On Late Fascism: Derrida, Toscano and the Return of Absolute Hostility

The article examines the question of the return of fascism to the political mainstream in European liberal democracies. This is done through a reading of Alberto Toscano’s work on late fascism, and his contention that to understand the popularity of the contemporary ultra right we have to give up the idea of a direct analogy with the classical fascist period. The article develops the argument that although Toscano presents a powerful account of the aesthetic simulacra through which ultra-right parties have re-packaged fascist ideology, they retain the absolute racial hostility that is essential to the mass appeal of all fascist movements. This argument is developed through a rereading of Derrida’s late writings on the nature of political inheritance, which maintains that there is a quasi-messianic significance to the return of fascism that opens the possibility both of ultra-reactionary and ethico-political responses to the developing global crisis.