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Chiara Bottici

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Chiara Bottici
Chiara Bottici
InstitutionsThe New School
Main interests
Political philosophy, aesthetics, gender theory, psychoanalysis

Chiara Bottici (born 24 January 1975) is an Italian philosopher, critical theorist and historian of philosophy.

Biography

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Bottici is Professor of Philosophy and Director of Gender Studies at The New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College, New York.[1] Bottici studied philosophy at the University of Florence, then obtained a PhD from the European University Institute in 2004. After a post-doctorate at the SUM (Istituto Italiano di Science Umane) under the guidance of Roberto Esposito, she taught at the University of Frankfurt, subsequently joining the faculty of The New School for Social Research, where she has been teaching since 2010.[2]

Bottici is known for her work on how images and imagination affect politics and her feminist experimental writings.[3] Her work has explored the role that images and imagination play in politics. She is the author of a variety of texts, most recently A Feminist Mythology (Bloomsbury Academic 2022) and Anarchafeminism (Bloomsbury Academic 2021). With Jacob Blumenfeld and Simon Critchley, she also edited The Anarchist Turn (Pluto Press, 2013).

Major works

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Bottici's philosophical work is devoted to exploring the politics of imagination in its different aspects, from a general theory about the role of images in politics to more specific inquiries into sexism, heteronormativity, ethnonationalism, Eurocentrism, Islamophobia, racism, and the coloniality of power.

Political analogies and metaphors

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Bottici's work examined the history and function of the metaphor of the state as a person within modern European political philosophy and reflected on its fate in the contemporary epoch, a time in which challenges to the traditional notion of state sovereignty question the idea of clear-cut boundaries, and therefore the possibility of drawing any analogy between states and individuals.[4] Bottici's first book, Men and States: Rethinking the Domestic Analogy in the Global Age (Italian edition ETS 2004,[5] Eng. trans. Palgrave 2009[6]) offered a systematic reconstruction of the role that the analogy between states and individuals has played in European modern political philosophy and in contemporary theories of globalization, where the modern sovereign state is often taken as the culminating point of political life and where the gendered dimension of political thinking is emphasized.[7][8]

Political myth

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One of Bottici's specific contributions to social philosophy and critical theory is her philosophy of political myth developed in her work A Philosophy of Political Myth. By offering a critique in the form of a genealogy, following Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals, Bottici provides a critical philosophical framework for the concept of political myth, explaining why political myths are a crucial ingredient of modern politics.[9] Drawing from Hans Blumenberg's concept of Work on Myth (Arbeit am Mythos),[10] Bottici shows myths are not objects given once and for all, but rather processes, in which their reception is an integral part of their elaboration.[11][12]

Duncan Kelly states that Bottici's philosophy of political myth provides a framework within which the study of myth can be usefully deployed "and in this she has performed a useful work of Lockean philosophical underlaboring."[13]

In 2006, Bottici started to apply her philosophy of political myth to specific case studies, collaborating with sociologist Benoît Challand. The Myth of the Clash of Civilizations follows the interdisciplinary spirit of the early Frankfurt school by combining philosophy, psychoanalysis, and empirical research to examine the roots of Islamophobia in contemporary societies, particularly in the post 9/11 Western world.[14][15] Bottici and Challand argue that the image of a clash between Islam and the West is a political myth because it is a self-fulfilling prophecy nourished by centuries of Orientalism, Occidentalism, and identity politics as rooted in the history of European colonialism.[16]

In Imagining Europe: Myth, Memory and Identity, Bottici and Challand applied their critique of ethnocentrism to Europe itself. For Bottici and Challand, the concept of Europe relies on a specific politics of imagination where mythical and historical narratives are most often intermingled. Examples include the idea that Europe was born out of the Greek Civilization, the belief in an intrinsically Christian Europe, and finally, the concept of Europe as the cradle of modernity.[17][18] They argue that among Europe's founding myths, the most powerful ones are those that rely on geopolitical maps and other artefacts of the imagination, such as the division between Eastern and Western Europe or the idea of a fortress Europe.[19][20]

Imaginal politics

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Bottici's early work––as well as her multidisciplinary engagement with art and psychoanalysis[21]––culminated in Imaginal Politics,[22] a genealogical reconstruction of the concept of imagination in European history and a systematic reflection on the link between politics and our capacity to imagine. Whereas most philosophical theories focus on imagination understood as an individual faculty that we possess or on the social imaginary understood as the social background in which we live, Bottici proposes the concept of the imaginal as an "in-between" third alternative.[23][24] The imaginal, defined as the space made of images, of representations that are also presences in themselves, acts both as the result of an individual faculty as well as the product of the social context. In contrast to the term "imaginary," which maintains its connotation of unreality or alienation, as in Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytic theory, the "imaginal" does not make any ontological assumption as to the status of images, and is therefore a more malleable tool for thinking about images in an age of virtuality.[25][26][27][28][29]

Political theorist John Grant compared Bottici's approach to the social imaginary to that of Charles Taylor and Michael Warner, arguing that, although her work is an improvement on Taylor's understanding of the social imaginary as a mere "background," Bottici fails through her dismissal of ideology in its negative form, resulting in "an abandonment of the very dialectical mode that could have reinvigorated her work."[30] However, writer and media scholar McKenzie Wark emphasized that Bottici's philosophy of the imaginal opens the space for thinking about what precedes the division between real and unreal as well as that between the individual and the social, and, as such, it is a welcome contribution to thinking about the destiny of images in a time when the technological transformations of capitalism have tightened the link between politics and the images to such a degree that "they are no longer what mediates our doing politics but rather what risks doing politics in our stead."[31]

Bottici's account on imaginal politics is critically examined in the collection, Debating Imaginal Politics: Dialogues with Chiara Bottici (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers 2021).

Transindividuality

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Bottici's work on the imaginal, as this third alternative between the individual and the social reflects her efforts to move towards a new social ontology.[32] In a 2017 interview, Bottici states that "to understand the present, we have to understand how we actually got here, which other roads we missed on the way, and thus, also, possibly whether we can get off this path," explaining her work as animated by the question, "where is the new coming from?"[33] Drawing from her work on Baruch Spinoza and on Etienne Balibar's reading of Spinoza's Ethics, Bottici embraced the concept of the transindividual, contributing to the development of a philosophy of transindividuality.[34] In a 2017 seminar on mass psychology and Trumpism with Judith Butler, Bottici emphasized the ongoing production and receipt of the political image as a mode of the ongoing production and receipt of the political self.[35][36][37]

Anarcha-feminism

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The philosophy of transindividuality, according to which individuals must be understood not as objects, but as continuous and contingent processes of association that happen at the inter-, infra-, and supra-individual level, is central to Bottici's feminist writings.[38] Her recent work in this area elaborates a contemporary theory of anarcha-feminism,[39] which argues against a one single principle (or arché) that explains gender oppression, and emphasizes ongoing interrogations of specific intersections of class, race, empire, sexuality, hetero- and cis- normativity.[40] Bottici connects intersectional feminism and the anarcho-feminism of the past to argue that "another woman is possible."[41] As Bottici argues, "bodies are plural and plural is their oppression," therefore anarcha-feminism is a philosophic methodology for going beyond gendered racial and social division and "thus also, in a way, beyond feminism itself."[42]

Bottici's editorial work and writing for The New School's Public Seminar,[43] an online forum dedicated to creating a global intellectual commons, and her multiple performances in the global Night of Philosophy project,[44] founded by philosopher and curator Mériam Korichi, reflect Bottici's engagement with philosophy as a critical practice as well as a practice of critique.

Feminist experimental writings

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Along with her academic and philosophical work, Bottici is also known for her creative writing, particularly her feminist experimental writings. Whereas Bottici's academic work provides a philosophy of the imaginal, her experimental writings put forward an imaginal philosophy, that is, a form of polystylism where literary images convey philosophical ideas.[45]

An important part of her work in this area was devoted to retelling the myths of femininity from the point of view of contemporary time, transforming figures of the old patriarchal mythology, such as Sheherazade, Ariadne, and Europa, into feminist symbols.[46] Bottici's retelling of the myth of the "city of women" recalls Monique Wittig's Les guerrilieres, as well as other works in the écriture féminine tradition. Writer and critic Gabriele Pedulla described Bottici's reappropriation of the myths of femininity as a "magic that breaks the order," a magic that reminds us of the work of Massimo Bontempelli, the Italian theorist of magic realism and inspirer of Italo Calvino, but also the "euphoric rupture" of surrealist literature.[47]

Bottici's creative practice has extended to Anglophone poetry and the art of the libretto, including her collaboration with composer and multimedia artist Jean-Baptiste Barriere.[48] A preview of the opera, titled "The Art of Change," was performed in 2019 at The Festival of the New.[49][50]

References

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  1. ^ "Chiara Bottici | The New School for Social Research".
  2. ^ Bottici, Chiara (2017-03-01). "From Italy to New York, via Prague: The passion for critique". Philosophy & Social Criticism. 43 (3): 318. doi:10.1177/0191453716675542. ISSN 0191-4537. S2CID 152039203.
  3. ^ "The Festival of New: The Art of Change Opera Prelude". thefestivalofnew2019.sched.com. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  4. ^ Bottici, Chiara (2003). "The Domestic Analogy and the Kantian Project of Perpetual Peace". Journal of Political Philosophy. 11 (4): 392–410. doi:10.1046/j.1467-9760.2003.00183.x. ISSN 1467-9760.
  5. ^ Bottici, Chiara (2004). Uomini e Stati - Chiara Bottici. ISBN 978-88-467-1117-5.
  6. ^ Bottici, Chiara (2009). Men and States - Rethinking the Domestic Analogy in a Global Age | C. Bottici | Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1057/9780230233812. ISBN 978-1-349-30246-8.
  7. ^ Bottici, Chiara (2009), "Epilogue: The Domestic Analogy in the Global Era", Men and States, Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 133–141, doi:10.1057/9780230233812_5, ISBN 978-1-349-30246-8
  8. ^ Rolf, Jan Niklas (2012-06-01). "Book Review: Chiara Bottici, Men and States: Rethinking the Domestic Analogy in a Global Age". Millennium. 40 (3): 681–683. doi:10.1177/0305829812441900. ISSN 0305-8298. S2CID 147462973.
  9. ^ Steele, Meili (2010-10-25). "Review essay: The importance of myth for political philosophy (Under consideration: Chiara Bottici's A Philosophy of Political Myth)". Philosophy & Social Criticism. 36 (9): 1137–1141. doi:10.1177/0191453710379033. ISSN 0191-4537. S2CID 147146267.
  10. ^ Blumenberg, Hans (15 October 1985). Work on Myth. Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought. MIT Press. ISBN 9780262022156. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  11. ^ Savage, Robert (2011-08-01). "Review". Thesis Eleven. 106 (1): 133–135. doi:10.1177/0725513611417385. ISSN 0725-5136. S2CID 220990186.
  12. ^ Martin, Craig (2009). "A Philosophy of Political Myth". Method & Theory in the Study of Religion. 21 (3): 379–382. doi:10.1163/157006809x460374. ISSN 0943-3058.
  13. ^ Kelly, Duncan (2009). Bottici, Chiara (ed.). "The Banality of Myth". The Review of Politics. 71 (1): 154–156. doi:10.1017/S0034670509000217. ISSN 0034-6705. JSTOR 25655801. S2CID 144937822.
  14. ^ Bottici, Chiara; Challand, Benoît (2006-08-01). "Rethinking Political Myth: The Clash of Civilizations as a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy". European Journal of Social Theory. 9 (3): 315–336. doi:10.1177/1368431006065715. ISSN 1368-4310. S2CID 143437428.
  15. ^ Bottici, Chiara; Challand, Benoît (2012). The myth of the clash of civilizations. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-57327-6. OCLC 794329546.
  16. ^ Volpi, Frédéric (2012-01-01). "The Myth of the Clash of Civilizations By Chiara Bottici and Benoît Challand". Journal of Islamic Studies. 23 (1): 120–122. doi:10.1093/jis/etr047. ISSN 0955-2340.
  17. ^ Bottici, Chiara; Challand, Benoit (2013), "Myths of Europe", Imagining Europe, Cambridge University Press, pp. 87–112, doi:10.1017/cbo9781139059015.007, ISBN 978-1-139-05901-5
  18. ^ Bottici, Chiara; Challand, Benoît (2009). "Introduction". Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society. 1 (2): 1–8. doi:10.3167/jemms.2009.010201. ISSN 2041-6938. JSTOR 43049329.
  19. ^ Wilhelm, Jan Philipp (2016-11-04). "Rev. of Imagining Europe: Myth, Memory and Identity". Connections. ISSN 2196-5323. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  20. ^ Hurcombe, Martin (2016-11-16). "Imaging Europe: Myth, Memory, and Identity". The European Legacy. 21 (8): 858–859. doi:10.1080/10848770.2016.1192778. ISSN 1084-8770. S2CID 148301879.
  21. ^ "The Philosophy and Psychoanalysis of the Image". Public Seminar. 2017-01-13. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  22. ^ Bottici, Chiara (2019-03-30). Imaginal politics : images beyond imagination and the imaginary. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-15779-7. OCLC 1102387177.
  23. ^ Knöbl, Wolfgang (2019-09-03). "Debating the Political Imaginary: A Critical Assessment". Social Epistemology. 33 (5): 452–461. doi:10.1080/02691728.2019.1652864. ISSN 0269-1728. S2CID 210588676.
  24. ^ Ritzen, Rob (2017). "Imaginal Interventions: An Interview with Chiara Bottici". Krisis: Journal for Contemporary Philosophy. 2: 42–49.
  25. ^ Hengehold, Laura (2014-08-27). "Review of Imaginal Politics: Images Beyond Imagination and the Imaginary". Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. ISSN 1538-1617.
  26. ^ "Review of Chiara Bottici, Imaginal Politics: Images Beyond Imagination and the Imaginary". some notes. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  27. ^ Paetkau, J. (2015-08-26). "The Politics of the Image". Useful Illusions. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  28. ^ Romani, Anna (2015-02-16). "Chiara Bottici. Imaginal Politics. Images Beyond Imagination and the Imaginary. New York, Columbia University Press, 2014, pp. 272". Testo e Senso (in Italian) (15). ISSN 2036-2293.
  29. ^ "Kreativitätsroutinen im Buch | Linksnet". linksnet.de. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  30. ^ Grant, John (2014-01-23). "On the critique of political imaginaries". European Journal of Political Theory. 13 (4): 408–426. doi:10.1177/1474885113519259. ISSN 1474-8851. S2CID 145793585.
  31. ^ Wark, McKenzie (2015-11-22). "Imaginal Politics". Public Seminar. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  32. ^ Bottici, Chiara (2019-09-03). "Imagination, Imaginary, Imaginal: Towards a New Social Ontology?". Social Epistemology. 33 (5): 433–441. doi:10.1080/02691728.2019.1652861. ISSN 0269-1728. S2CID 204393475.
  33. ^ Ritzen, Rob (2017). "Imaginal Interventions: An Interview with Chiara Bottici". Krisis: Journal for Contemporary Philosophy. 2: 42–49.
  34. ^ Bottici, Chiara (2018-01-02). "From the Transindividual to the Imaginal: A Response to Balibar's 'Philosophies of the Transindividual: Spinoza, Marx, Freud'". Australasian Philosophical Review. 2 (1): 69–76. doi:10.1080/24740500.2018.1514969. ISSN 2474-0500. S2CID 171947946.
  35. ^ "Mass Psychology in the Age of Trumpism: Chiara Bottici, Judith Butler, Jamieson Webster -- Das Unbehagen". Das Unbehagen. 3 May 2017.
  36. ^ Bottici, Chiara (2016-11-18). "The Mass Psychology of Trumpism". Public Seminar. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  37. ^ "Rendering Unconscious - Trapart Books, Films and Editions". store.trapart.net. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  38. ^ Bottici, Chiara (September 2017). "Bodies in plural". Thesis Eleven. 142 (1): 91–111. doi:10.1177/0725513617727793. ISSN 0725-5136. S2CID 148911963.
  39. ^ Bottici, Chiara (2018-11-15). "Nuit de la philo : pour un AnarchA-féminisme". Libération.fr (in French). Retrieved 2020-04-15.
  40. ^ "Anarcafeminismo | Chiara Bottici – Reporte SP" (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  41. ^ "Anarcha-féminisme et l'ontologie du transindividuel" (PDF). La Deleuziana - Online Journal of Philosophy.
  42. ^ Bottici, Chiara (2019-12-02). "Anarchafeminism". Public Seminar. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  43. ^ "About". Public Seminar. Retrieved 2020-04-15.
  44. ^ "Night of Philosophy". www.nightofphilosophy.com. Retrieved 2020-04-15.
  45. ^ Barilli, Renato. "Bottici, un avvincente polistilismo | Pronto Barilli" (in Italian). Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  46. ^ "Per tre miti, forse quattro | :: Manni Editori". mannieditori.it. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  47. ^ Pedullà, Gabriele (29 January 2017). "Le magia che rompe l'ordine". Manni+. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  48. ^ "The Art of Change Opera Multimedia show". www.petals.org. Retrieved 2020-04-15.
  49. ^ "The Festival of New: The Art of Change Opera Prelude". thefestivalofnew2019.sched.com. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  50. ^ Barrière, Jean-Baptiste (2019-09-20), "The Art of Change Opera", a teaser, retrieved 2020-04-27
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