Martin Hägglund
Martin Hägglund (23 November 1976, Stockholm) is a Swedish philosopher, literary theorist, and scholar of modernist literature. He is Professor of Comparative Literature and of Humanities at Yale University. Hägglund specializes in continental philosophy, critical theory, and modernist literature—ranging across French, German, English, and Scandinavian languages. He is the author of four books, which engage with philosophers of time (from Kant to Derrida), theorists of desire (from Augustine to Lacan), modern writers (Proust, Woolf, Nabokov), and the legacy of German idealism (from Hegel to Marx and beyond). He received an MA in comparative literature from SUNY Buffalo (2005) and Cornell University (2007), and a PhD in comparative literature from Cornell University (2011).
Works
Books
- Kronofobi: essäer om tid och ändlighet, Stockholm: B. Östlings Bokförlag Symposion, 2002, 241 pp; new ed., Stockholm: Volante, 2021, 320 pp. New edition includes the essay "Sommarprogram" (2020). Publisher. (Swedish)
- Radical Atheism: Derrida and the Time of Life, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008, 255 pp. Publisher. Debates: Laclau (Diacritics, Hägglund's reply), Naas, Staten, Kirby, Hodges, Haddad, Johnston, Egginton, Johnson (CR, Hägglund's response). Reviews: Attridge (Derrida Today, Hägglund's response), Caputo (JCRT, Hägglund's reply), O'Connor (JBSP), Bornemark (Site). Interview: King (JoP).
- Radikaru mushinron: derida to sei no jikan [ラディカル無神論: デリダと生の時間], Tokyo: Hōseidaigakushuppankyoku (法政大学出版局), 2017, 448+xxiii pp. (Japanese)
- Geupjinjeok musillon [급진적 무신론: 데리다와 생명의 시간], trans. Geunchang O (오근창), Seoul: 그린비, 2021, 400 pp. (Korean)
- Dying for Time: Proust, Woolf, Nabokov, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012, 197 pp.
- This Life: Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom, New York: Pantheon Books, 2019, 450 pp.
- Vårt enda liv: Sekulär tro och andlig frihet, trans. Andreas Vesterlund, Stockholm: Volante, 2020, 464 pp. Publisher. (Swedish)
- Ovoj život: sekularna vera i duhovna sloboda [Овој живот: секуларна вера и духовна слобода], trans. Zarko Trajanoski (Жарко Трајаноски), Skopje: Kontrapunkt, 2020. Publisher. [1] (Macedonian)
- Questa vita: finitezza, socialismo e libertà, trans. Pierluigi Lago, Vicenza: Neri Pozza, 2020, 430 pp. (Italian)
- Vårt enda liv: Sekulär tro och andlig frihet, trans. Andreas Vesterlund, Stockholm: Volante, 2020, 450 pp. Publisher. (Swedish)
- Nae insaeng ui inmunhak [내 인생의 인문학: 위태로운 존재들을 위한 견고한 철학적 기초], trans. Seung O (오세웅), Paju: Saenggak ui Gil: Areumdaun Saramdeul (생각의길: 아름다운사람들), 2021, 536 pp. (Korean)
- Dit leven: hoe onze sterfelijkheid ons vrijmaakt, trans. J.R. Braat, Utrecht: Alfabet uitgevers, 2022, 508 pp. (Dutch)
- Esta vida: por qué la religión y el capitalismo no nos hace libres, trans. Mercedes Vaquero Granados, Madrid: Capitán Swing, 2022, 470 pp. (Spanish)
- Dieses eine Leben. Glaube ohne Religion, Freiheit ohne Kapitalismus, trans. Stephanie Singh, Munich: C.H.Beck, 2024, 528 pp. (German)
- Vårt enda liv: Läsguiden, Stockholm: Volante, 2020, 128 pp. (Swedish)
Book chapters, articles
- "Förord", in Jacques Derrida, Marx Spöken: Skuldstaten, Sorgearbetet, och Den Nya Internationalen, trans. Jonas (J) Magnusson, ed. Martin Hägglund, Göteborg: Daidalos, 2003, pp 7-22. (Swedish)
- "Chronophilia: Nabokov and the Time of Desire", New Literary History 37:2, Spring 2006, 447-467. Reply by Brian Boyd, Hägglund's reply.
- "Horaces kristaller", in Fragmentmannen: Vänskrift till Horace Engdahl, Stockholm: Propexus, 2008, pp 53-57. (Swedish)
- "Radikal ateistisk materialism", trans. A. Lundberg, OEI 43-45, Stockholm, 2009. [2] (Swedish)
- "Radical Atheist Materialism: A Critique of Meillassoux", in The Speculative Turn: Continental Materialism and Realism, ed. L. Bryant, G. Harman, and N. Srnicek, Melbourne: repress, 2011, pp 114-129.
- "Materializm radykalnego ateisty: krytycznie o Meillassoux", trans. Ewa Opawska, Kronos: metafizyka, kultura, religia 2, 2015, pp 176-194. [3] (Polish)
- "The Arche-Materiality of Time: Deconstruction, Evolution, and Speculative Materialism", in Theory After “Theory”, eds. Jane Elliott and Derek Attridge, London: Routledge, 2011, pp 265-277.
- "The Trace of Time and the Death of Life: Bergson, Heidegger, Derrida", MaMa, Zagreb, 18 Jun 2011, 43 min. Lecture.
- "Sled časa in smrt življenja: Bergson, Heidegger, Derrida", trans. Simon Hajdini, Filozofski vestnik 32:3, 2011, pp 103-116. (Slovenian)
- "The Autoimmunity of Religion", in The Trace of God: Derrida and Religion, eds. Edward Baring and Peter E. Gordon, New York: Fordham University Press, 2014.
- "Derrida’s Radical Atheism", in A Companion to Derrida, eds. Zeynep Direk and Leonard Lawlor, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014.
- "Chronolibido: From Socrates to Lacan and Beyond", in A Concise Companion to Psychoanalysis, Literature, and Culture, eds. Laura Marcus and Ankhi Mukherjee, Oxford: Blackwell, 2014.
- "Beauty That Must Die: A Response to Michael Clune", CR: The New Centennial Review, 15:3, Winter 2015, pp 101-107.
- "Time in Our Time: Clune and Hägglund Debating at Stanford", CR: The New Centennial Review 15:3, Winter 2015, pp 109-134.
- "The Trace of Time: A Critique of Vitalism", Derrida Today 9:1, 2016, pp 36-46.
- "Knausgaard’s Secular Confession", b2o, Aug 2017.
- "Natural and Spiritual Freedom", The Yale Review, Jan 2019.
- "Why Mortality Makes Us Free", The New York Times, 11 Mar 2019; exp., The Philosopher, Autumn 2019.
- "The World to Come: What Should We Value?", New Statesman, 26 Aug 2020.
- "Marx, Hegel, and the Critique of Religion", Los Angeles Review of Books, Mar 2021.