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Alex Taek-Gwang Lee

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Alex Taek-gwang Lee is an author and professor. He is teaching at Kyung Hee University, Korea.[1] He co-edited the third volume of The Idea of Communism (2016) along with Slavoj Zizek.[2]

Work and reception

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He has worked on different themes under the philosophical tradition, like Korean studies, critical cultural studies, German-French philosophy, Deleuze and Guattari, and Communism. He is writing in both the Korean and English languages. His publications on communism, Deleuze and Guattari's philosophy, Korean cultural practices, and postmedia are extensive.[3] He was also the visiting professor at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.[4]

Deleuze and Guattari

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In his latest book 'Communism After Deleuze'[5], Alex Taek-Gwang Lee examines Gilles Deleuze's concept of "minor communism", a political philosophy inspired by revolutionary movements in the Third World rather than traditional Marxist theory. The book connects this to anti-representational aesthetics, particularly in political cinema, where excluded or "missing" people are given the capacity for expression. Lee places this perspective in the context of post-1968 radical thought, arguing that Deleuze's work provides tools for rethinking communism through decentralised, non-normative forms of political expression that challenge both state-centred Marxism and liberal democracy.[6][7]

He co-organised the Idea of ​​Communism conference in Seoul, South Korea, with Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek in 2013. He later edited The Idea of ​​Communism 3 with Slavoj Žižek. It also includes perspectives from across Asia, notably those of the Chinese scholar Wang Hui, providing a regional perspective on communism at a time of global economic crisis and political upheaval.[2][8]

On April 3

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Professor Lee Taek-kwang argued that the April 3 Jeju uprising should be understood as part of broader global changes following World War II, rather than simply as a domestic ideological conflict. He emphasized the need to move beyond Cold War and anti-communist narratives, suggesting that US influence in the Asia-Pacific played a role in the violence. To internationalize the discussion, Lee called for reframing the event in a global context, linking it to other postwar events in Asia, and promoting scholarly and international engagement.[9]

Member and association

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Alex is the founding member and in the advisory board of the Asia Theories Network.[10][11] He is also the International Board Member for Critical Island Studies Consortium.[12] He is also in the advisory board of the journal 'Symploke' where Ian Buchanan is associate editor and Jeffrey R. Di Leo is the editor-in-chief.[13] He is on international editorial board of Publication UNITAS.[14] He is also the international board member of the International Consortium of Critical Theory Programs (ICCTP)[15].

In academic settings, Lee has delivered specials lectures and papers at conferences at universities and institutions such as Cornell University (USA)[16][17], Jamia Millia Islamia (India)[18] and University of the Philippines Baguio[19]. His academic work has been published in many journals and books such as Deleuze and Guattari Studies Edinburgh University Press Journal[20][21], Angelica[22], Kritike, Studies in Philosophy and Education Springer[23], symplokē[24], Triple C[25] and others.

Publication

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Books

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  • Colors of the Concepts: Philosophers on Paintings, 2025, Anthem Press, London, ISBN 9781839994227
  • Communism After Deleuze, 2025, Bloomsbury publishing, ISBN 9781350474048[5]
  • Made in Nowhere: Essays on Capitalism in Asia, 2025, Sublation Media, Korea [26]

Books (In Korean)

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  • What is the name of Park Geun-hye? Window of the Times. 2014 ISBN 9788959402953[27] (이택광 (2014). 박근혜는 무엇의 이름인가: 민주화가 배제시킨 정치의 기원들에 대한 사유 (초판 1쇄 ed.). 서울: 시대의창)
  • 《Pornographic Fantasy in Korean Culture》. Since. 2002. ISBN 8988105516 [28]
  • Theory of Life. Book Nomad. 2014. ISBN 9788997835423
  • The Witch Frame. Consonants and vowels. 2013. ISBN 9788957077290

Edited

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  • The Idea of Communism 3:The Seoul Conference (co-edited with Salvoz Zizek), 2016; Verso (UK), ISBN 9781784783945[29]
  • Deleuze, Guattari and Schizoanalysis of Postmedia (co-edited with Joff Bradley and Manoj NY), 2023, Bloomsbury, (UK) ISBN 9781350180512[30]

Chapters

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  • 2025 “Literature as a Global Theory”, Theory as World Literature (edited by Jeffrey R. Di Leo and Thomas Oliver Beebee and published by Bloomsbury, UK)[31]
  • 2024 “Lenin and Artificial Intelligence”, Lenin: The Heritage We (Don’t) Renounce (edited by Hjalmar Jorge Joffre-Eichhorn and Patrick Anderson and published by Daraja Press, Canada)[32]
  • 2023 “Hegel and Netflix”, Outspoken: A Manifesto for the Twenty-First Century (edited by Adrian Parr and Santiago Zabala and published by McGill-Queen’s University Press, Canada)[33]
  • 2021 “Worlding Cinema”, The Bloomsbury Handbook of World Theory (edited by Jeffrey R. Di Leo and Christian Moraru and published by Bloomsbury, UK)[34]
  • 2021 “Walter Benjamin, Gilles Deleuze, and Mickey Mouse: Animation in the Age of Technical Reproducibility”, Thinking with Animation (edited by Joff P.N. Bradley and Catherine Ju Yu Cheng and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, UK)[35]
  • 2021 "The Ghosts of Civilized Violence", Conversations on Violence: An Anthology (edited by Brad Evans and Adrian Parr and published by Pluto Press)[36]
  • 2020 “The Specter of the 1930s in Asian Nation-Building: Global Fascism, Colonial Biopolitics, and the Origins of Modern Asia”, Back to the ’30s?: Recurring Crises of Capitalism, Liberalism, and Democracy (edited by Jeremy Rayner, Susan Falls, George Souvlis, and Taylor C. Nelms and published by Palgrave Macmillan, UK)[37]
  • 2018 “The Ghostly Presence of an Untranslated Book: The Korean Reception of Race, Nation, Class”, in Balibar/Wallerstein’s Race, Nation, Class: Rereading a Dialogue for Our Time (edited by Manuela Bojadzijev and Katrin Klingan, published by Argument-Velag, Germany)[38]

References

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  1. ^ Asia, Critical (2025-02-17). "Introduction | Alex Taek-Gwang Lee". Critical Asia Archives (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Retrieved 2025-06-22.
  2. ^ a b "Histories of Violence: The Ghosts of Civilized Violence". Los Angeles Review of Books. 2019-10-07. Retrieved 2025-06-22.
  3. ^ ""Theory of Society and Postmodern Epistemology": A Lecture by Dr. Alex Taek Gwang-Lee". UP Alumni Website. 2023-08-11. Retrieved 2025-06-22.
  4. ^ "People". Global Center for Technology in Humanities. 2020-10-24. Retrieved 2025-06-22.
  5. ^ a b bloomsbury.com. "Communism After Deleuze". Bloomsbury. Archived from the original on 2025-02-17. Retrieved 2025-06-22.
  6. ^ "Deleuze's Communism - Notes". e-flux. Retrieved 2025-06-22.
  7. ^ Lee, Alex Taek-Gwang (2025-02-06). Communism After Deleuze. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-1-350-47403-1.
  8. ^ Lee, Alex Taek-Gwang; Zizek, Slavoj (2016-07-12). The Idea of Communism 3: The Seoul Conference. Verso Books. ISBN 978-1-78478-395-2.
  9. ^ Su-jin, Cho (28 July 2022). "4·3, 이념 논쟁 아닌 국제적 담론이 되기 위해선?". ijejutoday.
  10. ^ "Notes on Contributors". Deleuze and Guattari Studies. 15 (2): 318–319. May 2021. doi:10.3366/dlgs.2021.0441. ISSN 2398-9777.
  11. ^ "Board & Partners". Asia Theories Network. 2017-03-30. Retrieved 2025-06-22.
  12. ^ "Critical Island Studies Consortium –". Retrieved 2025-06-22.
  13. ^ "Editors". symplokē. Retrieved 2025-06-22.
  14. ^ "UNITAS Journal - Editorial Board". UNITAS Journal. Retrieved 2025-06-22.
  15. ^ "People". International Consortium of Critical Theory. Retrieved 2025-06-23.
  16. ^ "Alex Taek-Gwang Lee, "Humanities and Plastic Surgery: The Logic of Human Capital in South Korea"". Cornell. Retrieved 2025-06-22.
  17. ^ "2015-16 Events | Society for the Humanities". societyhumanities.as.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2025-06-22.
  18. ^ "SPARC-MHRD workshop on 'Planetary Postmedia Studies' takes off at JMI". India Today. 2019-08-07. Retrieved 2025-06-22.
  19. ^ ""Theory of Society and Postmodern Epistemology": A Lecture by Dr. Alex Taek Gwang-Lee". UP Alumni Website. 2023-08-11. Retrieved 2025-06-22.
  20. ^ Taek-Gwang Lee, Alex (May 2021). "Deleuze and the Third World". Deleuze and Guattari Studies. 15 (2): 250–265. doi:10.3366/dlgs.2021.0438. ISSN 2398-9777.
  21. ^ Taek-Gwang Lee, Alex (August 2024). "Deleuze's Unwritten Marx". Deleuze and Guattari Studies. 18 (3): 319–332. doi:10.3366/dlgs.2024.0560. ISSN 2398-9777.
  22. ^ "Publishers Panel". anglica-journal.com. Retrieved 2025-06-23.
  23. ^ Cole, David R.; Bradley, Joff P. N.; Lee, Alex Taek-Gwang (2021-09-01). "A Pedagogy of the Parasite". Studies in Philosophy and Education. 40 (5): 477–491. doi:10.1007/s11217-021-09761-0. ISSN 1573-191X.
  24. ^ Lee, Alex Taek-Gwang (2020). "Existentialism as a World Theory". symplok?. 28 (1–2): 405–413. doi:10.5250/symploke.28.1-2.0405. ISSN 1069-0697.
  25. ^ Bradley, Joff P. N.; Lee, Alex Taek-Gwang (2018-05-04). "On the Lumpen-Precariat-To-Come". tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society. 16 (2): 639–646. doi:10.31269/triplec.v16i2.1006. ISSN 1726-670X.
  26. ^ "Made in Nowhere". Sublation Media. Retrieved 2025-06-22.
  27. ^ 이택광 (2014). 박근혜는 무엇의 이름인가: 민주화가 배제시킨 정치의 기원들에 대한 사유 (초판 1쇄 ed.). 서울: 시대의창. ISBN 978-89-5940-295-3.
  28. ^ "왜 한국문화는 음란한가". 한겨레21. Retrieved 2025-06-22.
  29. ^ Taek-Gwang Lee, Alex; Žižek, Slavoj, eds. (2016). The Seoul conference. The idea of communism (First published ed.). London New York: Verso. ISBN 978-1-78478-394-5.
  30. ^ Bradley, Joff; Lee, Alex Taek-Gwang; NY, Manoj (2023). Deleuze, Guattari and the Schizoanalysis of Postmedia. Schizoanalytic applications. London New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic, Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-350-18052-9.
  31. ^ Di Leo, Jeffrey R. (2025). Theory As World Literature. Literatures As World Literature Series (1st ed.). New York: Bloomsbury Academic & Professional. ISBN 979-8-7651-0865-9.
  32. ^ ROAPE (2024-02-06). "Lenin The Heritage we (Don't) Renounce". ROAPE. Retrieved 2025-06-22.
  33. ^ Parr, Adrian; Zabala, Santiago, eds. (2023-04-15). Outspoken: A Manifesto for the Twenty-First Century. McGill-Queen's University Press. doi:10.2307/jj.3078900.13. ISBN 978-0-2280-1821-6.
  34. ^ Moraru, Christian; Di Leo, Jeffrey R., eds. (2022). Bloomsbury Collections. doi:10.5040/9781501361975. ISBN 978-1-5013-6197-5. Retrieved 2025-06-22. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  35. ^ Bradley, Joff P. N.; Cheng, Catherine Ju-yu (2021). Thinking with Animation. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publisher. ISBN 978-1-5275-7166-2.
  36. ^ Evans, Brad; Parr, Adrian (2021). Conversations on Violence: An Anthology. Pluto Press. ISBN 978-0-7453-4168-2. JSTOR j.ctv1h0nv1c.
  37. ^ Lee, Alex Taek-Gwang (2020), Rayner, Jeremy; Falls, Susan; Souvlis, George; Nelms, Taylor C. (eds.), "The Specter of the 1930s in Asian Nation-Building: Global Fascism, Colonial Biopolitics, and the Origins of Modern Asia", Back to the ‘30s? : Recurring Crises of Capitalism, Liberalism, and Democracy, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 331–346, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-41586-0_17, ISBN 978-3-030-41586-0, retrieved 2025-06-22
  38. ^ Bojadžijev, Manuela; Klingan, Katrin; Balibar, Étienne; Wallerstein, Immanuel Maurice, eds. (2018). Balibar/Wallerstein's "Race, nation, class": rereading a dialogue for our times. Hamburg: Argument Verlag. ISBN 978-3-86754-511-2.
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