Todd McGowan (born 1967) is an American professor of English at the University of Vermont where he teaches film and cultural theory. He works on Hegel, psychoanalysis, and existentialism, and the intersection of these lines of thought with the cinema.[1] McGowan is the author of more than 15 books, editor of Film Theory in Practice series from Bloomsbury[2] and co-editor of the Diaeresis series at Northwestern University Press with Slavoj Žižek and Adrian Johnston.[3] McGowan's work has been described as "A Politics of Death Drive".[4] McGowan cohosts the podcast Why Theory with Ryan Engley.[5]

Todd McGowan
Born1967 (age 56–57)
Dayton, Ohio, U.S.
EducationOhio State University (PhD)
Era21st-century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolContinental, Psychoanalytic, Hegelianism, Existentialism
InstitutionsUniversity of Vermont
ThesisThe Empty Subject: The New Canon and the Politics of Existence (1996)
Doctoral advisorWalter A. Davis
Main interests
Psychoanalytic film theory, Continental philosophy
Websitehttps://www.uvm.edu/cas/english/profiles/todd-mcgowan

Work

edit

Hegelianism

edit

In Emancipation After Hegel (2019), Todd McGowan presents ‘a new radical Hegel’, dispensing with the infamous formula of the dialectic as ‘thesis, antithesis, synthesis’, McGowan maintains that contradiction is not the opposition of an antithesis to a thesis, but occurs when a position follows its own internal logic and exposes its inner division. According to McGowan, Freud's psychoanalytic theory ‘provides a theoretical supplement for Hegel’. By conceptualizing the unconscious, Freud sees subjectivity through a contradiction that it cannot eliminate.[6]

Bibliography

edit

Edited

edit

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ "Todd McGowan". www.uvm.edu. Retrieved 2023-02-18.
  2. ^ "Film Theory in Practice series, Bloomsbury Publishing (US)". www.bloomsbury.com. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  3. ^ "Diaeresis". Northwestern University Press. Retrieved 2023-06-16.
  4. ^ Terada, Randall; McGowan, Todd (2014). "A Politics of the Death Drive". American Imago. 71 (1): 89–96. ISSN 0065-860X. JSTOR 26305079.
  5. ^ "Why Theory on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. 2024-02-05. Retrieved 2024-02-06.
  6. ^ Sembou, Evangelia (2021). "Todd McGowan. Emancipation After Hegel. Achieving A Contradictory Revolution. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019. ISBN: 978-0-231-19270-5 (hbk). Pp. 270. £25". Hegel Bulletin. 42 (3): 472–475. doi:10.1017/hgl.2020.10. ISSN 2051-5367. S2CID 225274892.
  7. ^ "Todd McGowan's "Psychoanalytic Film Theory" published in Persian". Tehran Times. 2022-10-03. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
  8. ^ "'Psychoanalytic Film Theory and The Rules of the Game' available | IBNA". Iran's Book News Agency (IBNA). 2021-07-04. Retrieved 2023-05-01.