The Black Circle

A sophisticated contribution to the study of one of the most enigmatic modern thinkers, this book is simultaneously scholarly and bold. It not only retraces Koj ve's roots in more than a century of Russian literature and thought but also-attuned to the paradoxes and ironies embedded in his kaleidoscopic corpus-orchestrates a spirited exchange among canonical figures of the 'Western tradition, ' from Plato and Aristotle to Beckett and Leo Strauss.--Ilya Kliger, New York University Known only in Anglophone letters for a drastically truncated translation of his idiosyncratic and influential Parisian Lectures on Hegel, Alexandre Koj ve bequeathed to posterity a multitude of tantalizing manuscripts and has finally received the intellectual contextualization and philosophical interpretation he deserves. In his magisterial study Jeff Love uncovers the profound presence of nineteenth-century Russian thought within Koj ve's literary style and his philosophy of negation, finality, perfection, repetition, political community, and radical freedom, such that Koj ve emerges from Dostoevsky's underground as a distinctly Russian Hegelian existentialist thinker worthy of serious consideration today.--Henry W. Pickford, Duke University Koj ve is best known as arguably the best twentieth-century commentator on Hegel. But Love's incisive book shows that he is much more. This is by far the best, most comprehensive overview of Koj ve's thinking in any language and the only one to draw in detail on Koj ve's Russian background. Clearly, elegantly written and argued, it is indispensable reading for anyone interested in the complexity and range of twentieth-century thought.--William Todd Mills, Harry Tuchman Levin Professor of Literature, Harvard University In this excellent intellectual biography, Jeff Love explicates the thought and speculates on the intentions of expatriate Russian Hegelian philosopher Alexandre Koj ve. Love's readings of neglected Russian influences on Koj ve (Dostoevsky and philosophers Vladimir Soloviev and Nikolai Fedorov) and of Koj ve himself are satisfyingly complex, clear, and accessible. His Koj ve is deep, controversial, and a 'philosophical propagandist' still relevant today.--Donna Orwin, University of Toronto Love's thoughtful account and probing interrogation of Koj ve's texts shed light on both the powerful arguments and interpretations that Koj ve presents and the bewildering paradoxes and problems that the outcomes of these arguments leave us with.--James H. Nichols H-Net This lucid book goes far in clarifying the origins of and the problems with Kojeve's 'end of history' thesis.--Choice The Black Circle is an extraordinary study in which hardcore philosophical issues are approached at a cosmic level but lyrically, almost as part of an intimate conversation. Alexandre Koj ve was so thoroughly at home in German and French culture that his origins in yet a third culture have been neglected. In this book, Jeff Love restores Russian contexts to Koj ve's thought on Hegel and the 'end of history.'--Caryl Emerson, Princeton University