Against Thinning and Teleology: Politics and Objects in the Face of Catastrophe in Lear and Von Trier. (September 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Martel, James
• Is Part Of: Political research quarterly. Volume 68:Number 3(2015:Sep.)
• Page Start: 642
• Page End: 646
• Publication Date: 2015-09
• Subjects: teleology -- Radical Hope -- Melancholia -- contingency -- Bonnie Honig; Political science -- Periodicals; Science politique -- Périodiques; 320
• DOI: 10.1177/1065912915595086
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1065-9129

Abstract

In this essay, I write a companion piece to Bonnie Honig's commentary on "Public Things." In looking at Honig's comments on Jonathan Lear's Radical Hope and Lars von Trier's film Melancholia, I focus on the question of stealth teleologies, particularly in Lear's case. I argue that what Lear calls "radical hope" is not particularly radical. Instead, it disguises a teleology whereby, passing through some catastrophe, redemption follows. Against this kind of automatism, I argue that in Honig's own reading, we find the grounds for a turn away from teleology and toward radical contingency, a way of connecting with and via objects that allows us access to an agonal and anti-teleological form of politics (something that I also see as being offered in von Trier's film).