Requiem for French Theory

FrenchTheory is due for an insider critique, and in Requiem for French Theory,Aymeric Monville and Gabriel Rockhill do just that. Drawing upon decades ofstudying French philosophy in Paris, they build upon the best Marxistcriticisms of postmodernism, while further developing them by situatingpostmodern theory within the global political economy of knowledge andU.S.-driven intellectual imperialism. The result is a broad dialogue ontopics ranging from international class struggle and the dissemination ofideology, to fascism, identity politics, dialectics, actually existingsocialism, and among others. Requiem for French Theory soundly criticizes this tradition’s chameleonicideological permutations under new names, such as postcolonial thought,decolonial theory, new materialism, and other trendsetting discourses. But italso reveals how these theoretical developments are all part of a broaderanticommunist cultural front. Most importantly, Monville and Rockhill developthe positive project of anti-imperialist Marxism as the ultimate antidote toFrench theoretical sophistry. Far from indulging in the political defeatismcharacteristic of the Western Marxist critiques of postmodernism, thisintellectual exchange issues a clarion call for revitalizing revolutionarytheory and putting it into practice.