Pyropolitics - by Michael Marder (Paperback)

About the Book

Pyropolitics delineates a semantico-discursive field, replete with the literal and metaphorical mentions and uses of fires, flames, sparks, immolations, incinerations, and burning in political theory and practices.

Book Synopsis

From the books and heretics burnt on the pyres of the Inquisition to self-immolations at protest rallies, from the massive burning of oil on the global scale to inflammatory speech, from the imagery of revolutionary sparks ready to ignite the spirits of the oppressed to car bombings in the Middle East--fire proves to be an indispensable element of the political. To account for this elemental source of heat and light, Pyropolitics delineates a semantico-discursive field, replete with the literal and metaphorical mentions and uses of fires, flames, sparks, immolations, incinerations, and burning in political theory and practices.

Relying on classical political theory, literature, theology, contemporary philosophy, and an analysis of current events, Michael Marder argues that geopolitics, or the politics of the Earth, has always had an unstable, at once shadowy and blinding, underside--pyropolitics, or the politics of fire. If this obscure double of geopolitics is, increasingly, dictating the rules of the game today, then it is crucial to learn to speak its language, to discern its manifestations, and to project where our world ablaze is heading.

Previously published by Rowman and Littlefield, this edition has a new foreword from Slavoj Žižek and three new chapters.

Review Quotes

In Pyropolitics: Fire and the Political, Michael Marder breaks the silence that envelops the atavistic and igneous element by proposing an original and compelling reinterpretation of the centrality of fire in our political and philosophical life ... Through the ingenious pyropolitical lenses offered by this book, global politics becomes what one might call theoretical pointillism, the most appropriate graphic metaphor to describe the distinctive types of violence that characterize our age, from the recent attacks in Paris to the targeted killings carried out by the Obama administration.--Antonio Cerella, Nottingham Trent University

In a highly suggestive scenario, Michael Marder captures the unfounded relationship between politics and fire. More than earth, water, and air, it is fire that best represents the political turning point that characterizes hypermodernity. At the heart of a secularization that has not erased political theology, fire constitutes the incandescent element that envelops, as a risk and an extreme possibility, the language and practice of politics.--Roberto Esposito, professor of theoretical philosophy, Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy

Scintillating!--Jay M. Bernstein, University Distinguished Professor, Department of Philosophy, New School for Social Research

This is a staggeringly original and provocative piece of writing. Many other adjectives could be applied--scintillating, dazzling, brilliant, illuminating, scorching, explosive, absolutely burning in its urgency--, but it's hard to use any of these terms innocently any longer after reading this fascinating, lucid, rigorous meditation, which strikes to the heart of the contemporary epoch.--Rebecca Comay, Professor of Philosophy and Comparative Literature, University of Toronto

With this subtle, smart, and well-documented book, Michael Marder authoritatively weighs in on an old discussion about the role that fundamental elements (water, air, earth, fire) play in the construction and destruction of societies. This is a brilliant contribution to political metaphorology, useful for understanding the logic behind the combustible world in which we live.--Daniel Innerarity, Director of Globernance: Institute for Democratic Governance, San Sebastián, Spain

About the Author

Michael Marder is Ikerbasque Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU, Vitoria-Gasteiz. His work spans the fields of environmental philosophy and ecological thought, political theory, and phenomenology.

The author of the foreword: Slavoj Žižek

Slovenian, philosopher, cultural theorist, and public intellectual, is the international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, Global Distinguished Professor of German at New York University, professor of philosophy and psychoanalysis at the European Graduate School and senior researcher at the Institute for Sociology and Philosophy at the University of Ljubljana.