“Contending that the Enlightenment needs rescuing from its betrayers, <b>Nikita Dhawan</b> offers an incisive, timely re-assessment of the Enlightenment’s ambivalent legacies that still shape our discussions today as well as a devastating critique of Europe’s cosmopolitanism.” - <b>Tejaswini Niranjana</b>, author of <i>Siting Translation: History, Post-Structuralism, and the Colonial Context</i>

In Rescuing the Enlightenment from the Europeans, Nikita Dhawan puts the critical project of decolonization into conversation with the Enlightenment. She explores the ethical-political challenges faced by postcolonial thought, which must be articulated using the very language of Enlightenment discourses on human rights, democracy, international law, sovereignty, and justice—even as these norms are subjects of postcolonial critique. Bridging postcolonial and Holocaust studies, while also highlighting the differences from decolonial approaches, she engages with thinkers ranging from Kant to the Frankfurt school to defend against accusations of normative nihilism, antisemitism, and epistemic servitude to Europe. Dhawan argues that criticizing the Enlightenment and its legacies does not necessarily entail rejecting them, nor does engaging with Enlightenment principles mean endorsing them unconditionally. Instead, she makes a case for rescuing the best aspects of the Enlightenment in order to further the critical project of decolonization.
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Introduction. Postcolonial Dilemmas: To Renounce or Rescue the Enlightenment 1
Part I. The History of the Present 19
1. Who Financed the Enlightenment? Colonialism and the Age of Reason 21
2. The Self-Barbarization of Europe: Enlightenment and Nazism 65
3. Europe: What Can It Teach Us? 113
Part II. Where Does the Future Come From?
4. The Nonperformativity of Critique: Protest Politics, State Phobia, and the Erotics of Resistance 143
5. Critique of Violence—Violence of Critique 205
6. Aesthetic Enlightenment and the Art of Decolonization 262
Conclusion. Affirmative Sabotage of the Master’s Tools 288
Acknowledgments 311
Notes 313
References 321
Index
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781478029458
Publisert
2026-02-03
Utgiver
Duke University Press
Vekt
572 gr
Høyde
229 mm
Bredde
152 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
384

Forfatter

Biografisk notat

Nikita Dhawan is Professor of Political Theory and the History of Political Thought at the Institute of Political Science, Technical University Dresden. She is the author of Impossible Speech: On the Politics of Silence and Violence.