Abstract

This article describes the liberal mimicry of the New Right and the attitude of disengagement that springs from it as an essential point of contact for leftist renegades. Using the example of a volume of stories by the writer Botho Strauß, who was originally considered more of a leftist, he shows how important set pieces of this attitude – from the rejection of the concept of progress to the pose of the aestheticist spectator – recur in his work. In addition, he outlines the extent to which Strauß’ ›aesthetic mobilization‹ against the alleged ›left-wing mainstream‹ was inspired by the latter’s reception of Foucault – and the extent to which Foucault can thus be understood as a ›bridge-builder‹ between right and left, even if he himself was not a right-winger and can hardly be claimed by the New Right.