
Poststructuralist Agency
The Subject in Twentieth-Century Theory
Gavin Rae(Author)
Edinburgh University Press
Published on 14. December 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
288 pages
978-1-4744-5936-5 (ISBN)
Description
Gavin Rae shows that the problematic status of agency caused by the poststructuralist decentring of the subject is a central concern for poststructuralist thinkers. First, Rae shows how this plays out in the thinking of Deleuze, Derrida and Foucault. He then demonstrates that it is with those poststructuralists associated with and influenced by Lacanian psychoanalysis that this issue most clearly comes to the fore. He goes on to reveal that the conceptual schema of Cornelius Castoriadis best explains how the founded subject is capable of agency.
Reviews / Votes
Poststructuralist Agency discusses how poststructuralist subject is not merely a void, offering no subjectivity, no agency and thus no politics but rather offers all of this in a decentered and contingent form. Many books skirt around poststructuralism's positive formulations ?but Gavin Rae's book does the hard work of showing just how this actually happens. * James R. Martel, San Francisco State University *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 154 mm
Width: 232 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
438 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4744-5936-5 (9781474459365)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
02/2020
Edinburgh University Press
€21.49
Available for download
Person
Gavin Rae is Professor in the Department of Logic and Theoretical Philosophy at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain. His research interests lie in nineteenth and twentieth century European philosophy, where he works at the intersection of socio-political philosophy, psychoanalytic theory, ontology, and ethics. Besides over sixty published articles and book chapters, he is the author of eight monographs, the most recent of which are The Politics of Reason: A Postfoundational Approach (Edinburgh University Press, 2026), Questioning Sexuality: From Psychoanalysis to Gender Theory and Beyond (Edinburgh University Press, 2024), and Poststructuralist Agency: The Subject in Twentieth Century Theory (Edinburgh University Press, 2020). He has also co-edited six volumes, the most recent of which are Subjective Agency and Poststructuralism (Routledge, 2025-with Cillian O Fathaigh), Philosophy across Borders (Routledge, 2025-with Emma Ingala), and Historical Traces and Future Pathways of Poststructuralism: Aesthetics, Ethics, Politics (Routledge, 2021-with Emma Ingala).
Content
Introduction
Part I: Decentring the Subject
1. Deleuze, Differential Ontology and Subjectivity
2. Derrida's Differance: Deconstruction and the Sexuality of Subjectivity
3. Foucault I: Power and the Subject
4. Foucault II: Normativity, Ethics and the Self
Part II: Turning to the Psyche
5. Butler on the Subjection of Gendered Agency
6. Lacan on the Unconscious Subject: From the Social to the Symbolic
7. Kristeva on the Subject of Revolt: The Symbolic and the Semiotic
8. Castoriadis, Agency and the Socialised Individual
Conclusion
Bibliography, Index
Part I: Decentring the Subject
1. Deleuze, Differential Ontology and Subjectivity
2. Derrida's Differance: Deconstruction and the Sexuality of Subjectivity
3. Foucault I: Power and the Subject
4. Foucault II: Normativity, Ethics and the Self
Part II: Turning to the Psyche
5. Butler on the Subjection of Gendered Agency
6. Lacan on the Unconscious Subject: From the Social to the Symbolic
7. Kristeva on the Subject of Revolt: The Symbolic and the Semiotic
8. Castoriadis, Agency and the Socialised Individual
Conclusion
Bibliography, Index