Encountering Althusser Politics and Materialism in Contemporary Radical Thought

French philosopher Louis Pierre Althusser (1918 -1990) helped define the politico-theoretical conjuncture of pre- and post-1968. Today, there is a recrudescence of interest in his thought, especially in light of his later work, published in English as Philosophy of the Encounter (Verso, 2006). This has led to renewed debates on the reformulation of conflicting notions of materialism, on the event as both philosophical concept and political construction, and on the nature of politics and the political. These original essays by leading scholars aim to provide a new assessment of Althusser's thought, especially in relation to contemporary debates. Organized in four sections that represent the main currents in Althusser's scholarship, the book discusses materialism and the different formulations of the relationship between politics and philosophy, Althusser's interpretations of political thinkers (including Machiavelli, Deleuze and Gramsci), the resources he provides to critique political economy and politics in post-Marxist thought, and the theorization of ideology and politics.Encountering Althusser is a groundbreaking resource that highlights Althusser's continuing relevance to contemporary radical thought.

Katja Diefenbach is Advising Researcher in the Theory Department, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht. She has taught at the University of Arts, Berlin and Humboldt University. Recent publications include texts on post-structuralism and post-workerism in Inventionen, I. Lorey et al. eds. (Diaphanes 2011), Becoming Major, Becoming Minor, V. Brito et al. eds (JVE 2011).

Sara R. Farris is a sociologist and political theorist. She is the author of numerous articles on sociological and political theory, international migrations and gender studies and of monographs and edited volumes including Politics Enchanted. Religion, Subjectivity and Nationalism in Max Weber (Brill 2012) and co-editor of La Straniera. Informazioni, sito-bibliografie e ragionamenti su razzismo e sessismo (Alegre 2009). She is a member of the Editorial Board of Critical Sociology.

Gal Kirn is Research Fellow at the Institute of Cultural Inquiry, Berlin, Germany. He is a co-editor of Yugoslav Black Wave Cinema and Its Transgressive Moments (JVE 2012), editor of Postfordism and its discontents (JVE, B-Books and Mirovni Inštitut 2010) and co-editor of New public spaces. Dissensual Political and Artistic Practices in the Post-Yugoslav Context (JVE and Moderna Galerija 2009). He participates in the Workers'-Punks' University.

Peter D. Thomas is Lecturer in the History of Political Thought at Brunel University, London. His publications include: The Gramscian Moment (Brill 2009); the translation of Antonio Negri's Goodbye Mr Socialism, (Seven Stories 2008), (with A. Toscano) Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek's, Philosophy in the Present (Polity 2009) and (with S. R. Farris) Mario Tronti's The Autonomy of the Political (2012). He serves on the editorial board of Historical Materialism.”

IntroductionI. Aleatory Materialism and the Philosophy of the Encounter1. The Hazards of Aleatory Materialism in the Late Philosophy of Louis AlthusserAndré Tosel2. Rethinking Aleatory MaterialismPanagiotis Sotiris3. "An Immense Aspiration to Being:" The Causality and Temporality of the Aleatory Giorgos Fourtounis4. History as "Permanent Revocation of the Accomplished Fact:" Machiavelli in the Last AlthusserVittorio Morfino5. The Parallax Object of Althusser's Materialist PhilosophyKatja Kolšek6. The Very Essence of the Object, the Soul of Marxism, and Other Singular Things: Spinoza in Althusser 1959-67G.M. GoshgarianII. Althusser's Non-Contemporaries7. Althusser, Machiavelli and Us: Between Philosophy and PoliticsMikko Lahtinen8. Conjuncture, Conflict, War: Machiavelli between Althusser and Foucault (1975-6)Warren Montag9. Althusser's Last Encounter: GramsciPeter D. Thomas10. Althusser and Spinoza: Thinking the Enigma of Subjectivity without a SubjectCaroline Williams11. Althusser with Deleuze: How to Think Spinoza's Immanent Cause?Katja Diefenbach12. Althusser and Tronti: The Autonomy of the Political versus the Primacy of PoliticsSara Farris III. Thinking Production and Reproduction13. Louis Althusser and the Concept of EconomyCeren Özselçuk14. Althusser and the Critique of Political EconomyMichele Cangiani15. The Problem of Reproduction: Probing the Lacunae of Althusser's Theoretical Investigations of Ideology and Ideological State ApparatusesFrieder Otto Wolf16. To Think the New in the Absence of its Conditions: Althusser and Negri and the Philosophy of Primitive AccumulationJason ReadIV. The Materiality of Ideology, the Primacy of Politics17. The Impossible Break: Ideology in movement between Philosophy and PoliticsIsabelle Garo18. The Theory of Ideology and the Theory of the UnconsciousPascale Gillot19. Ideological Interpellation: Identification and SubjectivationRastko Mocnik 20. "Es kÖmmt drauf an:" Notes on Althusser's Critique of the SubjectOzren Pupovac21. Between the Tenth and Eleventh Theses on Feuerbach: Althusser's Return to New MaterialismGal Kirn