Specters of Liberation

Specters of Liberation Synopsis

Advocates a new existential and political coalition among critical and postmodern social theorists and among critical gender, race, and class theorists, in dissent from the New World Order, to raise specters of liberation and empower radical democratic change.

Specters of Liberation argues that dissent against the New World Order is possible through a collaboration of critical postmodern social theory and existential philosophy. It integrates those Western, Eastern European, and postcolonial approaches to democratic theory that provide the best alternatives to today's nationalist and racial conflicts and offer the best prospects for a free world. Rigorously argued and written in an impassioned voice, it examines multidimensional specters of liberation and resources for democratic change after 1989. Inspired by the persistence of the Marcusean Great Refusal, Matustik takes up a wide variety of issues, ranging from the encounter between critical social theory and existential philosophy found in the works of Herbert Marcuse to the contributions of Czech existential phenomenology to democratic theory, with attention to the works of Havel.