French Theory: Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze & Cie et les mutations de la vie intellectuelle aux Etats-Unis

Abstract

Reviewed by: French Theory: Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze & Cie et les mutations de la vie intellectuelle aux Etats-Unis Ioana Uricaru Cusset, François. French Theory: Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze & Cie et les mutations de la vie intellectuelle aux Etats-Unis. Paris: Editions La Découverte, 2003. Pp. 352. From the very title of his book, François Cusset sets the mood: it is about the American incarnation of late twentieth-century French thought, analyzed with a hint of irony and a lot of hip-ness. Cusset launches a massive and important project: tracing the trajectory of poststructuralism in the United States, from its actual discovery through its development in the semi-isolation of academia, to its implications in society, culture, politics and art. Finally, he considers the dichotomous or even plural nature of its destiny, so different in France from the United States and other cultural territories . The book is structured in three segments: "L'Invention d'un corpus" (The making of a body – a body of texts and ideas, that is), "Les Usages de la théorie" (The uses – or rather utilizations – of theory) and "Allers-retours" (literally, "round trips" - conceivably translatable as "comings and goings"). Just as the title of the book simultaneously suggests all the stereotypical connotations of the adjective "French" (from worldly sophistication to unfounded sense of self-worth) and of the noun "Theory" (implicitly opposed to the notion of praxis or pragmatism), the titles of the three sections suggest further ironic stances: the theory is "invented" (as in "fabricated"), it is given a "use" and eventually becomes an object of discontent. In his introduction, Cusset already touches upon controversy by mentioning the book Impostures intellectuelles (Fashionable nonsense), published first in French and then in English by two scientists: the American Alan Sokal and Belgian Jean Bricmont. The book attempts to dismantle the myth of postmodernity, exposing it as pure imposture and anti-humanism – and simultaneously attacks its moral authors: Deleuze, Derrida, Lyotard, Lacan, Guattari, etc. The violent reaction of French intellectuals to this equally violent bashing of their compatriots sets the backdrop for the subsequent pages. The recent passing of Derrida, which catalyzed the desire to re-evaluate the intellectual history of the past four decades, adds to the relevance of Cusset's book. An interesting element that will doubtlessly be noticed by the American reader from the opening of the book's introduction is the apparent disconnect between the cultural and social realities of France, the birthplace of the theorists and their ideas, and the United States, the [End Page 151] place where these ideas became incorporated in an academic, social and political discourse. Indeed, Cusset points out that the debate spawned in the French media by Sokal and Bricmont's book brought to public attention certain "terms of which French readers have only indirect or superficial knowledge, and implications that they would not be able to decipher to their full extent" (15). What are these terms that are unfamiliar to French audiences? No more nor less than the very cornerstones of immediate American academic and social language: Cultural Studies, multiculturalism, deconstruction, political correctness. These fascinating problems of the French not being fully aware of the implications of their cultural export – and of Americans (perhaps) losing some meaning in its translation—are addressed repeatedly and from different angles throughout the book. The author doesn't necessarily probe deeply with his comparisons and analyses, but to my mind, this was not his project to begin with. He is more intent on offering a survey of the phenomena in question and positing a great number of leads that could be followed in as many directions. Moreover, Cusset is obviously writing from a French perspective, perhaps mainly for a French reader, assuming that knowledge of certain terms and events is probably just as obscure for a potential American reader as, for instance, the idea of multiculturalism is for a sizeable portion of the French audience. But this is exactly what can be enthralling for Cusset's reader on this side of the Atlantic: the story of how "French Theory" came to be and what it might have been if Richard Macksey and Eugenio Donato had not organized a...