Is Antagonism a Good Name for Radical Negativity? Review of Oliver Marchart’s "Thinking Antagonism"

Abstract

Marchart’s Thinking Antagonism is, systematically following one of the leads of Laclau’s theory – the radical reading (or rather thinking) of antagonism and the Political – to their final conclusions: antagonism lies at the root of every social being – qua being. Despite Marchart’s explicit renunciation I argue it seems more promising to follow the other. It involves accepting radical negativity defies any apprehension, that any action – including antagonizing – always already is a specific articulation. This is better grasped through the concept of dislocation and through Derridean hauntology. De-ontologizing antagonism also means de- ontologizing politics which re-introduces ethics as an ‘ethics of politization’.