Book Manuscript: Completed
The Possibilities of the Limit: Rethinking Feminist and Democratic Theory
It is widely acknowledged that even the most democratic societies systematically exclude the poor, women, and racial and sexual minorities; this fact should have a central place in democratic theory. In my book, I draw on three Continental thinkers—Karl Marx, Theodor W. Adorno, and Jacques Lacan—to provide a philosophical foundation for a democratic and feminist theory that introduces the moment of “the limit,” or the gap in the unity of a political community, as a central component for a transformative politics. A politics of unity problematically aims to eradicate any gaps in the ideal whole of the political community it defends, thereby excluding all those that do not neatly fit into its boundaries. In contrast, a “politics of the limit” acknowledges the importance of such gaps because it is through these that excluded subjects can enter the political community and contest its boundaries. The book manuscript is completed and under review at several major university presses.