The Story of Dialectics and the Trickster of History
The Story of Dialectics and the Trickster of History

Summary/Abstract: Drawing on Hegel’s interpretation of narrative and Lyotard’s rejection of “grand” dialectical narratives, this paper addres-ses the relationship between emancipatory dialectics and nar-rative form. It begins by establishing the intimate connection between dialectical thought and narration. On this basis, the paper argues that varying conceptions of dialectics can be as-sociated with varying structures of narrating history. Finally, the paper makes the case for identifying a specific narrative form adequate to the radical re-readings of Hegel that have replaced the perspective of the master (the subject privileged by a given system of historicity) with the perspective of the slave (who, while excluded from historicity, struggles against this exclusion). This narrative form corresponds to none of the classical Greek genres; it is best described as a trickster tale.

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