1nr round 3

8/19/2019 1nr round 3

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AccessibleResistance is accessible through black fugitivity

Koerner 12 /Michelle, Professor of Comparative Literature @ UC-Berkeley, “Lineof Escape !illes "eleu#e$s Encounter %ith !eor&e 'ackson( Genre, )ol* ++, o*

.ummer 00 "12 0*003/04456-04067/

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'ackson$s name — always accompanied by the refrain “ 2 may run, 8ut all the %hile that 2 am,2$ll 8e lookin& for a stick ( — appears in both volumes of Deleue!s "apitalism and #chiophrenia

$Deleue and %uattari &1'(2) 1'*+, &1'*-) 1'*(., written with %uattari, and in a short te/t written in

1'(( with 0arnet, “n the #uperiority of AngloAmerican 3iterature4 $Deleue and 0arnet &1'(()

2--5.6+ 7n each instance, 8ackson!s line announces the idea that “ escape is revolutionary 49

%ood people say that we must not :ee, that to escape is not good, that it isn!t e;ective, and that one

must work for reforms6 <ut the revolutionary knows that escape is revolutionary6 6 6 6 9hat mattersis to 8reak throu&h the %all, even if one has to 8ecome-8lack like 'ohn Bro%n 6 %eorge

8ackson6 “7 may take :ight, but all the while 7 am :eeing, 7 will be looking for a weapon64 $Deleue and

%uattari 1'*+ &1'(2)9 1*+, 2((= my emphasis.5 :;rmin& the force of fu&itivity to “8reakthrou&h the %all( $a wall that throughout the book is de>ned as the limits of capital., this passage

maps two important connections6 ?irst, invoking the nineteenthcentury American abolitionist 8ohn

<rown, the te/t ali&ns antiracist militancy %ith 8ecomin& 8lack , a notion that, along

with 8ecomin& %oman, 8ecomin& animal, an< 8ecomin& impercepti8le , emerges in A

@housand 0lateaus as a “universal >gure of minoritarian consciousness4 $Deleue and %uattari &1'*-)

1'*(9 1-5.6 7n connecting a political concept of escape with a white abolitionist “becoming

black,4Deleue and %uattari imply a thinking of blackness that resonates with

what ?redoten $2--*a9 1(B+. has called “blackness!s distinction from a speci>c set of things called

black64 <rown!s absolute commitment to end slavery in the raid at Carper!s ?erry emerges as an event

that arms, to Euote oten $ibid69 1(B5. again, that “everyone whom blackness claims, which is tosay everyone, can claim blackness64 A second connection directly Euotes #oledad <rother and

introduces a crucial element into thinking of escape as a revolutionary idea6 8ackson!s line “7 may run 6

6 6 4 announces that fugitivity, rather than simply being a renunciation of action, already carries with it

an active construction a line of =i&ht composes itself as a search for a %eapon 6(Disrupting the opposition of “:ight or >ght4 that has often troubled the political understanding of

fugitivity, 8ackson!s line arms a politics where escape is al%ays alrea<y acounterattack 6 Fhat we encounter here, Euite rare in the work of a Guropean philosopher, is a

political concept pro<uce< in connection %ith both nineteenthcentury a8olitionism an<the resistance to what 8ackson termed the “neo-slavery( of the American prison

system — a concept of resistance that a;rms a force of “8ecomin& 8lack( or, moreprecisely, a 8lackness of 8ecomin&

Fhite civil society has already told you what blackness is= only

you can decide whether or not you will accept those codes or

e/ist otherwise6 @hat :ips try or die6

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GhlersGven if subHects are formed in power, they are not determined

by power6 Ghlers Gvidence6

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?ischer

#ocial death theory is historically inaccurate, and falls prey to

colonial redaction6 #lavery continues to e/plain the plight of

blackness as catastrophe, but remains curiously inanimate6Cegemonic structures silence the events at the core of the

black Atlantic I this is slavery as communal, Eueerness on the

middle passage as a uniEue narrative of selflove, the stories,

instances of massive uprising, cultural fraternities such as the

"uban "abildos, etc6 all prove that resistance I ?ischer

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Cudson

#ocial death is not engraved in ontological stone6 <lack and

white are sustained in contingently performed signi>cation

which the a; disrupts I Cudson6

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2A" #ocial death I 3ibidinal Gconomy@he a; solves I desire is conHugated by subHect building I we

liberate and interrogate6

0sychoanalysis can!t be scaled up to e/plain society or politics

I their theory is not falsi>able6#harpe 1- >Matthe%, lecturer, philosophy an< psychoanalytic stu<ies, an< !eo?!oucher, senior lecturer, literary an< psychoanalytic stu<ies, "eakin University

Matthe% an< !eo?, Žižek and Politics: An Introduction, p* 06-063

Can %e 8rin& some or<er to this host of criticismsA 2t is remarka8le that, for all the criticisms of iek$s political

Domanticism, no one has ar&ue< that the ultra- etremism of iek$s political position mi&ht re=ecthis untena8le attempt to shape his mo<el for political action on the curative Fnal

moment in clinical psychoanalysis* Ghe <i?erences 8et%een these t%o realms, liste< in

Hi&ure 3*0, are nearly too many an< too great to restate I %hich has perhaps cause< thetheoretical oversight* Ghe key thin& is this* Lacan$s notion of traversin& the fantasyinvolves the ra<ical transformation of people$s su8Jective structure a refoun<in& of their most elementary 8eliefs a8out themselves, the %orl<, an< seual <i?erence* Ghis is un<ertaken inthe security of the clinic, on the 8asis of the analysan<s$ voluntary <esire to overcome their inhi8itions,symptoms an< anieties* :s a clinical an< eistential process, it has its o%n in<epen<ent importance an<

authenticity* Ghe analysan<s, in transformin& their su8Jective %orl<, chan&e the %ay they re&ar<the o8Jective, share< social reality outsi<e the clinic* But they do not transform the %orl<*

Ghe political relevance of the clinic can only 8e Ka as a supportin& moment in i<eolo&y critiue or K8as a fully- = e<&e< mo<el of politics, provi<e< that the political su8Ject an< its social o8Ject are ultimately i<entical*

1ption Kb, iek$s option, rests on the i<ea, not only of a su8Ject %ho 8ecomes %ho he is only throu&h

his Kmis reco&nition of the o8Jective sociopolitical or<er, 8ut %hose Ntraversal of the fantasy$ is

imme<iately i<entical %ith his transformation of the sociopolitical system or 1ther*Oence, accor<in& to iek, %e can analyse the institutional em8o<iments of this 1ther usin& psychoanalyticcate&ories* 2n Chapter +, %e sa% iek$s resultin& elision of the <istinction 8et%een the Ksu8Jective E&o 2<eal an<

the Ko8Jective .ym8olic 1r<er* Ghis lea<s him to analyse our entire culture as a sin&lesu8JectIo8Ject, %hose perverse Kor perhaps even psychotic structure is epresse< in every manifestation ofcontemporary life* iek$s <ecisive political- theoretic errors, one su8stantive an< the other metho<olo&ical, are

<i?erent Ksee Hi&ure 3*0 Ghe su8stantive pro8lem is to euate any political chan&e %orth the

name %ith the total chan&e of the su8JectIo8Ject that is, to<ay, &lo8al capitalism* Ghis is a type ofchan&e that can only mean euatin& politics %ith violent re&ime chan&e, an< ultimately em8racin& <ictatorial&overnment, as iek no% frankly avo%s KIDLC +0I05* 9e have seen that the ultra- political form of iek$s

criticism of everyone else, the theoretical Left an< the %i<er politics, is that no one issu;ciently ra<ical for him I even, %e %ill <iscover, Chairman Mao* 9e no% see that this is 8ecause

iek$s mo<el of politics proper is mo<elle< on a pre- critical analo&y %ith the totaltransformation of a su8Ject$s entire su8Jective structure , at the en< of the talkin& cure* Hor

%hat coul< the concrete conseuences of this &overnin& analo&y 8eA 9e have seen that iek euates thein<ivi<ual fantasy %ith the collective i<entity of an entire people* Ghe social fantasy, he says,structures the re&ime$s Ninherent trans&ressions$ at once su8Jects$ ha8itual %ays of livin& the letter of the la%, an<

the re&ime$s myths of ori&in an< of i<entity* 2f political action is mo<elle< on the Lacanian cure,it must involve the complete Ntraversal$ I in Oe&el$s terms, the a8stract versus the <eterminate

ne&ation I of all these live< myths, practices an< ha8its* Politics must involve the perio<ic foun<in& of entirene% su8JectIo8Jects* Provi<in& the mo<el for this set of i<eas, the F rst iekian political su8Ject %as .chellin&$s

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<ivi<e< !o<, %ho &ave 8irth to the entire .ym8olic 1r<er 8efore the 8e&innin& of time K IDLC 037 OB 0++I6* But

can the political theorist reasona8ly hope or epect that su8Jects %ill simply &ive up onall their inherite< %ays, myths an< 8eliefs, all in one %orl<- creatin& momentA :n< can they 8ele&itimately aske< or epecte< to, on the 8asis of a set of i<eals %hose le&itimacy they %ill only retrospectively see,

after they have acce<e< to the !reat Leap Hor%ar<A :n< if they <o not I for iek laments that to<ay su8Jects

are politically <isen&a&e< in unprece<ente< %ays I %hat means can the theorist an< his allies use

to move them to <o soA

1nr round 3

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