French Literature Reviews - 2026

B. Bosteels, Alain Badiou, une trajectoire polémique
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas

Bruno Bosteels, Alain Badiou, une trajectoire polémique

Editions La Fabrique, 2009

224 pages

14 €

ISBN: 978-2-35-87200-07

This book offers a doubly polemical journey through the thought of Alain Badiou. It is polemical, first, because it presents a reading that runs counter to the now-dominant image—even among Badiou's finest readers—according to which his philosophy portrays the event as a dogmatic, sovereign, absolutist, or mystical figure of radical rupture or pure beginning. And second, because in order to challenge this miraculous interpretation of the event, which views it as little more than a secularized version of grace, the book draws not only on all of Badiou's major texts, but also on a significant number of thinkers of his generation. Thus, readers will find a constant engagement with Badiou's "masters," notably Louis Althusser and Jacques Lacan, as well as with his "interlocutors," whether direct or implicit, sharp or friendly: from Gilles Deleuze to Slavoj Žižek, by way of Daniel Bensaïd and Judith Butler.
More than merely retracing the demarcation lines of an individual or generational trajectory, the aim is to draw upon the core ideas of a broader intellectual framework that shaped the heyday of French philosophy from the 1960s onward—a legacy we may not yet have finished reckoning with.

Bruno Bosteels
Since 2003, Bruno Bosteels has been a professor of Latin American and comparative literature at Cornell University in New York State. He is the author of Badiou o el recomienzo del materialismo dialéctico (2007) and has translated and introduced Théorie du sujet into English (Continuum, 2009).

Bruno Bosteels will present his book, Alain Badiou, une trajectoire polémique, in the presence of Alain Badiou, on Tuesday, November 24, 2009, at 8:00 PM at "Comptoir des mots", 239 rue des Pyrénées - 75020 Paris - M° Gambetta (01 47 97 65 40)

Alain Badiou is a figure in contemporary French philosophy, a field that experienced a major intellectual flowering from the 1960s onward. At the heart of Badiou's philosophical system is the concept of the event, which has often been interpreted by readers as a radical rupture or a secularized version of grace. This study challenges this dominant reading by examining Badiou's major writings. In doing so, the work situates his ideas within the broader intellectual framework of his generation.

The book traces Badiou's engagement with his masters, Louis Althusser and Jacques Lacan, as well as with interlocutors such as Gilles Deleuze, Slavoj Žižek, Daniel Bensaïd, and Judith Butler. Bruno Bosteels, a scholar of comparative literature who has translated Badiou's Théorie du sujet, examines these relationships to address the legacy of this intellectual framework. Readers interested in the history of modern French philosophy may find this volume relevant.