodicalId":409687,"journal":{"name":"The Criticism and Theory Society of Korea","volume":"49 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123745511","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ethical Child Birth in the Posthuman Society and Politics of Emotion","authors":"SuJin Kang","doi":"10.19116/theory.2023.28.2.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19116/theory.2023.28.2.5","url":null,"abstract":"This paper delves into the investigation of an expanded definition of subjectivity within posthuman society and its implications for the discourse on procreation. In the posthuman era, characterized by technological advancements and environmental shifts, the landscape of social reproduction is influenced. As humans undergo a transformative process, assuming a state that is both more and less than human, as posited by Rosi Braidotti, the ethical underpinnings of posthuman society necessitate an inclusive perspective that encompasses not only posthumans in the traditional sense of emerging technologies but also politically, socially, and environmentally vulnerable humans. Scrutinizing the moral dimensions of childbirth, this paper examines both conventional practices and those facilitated by posthuman technologies. Drawing upon Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments and Angela Chadwick’s XX, it elucidates how the discourse surrounding childbirth is shaped by social ideologies that curtail reproductive rights, regardless of technological progress. Emotions emerge as a crucial political mechanism, wherein moral judgments surrounding childbirth instigate social and individual tensions. Through an analysis of individual responses to the emotional politics portrayed in two novels, this paper explores the posthuman ethics associated with the discourse of childbirth, providing insights into the ideals that a new society should strive to embrace.","PeriodicalId":409687,"journal":{"name":"The Criticism and Theory Society of Korea","volume":"44 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121553921","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}