On the Critique of Identity

With the rise of ‘identity politics’ both in right-wing extremism as well as in activist academia, arts and feuilleton, major differences between the traditional left and the right have become blurred. This book addresses the ideological shifts from a vantage point of critical theory, psychoanalysis, as well as Marxist interventions. Discussed are prevailing ideologies of identitarianism, putting the latter into social and historical, as well as philosophical and epistemological context. The chapters offer theoretical elaborations on the myriad connections of identitarianism and counter-enlightenment, analyzing in particular the role of ethnocentric populism, antisemitism, as well as conformist and conservative rebellion.

Introduction.- The Holy Family: Identity, History, Culture.- Identity Politics, or: How to Love the Prison and Cage Oneself.- Dialectics of Righteousness.- Political Economy of Victimhood: On the Great Transformation of the 1970s.- White Skin, Black Mask: Portrait of the Self-Professed “Decolonizer”.- The Burden of Identity: Doing Research, Moral Panics and Rules of Intellectual Engagement.- Intersectionality, Identity, and Why Antisemitism Critique Matters.- Troubling Representations of Race.- »Toxic« Culture? Television’s Handling of »Outdated« Cultural Productions.- Buddy Politics: From the Compulsion to Identity to the Laughter of Unreglemented Experience.

Ivo Ritzer holds the Chair of Comparative Media Studies at the University of Bayreuth, Germany.