The Unraveled Plot: Thinking Literature, Community, and Politics with Jean-Luc Nancy

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Aukje van Rooden (Assistant Professor of Philosophy of Art and Culture, University of Amsterdam)

The Unraveled Plot

Thinking Literature, Community, and Politics with Jean-Luc Nancy

Aukje van Rooden (Assistant Professor of Philosophy of Art and Culture, University of Amsterdam)

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Hardback

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English

State University of New York Press
01 October 2025

Literature: history & criticism; Deconstructionism, Structuralism, Post-structuralism; Philosophy: aesthetics; Social & political philosophy

Series: SUNY series in Contemporary French Thought

Explores the connection between Jean-Luc Nancy's political works on community and his works on art and literature, thus providing not only a comprehensive introduction into Nancy’s work but also a broader examination of the social and political role of literature.

What is the connection between the work of community and the work of literature? And in what way is literature implied in Jean-Luc Nancy's ""inoperative"" community? The Unraveled Plot investigates the relation between two domains that have only separately been addressed in the reception of Nancy's work: his political works on community on the one hand and his works on art and literature on the other. Lucidly traversing Nancy's entire oeuvre, Aukje van Rooden offers not only a comprehensive introduction into Nancy’s work but also a much broader reflection on the social and political role of literature. Situating Nancy's thought within a larger philosophical tradition leading from German Romanticism to contemporary social and political theory, she offers new insights, with and beyond Nancy, on the forming of communities and how literature can play a role.

By: Aukje van Rooden (Assistant Professor of Philosophy of Art and Culture University of Amsterdam)
Imprint: State University of New York Press
Country of Publication: United States [Currently unable to ship to USA: see Shipping Info]
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 27mm
Weight: 544g
ISBN: 9798855803938
Series: SUNY series in Contemporary French Thought
Pages: 310
Publication Date: 01 October 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Abbreviations of Works by Jean-Luc Nancy Introduction: Literature, Community, and Politics 1. The Romantic Heritage German Romanticism The Romantic Notion of Work The Romantic Work as a Model Without Model Romantic Politics The Reverse Side of Romanticism (Nancy, Lacoue-Labarthe) The Future Is Fragmentary 2. The Work of Community Myth Interrupted (Nancy, Aristotle, Balzac) Myth Without Mythology Rethinking Communism Rethinking Democracy (Nancy, Heidegger) Sharing Community in and as Literature (Nancy, Blanchot) The Fable Becoming the Real World (Nancy, Nietzsche, Lyotard) 3. An Ontological Poetics Nancy's Poetics Rethinking Art (Nancy, Hegel) A Poetics of Everydayness (Nancy, Heidegger) Singular Plural Poetics Poetic Language Language Beyond Language (Nancy, Derrida) 4. Literature's Unworked Force The Scope and Limit of Nancy's Poetics The Distinctive Force of Literature (Nancy, Rancière) A Certain Way of Speaking The Exigency of ""Lying"" (Nancy, Arendt, Derrida) Literature as Unworked Performative The Language of Fiction (Nancy, Blanchot) Being Responsible for Literature Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

Aukje van Rooden is philosopher and literary theorist working in the Philosophy Department of the University of Amsterdam. She is the author of, notably, Literature, Autonomy and Commitment and coeditor of Re-treating Religion: Deconstructing Christianity with Jean-Luc Nancy.

Reviews for The Unraveled Plot: Thinking Literature, Community, and Politics with Jean-Luc Nancy

""This is a book people will want to read. It fills a gap in the secondary literature on Nancy's work, which has tended to concentrate on his work as a political philosopher, first, and his work on art, second. Van Rooden takes seriously the work of thinking through the relations between politics, community, and literature—all three—in Nancy's work."" — Anne O’Byrne, Stony Brook University, the State University of New York