Jacques Lezra is Distinguished Professor in the Departments of English and Hispanic Studies at the University of California, Riverside. His most recent publications are Republica salvaje (2019), On the Nature of Marx's Things (2018), Untranslating Machines: A Genealogy for the Ends of Global Thought (2017), and Contra todos los fueros de la Muerte (2016).
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Preface ix Introduction 1 1. The Schema of Institution 34 2. Insufficient Ground, or, The Institution of Reason 57 3. The Object of Allegory 80 4. Lacrimae rerum, or, The Institution of Grief 109 5. All Cops Are Bastards 131 6. The Schema of Abolition 168 7. Abolish the Family! 188 Conclusion 227 Acknowledgments 235 Notes 237 Bibliography 271 Index 289
Defective Institutions. . . makes a daring, significant, and virtuosic contribution to contemporary discussions of abolitionist thought, critical theory, and political philosophy.-- "H-Net Reviews" Every institution is, or can be imagined to be 'defective, ' entailing its own abolition in an anarchic inversion of its constitutive tautology. This is where Jacques Lezra brings us through a series of unexpected readings. It will be hard not to follow where the deadly possibility of happiness awaits us. Republicanism and risk are the twin faces of freedom. Do we not agree?---Etienne Balibar, author of Citizen Subject Lezra's scope and range of references, nuance, and sophistication are extraordinary. No one else thinks or writes quite like him. Defective Institutions is exhilarating to read.---Elissa Marder, Emory University