Debating Imaginal Politics: Dialogues with Chiara Bottici (Social Imaginaries)

Chiara Bottici’s influential work on imaginal politics has provided a rich theoretical framework and incisive critical analysis with which to engage the contemporary world. Rethinking the image as a pictorial space of political activity located between the poles of the creative imagination of the self and social imaginary significations of the social collective, her work has provided a critical new resource not only in the academy, but for activists as well. This collection of essays by leading scholars debates Bottici’s account of imaginal politics from inter-disciplinary perspectives, ranging from critical theory and political philosophy, to psychoanalysis, and sociology. It provides the first systematic and interdisciplinary engagement with the imaginal field. The book is a must-read for all scholars interested in debates on the political, social transformation, social imaginaries, and the imagination, and will appeal to researchers and graduate students across a wide variety of disciplines as well as activists and politically-engaged readers. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents Editorial Introduction Notes References Chapter 1: The Imaginal of Moral Freedom: On Chiara Bottici and Drucilla Cornell1 The Slave Ship and the Freedom We Do Not, and Cannot, See Imaginal Politics and the Radical Imaginary The PoIeses of Freedom or Freedom as a Work of Art (Freiheit als Kuntswerk) Notes References Chapter 2: Rethinking the Imaginal Can Genealogy Become Critique? A Faculty of Imagination or a Context of Interpretation? From the Self to the Social Imaginary The Imaginal: A New Perspective Notes References Chapter 3: Revisiting Imaginal Politics: From Totalitarianism to Post-truth Democracies Notes References Chapter 4: The Ontography of Images: On the Legal Art of the Imaginal Notes References Chapter 5: Bottici to the Letter Lacan and Imaginal Politics The Letter as Imaginal Leviathan Sick References Chapter 6: Traversing Lacan’s Imaginary with Bottici’s Imaginal Notes References Chapter 7: Islamic Politics of Imagination: The Case of the Muslim Brotherhood The Imaginal, Modernity, and Multiple Modernities The Search for Order under Colonialism Islamic Reform and Modern Islamic Imaginaries Hasan al-Banna and the Muslim Brotherhood as a Case of Islamic Politics of Imagination Conclusions Notes REFERENCES Chapter 8: Civilizations in History and Myth: Considerations on the Imaginary and the Imaginal Introduction Myth, the Imaginal and Intercivilizational Engagement Globalization and Multiple Constellations Globalization and Plurality Conclusion Notes References Chapter 9: Debating Imaginal Politics: A Response Notes References Acknowledgements Index About the Editors and Contributors "A critical appraisal of Chiara Bottici's influential work on imaginal politics, this collection uses this rich theoretical framework for incisive analysis, within critical theory and political philosophy, psychoanalysis and sociology"-- Provided by publisher