Theory of the Subject

Alain Badiou is a world-renowned French philosopher, formerly chair of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, France, and founder of the faculty of Philosophy at the University of Paris VIII with Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, and Jean-François Lyotard. Badiou has authored multiple major works of philosophy, many of which have been published in English by Bloomsbury, including Being and Event (2005), Logics of Worlds (2009), and The Immanence of Truths (forthcoming, 2021).Bruno Bosteels is Associate Professor of Romance Studies and Comparative Literature at Cornell University, USA, and author of Badiou and Politics (Forthcoming, Duke University Press).

Theory of the Subject, first published in France in 1982, is without doubt one of Alain Badiou's most important works, laying many of the foundations for his magnum opus, Being and Event. Here Badiou seeks to provide a theory of the subject for Marxism through a study of Lacanian psychoanalysis, offering a major contribution to Marxism, as well as to the larger debate regarding the relationship between psychoanalysis and philosophy. The book also provides a history and theory of structuralism and poststructuralism, a unique evaluation of the achievements of French Maoism during the 1970s and the significance of the events of May 1968, and breathtaking analyses of art and literature. As a theoretical synthesis, the book is extraordinary in terms of its originality, breadth and clarity.This is arguably Badiou's most creative and passionate book, encompassing the entire battlefield of contemporary theory, philosophy and psychoanalysis. Available for the first time in English and now in paperback, this is a must-read for anyone interested in this lively and highly original thinker.

Badiou is widely considered to be France's most important and exciting contemporary thinker. Theory of the Subject is one of his most important and influential works.

Includes a full critical introduction by respected translator, Bruno Bosteels.

Translator's Introduction Author's Preface to the English translation Preface to the French edition 1. The Place of the Subjective 2. The Subject under the Signifiers of Exception 3. Lack and Destruction 4. A Materialist Reversal of Materialism 5. Subjectivation and Subjective Proces 6. Topologies of Ethics Thematic Index Name Index