Avital Ronell
| Full name | Avital Ronell |
|---|---|
| Born | 15 April 1952 Prague, then Czechoslovakia |
| Era | 20th-century & 21st-century philosophy |
| Region | Western & Eastern Philosophy |
| School | Deconstruction, Continental Philosophy, Gender Studies, Trauma Studies, Disability Studies, Feminist Philosophy |
| Main interests | Ontology · Ethics · Marginalization · Technology · Authority · Stupidity · Addiction · Trauma |
Avital Ronell (born 15 April 1952) is a Professor of Philosophy at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee[1] and a Professor of German, comparative literature, and English at New York University, where she co-directs the Research in Trauma and Violence project. Avital Ronell has written under the authorship and authority of the operator, literary critic, femme fatale, and philosopher.
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[edit] Career
Ronell was born in Prague to Israeli diplomats and was a performance artist before entering academia. She graduated from Rutgers Preparatory School in 1970. She gained a B.A. from Middlebury College and studied with Jacob Taubes as well as Hans-Georg Gadamer at the Hermeneutic Institute at the Free University of Berlin. She received her Ph.D. in German under the advisement of Stanley Corngold at Princeton University in 1979, alongside her close friend and philosopher Laurence Rickels, and then continued her studies with Jacques Derrida and Hélène Cixous in Paris. At that time, she became romantically involved with Jacques Derrida's first son, Pierre Alféri. She was also a very close friend of the controversial experimental writer Kathy Acker and adopted numerous techniques for her writing through the example of Kathy Acker's fiction. She joined the comparative literature faculty at the University of California, Berkeley where she taught with Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Jean-Luc Nancy and Judith Butler. She moved to New York University in 1995 where she then co-taught a course with Jacques Derrida until 2004. In 2009, she began co-teaching courses with Slavoj Žižek who continues to hold the position of visiting professor at NYU's Department of Germanic Languages and Literature. In 2010, François Noudelmann also co-taught with her, and co-curated the Walls & Bridges program with her in 2011. She is a core faculty member at the European Graduate School. Themes of her work include marginalized subjects such as ghost writing, addiction, technology, stupidity, testing and the position of the son in authority. In addition to her own writing, she has produced English translations of Derrida's work.[2]
[edit] Major works
Ronell's major works include Dictations, The Telephone Book, Crack Wars, Stupidity and The Test Drive. The author's deconstructive approach is informed foremost by Derrida's techniques of reading closely. Yet, Ronell's voice markedly differs from what is often considered "deconstructive," by and large due to the fact that Ronell does not write according to any strict rules or norms of genre.
The Telephone Book begins with a sustained examination of Heidegger's involvement with the Nazi Party and proceeds through a history of the telephone in light of Heidegger's "call to being." Ronell demonstrates the complexity of "the call" and its presence throughout contemporary culture including technology, psychology and art. In The Telephone Book, Ronell rejects the authoritarian position of the author and instead refers to herself as the "operator" of the text. Her work in The Telephone Book set the stakes for what later would be called disability studies.
Crack Wars likens addiction to literature to drug addiction. Ronell avers that the work is a political gesture against the hysteria of the "racist" war on drugs. Beginning with an extensive survey of philosophical works on intoxication, including writings by Nietzsche, Baudelaire and Benjamin, Crack Wars then examines Heidegger's descriptions of want, wishing and "being towards." Much of the work that later referenced Crack Wars became the cornerstones of what is today known as addiction studies.
The Test Drive investigates the underlying logic of contemporary scientific discourses and their ethical and political implications. It does so by focusing on the idea of "the test" as a basis for discovering knowledge.
[edit] Works
- (2012) Loser Sons, (ISBN 0-252-03664-6)
- (2011) "The Tactlessness of an Unending Fadeout," in Writing Death (ISBN 978-90-817091-0-1) by Jeremy Fernando, Foreword by Avital Ronell
- (2010) Fighting Theory: In Conversation with Anne Dufourmantelle, (ISBN 0-252-07623-0) trans. by Catherine Porter and Avital Ronell from French
- (2007) The UberReader, (ISBN 0-252-07311-8 ) (ed. Diane Davis)
- (2007) Blind Date: Sex and Philosophy, (ISBN 0-252-07488-2) (by Anne Dufourmantelle, Introduction by Avital Ronell) trans. by Catherine Porter
- (2006) "Kathy Goes to Hell," in Lust for Life: On the Writings of Kathy Acker, (ISBN 1-844-67066-X), ed. by Avital Ronell, Carla Harryman, and Amy Scholder
- (2006) American philo: Entretiens avec Avital Ronell, (ISBN 2-234-05840-6) interviewed by Anne Dufourmantelle
- (2005) The Test Drive, (ISBN 0-252-02950-X)
- (2004) Scum Manifesto, (ISBN 1-85984-553-3) (by Valerie Solanas, Introduction by Avital Ronell)
- (2001) Stupidity, (ISBN 0-252-07127-1)
- (1998) Finitude's Score, (ISBN 0-8032-8949-9)
- (1993) Crack Wars: Literature, Addiction, Mania, (ISBN 0-252-07190-5)
- (1991) "Avital Ronell," in Re/Search: Angry Women 13, (ISBN 1-890451-05-3) interview with Andrea Juno
- (1989) The Telephone Book: Technology, Schizophrenia, Electric Speech, (ISBN 0-8032-8938-3)
- (1989) The Ear of the Other, (ISBN 0-8032-6575-1) trans., Jacques Derrida
- (1986) Dictations: On Haunted Writing, (ISBN 0-8032-8945-6)
- (1982) "La bouche émissaire," in Cahiers confrontation, n° 8
[edit] See also
- Examined Life, Ronell walks through Tompkins Square Park and improvises a discussion with the filmmaker, of which only a 10-minute segment appeared in Astra Taylor's 2008 film about philosophers.
- List of deconstructionists
[edit] References
- ^ Avital Ronell @ European Graduate School. Biography, bibliography and video lectures. (Retrieved May 14, 2010]
- ^ Amazon.com: The Ear of the Other: Otobiography, Transference, Translation: Books: Jacques Derrida, Christie McDonald, Peggy Kamuf, Avital Ronell
[edit] External links
- Avital Ronell @ European Graduate School. Biography, bibliography and video lectures.
- Diane D. Davis. Avital Ronell Center for Digital Discourse and Culture at Virginia Tech
- Alexander Laurence. Interview with Avital Ronell. 1994 ]
- Brief Biography. at New York University
- Examined Life. A 2008 film produced by the National Film Board of Canada that includes Avital Ronell.
- Diane D. Davis. Confessions of an Anacoluthon, Interview With Avital Ronell. 2000.
- [1]. Avital Ronell & Werner Herzog at Centre Pompidou, Dec. 2009 / “body no / body” lab : thought / eng. / german & french
