The Inoperative Left, or, How to Philosophize with a Broken Hammer
Thursday, November 12, 2026
4:30 PM EST – 6:00 PM EST
Hosted by Literature
About this event
The Program in Literature presents
The Srinivas Aravamudan Annual Lecture in Critical Theory November 2026
Bruno Bosteels
Talk: The Inoperative Left, or, How to Philosophize with a Broken Hammer
Thursday, November 12, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm Friedl Buildling, Room 225
In this talk, Bruno Bosteels will trace a polemical genealogy of inoperativity as a keyword in what he describes as the jargon of finitude, with which contemporary post-Heideggerian philosophies seek to come to terms with the defeat of the Left.
Bruno Bosteels is Dean of Humanities and Jesse and George Siegel Professor in the Humanities in the Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures, with a joint appointment in the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, at Columbia University.
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