Postnational Identity

"Despite hubristic prattle about the end of the Cold War ushering in the final, global triumph of capitalist democracy, today's world finds itself racked by new forms of economic, political, and cultural imperialism that belie the New World Order's supposed furtherance of liberty, equality, fraternity, and peaceful self-determination for all peoples. The paradoxical resurgence of European nationalism in the midst of an expanding economic federation is one of the more obvious symptoms of this failure and raises serious doubts about the future of postnational, multicultural democracy.... As a student signatory of Charta 77 and former political exile, Matustik is advantageously positioned to address these doubts....Evincing a deeply personal style, Matustik's compelling study exemplifies the kind of existential inwardness he feels must be present in order to sustain both the radical freedom from ideology and the responsibility toward the other requisite for avoiding majoritarian tyranny and totalitarianism." --International Studies in Philosophy "In POSTNATIONAL IDENTITY, Matustik has provided a critical-social reading of Kierkegaard that rescues this highly provocative thinker from both crudely individualistic interpretations and deconstructist readings...Matustik analysis raises questions that critical theorists ignore at their peril, Matustik is to be commended for his efforts to foster a fruitful dialogue between critical theory and existentialism." --Philosophy and Social Criticism "Evincing a deeply personal style, Matustik's compelling study exemplifies the kind of existential inwardness he feels must be present in order to sustain both the radical freedom from ideology and the responsibility toward the other requisite for avoiding majoritarian tyranny and totalitarianism." --International Studies in Philosophy "In Postnational Identity, Matustik has provided a critical-social reading of Kierkegaard that rescues this highly provocative thinker from both crudely individualistic interpretations and deconstructist readings. And even if one might want to quibble over points of interpretation, Matustik's analysis raises questions that critical theorists ignore at their peril. Matustik is to be commended for his efforts to foster a fruitful dialogue between critical theory and existentialism." --forthcoming review to be published in Philosophy & Social Criticism "Matustik's ambitious project not only represents a significant contribution to contemporary European social thought and critical democratic theory, but it is also a work of great scholarship. It is well conceived, argued with great philosophical depth and acumen, and thorough in its treatment of Habermas, Kierkegaard and Havel. Complex ontological, epistemological, ethical and political questions are laid out and answered with rigorous analysis and robust textual exegesis." --Canadian Journal of Political Science "Brings together critical social theory and existential philosophy in order to highlight one particular ideal on which they both converge: the movement from nationalist or fundamentalist constructions of identity to postnational, open, and multicultural identity." --Journal of Economic Literature "Recommended for academic libraries." --Library JournalMatustik, Martin J. is the author of 'Postnational Identity' with ISBN 9780898622706 and ISBN 0898622700.