READING HALL READING MARX

This essay introduces and highlights the significance of Stuart Hall' essay, ‘Marx' Notes on Method: A “Reading” of the “1857 Introduction’’ which follows. Hall' essay is a key text in understanding the theoretical work of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies in the mid-1970s, specifically the Centre' engagement with Althusser. Hall' text sets the theoretical groundwork for the concept of articulation and raises important questions of method within cultural studies. It also represents an exemplary reading of Marx.     

Revivifying Russia: Literature,Theory, and Empire in Viktor Shklovskii's Civil War Writings

Abstract

When in 1924 Iurii Tynianov identified Viktor Shklovskii's memoir A Sentimental Journey as a work 'on the margin of literature', he was commenting on the text's generic experimentation. But he also provided an apt label for its geopolitical setting, as war drives Shklovskii back and forth from Russia's dying imperial centre Petrograd to the country's peripheries. The sometimes uneasy relationship between Shklovskii's literary theory and his movement through the disintegrating Empire is this essay's main focus. Drawing on recent scholarship that identifies a fundamental paradox of modern literary theory as both the cosmopolitan study of literature per se and a discipline validated by national literary canons, the essay proposes that Shklovskii negotiates cosmopolitan and national impulses by exploring Russian literature as the expression of a multi-ethnic and multilingual empire. In analogy with Shklovskii's famous dictum that art exists to 'make the stone stony', the argument is made that in his Civil War writings Shklovskii strove to revivify the Russian Empire, that is, to 'make Russia Russian', by presenting his readers with a new and strange view of Russia from its imperial borders.     

George Thompson,transatlantic abolitionism,and Britain in the American Civil War

The British abolitionist George Thompson was an unequalled public face of the Northern states in Britain during the American Civil War. Capitalising on his reputation from decades of anti-slavery activism stretching back to the 1830s, Thompson lectured convincingly to a variety of British audiences on the emancipationist potential of the war, encouraging them to lend their support to the Northern cause. Revealing his continuing intellectual debt and personal connections to the American abolitionists around William Lloyd Garrison, this article uses Thompson’s activism to emphasise the continuing importance of transatlantic Garrisonian ideology and networks in a period that historians have previously characterised as a ‘rupturing’ in the movement.     

Internationalizing the US Ethnic Canon: Revisiting Carlos Bulosan

Abstract

The quasi-autobiographical writing of Carlos Bulosan, a migrant farmworker from the US colony of the Philippines from the 1930s to the 1950s, was discovered by ethnic activists during the US Civil Rights struggles. Once adopted as canonical texts in the US academy from the 1980s on, Bulosan's radical edge was blunted in critical readings of his work, his subversive tendencies sanitized to promote a conformist multiculturalism. We need to recover a submerged decolonizing strand in the history of Filipino deracination, sedimented in Bulosan's testimonies. This essay seeks to excavate those oppositional impulses in Bulosan's works by re-contextualizing them in the anti-colonial revolutionary movement of Filipinos dating back to the revolution of 1896; to the Filipino-American War together with the peasant insurgencies during the first three decades of US occupation (1899–1935); and in the popular-front mobilization during the US Great Depression up to the onset of the Cold War. Re-situated in their historical-biographical milieu and geopolitical provenance, Bulosan's oeuvre acquires immediacy and resonance.     

End of an orthodoxy? The critique of sociology's view of Marx on class *

In this paper I comment critically on the dominant form of appropriation of Marx's theory of class and the state within what one might call the‘conventional’sociology of class in the post-war period. I argue that the typical mode of interpretation and assimilation has been highly selective and has taken a form that has rendered the proposed theory particularly vulnerable to sociological criticism especially in the light of changes in the structure of capitalist social formations in the twentieth century, although there is no suggestion here that the selectivity has been intentional. I contrast the dominant sociological construction and critique of Marx's theory of classes and the state with an interpretation drawn from recent scholarship, arguing that it is possible to document the contention that most theorems hitherto regarded both as central to Marx's analysis and as particularly susceptible to criticism were actually revised by Marx himself in his maturity as part of a more general process of intellectual formation and theoretical development. Many of these revisions have been widely discussed in debates within the world of Marx scholarship and some have undoubtedly been noticed in sociological interpretations of Marx. However, they have not led to the major overall reinterpretation of Marx's theory of class that is now long overdue.     

Michael Thompson's contributions to making social science more social and scientific

Good social and political theory is parsimonious, cumulative, counter‐intuitive, and relevant to well‐intended efforts to solve gripping social problems. This introduction to the Festschrift shows that in developing ‘rubbish theory’ and ‘cultural theory’ the work of Michael Thompson meets all these criteria. Added is a ‘top 10’ of quotes from Thompson's work, an overview of his academic career, as well as a bibliography.     

'War Is Not a Map': Irish America,Transnationalism, and Joseph O'Connor's Redemption Falls

Abstract

This essay argues for a transnational reading of Irish novelist Joseph O'Connor's Redemption Falls (2007). It contends that O'Connor's revisiting of the period of the American Civil War and its aftermath begs all sorts of questions regarding Ireland and Irish America's historical and contemporary transnational intercessions and responsibilities. As Ireland underwent a period of unparalleled economic prosperity beginning in the mid-1990s, which most commentators attribute to successive Irish governments' commitment to globalization, it began to face new and pressing challenges in relation to its involvement with the rest of the world, particularly with regard to its stance on neutrality and recent immigrants to Ireland. I conclude that Redemption Falls reveals the complexity of Irish and Irish Americans' relationship to notions of whiteness and (racial) innocence and challenges readers to consider how Ireland will conduct its future relations with the global community both within and beyond its borders.     

PRIMITIVE ACCUMULATION,EMINENT DOMAIN,AND THE CONTRADICTIONS OF NEO-LIBERALISM

Abstract

This essay addresses the institutional conditions of cultural studies, especially those bearing on cultural studies teaching. It does so by reviewing the history of the Open University Popular Culture course from an insider's perspective. Whereas most published accounts of this course have related it closely to the concerns of the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, this essay suggests that the two projects — while overlapping in certain respects — are more usefully thought of as distinct. Having disentangled the history of the Open University course from that of the Birmingham Centre, the author goes on to advance a more general argument concerning the politics and practice of cultural studies pedagogy. The essay's main contention in this regard is that a conception of cultural studies teaching which connects it to the cultivation of resistive practices in the classroom is incoherent. It is suggested that this now influential current of thought is best assessed as a negative outcome of the encounter between the projects of cultural studies and US liberationist philosophy.     

“Machinisme”, Marxism,humanism: Georges Friedmann before and after WW II

Georges Friedmann (1902–1977) is known for the humanist sociology of work he founded after World War II. Before the war he was a Marxist intellectual, close to the French Communist Party and an admirer of the young Soviet Union. The effect of this political and ideological itinerary on his sociology of work has never been analyzed systematically. Here the question is handled by following the presence of a central concept in his work, “machinisme” [see note¹]. This concept does not come from Marx's thinking but from that of the Romantic historian Jules Michelet, whose writings Friedmann was fully familiar with. A key term in Friedmann's early writings, it was abandoned after World War II in favor of the “natural milieu/technical milieu” conceptual pair. This terminological change went together with a radical change in Friedmann's point of view.     

Anarchism,Communism and Hispanidad: Australian Spanish Migrants and the Civil War

Despite thorough analysis of the Spanish Civil War, its impact on Spain's emigrant communities remains largely unstudied. This article focuses on the Australian Spanish community to demonstrate that migrants experienced a twofold response. They were galvanised to oppose Anglo-Australian control of the Solidarity campaign, and attempted to create an alternative public discourse. Secondly, the Civil War prompted the community to reassess their relationship to politics, dividing local Spaniards according to radical ideologies, as they debated how best to achieve socialist goals in both Spain and Australia.     

‘So few of us and so many of them’

Public protest against the Persian Gulf War in 1990–1 was only part of the story of US American women's resistance to war in general and to that war specifically. Although the gendering of war is seldom discussed outside feminist scholarship, the events of 11 September 2001 and its aftermath as well as all events and processes having to do with war are gendered events and processes. Both women and men participate in war in various ways, some of which, particularly in the case of women, are either not noticed, are deliberately ignored or made invisible. In this essay, the stories of some women who protested the Persian Gulf War are represented alongside questions that their narratives prompted about what constitutes anti-war work, and what the ramifications of such work are in the present international context.     

‘Setting the captive free’: Thomas perronet thompson,british radicalism and the west indies, 1820s–1860s

This article explores the aims and agitation of British radicals who interested themselves in the West Indies during the early and mid nineteenth century. It analyses debates about slavery, race, empire, free trade, sugar and the conduct of those who hold power at home and in the West Indian colonies, using lines of inquiry suggested by the conduct, speeches and writings of Thomas Perronet Thompson, the radical MP and political economist who devoted much of his public career to colonial and particularly West Indian matters. Thompson can be taken to represent a body of opinion that wanted significant changes in the economic and constitutional relationship between Britain and the West Indies, and he was no less committed to a radical reform of the political, economic and social make up of the colonies themselves. Radicals frequently disagreed with each other on the West Indies, however, and Thompson's role in these disputes also reveals a great deal about the context within which the aforementioned debates proceeded.     

Africa Research Bulletin: Political, Social and Cultural Series, March 1st–31st 2001 Published May 2nd 2001

In This Issue Benin Kerekou Re‐elected 14332 Uganda Museveni's Next Term 14334 DR Congo What Hope for Peace? 14342 Senegal Auspicious Plan? 14346 Nigeria Russia's Military Role 14350 AIDS Price War 14355 Contents Continental Alignments 14325 Internal Developments 14328 National Security 14339 Military 14350 Overseas Relations 14353 Social and Cultural 14355 Rates 14354 Index 14358     

And Neither Are We Saved: Asian Americans' Elusive Quest for Racial Justice

Derrick Bell, Civil Rights activist, legal scholar, and a founder of critical race theory, dedicated much of his life and scholarship to the pursuit of racial justice. Twenty‐six years ago, in his work And We Are Not Saved, he recognized that racial progress has been stalled and racial equality would not be a reality in his lifetime. Bell passed away in October 2011, and we are reminded that there is still much work to do. He presented a conundrum that race scholars have said all there is to say about racial problems in the United States; yet, he encouraged scholars to keep moving the work forward. At the time And We Are Not Saved was written, much of the racial scholarship was centered on the Black–White paradigm. In the 26 years since Bell wrote it, there has been a growth of Asian American research. This essay surveys some critical racial analysis of Asian Americans. There have been major contributions to the literature extending racial scholarship beyond the Black–White paradigm. Additionally, intersectional scholarship extends the discussion into other systems of oppression, highlighting how racism can be veiled in different systems. Critical race scholarship is imperative to keep Bell's dream of racial equality alive.     

Between martyrology and historiography: Elias Tcherikower and the making of a pogrom historian

This article examines the dialectical relationship between martyrology and historiography, religion and secularism in the works of the Russian‐Jewish historian and communal activist, Elias Tcherikower. Tcherikower, although a disciple of Shimon Dubnov, who maintained a commitment to a positive portrayal of Jewish life in the Diaspora, championed what Salo Baron called “the lachrymose conception of Jewish history,” the view that understood Jewish history as consisting primarily of a series of persecutions. From World War One onward, Tcherikower romanticised Jewish martyrs and argued that religious and cultural renaissance followed on the heels of persecution and martyrdom. This preoccupation with the relationship between Jewish martyrdom and cultural creativity inspired Tcherikower first in his role as an historian of the pogroms of the Russian Civil War and then as a leader of YIVO. Until the eve of World War Two, Tcherikower believed that modern Yiddish scholarship served the same transcendent purpose as had Torah study in the past and that Jewish historiography could inspire the Jewish people in the same manner as had pre‐modern martyrology. Tcherikower’s work thus provides a fascinating case study of the persistence of traditional religious conceptions in twentieth‐century East European nationalist Jewish historiography.     

Africa Research Bulletin: Political, Social and Cultural Series, July 1st-31st 1997. Published August 26th 1997

In this issue Cameroon Observers' Thumbs Down 12750 Liberia Taylor's Win 12751 Malawi Opposition Join Forces 12754 Angola UNITA Stokes War? 12757 CAR Peace Beckons 12759 Camoros Separatist Troubles 12759 — Contents 1 Continental Alignments 12745 2 Internal Developments 12747 3 National Security 12756 4 Overseas Relations 12770 5 Social and Cultural 12772 Rates 12769 Index 12774     

‘Without Being Walt Whitman’: Vicente Huidobro,Whitman, and the Poetics of Sight

The Chilean vanguardista poet Vicente Huidobro singlehandedly inaugurated the Spanish-language avant-gardes with his 1918 poem Ecuatorial [Equatorial], and remained a dynamic and controversial global figure until his death in 1948. This essay demonstrates how Huidobro appropriated Walt Whitman’s ‘Salut au Monde’ into this inaugural poem, taking from the US poet an elevated, comprehensive poetics of sight. But Whitman’s all-seeing aesthetic seriously threatened Huidobro’s own ethics and avant-garde poetic philosophy — Creationism — leading the Chilean to reject Whitman and this poetic vision in his 1931 Altazor. If Whitman’s poetic speaker could ‘contain multitudes’, seeing the whole world in instant juxtaposition, Huidobro’s ideal Creationist poet must instead empty himself, to create anew. Finally, this textual and historical confrontation reveals not only how Whitman brought his unifying vision to bear on his nation’s Civil War, but also how the aging Huidobro, facing World War II and the imperialist shadow of the US, wrote back to Whitman to qualify and clarify what this vision might mean for ‘America’.     

The Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow: Judaism for the masses

In 2012, a new Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center opened in Moscow – an event unthinkable during the Soviet regime. Financed at the level of $50 million, created by an international crew of academics and museum designers, and located in a landmark building, the museum immediately rose to a position of cultural prominence in the Russian museum scene. Using interactive technology and multimedia, the museum's core exhibition presents several centuries of complex local Jewish history, including the Second World War period. Naturally, the Holocaust is an important part of the story. Olga Gershenson's essay analyzes the museum's relationship to Holocaust history and memory in the post-Soviet context. She describes the museum's struggle to reconcile a Soviet understanding of the “Great Patriotic War” with a dominant Western narrative of the Holocaust, while also bringing the Holocaust in the Soviet Union to a broader audience via the museum. Through recorded testimonies, period documents, and film, the museum's display narrates the events of the Holocaust on Soviet soil. This is a significant revision of the Soviet-era discourse, which universalized and externalized the Holocaust. But this important revision is limited by the museum's choice to avoid the subject of local collaborators and bystanders. The museum shies away from the most pernicious aspect of the Holocaust history on Soviet soil, missing an opportunity to take historic responsibility and confront the difficult past.     

Globalizing history and historicizing globalization

In arguing for the twin projects of globalizing history and historicizing globalization, this paper locates the development of historical scholarship in its own historical context. For the most part, professional historical scholarship has focused on the experiences of national communities and has taken European modernity as the principal guide to the understanding of the world's various societies. In the interests of enhancing understanding of the world and its development through time, there is a clear need to globalize history and historicize globalization. From ancient to contemporary times, several distinct interests—notably those of empire, business and mission—have driven or at least informed efforts to understand the larger world. Since World War II, the production of knowledge about the larger world has come largely through area studies scholarship, which itself has clearly reflected the interests of contemporary states. While area studies projects have experienced remarkable success in developing reliable information and constructing meaningful knowledge about the larger world, it has become clear that scholarship focusing exclusively on individual states or local communities is inadequate for purposes of understanding large-scale globalizing processes that have touched many peoples and influenced the development of individual societies, as well as the world as a whole. Following up on this recognition, recent scholarship in world history suggests that globalization has a very long history indeed. In combination, the projects to globalize history and historicize globalization promise to yield an enriched understanding of the world and its development through time.