The Excessive Subject (PDF)

In The Excessive Subject: A New Theory of Social Change,
Molly Anne Rothenberg uncovers an innovative theory of social
change implicit in the writings of radical social theorists, such
as Pierre Bourdieu, Michel de Certeau, Judith Butler, Ernesto
Laclau, and Slavoj ?i?ek. Through case studies of these writers'
work, Rothenberg illuminates how this new theory calls into
question currently accepted views of social practices, subject
formation, democratic interaction, hegemony, political solidarity,
revolutionary acts, and the ethics of alterity.

Finding a common dissatisfaction with the dominant paradigms of
social structures in the authors she discusses, Rothenberg goes on
to show that each of these thinkers makes use of Lacan's
investigations of the causality of subjectivity in an effort to
find an alternative paradigm. Labeling this paradigm 'extimate
causality', Rothenberg demonstrates how it produces a
nondeterminacy, so that every subject bears some excess;
paradoxically, this excess is what structures the social field
itself. Whilst other theories of social change, subject formation,
and political alliance invariably conceive of the elimination of
this excess as necessary to their projects, the theory of extimate
causality makes clear that it is ineradicable. To imagine otherwise
is to be held hostage to a politics of fantasy. As she examines the
importance as well as the limitations of theories that put extimate
causality to work, Rothenberg reveals how the excess of the subject
promises a new theory of social change.

By bringing these prominent thinkers together for the first time
in one volume, this landmark text will be sure to ignite debate
among scholars in the field, as well as being an indispensable tool
for students.