Book Review

Abstract

Todd McGowan’s Universality and Identity Politics (2020) is a dialectical intervention against the dominance of identity politics in contemporary leftist thought. Through Hegelian dialectics and Lacanian psychoanalysis, McGowan conceives universality not as a positive identity but as a negative process arising from the inherent lack within identity itself. He rejects approaches that hierarchically organize identity categories and redefines universality as a ground of solidarity operating through exclusion and lack. However, McGowan’s theoretical framework does not sufficiently deepen into concrete forms of political organization. At this point, Gramsci’s concept of the “modern prince” and the political potential of the digital sphere reveal the necessity of integrating negative universality with an organizational strategy. The book thus offers a strong theoretical contribution to the left’s effort to reconstruct a universal horizon of struggle.

Keywords

• Universality
• Identity Politics
• Hegemony
• Left
• Politics
• Political Subject

Kitap İncelemesi: Todd McGowan, Universality and Identity Politics Columbia University Press, 2020, 272 sayfa

Abstract

Todd McGowan’ın Evrensellik ve Kimlik Politikası (2020) adlı kitabı, kimlik politikalarının egemenliğinde şekillenen çağdaş sol düşünceye karşı diyalektik bir müdahaledir. McGowan, Hegelci diyalektik ve Lacancı psikanaliz aracılığıyla evrenselliği pozitif bir özdeşlik değil, kimliğin içkin eksikliğinden doğan negatif bir süreç olarak kavrar. Kimlik kategorilerini hiyerarşik olarak düzenleyen yaklaşımları reddeder ve evrenselliği, dışlama ve eksiklik üzerinden işleyen bir ortaklık zemini olarak yeniden tanımlar. Ancak McGowan’ın bu teorik çerçevesi, somut politik örgütlenme biçimlerine dair yeterince derinleşmez. Bu noktada, Gramsci’nin “modern prens” kavramı ve dijital alanın politik potansiyeli, negatif evrenselliğin örgütsel bir stratejiyle bütünleşmesinin zorunluluğunu gösterir. Kitap, solun evrensel bir mücadele ufkunu yeniden kurma çabasına güçlü bir teorik katkı sunar.

Keywords

• Evrensellik
• Kimlik Politikasi
• Hegemonya
• Sol
• Politika
• Politik Özne

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