ANTHR 6458 - [Specters: Derrida, Marx, and Other Ghosts]

(crosslisted) JWST 6458

Fall. Not offered: 2021-2022. Next offered: 2022-2023. 3 credits. Student option grading.

Co-meets with ANTHR 3458/JWST 3458.

J. Boyarin.

We will engage the political thinking of Jacques Derrida, attempt to disinter and engage attitudes toward history, ancestry, and progress in the radical nineteenth century, and consider the possible relevance of Marx now. We will read Derrida’s Specters of Marx, along with key texts Derrida examines there–from Hamlet to the Communist Manifesto to the American triumphalism of Francis Fukuyama. We will also consider a range of critiques of Derrida in response to his own text. Special attention will be devoted to Marx’s and Derrida’s own “Jewish specters” vis-à-vis the Christian West’s non-Christian Others.