At the request of some comrades, I put together the following list of short (almost all under or around 15 pages) companion texts for Gillian Rose’s infamously dense but elegantly written Hegel Contra Sociology (1981; 1995).1 I’ve included links to PDFs where possible, and if you can’t track down a copy of any text mentioned here just let me know and I’ll send the PDF(s) your way!
Background for understanding Rose’s interventions:
Garbis Kortian’s Metacritique (1980), especially chapters 1 (‘The Problem’) and 2 (‘Hegel and the Speculative Structure of Critical Theory’). It’s a tough-to-find book, but I should have a scan of it soon—a critical study of Habermas that both rehearses the problems in CT to which Habermas responds and attempts to show the limits of Habermas’s revised conception of CT. Rose seems to have relied heavily on Kortian’s definition of ‘metacritique,’ though she distinguishes metacritique from speculative thought, as well as Kortian’s concise introduction to Hegel’s conception of speculative experience and the speculative proposition in the Phenomenology. Kortian’s account of the difference between Hegelian speculation and CT, at least as far as Critical Theorists themselves understand it, is also excellent.
Horkheimer’s ‘Traditional and Critical Theory’ (1937),2 which might be the most important text for anchoring Rose’s thought in the orthodox conception of Marxian Critical Theory. I also recommend Horkheimer’s 1931 address on the institute for social research, or Frankfurt School, itself, titled: “The Present Situation of Social Philosophy and the Tasks of an Institute for Social Research.”)3
Adorno’s ‘Society’ essay. A succinct, incisive criticism of Neo-Kantian sociology that Rose does not mention in HCS but, given her treatment of Adorno and Horkheimer’s critiques of sociology in Melancholy Science (1978),4 I will argue it is crucial for understanding Rose’s project.
[EDIT] In response to this post, Chris O’Kane (@chrisokane_rgv) recommended Simon Clarke’s excellent Marx, Marginalism and Modern Sociology (1982) as a companion read to Rose’s HCS.
By Rose herself:
A few of Rose’s shorter essays for some background on and further development of some of the core topics of HCS.5
“Introduction” from Judaism & Modernity (1993). On her understanding of reason and recognition.
“From Speculative to Dialectical Thinking — Hegel and Adorno” also from J&M. An extension of her earlier criticisms of Adorno from HCS and her first book, Melancholy Science. This essay is important because of the distinction Rose draws between speculative and dialectical thinking, even if this distinction has been misunderstood in some secondary literature as a separation.
“The Comedy of Hegel and the Trauerspiel of Modern Philosophy” in Mourning Becomes the Law. (1996) Published posthumously, a short essay defending Hegelian Marxism from its critics and Marxism from its ‘friends’.
Before publishing her first book (MS) on Adorno, she published an essay that condenses the argument titled “How is Critical Theory Possible? Theodor W Adorno and Concept Formation in Sociology.” (1976)
On Rose herself:
SAGE Handbook of Frankfurt School Critical Theory (Three Volume Set) edited by Beverley Best, Werner Bonefeld, and Chris O'Kane (2018)
Specifically, Andrew Brower Latz, “Chapter 25: Gillian Rose: The Melancholy Science.” An introduction to Rose’s work that includes a fantastic reconstruction of Rose’s criticism of sociology. Andrew Brower Latz also has a sophisticated account of how Rose’s early work connects with her later work. I also recommend his other writing on Rose, especially the series of essays on Rose's social theory.6 In his monograph on Rose, he presents a compelling argument for grasping Rose's 'trilogy' (Hegel Contra Sociology 81, 95; Dialectic of Nihilism 84; The Broken Middle 92) as a unified theoretical project.7 He has also created an extensive bibliography of works by Rose, commenting on Rose, and making use of her work.8
Katie Schick’s “Re-cognizing Recognition: Gillian Rose’s ‘Radical Hegel’ and Vulnerable Recognition.” A very careful reconstruction of Rose’s philosophy of recognition in distinction from recent, popular philosophies of recognition—e.g., Honneth. For more, see Schick’s 2012 book on Rosean social and political theory, A Good Enough Justice.
Vincent Lloyd’s “On the Use of Gillian Rose.” Lloyd’s criticism of Rose reception is both funny and accurate. Lloyd’s focus is almost exclusively on political theology. For his study of Rose’s concept of law, see his 2009 book Law and Transcendence: On the Unfinished Project of Gillian Rose.
The best-known commentators on Rose are probably her former students: Anthony Gorman,9 Howard Caygill,10 and Peter Osborne.11 I think they misrepresent Rose’s position significantly, especially as far as Rose’s Marxism is concerned. In an upcoming post, I will try to both account for and criticize this misrepresentation. To this date, I have not found a study of Rose’s relationship to Marx that balances her criticism of Marx & Marxism with her lifelong commitment to deepening Marx through Hegel and vice versa.12
As always you can reach me through Twitter (@gruidae_james; ‘james.crane’) or through my email (james.patrick.callahanjr@gmail.com).
Rose, Gillian. Hegel Contra Sociology (London: Athlone, 1981). 2nd edition with new Preface (London: Verso, 1995).
Collected with other early works of Horkheimer’s in Critical Theory: Selected Essays. (1972)
Collected with other early works of Horkheimer’s in Between Philosophy and Social Science : Selected Early Writings Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought. MIT Press. 1993
Rose, Gillian. The Melancholy Science: An Introduction to the Thought of Theodor W. Adorno, (New York: Columbia, 1978).
For PDF’s to several of Rose’s books and Howard Caygill’s obituary, see ‘Communists in Situ’: https://cominsitu.wordpress.com/2019/05/08/gillian-r-rose/
For more essays on Rose—ranging from Rose’s speculative logic to her political theology—see Andrew Brower Latz’s academia page: https://mgs.academia.edu/AndrewBrowerLatz
Andrew Brower Latz. The Social Philosophy of Gillian Rose (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock; Veritas series, edited by Conor Cunningham; 2018).
Andrew Brower Latz has published an extensive bibliography of Rose’s work and responses to it here: https://www.academia.edu/27462680/Gillian_Rose_Bibliography
For biography, obituaries, unpublished writings, memorial lectures, and lecture recordings, see the official website dedicated to her work: https://gillianrose.org/
For Anthony Gorman, see
'Gillian Rose’s critique of violence', Radical Philosophy 197, May/June 2016
'Gillian Rose and the project of a Critical Marxism', Radical Philosophy 105, Jan/Feb 2001.
For Howard Caygill, see:
Howard Caygill (1998) The Broken Hegel: Gillian Rose's retrieval of speculative philosophy, Women: a cultural review, 9:1, 19-27, DOI: 10.1080/09574049808578331
Section One Starting points: Gillian Rose 1947–1995: Art, justice and metaphysics. (2021). In Caygill, H. (Eds.).Rose, J. Force and Understanding: Writings on Philosophy and Resistance (pp. 19–26). London,: Bloomsbury Academic. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781350107892.ch-001
For Peter Osborne see:
“Gillian Rose and Marxism.” Telos 173 (2015) 55–67.
Osborne, Peter. “Hegelian Phenomenology and the Critique of Reason and Society.” Radical Philosophy 32 (1980) 8–15.
Two recent essays address Rose’s relation to Marxian critique of political economy:
Lazarus, M. (2020). The legacy of reification: Gillian Rose and the value-form theory challenge to Georg Lukács. Thesis Eleven, 157(1), 80–96. https://doi.org/10.1177/0725513620911854
““A Frenzy of Self-Deceit” Commodity Fetishism, Labor, and Rose’s Critical Marxism.” by Joshua B. Davis. From Misrecognitions: Gillian Rose and the task of political theology. (2018). Edited by Joshua B. Davis. Cascade Books.
The fact that one author (Lazarus) connects Rose to the Postonian critique of traditional Marxism and the other (Davis) attempts to leverage this Postonian critique against her suggests that there is more work to be done on Rose’s adoption of the concept of fetishism.