Biografia
Todd McGowan (born October 9, 1967) is an American film scholar, philosopher, and professor of English at the University of Vermont where he teaches film and cultural theory. He works on Hegel, psychoanalysis, and existentialism, and the intersection of these lines of thought with the cinema. McGowan is the author of more than 15 books, editor of Film Theory in Practice series from Bloomsbury and co-editor of the Diaeresis series at Northwestern University Press with Slavoj Žižek and Adrian Johnston. McGowan's work has been described as a "Politics of Death Drive". McGowan cohosts the podcast Why Theory with Ryan Engley. == Work == === Hegelianism === In Emancipation After Hegel (2019), Todd McGowan presents ‘a new radical Hegel’, dispensing with the infamous formula of the dialectic as ‘thesis, antithesis, synthesis’, McGowan maintains that contradiction is not the opposition of an antithesis to a thesis, but occurs when a position follows its own internal logic and exposes its inner division. According to McGowan, Freud's psychoanalytic theory ‘provides a theoretical supplement for Hegel’. By conceptualizing the unconscious, Freud sees subjectivity through a contradiction that it cannot eliminate. == Bibliography == McGowan, Todd (2026). Self-Sabotage: How We Try Not to Flourish. Polity Press. ISBN 978-1-5095733-7-0. McGowan, Todd (2025). The Cambridge Introduction to Jacques Lacan. Cambridge Introductions to Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009300742. ISBN 978-1-009-30072-8. McGowan, Todd (2025). Pure Excess: Capitalism and the Commodity. Columbia University Press. doi:10.7312/mcgo21758. ISBN 978-0-231-56180-8. JSTOR 10.7312/mcgo21758. McGowan, Todd (2024). Embracing Alienation: Why we Shouldn't Try to Find Ourselves. London: Repeater Books. ISBN 978-1-915672-22-3. McGowan, Todd (2022). Enjoyment Right & Left. New York: Sublation Media. ISBN 979-8-9867884-0-1. McGowan, Todd (2022). The Racist Fantasy: The Unconscious Roots of Hatred. New York: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-5013-9280-1. McGowan, Todd (2019). Universality and Identity Politics. Columbia University Press. doi:10.7312/mcgo19770. ISBN 978-0-231-55230-1. JSTOR 10.7312/mcgo19770. McGowan, Todd (2019). Emancipation After Hegel: Achieving a Contradictory Revolution. Columbia University Press. doi:10.7312/mcgo19270. ISBN 978-0-231-54992-9. JSTOR 10.7312/mcgo19270. McGowan, Todd (2017). Only a Joke Can Save Us: A Theory of Comedy. Evanston: Northwestern University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctv47w7ff. ISBN 978-0-8101-3582-6. McGowan, Todd (2016). Capitalism and Desire: The Psychic Cost of Free Markets. doi:10.7312/mcgo17872. ISBN 978-0-231-54221-0. McGowan, Todd (2015). Psychoanalytic Film Theory and The Rules of the Game. New York: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-62892-084-0. Translated into Persian McGowan, Todd (2014). Spike Lee. Champaign: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-09540-5. JSTOR 10.5406/j.ctt7zw5f7. McGowan, Todd (2013). Enjoying What We Don't Have: Th
