Overview

In Althusser, The Infinite Farewell-originally published in Spanish and appearing here in English for the first time-Emilio de Ipola contends that Althusser's oeuvre is divided between two fundamentally different and at times contradictory projects. The first is the familiar Althusser, that of For Marx and Reading Capital. Symptomatically reading these canonical texts alongside Althusser's lesser-known writings, de Ipola reveals a second, subterranean current of thought that flows throughout Althusser's classic formulations and which only gains explicit expression in his later works. This subterranean current leads Althusser to move toward an aleatory materialism, or a materialism of the encounter. By explicating this key aspect of Althusser's theoretical practice, de Ipola revitalizes classic debates concerning major theoretico-political topics, including the relationship between Marxism, structuralism, and psychoanalysis; the difference between ideology, philosophy, and science; and the role of contingency and subjectivity in political encounters and social transformation. In so doing, he underscores Althusser's continuing importance to political theory and Marxist and post-Marxist thought.

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Reviews

Putting his unique theoretical acumen at the service of a striking methodological approach, Emilio de Ipola greatly enhances our understanding of the genealogy of structuralism. Along with his systematic expose of the two Althussers, the classical and the esoteric, de Ipola also offers a lyrical portrait of his own trajectory as an intellectual, his time in exile during Argentina's military dictatorship, and the intellectual scene in Paris. I cannot think of another slim volume that does such a good job outlining Althusser's work. --Bruno Bosteels, author of Marx and Freud in Latin America: Politics, Psychoanalysis, and Religion in Times of Terror Emilio de Ipola's Althusser: the Infinite Farewell is one of the most important books ever written on Althusser, not least because it offers a reading of Althusser from a perspective that is neither European nor North American. De Ipola's account brings structuralism to life and demonstrates the relevance of structuralism's questions and problems to our own time. De Ipola suggests that, seen from Latin America, reading and understanding Althusser is not a return to the past, but a confrontation with the most profound contradictions of the present. --Warren Montag, author of Althusser and His Contemporaries: Philosophy's Perpetual War

""Althusser, The Infinite Farewell is a pleasing, innovative and useful book on the philosophy of Louis Althusser. . . . A significant addition to the secondary literature on Althusser, based on both his own biographical experience and some serious digging in the archives. This short book deserves a place on the shelves of all of those who value Althusser as a serious thinker."" - Derek Wall (Marx & Philosophy Review of Books)

Putting his unique theoretical acumen at the service of a striking methodological approach, Emilio de Ipola greatly enhances our understanding of the genealogy of structuralism. Along with his systematic expose of the two Althussers, the classical and the esoteric, de Ipola also offers a lyrical portrait of his own trajectory as an intellectual, his time in exile during Argentina's military dictatorship, and the intellectual scene in Paris. I cannot think of another slim volume that does such a good job outlining Althusser's work. -- Bruno Bosteels, author of * Marx and Freud in Latin America: Politics, Psychoanalysis, and Religion in Times of Terror * Emilio de Ipola's Althusser: the Infinite Farewell is one of the most important books ever written on Althusser, not least because it offers a reading of Althusser from a perspective that is neither European nor North American. De Ipola's account brings structuralism to life and demonstrates the relevance of structuralism's questions and problems to our own time. De Ipola suggests that, seen from Latin America, reading and understanding Althusser is not a return to the past, but a confrontation with the most profound contradictions of the present. -- Warren Montag, author of * Althusser and His Contemporaries: Philosophy's Perpetual War *

Author Information

Emilio de Ípola is Distinguished Professor at the University of Buenos Aires and the author of several books in Spanish. Étienne Balibar is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at UniversitÉ Paris Nanterre, and the author of Equaliberty, also published by Duke University Press.

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