In the public eye: “Requiem for French Theory” (Forthcoming!)
French Theory is due for an insider critique, and in Requiem for French Theory, Aymeric Monville and Gabriel Rockhill do just that. Drawing upon decades of studying French philosophy in Paris, they build upon the best Marxist criticisms of postmodernism, while further developing them by situating postmodern theory within the global political economy of knowledge and U.S. driven intellectual imperialism. The result is a broad dialogue on topics ranging from international class struggle and the dissemination of ideology, to fascism, identity politics, dialectics, actually existing socialism, and more.
Requiem for French Theory soundly criticizes this tradition’s chameleonic ideological permutations under new names, such as postcolonial thought, decolonial theory, new materialism, and other trendsetting discourses. But it also reveals how these theoretical developments are all part of a broader anticommunist cultural front. Most importantly, Monville and Rockhill develop the positive project of anti-imperialist Marxism as the ultimate antidote to French theoretical sophistry. Far from indulging in the political defeatism characteristic of the Western Marxist critiques of postmodernism, this intellectual exchange issues a clarion call for revitalizing revolutionary theory and putting it into practice.
In translation….
In advance of the book’s release in summer of 2026, John Bellamy Foster’s introduction to Requiem for French Theory has already been translated into Spanish by the publication La Haine: “Del 18 al 21 de octubre de 1966, se celebró en el Centro de Humanidades de la Universidad Johns Hopkins de Baltimore una conferencia internacional aparentemente inocua titulada «Los lenguajes de la crítica y las ciencias del hombre». La conferencia se anunciaba como un encuentro en EEUU de las principales figuras del pensamiento estructuralista francés. Entre los ponentes de la conferencia se encontraban filósofos y críticos literarios franceses de renombre como Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Lucien Goldmann, Jean Hyppolite y Jacques Lacan. Michel Foucault no pudo asistir, pero desempeñó un papel fundamental en la organización de la conferencia. Gilles Deleuze, aunque invitado, tampoco asistió, pero envió una comunicación para que fuera leída. En la conferencia, Derrida conoció a Paul de Man (antiguo colaborador nazi), que se convirtió en uno de los principales deconstructivistas de la crítica literaria estadounidense….” Read the rest at La Haine
