Abstract:While politics and ethics are typically held to be distinct modes of judgment, that distinction often breaks down rather quickly in both theory and practice. This article focuses on one symptom of this breakdown: an academic trend that has been called "the ethical turn" in political theory. In response to social scientific approaches to politics that are seen as both too narrow and too structural, political theorists have increasingly drawn on ethical concepts that offer a promise of agency and relevance for their field. In doing so, however, contributions to the turn end up neglecting some valuable resources for theorizing politics. This article argues that solidarity, as a concept with stakes in both ethical judgment and political power, can be a useful tool for a political ethics.
{"title":"Solidarity and The Ethical Turn","authors":"Chad Lavin","doi":"10.1353/cul.2022.0049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cul.2022.0049","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:While politics and ethics are typically held to be distinct modes of judgment, that distinction often breaks down rather quickly in both theory and practice. This article focuses on one symptom of this breakdown: an academic trend that has been called \"the ethical turn\" in political theory. In response to social scientific approaches to politics that are seen as both too narrow and too structural, political theorists have increasingly drawn on ethical concepts that offer a promise of agency and relevance for their field. In doing so, however, contributions to the turn end up neglecting some valuable resources for theorizing politics. This article argues that solidarity, as a concept with stakes in both ethical judgment and political power, can be a useful tool for a political ethics.","PeriodicalId":46410,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87874512","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:This essay particularizes Césaire's poetic project through the lens of spirit possession, showing how spirit possession offers a philosophical paradigm through which Césaire challenges the narrative of European humanism, anchoring Négritude in an alternative, decolonial sense of what it means to be human. Articulating a view of humanness that connects the world of ancient Greece to that of Haitian Vodou, Césaire's theorization of "poetry" (as a mode of knowledge, engagement, and production that involves energy exchanges and human participation in the living world) brings useful perspectives to current debates surrounding capitalist crises, ecological collapse, and epistemic freedom. Through the links made between "spirit," "poiesis," and "animism" here, this essay expands understandings of Césaire's work and Négritude. From a weak iteration of Pan-Africanism or strong senses of diaspora, the latter is reframed as a deep poetic sensibility with its own metaphysics and ethical commitment to earth and land and their entanglement with Being.
{"title":"Aimé Césaire: Possession as Paradigm of Consciousness","authors":"J. Allen-Paisant","doi":"10.1353/cul.2022.0046","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cul.2022.0046","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This essay particularizes Césaire's poetic project through the lens of spirit possession, showing how spirit possession offers a philosophical paradigm through which Césaire challenges the narrative of European humanism, anchoring Négritude in an alternative, decolonial sense of what it means to be human. Articulating a view of humanness that connects the world of ancient Greece to that of Haitian Vodou, Césaire's theorization of \"poetry\" (as a mode of knowledge, engagement, and production that involves energy exchanges and human participation in the living world) brings useful perspectives to current debates surrounding capitalist crises, ecological collapse, and epistemic freedom. Through the links made between \"spirit,\" \"poiesis,\" and \"animism\" here, this essay expands understandings of Césaire's work and Négritude. From a weak iteration of Pan-Africanism or strong senses of diaspora, the latter is reframed as a deep poetic sensibility with its own metaphysics and ethical commitment to earth and land and their entanglement with Being.","PeriodicalId":46410,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83012252","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A book review of Shawn Michelle Smith's Photographic Returns.
摘要:对肖恩·米歇尔·史密斯的《摄影归来》进行书评。
{"title":"The Long Moment in Racial Justice","authors":"Rijuta Mehta","doi":"10.1353/cul.2022.0029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cul.2022.0029","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Abstract:</p><p>A book review of Shawn Michelle Smith's <i>Photographic Returns</i>.</p>","PeriodicalId":46410,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87857331","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:The hubristic end to the Trump administration has brought the constitutionality of presidential actions once again into question. But is it sufficient to approach the "unconstitutional" acts of presidents merely in terms of criminality? We should ask whether or not the preoccupation with executive criminality among critical progressives ought to make way for a properly political view of those actions. The existentialist political writings of Carl Schmitt and Giorgio Agamben provide an entry point into the politicizations of authoritarian figures in a way that brings out both their radical quality and the disturbing vibration of legitimacy that attracts so many supporters. The argument is structured through a historical analysis of the Nixon presidency, in the context of the Watergate affair, so as implicitly to throw recent developments into a more effective critical relief.
{"title":"The Exceptional Politics of Richard Nixon: Politicking, Sovereignty, or \"High Crimes and Misdemeanors\"?","authors":"J. Welsh","doi":"10.1353/cul.2022.0026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cul.2022.0026","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The hubristic end to the Trump administration has brought the constitutionality of presidential actions once again into question. But is it sufficient to approach the \"unconstitutional\" acts of presidents merely in terms of criminality? We should ask whether or not the preoccupation with executive criminality among critical progressives ought to make way for a properly political view of those actions. The existentialist political writings of Carl Schmitt and Giorgio Agamben provide an entry point into the politicizations of authoritarian figures in a way that brings out both their radical quality and the disturbing vibration of legitimacy that attracts so many supporters. The argument is structured through a historical analysis of the Nixon presidency, in the context of the Watergate affair, so as implicitly to throw recent developments into a more effective critical relief.","PeriodicalId":46410,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72371514","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The This body invisible of Stubblefield to masterfully intertwine art and critical theory with some remarkably lucid explanations of the actual operations of drone warfare. The ambitiously examines a wide range of artistic practices, from gallery- based installation art, art, film, digital imag -ery, and location- based art installations. The book’s engagement with drone art is at its best when demonstrating how drone warfare and the technical assemblage associated with it are used as a medium for art projects installed in galleries. Simultaneously, these terms— art, drone, medium— are problematized implicitly through-out
{"title":"Drone Art: The Everywhere War as Medium by Thomas Stubblefield (review)","authors":"Stephen Groening","doi":"10.1353/cul.2022.0031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cul.2022.0031","url":null,"abstract":"The This body invisible of Stubblefield to masterfully intertwine art and critical theory with some remarkably lucid explanations of the actual operations of drone warfare. The ambitiously examines a wide range of artistic practices, from gallery- based installation art, art, film, digital imag -ery, and location- based art installations. The book’s engagement with drone art is at its best when demonstrating how drone warfare and the technical assemblage associated with it are used as a medium for art projects installed in galleries. Simultaneously, these terms— art, drone, medium— are problematized implicitly through-out","PeriodicalId":46410,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80890947","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Opportunity of a Crisis: Black Radical Thought and the Cataclysms of Racial Capitalism","authors":"Nathaniel Mills","doi":"10.1353/cul.2022.0028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cul.2022.0028","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46410,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86646945","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:This article examines the rejection of Benjamin's thesis by his habilitation committee at Frankfurt University. The published views (Wohlfarth and Haverkampf) are considered, and both are rejected. Then an alternative view is offered that draws some conclusions as to lessons for the critique of academic institutions. These lessons involve metaphilosophical considerations raised by Benjamin relating to the episode, specifically those regarding questions of communication and "the problem of presentation" in philosophy.
{"title":"The Rejection of Benjamin's Habilitation","authors":"Ralph Shain","doi":"10.1353/cul.2022.0035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cul.2022.0035","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article examines the rejection of Benjamin's thesis by his habilitation committee at Frankfurt University. The published views (Wohlfarth and Haverkampf) are considered, and both are rejected. Then an alternative view is offered that draws some conclusions as to lessons for the critique of academic institutions. These lessons involve metaphilosophical considerations raised by Benjamin relating to the episode, specifically those regarding questions of communication and \"the problem of presentation\" in philosophy.","PeriodicalId":46410,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80699162","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:This review of Anti-Electra: The Radical Totem of the Girl (2019) by Elisabeth von Samsonow and translated by Anita Fricek and Stephen Zepke examines the volume's major arguments and themes in the context of other philosophical, psychoanalytic, and theoretical explorations of the girl and her pre-oedipal relation with the mother.
{"title":"The Return of the Girl","authors":"Elspeth Mitchell","doi":"10.1353/cul.2022.0030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cul.2022.0030","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This review of Anti-Electra: The Radical Totem of the Girl (2019) by Elisabeth von Samsonow and translated by Anita Fricek and Stephen Zepke examines the volume's major arguments and themes in the context of other philosophical, psychoanalytic, and theoretical explorations of the girl and her pre-oedipal relation with the mother.","PeriodicalId":46410,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87353376","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:The walls and fences that have been sprouting up all over the EU in response to the arrival of thousands of refugees in 2015 materialize the construction (and defense) of a fantasmatic European sovereignty and, at the same time, uncover a largely unrecognized colonial past still exerting pressure on the present. Unpacking these dynamics, the article looks at the work of the German art collective Center for Political Beauty and photographer Kai Wiedenhöfer as they link the memory of the Berlin Wall to contemporary responses to migration and, in so doing, utilize the wall as a mnemonic screen, revealing the enduring coloniality of contemporary borders. By making these "forgotten relations" palpable and thinkable, the artworks disrupt a fantasy of racial exteriority, involuntarily projecting the persistence of colonial legacies.
{"title":"Forgetting the Colonial Present: Europe's New Walls","authors":"Jenny Stümer","doi":"10.1353/cul.2022.0037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cul.2022.0037","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The walls and fences that have been sprouting up all over the EU in response to the arrival of thousands of refugees in 2015 materialize the construction (and defense) of a fantasmatic European sovereignty and, at the same time, uncover a largely unrecognized colonial past still exerting pressure on the present. Unpacking these dynamics, the article looks at the work of the German art collective Center for Political Beauty and photographer Kai Wiedenhöfer as they link the memory of the Berlin Wall to contemporary responses to migration and, in so doing, utilize the wall as a mnemonic screen, revealing the enduring coloniality of contemporary borders. By making these \"forgotten relations\" palpable and thinkable, the artworks disrupt a fantasy of racial exteriority, involuntarily projecting the persistence of colonial legacies.","PeriodicalId":46410,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75108900","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}