Books by Chiara Bottici
Bloomsbury Academic, 2022
How can we be sure the oppressed do not become oppressors in their turn? How can we create a femi... more How can we be sure the oppressed do not become oppressors in their turn? How can we create a feminism that doesn't turn into yet another tool for oppression? It has become commonplace to argue that, in order to fight the subjugation of women, we have to unpack the ways different forms of oppression intersect with one another: class, race, gender, sexuality, disability, and ecology, to name only a few. By arguing that there is no single factor, or arche, explaining the oppression of women, Chiara Bottici proposes a radical anarchafeminist philosophy inspired by two major claims: that there is something specific to the oppression of women, and that, in order to fight that, we need to untangle all other forms of oppression and the anthropocentrism they inhabit. Anarchism needs feminism to address the continued subordination of all femina, but feminism needs anarchism if it does not want to become the privilege of a few. Anarchafeminism calls for a decolonial and deimperial position and for a renewed awareness of the somatic communism connecting all different life forms on the planet. In this new revolutionary vision, feminism does not mean the liberation of the lucky few, but liberation for all living creatures from both capitalist exploitation and an androcentric politics of domination. Either all or none of us will be free.
Bloomsbury Academic, 2022
A Feminist Mythology takes us on a poetic journey through the canonical myths of femininity, test... more A Feminist Mythology takes us on a poetic journey through the canonical myths of femininity, testing them from the point of view of our modern condition. A myth is not an object, but rather a process, one that Chiara Bottici practises by exploring different variants of the myth of “womanhood” through first- and third-person prose and poetry. We follow a series of myths that morph into each other, disclosing ways of being woman that question inherited patriarchal orders. In this metamorphic world, story-telling is not just a mix of narrative, philosophical dialogues and metaphysical theorizing: it is a current that traverses all of them by overflowing the boundaries it encounters. In doing so, A Feminist Mythology proposes an alternative writing style that recovers ancient philosophical and literary traditions from the pre-Socratic philosophers and Ovid's Metamorphoses to the philosophical novellas and feminist experimental writings of the last century.
Columbia University Press. New Directions in Critical Theory, 2014
Between the radical, creative capacity of our imagination and the social imaginary we are immerse... more Between the radical, creative capacity of our imagination and the social imaginary we are immersed in is an intermediate space philosophers have termed the imaginal, populated by images or (re)presentations that are presences in themselves. Offering a new, systematic understanding of the imaginal and its nexus with the political, Chiara Bottici brings fresh perspective to the formation of political and power relationships and the paradox of a world rich in imagery yet seemingly devoid of imagination.
Bottici begins by defining the difference between the imaginal and the imaginary, locating the imaginal's root meaning in the image and its ability to both characterize a public and establish a set of activities within that public. She identifies the imaginal's critical role in powering representative democracies and its amplification through globalization. She then addresses the troublesome increase in images now mediating politics and the transformation of politics into empty spectacle. The spectacularization of politics has led to its virtualization, Bottici observes, transforming images into processes with an uncertain relationship to reality, and, while new media has democratized the image in a global society of the spectacle, the cloned image no longer mediates politics but does the act for us. Bottici concludes with politics' current search for legitimacy through an invented ideal of tradition, a turn to religion, and the incorporation of human rights language.
Cambridge University Press, 2014
In Imagining Europe, Chiara Bottici and Benoît Challand explore the formation of modern European ... more In Imagining Europe, Chiara Bottici and Benoît Challand explore the formation of modern European identity. Europe has not always been there, although we have been imagining it for quite some time. Even after the birth of a polity called the European Union, the meaning of Europe remained a very much contested topic. What is Europe? What are its boundaries? Is there a specific European identity or is the EU just the name for a group of institutions? This book answers these questions, showing that in Europe's formation, myth and memory, although distinct, are often merged in a common attempt to construct an identity for its present and its future. In a time when Europe is facing an existential crisis, when its meaning is being questioned, Imagining Europe explores a vital and often unacknowledged aspect of the European project.
The Myth of the Clash of Civilizations. ...
Cambridge University Press, 2009
In this book, originally published in 2007, Chiara Bottici argues for a philosophical understandi... more In this book, originally published in 2007, Chiara Bottici argues for a philosophical understanding of political myth. Bottici demonstrates that myth is a process, one of continuous work on a basic narrative pattern that responds to a need for significance. Human beings need meaning in order to master the world they live in, but they also need significance in order to live in a world that is less indifferent to them. This is particularly true in the realm of politics. Political myths are narratives through which we orient ourselves, and act and feel about our political world. Bottici shows that in order to come to terms with contemporary phenomena, such as the clash between civilizations, we need a Copernican revolution in political philosophy. If we want to save reason, we need to look at it from the standpoint of myth.
Palgrave Macmillan, 2009
Can we rule states through the same means that have been used to rule individuals? Men and States... more Can we rule states through the same means that have been used to rule individuals? Men and States tackles this issue by analyzing the presuppositions of the domestic analogy and provides the tools to assess its validity in different contexts and theories.
Edited Volumes by Chiara Bottici
The concept of anarchy is often presented as a recipe for pure disorder. The Anarchist Turn bring... more The concept of anarchy is often presented as a recipe for pure disorder. The Anarchist Turn brings together innovative and fresh perspectives on anarchism to argue that in fact it represents a form of collective, truly democratic social organisation. The book shows how in the last decade the negative caricature of anarchy has begun to crack. Globalisation and the social movements it spawned have proved what anarchists have long been advocating: an anarchical order is not just desirable, but also feasible.
The contributors argue that with the failure of both free markets and state socialism the time has come for an 'anarchist turn' in political philosophy. In doing so they relate the anarchist hypothesis to a range of other disciplines such as politics, anthropology, economics, history and sociology.
Peer-Reviewed Articles by Chiara Bottici
Social Epistemology, 2019
The concept of the social imaginary has been introduced as an alternative to theories of the imag... more The concept of the social imaginary has been introduced as an alternative to theories of the imagination. Whereas the imagination tends to be conceived as a faculty that we possess as individuals, the concept of social imaginary is meant to encompass significations within which individuals are socialized and that thus precede the formation of individuals themselves. To put it bluntly, we could say that, whereas the
imagination is a faculty that an individual possesses, the social imaginary is the social context that possesses individuals. In this article, I would like to reconstruct the dilemmas that surround this conceptual couple and argue for a theory of the imaginal as a solution to such dilemmas. In conclusion, I will also argue that the concept of the imaginal is a much more malleable tool in terms of social ontology, because it is able to overcome the social versus individual dichotomy, moving towards an alternative ontology of the transindividual. In a time when social boundaries are being contested by globalization from above and from below, and in which risks proving an outdated tool for social inquiry, the concept of the imaginal is a much more promising tool, whether one decides to embark on an alternative social ontology or not.
Australasian Philosophical Review , 2018
This article explores the implications of Balibar’s strategic decision to add Freud to
the series... more This article explores the implications of Balibar’s strategic decision to add Freud to
the series of the thinkers of the transindividual. This move, I argue, both illuminates
the other philosophers’ contribution to our understanding of transindividuality, but
also creates some tensions within the triad Spinoza, Marx, Freud. After exploring
both aspects, the reciprocal tensions and the reciprocal illumination, I will move on
to analysing the relationship between the transindividual and the imaginal, as both
concepts signal a questioning of the dichotomy ‘individual versus society’ and thus
can be seen as the result of the same movement of thought.
Now that we possess the Nachlass version, we can finally state it: Cassirer's The Myth of the Sta... more Now that we possess the Nachlass version, we can finally state it: Cassirer's The Myth of the State has been massacred, large parts have been omitted; entire sections moved around, the fundamental thesis deeply altered. Instead of the neo-Enlightenment intellectual who, when faced with the Nazi's recourse to myth, had started to question the very idea of a Western road from mythos to logos, the 1946 edition transmitted to us the text of a self-confident intellectual carrying the torch of the Enlightenment even in front of an event that could have potentially extinguished it forever. Why has the text been massacred? When? And by whom?
German translation of Who's Afraid of Cassiers' "The Myth of the State?. Translation by Yves Bizeut
In the last few years, it has become a commonplace to state that domination takes place through a... more In the last few years, it has become a commonplace to state that domination takes place through a multiplicity of axes, where gender, class, race, and sexuality intersect with one another. While a lot of insightful empirical work is being done under the heading of intersectionality, it is very rarely linked to the anarchist tradition that preceded it. In this article, I would like to articulate this point by showing the usefulness but also the limits of the notion of intersectionality to understand mechanisms of domination and then move on to argue for the need of an anarcha-feminist research program. Secondly, I will try to provide the philosophical framework for such an enterprise by arguing that it is in a Spinozist ontology of the transindividual that we can best find the conceptual resources for thinking about the plural nature of women's bodies and thus of their oppression. This will allow me to attempt to articulate the question of 'what it means to be a woman' in pluralistic terms and thus also to defend a specifically feminist form of anarchism. In conclusion, I will go back to the anarcha-feminist tradition and will show why today it is the best possible ally of feminism in the pursuit of a critical theory of society.
LA DELEUZIANA, 2018
French Translation of "Bodies in Plural"
An earlier version of this text has been presented at th... more French Translation of "Bodies in Plural"
An earlier version of this text has been presented at the Night of Philosophy, on January 26 2018, in New York City, performed by a chorus of anonymous philosophers. A shorter version has been published in Public Seminar on March 7 2018, while a more substantial one has been presented at the University of California, San Diego, on April 4 2018. We translated this text, for it paves the way towards a transindividual ontology as a line of inquiry to rethink feminism beyond the dead-ends of essentialism and culturalism. Finally, this text invites us to rediscover the theoretical tradition of feminist anarchism as well as an alternative set of references coming from all over the world.
According to Rorty, philosophy is most of time the result of a contest between an entrenched voca... more According to Rorty, philosophy is most of time the result of a contest between an entrenched vocabulary, which has become a nuisance, and half-formed new vocabulary which vaguely promises great things. In this paper , I will explore the contest between the entrenched vocabulary of imagination (and 'the imaginary' as its necessary counterpart) and a half-formed vocabulary that promises a lot of interesting things: the vocabulary of the 'the imaginal'. After introducing the concept of the imaginal, I will move on to show its force and, in particular, the role it plays in contemporary politics and in so-called post-Fordist capitalism. 'Interesting philosophy is rarely an examination of the pros and cons of a thesis. Usually it is, implicitly or explicitly, a contest between an entrenched vocabulary which has become a nuisance and half-formed new vocabulary which vaguely promises great things' (Rorty 1989, p. 9). Drawing inspiration from this passage from Richard Rorty, 1 I would like to explore a contest that has been generated around the language of imagination. In particular, I would like to point to the contest between the entrenched vocabulary which has become a nuisance (the vocabulary of 'imagination' and 'the imaginary' as its necessary counterpart) and a half-formed vocabulary that promises a lot of interesting things—and this is the vocabulary of what I will call 'the imaginal'. After having briefly elucidated the concept of the imaginal, I will move on to show its force and, in particular, the role it plays in politics. Finally, I will concentrate on the contemporary transformation of the imaginal, thereby also highlighting the potential of such a new vocabulary as a possible theoretical tool to make sense of the post-Fordist transformations of our time.
The aim of this paper is to rethink the significance of the notion of “biopolitics”, by placing i... more The aim of this paper is to rethink the significance of the notion of “biopolitics”, by placing it within the more general genealogy of “politics” and by analyzing the philosophical implications of its emergence and proliferation: why has “biopolitics” emerged at a certain point in time and why did it emerge in that specific way? After briefly reconstructing two major breaks in the genealogy of “politics”, I argue that both Foucault’s and Agamben’s biopolitical models are entrenched in a Western philosophical tradition which has consistently privileged death over birth as the defining moment of our existential condition and is thus intrinsically thanatopolitical. But what if birth had both an ontological and a political priority over death? Ontological because we die only as a consequence of having been born, and political because, while we may die alone, we are always born in the company of somebody else. If human beings are conceived as beings-after-birth, rather than beings-towards-death, a different perspective emerges: one that is both feminist and affirmative and that I would like to call geneapolitical (from the Ancient Greek genea, birth).
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Books by Chiara Bottici
Bottici begins by defining the difference between the imaginal and the imaginary, locating the imaginal's root meaning in the image and its ability to both characterize a public and establish a set of activities within that public. She identifies the imaginal's critical role in powering representative democracies and its amplification through globalization. She then addresses the troublesome increase in images now mediating politics and the transformation of politics into empty spectacle. The spectacularization of politics has led to its virtualization, Bottici observes, transforming images into processes with an uncertain relationship to reality, and, while new media has democratized the image in a global society of the spectacle, the cloned image no longer mediates politics but does the act for us. Bottici concludes with politics' current search for legitimacy through an invented ideal of tradition, a turn to religion, and the incorporation of human rights language.
Edited Volumes by Chiara Bottici
The contributors argue that with the failure of both free markets and state socialism the time has come for an 'anarchist turn' in political philosophy. In doing so they relate the anarchist hypothesis to a range of other disciplines such as politics, anthropology, economics, history and sociology.
Peer-Reviewed Articles by Chiara Bottici
imagination is a faculty that an individual possesses, the social imaginary is the social context that possesses individuals. In this article, I would like to reconstruct the dilemmas that surround this conceptual couple and argue for a theory of the imaginal as a solution to such dilemmas. In conclusion, I will also argue that the concept of the imaginal is a much more malleable tool in terms of social ontology, because it is able to overcome the social versus individual dichotomy, moving towards an alternative ontology of the transindividual. In a time when social boundaries are being contested by globalization from above and from below, and in which risks proving an outdated tool for social inquiry, the concept of the imaginal is a much more promising tool, whether one decides to embark on an alternative social ontology or not.
the series of the thinkers of the transindividual. This move, I argue, both illuminates
the other philosophers’ contribution to our understanding of transindividuality, but
also creates some tensions within the triad Spinoza, Marx, Freud. After exploring
both aspects, the reciprocal tensions and the reciprocal illumination, I will move on
to analysing the relationship between the transindividual and the imaginal, as both
concepts signal a questioning of the dichotomy ‘individual versus society’ and thus
can be seen as the result of the same movement of thought.
An earlier version of this text has been presented at the Night of Philosophy, on January 26 2018, in New York City, performed by a chorus of anonymous philosophers. A shorter version has been published in Public Seminar on March 7 2018, while a more substantial one has been presented at the University of California, San Diego, on April 4 2018. We translated this text, for it paves the way towards a transindividual ontology as a line of inquiry to rethink feminism beyond the dead-ends of essentialism and culturalism. Finally, this text invites us to rediscover the theoretical tradition of feminist anarchism as well as an alternative set of references coming from all over the world.
Bottici begins by defining the difference between the imaginal and the imaginary, locating the imaginal's root meaning in the image and its ability to both characterize a public and establish a set of activities within that public. She identifies the imaginal's critical role in powering representative democracies and its amplification through globalization. She then addresses the troublesome increase in images now mediating politics and the transformation of politics into empty spectacle. The spectacularization of politics has led to its virtualization, Bottici observes, transforming images into processes with an uncertain relationship to reality, and, while new media has democratized the image in a global society of the spectacle, the cloned image no longer mediates politics but does the act for us. Bottici concludes with politics' current search for legitimacy through an invented ideal of tradition, a turn to religion, and the incorporation of human rights language.
The contributors argue that with the failure of both free markets and state socialism the time has come for an 'anarchist turn' in political philosophy. In doing so they relate the anarchist hypothesis to a range of other disciplines such as politics, anthropology, economics, history and sociology.
imagination is a faculty that an individual possesses, the social imaginary is the social context that possesses individuals. In this article, I would like to reconstruct the dilemmas that surround this conceptual couple and argue for a theory of the imaginal as a solution to such dilemmas. In conclusion, I will also argue that the concept of the imaginal is a much more malleable tool in terms of social ontology, because it is able to overcome the social versus individual dichotomy, moving towards an alternative ontology of the transindividual. In a time when social boundaries are being contested by globalization from above and from below, and in which risks proving an outdated tool for social inquiry, the concept of the imaginal is a much more promising tool, whether one decides to embark on an alternative social ontology or not.
the series of the thinkers of the transindividual. This move, I argue, both illuminates
the other philosophers’ contribution to our understanding of transindividuality, but
also creates some tensions within the triad Spinoza, Marx, Freud. After exploring
both aspects, the reciprocal tensions and the reciprocal illumination, I will move on
to analysing the relationship between the transindividual and the imaginal, as both
concepts signal a questioning of the dichotomy ‘individual versus society’ and thus
can be seen as the result of the same movement of thought.
An earlier version of this text has been presented at the Night of Philosophy, on January 26 2018, in New York City, performed by a chorus of anonymous philosophers. A shorter version has been published in Public Seminar on March 7 2018, while a more substantial one has been presented at the University of California, San Diego, on April 4 2018. We translated this text, for it paves the way towards a transindividual ontology as a line of inquiry to rethink feminism beyond the dead-ends of essentialism and culturalism. Finally, this text invites us to rediscover the theoretical tradition of feminist anarchism as well as an alternative set of references coming from all over the world.
political myth. What are political myths? What role do they play within today’s commoditized political imaginaries? What are the conditions for setting up a critique of them? We will address these questions, by putting forward a theory of political myth which situates itself between psychoanalysis and political philosophy, in line with the tradition of critical theory that many still associate with the name of the Frankfurt School. We will
first discuss the notion of political myth by illustrating the contribution of both disciplines to its understanding and then, through a discussion of the notion of social unconscious, we will apply this analysis to a contemporary example of political myth, that of a clash of civilizations.
tesis de una constitución mutuamente dialéctica del mito y la Ilustración.
Rechazando el mito como pura subjetividad y superstición,
la Ilustración se conforma a sí misma, mientras simultáneamente
refuerza la dicotomía sujeto versus objeto, en la cual descansa. De esta
manera, esconde el hecho de que el mito es también Ilustración, Aufklärung,
porque es ya una forma de explicación o Erklärung (Adorno y
Horkeimer, 1997). Los mitos relatan el origen de las cosas, de dónde
vienen, y son ya, por lo tanto, un intento de “iluminar” [illuminate] o
erklären.
the new public role of religion, we need to rethink the nexus, often neglected by contemporary philosophy, between politics and imagination. The current resurrection of religion in the public sphere is linked to a deep transformation of political imagination which has its roots in the double process of
the reduction of politics to mere administration, on the one hand, and to spectacle, on the other. In an epoch when politics is said to be simply a question of ‘good governance’, of good administration within a neo-liberal consensus, the paradox is that of a lack of political imagination which goes hand in hand with its hypertrophy through the media. This article tackles
this paradox, by firstly discussing the nexus of politics, imagination and religion and, secondly, by analysing their contemporary transformations. In conclusion, the thesis is illustrated through the analysis of some contemporary examples.
With Chiara Bottici, Neil Faulkner, Tim Jacoby, Charlie Post, Yannis Stavrakakis, William I. Robinson and Elena Loizidou plus (in Part 2) Laurence Davis, Eva Nanopoulos, Cenk Saraçoğlu, Stephen Hopgood, Jessica Northey and Chip Berlet.
http://stateofnatureblog.com/one-question-fascism-part-one/