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Catherine Malabou and the Currency of HegelianismAuthor(s): Lisabeth DuringReviewed work(s):Source: Hypatia, Vol. 15, No. 4, Contemporary French Women Philosophers (Autumn, 2000),pp. 190-195Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of Hypatia, Inc.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3810685 .

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CatherineMalabou ndthe

CurrencyfHegelianism

LISABETHDURING

CatherineMalabou saprofessorfphilosophytParis-Nanterre. collaborator

and studentof JacquesDerrida,herworksharessomeof his interest n rigorous

protocols freading, ndawillingnessoattend otheundercurrentsfover-readnd

"tooamiliar"exts.But,as shepointsout, thisorientation asshared yHegelhim-

self.Arguing gainstHeidegger,Kojeve,andother ritics f Hegel,thebooknwhich

thisIntroductionppears utsHegelbackon themapof thepresent.

It is a bravepersonwho will take G W. F Hegel on his own terms in this

day and age. It is, afterall, 50 yearsat least afterMartinHeidegger'sgloomy

warningsabout the "end of metaphysics."'And at least 30 yearssince Gilles

Deleuze and Michel Foucault first insisted that philosophy would have to

choosebetween"difference" nd"dialectic,"f it were to escapethe banalityof

a teleological justificationof history.2 n the United States, anyonewho stillsees vitality in Hegel mayfind themselves uncomfortablyclose to the right-

wing apologeticsof a FrancisFukuyama.3 orwhat are we to make of Hegel's

supposedannouncement of the "end of history"? t is too easy to hear in it

the accents of resignationor prematurereconciliation,even if Hegel himself

would be the last to be reconciled to the globalvictoryof market-driven"de-

mocracy" n the aftermathof 1989. Committed to the foresightof the dia-

lectic, for which historyis an extemalizationof the quietly uninterrupted ife

of the Idea,can there be anything genuinely "new" or Hegel, any event forwhich the concept isnot alreadyprepared,any historythat doesn'thappen,as

it were,twice?And if there is no spaceforthe new, is there in factanyspacefor

the present?GeorgesBataillefantasizedabout the immense "weariness" f the

Hegelian standpoint.4Heideggerdismissedit more bluntly:Hegel's presentmoment is lost in eternity;it is not temporalat all; indeed all his "times"are

Hypatiavol.

15,no. 4

(Fall 2000)©

byLisabeth

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LisabethDuring

homogenous, empty (Heidegger1984,391-98). BecauseHegel could not con-

ceive thepresentexcept as a vanishing "point," t was impossibleforhim tobelieve that anythingreallycouldhappen"in time."Everything s repetition,

recycling:the motions that feel like revolution,overturning,reversal,arenot

new. They have alwaysalreadybeen traced.Calling things to mind, if that is

one wayof describingknowledge,is, then, only recalling.Catherine Malabouacceptsthe intransigenceof these questions.Is it too

late forHegel?Is any readingof Hegel, no matter how interesting,simplyan

exercise in nostalgia?Herrecent book,TheFutureof Hegel:Plasticite,Tempor-

alite,Dialectique1996),makesa claim about

Hegel'splacein

historythatrisks

disturbinga powerfulprecursor.Alexandre Kojeve, who was almost single-

handedlyresponsible or FrenchHegelianism,believes asMalaboudoes in the

"actualitethe timeliness)of the Hegeliandialectic. Yetwhile Kojeve'spotentmix of Marxist andHeideggerean deas made it possibleto readHegel with a

modernistconscience, his influentialinterpretationof the Phenomenologyf

Spiritas an announcement of the "end of history" oreclosedanyfuturetrans-

formationsof the Hegelianmachinery Kojeve1968).Toapproach he fulfilled

spiritof

Hegel, Kojevefamouslydecreed,is to

stepinto the shoes of the

sage,the one who ceasesto act, the one for whom change is arrested.5Bataille will

addthat to be"sovereign"n the limited sense ofHegelianmasterys to be dead

to suffering,perhapsalso immuneto ecstasyand shock (Bataille 1990). Al-

thoughwe are told that the dialectic is a logic of unceasingalteration,which

Hegel baptized"negativity," urelyonly a being who has transcended initude

wouldbe able to see thatdialecticallogic in history.Forthoseenmeshed in thecoils of history, the events of politics, even individual life, seem without

meaning,onlyrandomand indifferent.

Politically as well as philosophically,then, it is a dangerousthing to do,to situateyourselftoo intimatelywithin the dialecticalmovements and con-

cepts of the Hegelian system,to know them fromthe inside out. It is betterto be protectedby a selective "borrowing"hat sifts the wheat from the chaff,that exports only the moreacceptablebits fromHegel. The Hegel which late

modernitycan claim for itself might include the portraitof desire or the un-

happyconsciousness.We mightfindaplaceamongourprejudices orthe com-munitarianintuitions and the distrustof

liberalism,or the cult of

Antigoneand her tragic anomaly,for the critique of immediacy,or maybethe abusedirectedat ImmanuelKant andhis "formalism." oesn'tHegelneed a scrupu-lous purification-even licensing as dramatica cleansingas that providedbyJohn McDowell in his widely-readMindandWorld 1994)-before the mod-em reader can confront his ideas, and, in particular,his language,without

wincing?

Malabou hinksotherwise.To her the dialectic is a processof "plasticity,"movement whereformationanddissolution,novelty andanticipation,are in

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continual interplay-in the "time"of the worldas in the "time"of individual

life. Hegelian thought has futuritybecause t has plasticity.As she interpretsit, the Hegelian futureis not a characterlessvoid-a spaceof unfilledtime-

but a horizon which will preserveeven though it abrogatesand takes away.If "plasticity"s one of the meaningsof futurity n Hegel, it is also one of the

best translationsof Hegel'sdifficult idea that the "concept"needs "self-deter-

mination"and"self-differentiation."ven the notorious"Aufhebung"French

"relve")is, on Malabou's eading,another alibi for the future.Against Hegel,BatailleandTheodorAdorno have accusedthe systemof a symptomatic ear

of loss, a speculativehungerto absorball. There aremanyrecognizable raitsin theirportraitof aphilosophicaleconomytoo committed to its reserves, oo

closed to the anomalousand the singular.6But the virtue of Malabou'sattrac-

tive Hegel is that, without glossingover anyof the most intractableconceptsin the Hegelian repertory, he can save Hegel from such a fate.

"Plastic"-borrowed from the lexicon of sculpture,the "plastic"art par

excellence-implies mobility, molding,formingandflexibility-"a speculative

souplessewhich is neither passionnor passivity." t is a generoustrait, not a

pettyorself-protectiveone. But it alsosuggestsa certaindynamitethat sharesits name (the plasticbomb). She wonders f her readingof Hegel, drivenby a

belief that the Hegelian"future"s bothopenandimaginable,will strikeothers

as"explosive."In her account of her intention to producea deconstructive reading,a

Hegel subjectedto the very metamorphoseshis dialectical writingputs into

motion, Malaboudescribeshow she chose the notion ofplasticityin the belief

it might act as the "defectivecornerstone"causingthe self-reliantsystematic

artificeto tremble. But in fact neither plasticitynor deconstructionprove tounsettle the Hegelian text in the wayJacquesDerridahad taughther to ex-

pect. Is it that Hegel-that thinker of breaks and repairs-is simplytoo re-

silient, too open himself to the wayan argumentmovesnot justfrom bottom

to top, but fromside to center, andcorer to comer?Malabouprefers o give

Hegel the credit. One may also wonder if it is the deconstructivescenario

which is lessrewarding han she wouldhave liked to believe. Derrida'sHegel-in Glas(1986), in "Lepuitset la pyramide"1982b), in the essayon "Ousia

andgramme" 1982a) which she analysesin her book-is a trickyandfertilethinker,not a prophetof ontological closureor historicaltriumphalism.But

Derrida's xiomsof reading,asMalabousummarizeshem in her introduction

to herown work,areless interestingasa program han the insightsforwhich

they are meant to account. Malaboubetraysa moment of self-doubtwhen

reflectingon the resultsof her own inquiry:has she finishedupon the side of

a philosophyof cure, of reparationand reconciliation, rather than unending

ruptureand untidy edges?Can she restcontent with the productof her own

scrupulousand inventive

reading?Is her

readingneither

"explosive,"as she

calls it, nor "transgressive,"s some studentsof Derridawouldexpect?

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It is the fidelityof Malabou'sHegel which leaves the most lastingimpres-sion from her work:a

Hegelas

suppleand ambitiousas the readerhe asksfor.

Malabou,ascholarlyreaderof the historyofphilosophy,putsherreputationon

the line by identifyingher very contemporaryperspectivewith Hegel's.She

makes a case that should strike many as persuasive, claiming that Hegel's

thoughtis "relevant,"imely,itsdesignson us unfinishedand still to be under-

stood. Forher, Hegel is not an interesting"maitre" orth a passionatebut ir-

ritatedconversation(ashe is forIrigaray7),or a sourceofphilosophicalguide-lines who canbeabsorbedand then movedbeyond(ashe is forJudithButler8),butsomeonewho must be followed "to the

verylimits"

(jusqu'aubout),to the

extremities of his unexpected thought, in orderthat the risk andchallengeof

his ideas be recognizedand aspired o.

If such a result is not enough to align Catherine Malabou to any particu-lar"school"of Frenchphilosophical thought, it is morethan enough to make

her gracefulandgenerouswritinga novelty in the presentlandscapeof Hegel

scholarship.Her commitment to a "plastic" eadingfollows not only Hegel'sown instructions,butthe suggestionof another influentialFrenchphilosopherfrom the

generationand circle of

Derrida,Jean-LucNancy. Nancyantici-

patesher in emphasizing he contributionof the readerasa"repetition"which

restores the "plasticity" f the author'sexposition. (His Laremarquepecula-tive[1973] introducesthis understandingof the term.) Plasticreading,which

Hegel identifieswith the ideal philosophicalattitude,releases the force and

inexhaustibilityof the "content"from its contingent and rigidform:it is as

much anact ofreceptivityas a formativeprocess.Refashionedandrecuperated

bythe plasticindividual,the life of philosophy(which iswhatHegel, we must

remember,meant

bythe

"concept")sfreedfrom

anymoribundor

"congealed"thoughtstructure,whether that be the artificial"fixityof the proposition,"as

Hegel maintained,or our more self-consciousyet no less provisionalhabits

of mind.

Plasticity,Nancy and Malabouagree,is the trueproductof the notorious

Hegelian Aufhebung.Seen in this way, the Aufhebungmarks the differencebetween a dependent, self-enclosedthoughtand a thoughtof transformation,of"futurity."fspeculativethoughtisplasticrather hanrecollective,transcen-

dental, ormerely

"critical,"t is because it is a movement that dissolvesand

restores, racturesandreweaves, n the samewaythat plasticityallows the or-

gan to regainits resilience or the work of art to makeand remake the possi-bilities of its material. It is this notion of plasticity-not so much a notion asa sign of generousreading-which tells us less about the secret and trouble-some"meaning" f Hegel'sphilosophy-something neither I norMalabouas-sumeto be the desiredgoal-and moreabout what it would be like to carryouta Hegelian "reading" f philosophy.Here we can understandwhy Malabouthinks it is so importantto defendthe "future" f Hegel and to resist his rele-

gationto the museumofdeadonto-theologicalmonuments.Her work ntends

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to do something more than add anotherpiece to the body of Hegel scholar-

ship.Ithasno interestin the condescendingwayin which the presentbelievesit can "update"or appropriate or its own ends a past form of thought. The

Futureof Hegel belongs not to the commemoration of Hegel but to the pro-

longedeffects of Hegel's thought as it continues to addressus. Inspiredbyher

teacher and collaboratorDerrida,Malabou sees a way to transformand pre-serve (auffieben) the sort of readingwhich Hegel's writingteaches us how to

want, and whose sophisticationand clarityhas rarelybeen recognizedas ef-

fectively as here.

NOTES

1.Thenotes hatbecameHeidegger'sssay"UberwindungerMetaphysik"omefrom heyears1936-1946;Being ndTime 1927)proclaimedhe endofthe"historyof ontology"in orderto pose in aradicalandrenewed fashion"thequestionof being."SeeHeidegger1985)and(1996).

2. See,on this,Descombes1980).3. SeeFukuyama1982).4. Bataille peaks fHegel'smmenseatiguen Bataille1987).SeealsoDerrida

(1978),andon the inescapabilityfweariness, lanchot 1993).5.Thisconclusionsimplicitn almost verypassagefKojive'sectures, utsee

especiallyKojeve 1981, 95-99, 167-68).6. ForAdomoonHegel eeAdomo(1993); orBatailleee Bataille1987;1990).7. SeeIrigaray1987).8. SeeButler 1987;1997).

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