This article reconsiders the power of myth in light of the rise of new fascist leaders who cast a shadow on the contemporary political scene. Nidesh Lawtoo looks back to Lacoue-Labarthe’s and Nancy’s, “The Nazi Myth,” to account for the affective power of myth that is currently being reloaded both in Europe and the US–an argument internal to a forthcoming book on (New) Fascism (2019). Article available here.
Category Archives: Publications
New Article on the Plasticity of Mimesis
In this article Nidesh Lawtoo establishes a genealogical connection between the emerging concept of plasticity and the ancient philosophical concept of mimesis in order to further an ongoing dialogue between contemporary continental philosophy and the neurosciences. Article available here.
MLN Special Issue: Poetics and Politics (with Lacoue-Labarthe)
In this special issue of Modern Language Notes (ed. N. Lawtoo), contemporary figures like Jean-Luc Nancy, Paola Marrati, Jane Bennett and Alain Badiou, among others, rethink the relation between “poetics and politics” by drawing on Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe’s mimetic account of the current becoming fictional of the political. You can read the introduction here.
Chapter for Handbook of Mimetic Theory
In this chapter for The Palgrave Handbook of Mimetic Theory and Religion (eds. James Alison, Wolfgang Palaver), titled “The Classical World: Sacrifice, Religion, Philosophy,” Nidesh Lawtoo takes the work of René Girard, read with Friedrich Nietzsche, Jane Harrison and other philologists, as a starting point to offer a genealogy of the role sacrifice plays in the classical period. The patho-logy of sacrificial violence, Lawtoo argues, both confirms and supplements mimetic theory. You can read the chapter here.
Homo Mimeticus Interview
In this interview for the Leuven Philosophy Newsletter, HOM team member Niki Hadikoesoemo asks Nidesh Lawtoo to sketch the main outlines of the Homo Mimeticus project and to discuss the relevance of mimesis for contemporary philosophy, politics, education, the unconscious, as well as for forging interdisciplinary connections within and beyond the humanities. You can read the full interview here.
New essay on Wilde as a mimetic critic
Nidesh Lawtoo publishes new essay on Oscar Wilde’s fascination for theatrical forms of mimesis (lies, identification, impersonation, performance) in Symploke 26.1-2 (2018): 307-328. Read full article here