An Affirmation That Is Entirely Other
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An Affirmation That Is Entirely Other. / Bolt Rasmussen, Mikkel.
In: South Atlantic Quarterly, Vol. 122, No. 1, 20.01.2023, p. 19-31.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - An Affirmation That Is Entirely Other
AU - Bolt Rasmussen, Mikkel
PY - 2023/1/20
Y1 - 2023/1/20
N2 - The aim of this article is to juxtapose the notion of refusal in Maurice Blanchot, Herbert Marcuse, and the Invisible Committee. The article opens by considering Blanchot's 1958 notion of a radical refusal and then turns to Marcuse's idea of a “great refusal” against one‐dimensional society. It then concludes with a consideration of the Invisible Committee's theory of destitution, which aims to rethink revolution in light of an analysis of the contemporary cycle of insurrections. Although Blanchot's and Marcuse's notions of the refusal might appear dated, trapped within the agitated political climate of the 1950s and 1960s, in their time they each signaled a conscious rupture with a certain Marxist‐Leninist theory of revolution that could not imagine the transformation of social relations except through the seizure of state power. For both thinkers, the proto‐revolutionary gesture of refusal sought to respond to a historical conjuncture in which the integration of the working class into the circuitry of capital was a fait accompli. For Blanchot, refusal was a withdrawal from, and abandonment of, politics and representation, whereas for Marcuse it involved a transformation both of one's immediate social relations and of social relations more broadly. It is these aspects of refusal that anticipate and overlap with more recent theories of destituent power emerging from the new cycles of protests. Over the last decade, the notion of destitution has come to prominence as one of the most important reformulations of radical political action. In response to a new insurrectionary wave, characterized by new forms of action, destitution signals an attempt to reimagine the emergence of a new revolutionary force in the wake of the disappearance of Marxist dialectics and the established working‐class movement.
AB - The aim of this article is to juxtapose the notion of refusal in Maurice Blanchot, Herbert Marcuse, and the Invisible Committee. The article opens by considering Blanchot's 1958 notion of a radical refusal and then turns to Marcuse's idea of a “great refusal” against one‐dimensional society. It then concludes with a consideration of the Invisible Committee's theory of destitution, which aims to rethink revolution in light of an analysis of the contemporary cycle of insurrections. Although Blanchot's and Marcuse's notions of the refusal might appear dated, trapped within the agitated political climate of the 1950s and 1960s, in their time they each signaled a conscious rupture with a certain Marxist‐Leninist theory of revolution that could not imagine the transformation of social relations except through the seizure of state power. For both thinkers, the proto‐revolutionary gesture of refusal sought to respond to a historical conjuncture in which the integration of the working class into the circuitry of capital was a fait accompli. For Blanchot, refusal was a withdrawal from, and abandonment of, politics and representation, whereas for Marcuse it involved a transformation both of one's immediate social relations and of social relations more broadly. It is these aspects of refusal that anticipate and overlap with more recent theories of destituent power emerging from the new cycles of protests. Over the last decade, the notion of destitution has come to prominence as one of the most important reformulations of radical political action. In response to a new insurrectionary wave, characterized by new forms of action, destitution signals an attempt to reimagine the emergence of a new revolutionary force in the wake of the disappearance of Marxist dialectics and the established working‐class movement.
KW - Faculty of Humanities
KW - Destitution
KW - Blanchot, Maurice
KW - Mascolo, Dionys
KW - Afvisning
KW - Revolution
KW - Opstand
U2 - 10.1215/00382876-10242616
DO - 10.1215/00382876-10242616
M3 - Journal article
VL - 122
SP - 19
EP - 31
JO - South Atlantic Quarterly
JF - South Atlantic Quarterly
SN - 0038-2876
IS - 1
ER -
ID: 333174801