Politically Red
Published on 5. December 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
384 pages
978-0-262-04780-7 (ISBN)
Description
How reading and writing are collective acts of political pedagogy, and why the struggle for change must begin at the level of the sentence.
"Reading is class struggle," writes Bertolt Brecht. Politically Red contextualizes contemporary demands for social and racial justice by exploring the shifting relations between politics and literacy. Through a series of creative readings of Karl Marx, Rosa Luxemburg, Walter Benjamin, W. E. B. Du Bois, Fredric Jameson, and others, it casts light on history as an accumulation of violence and, in doing so, suggests that it can become a crucial resource for confronting the present insurgence of inequality, racism, and fascism. Reading between the lines, as it were, and even behind them, Cadava and Nadal-Melsio engage in an inventive mode of activist writing to argue that reading and writing are never solitary tasks, but always collaborative and collective, and able to revitalize our shared political imagination. Drawing on what they call a "red common-wealth"-an archive of vast resources for doing political work and, in particular, anti-racist work-they demonstrate that sentences, as dynamic repositories of social relations, are historical and political events.
"Reading is class struggle," writes Bertolt Brecht. Politically Red contextualizes contemporary demands for social and racial justice by exploring the shifting relations between politics and literacy. Through a series of creative readings of Karl Marx, Rosa Luxemburg, Walter Benjamin, W. E. B. Du Bois, Fredric Jameson, and others, it casts light on history as an accumulation of violence and, in doing so, suggests that it can become a crucial resource for confronting the present insurgence of inequality, racism, and fascism. Reading between the lines, as it were, and even behind them, Cadava and Nadal-Melsio engage in an inventive mode of activist writing to argue that reading and writing are never solitary tasks, but always collaborative and collective, and able to revitalize our shared political imagination. Drawing on what they call a "red common-wealth"-an archive of vast resources for doing political work and, in particular, anti-racist work-they demonstrate that sentences, as dynamic repositories of social relations, are historical and political events.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge (Massachusetts)
United States
Publishing group
MIT Press Ltd
Illustrations
25 COLOR ILLUS., 14 BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOS
Dimensions
Height: 138 mm
Width: 215 mm
Thickness: 31 mm
Weight
560 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-262-04780-7 (9780262047807)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Eduardo Cadava | Sara Nadal-Melsio
Politically Red
E-Book
12/2023
MIT Press
€29.49
Available for download
Persons
Eduardo Cadava is Philip Mayhew Professor of English at Princeton University. His books include Words of Light: Theses on the Photography of History, Emerson and the Climates of History, and Paper Graveyards.
Sara Nadal-Melsio is a New York City-based Catalan writer, curator, and teacher. Presently writer-in-residence at the Slought Foundation in Philadelphia, she has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, SOMA in Mexico City, and New York University. Her essays have appeared in various academic journals, edited volumes, and museum catalogs. She is the co-author of Alrededor de/ Around, and the editor of two special issues on cinema, The Invisible Tradition: Avant-Garde Catalan Cinema under Late Francoism and The Militant Image: Temporal Disturbances of the Political Imagination. She has recently cocurated a show on Allora & Calzadilla for the Fundacio Tapies in Barcelona and has written a book essay about it, To Be All Ears, To Be in the World: Acoustic Relation in Allora & Calzadilla, as well as edited a companion volume on the Puerto Rican crisis, A Modest Proposal: Puerto Rico's Crucible. Her book Europe and the Wolf: Political Variations on a Musical Concept is forthcoming from Zone Books.
Sara Nadal-Melsio is a New York City-based Catalan writer, curator, and teacher. Presently writer-in-residence at the Slought Foundation in Philadelphia, she has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, SOMA in Mexico City, and New York University. Her essays have appeared in various academic journals, edited volumes, and museum catalogs. She is the co-author of Alrededor de/ Around, and the editor of two special issues on cinema, The Invisible Tradition: Avant-Garde Catalan Cinema under Late Francoism and The Militant Image: Temporal Disturbances of the Political Imagination. She has recently cocurated a show on Allora & Calzadilla for the Fundacio Tapies in Barcelona and has written a book essay about it, To Be All Ears, To Be in the World: Acoustic Relation in Allora & Calzadilla, as well as edited a companion volume on the Puerto Rican crisis, A Modest Proposal: Puerto Rico's Crucible. Her book Europe and the Wolf: Political Variations on a Musical Concept is forthcoming from Zone Books.
Content
Introduction: "The Red what reading did ..." 9
I. Politically Read 29
II. Multiplicity 43
III. Massification 51
IV. General Strike 59
V. Rosa's Casket 71
VI. Panoramas of Violence 89
VII. Depositions 97
VIII. Theological Figurations 117
IX. Messianic Promises 125
X. Benjamin's Boxes 133
XI. An Unusual Pedagogy 145
XII. A Ship of Fools 151
XIII. Communal grief 169
XIV. A Red Ray; or, Sociology's Supplement 177
XV. The Shibboleth of Race 195
XVI. The Hammer of Social Revolution 221
XVII. The Leviathanism of the Vanquished 227
XVIII. Angelus Novus: A Militant Emblem 233
XIX. The Second Comet 247
XX. To the Planetarium 263
XXI. A Red Common-Wealth 285
Acknowledgments 335
Notes 338
List of Illustrations 386
Index 388
I. Politically Read 29
II. Multiplicity 43
III. Massification 51
IV. General Strike 59
V. Rosa's Casket 71
VI. Panoramas of Violence 89
VII. Depositions 97
VIII. Theological Figurations 117
IX. Messianic Promises 125
X. Benjamin's Boxes 133
XI. An Unusual Pedagogy 145
XII. A Ship of Fools 151
XIII. Communal grief 169
XIV. A Red Ray; or, Sociology's Supplement 177
XV. The Shibboleth of Race 195
XVI. The Hammer of Social Revolution 221
XVII. The Leviathanism of the Vanquished 227
XVIII. Angelus Novus: A Militant Emblem 233
XIX. The Second Comet 247
XX. To the Planetarium 263
XXI. A Red Common-Wealth 285
Acknowledgments 335
Notes 338
List of Illustrations 386
Index 388