Gillian Rose

Makes the case for the rediscovery of British philosopher Gillian Rose's unique but neglected voice

In this book, Kate Schick presents the core themes of Rose's work and locates her ideas within central debates in contemporary social theory (trauma and memory, exclusion and difference, tragedy and messianic utopia), engaging with the works of Benjamin, Honig, Zizek and Butler. She shows how Rose's speculative perspective brings a different gaze to bear on debates, eschewing well-worn liberal, critical theoretic and post-structural positions.

Gillian Rose draws on idiosyncratic readings of thinkers such as Hegel, Adorno and Kierkegaard to underpin her philosophy, negotiating the 'broken middle' between the particular and the universal. While of the left, she is sharply critical of much left-wing thought, insisting that it shirks the work of coming to know and of taking political risk in pursuit of a 'good enough justice'.