"The social revolution (...) cannot take its poetry from the past but only from the future." (Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte)
Revolution and the hope for radical change seem like outdated concepts in our present days, marked by the rise of reactionary tendencies and the absence of a utopian horizon. Whether due to the dissolution of traditional "revolutionary subjects," the shipwreck of past revolutionary experiments, or the erosion of claims to universality: our capacity for radical political imagination seems blocked — even as the liberal world order falls apart around us.
We propose this seminar as a space to confront and dismantle that blockage of imaginaries of and for radical change. We do this by exploring "revolution" as an object of desire, as an image, as a moment of radical experimentation and potentiality, as violent change, and as a field for human (mass) action and agency. Starting from Marx's premise that revolution draws its poetry from the future, we ask: what futures were — and are — inscribed in revolutionary hopes and struggles for radical transformation? We approach this question by discussing manifestos, texts, images, films and interventions that seek to break the closure of the present and reopen it to the future, posing the urgent question: what does radical change mean today?
Arendt, H. (2006). On Revolution. Penguin. [Chapter 1: "The Meaning of Revolution"]
Koselleck, R. (2004). Futures Past: On the Semantics of Historical Time (K. Tribe, Trans.). Columbia University Press. [Chapter 3: "Historical Criteria of the Modern Concept of Revolution"]
Menke, C. (2024). The Possibility of Revolution. [Introduction and Chapter 1: "The Concept of Revolution"]
Traverso, E. (2021). Revolution: An Intellectual History. Verso. [Introduction: "Interpreting Revolutions"]
Fanon, F. (2004). The Wretched of the Earth (R. Philcox, Trans.). Grove Press.
Sartre, J.-P. (2004). "Preface." In F. Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth. Grove Press.
Flores Galindo, A. (2010). In Search of an Inca: Identity and Utopia in the Andes (C. Aguirre, C. F. Walker, & W. Hiatt, Trans.). Cambridge University Press. [Introduction and Chapter: "The Andean Utopia"]
James, C. L. R. (1989). The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution. Vintage.
Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN). (1994). First Declaration from the Lacandon Jungle.
Öcalan, A. (2015). Manifesto for a Democratic Civilization. New Compass Press. [Chapter 4: "Democratic Civilization"]
The Red Nation. (2021). The Red Deal: Indigenous Action to Save Our Earth. Common Notions.
Adorno, T. W. (1991). "Resignation" / "Theory and Praxis." In The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture. Routledge.
Adorno, T. W., & Marcuse, H. (1999). "Correspondence on the German Student Movement." New Left Review, 233, 118–136.
Dutschke, R. (1968). "On Anti-authoritarianism." [Originally a speech delivered at the International Vietnam Congress, West Berlin, February 1968. Available at: platypus1917.org]
Krahl, H. J. (1974). "The Political Contradiction in Adorno's Critical Theory." Telos, 21, 164–167.
Marcuse, H. (1969). An Essay on Liberation. Beacon Press. [Chapter 3: "Subversive Subcultures"]
Situationist International and Students from Strasbourg. (1966). On the Poverty of Student Life: A Consideration of Its Economic, Political, Sexual, Psychological and Notably Intellectual Aspects and of a Few Ways to Cure it. [Pamphlet. Rep. ed.: Common Notions, 2022, trans. D. Nicholson-Smith]
Katsiaficas, G. (1987). The Imagination of the New Left: A Global Analysis of 1968. South End Press. [Chapter 1: "The Global Movement of 1968"]
Hayek, F. A. (2007). The Road to Serfdom. University of Chicago Press.
Land, N. (2012). The Dark Enlightenment. [Self-published essay, available at: thedarkenlightenment.com]
Rand, A. (1964). The Virtue of Selfishness. Signet.
Rothbard, M. N. (2006). For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto. Ludwig von Mises Institute.
Scott, J. C. (1998). Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. Yale University Press.
Slobodian, Q. (2018). Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism. Harvard University Press.
Guattari, F., & Negri, A. (1990). Communists Like Us: New Spaces of Liberty, New Lines of Alliance (M. Ryan, Trans.). Semiotext(e).
Holloway, J. (2002). Change the World Without Taking Power: The Meaning of Revolution Today. Pluto Press.
Lefebvre, H. (2014). Critique of Everyday Life (J. Moore, Trans.). Verso. [Introduction by Michel Trebitsch; and "Preface to the Second Volume" (1961)]
Lonzi, C. (1970). Let's Spit on Hegel [Manifesto].
Rancière, J. (2004). The Politics of Aesthetics: The Distribution of the Sensible (G. Rockhill, Trans.). Continuum. [Introduction and Part 1]
The Invisible Committee. (2009). The Coming Insurrection. Semiotext(e). [Section: "The Seven Circles"]
Adamczak, B. (2021). Yesterday's Tomorrow: On the Loneliness of Communist Specters and the Reconstruction of the Future (A. N. West, Trans.). MIT Press.
Arruzza, C., Bhattacharya, T., & Fraser, N. (2019). Feminism for the 99%: A Manifesto. Verso.
Bastani, A. (2019). Fully Automated Luxury Communism: A Manifesto. Verso.
Gago, V. (2020). Feminist International: How to Change Everything (L. Mason-Deese, Trans.). Verso. [Chapter 1: "The Feminist Strike"]
Hardt, M., & Negri, A. (2017). Assembly. Oxford University Press. [Chapter 1: "Where Have All the Leaders Gone?"]
Malm, A. (2021). How to Blow Up a Pipeline: Learning to Fight in a World on Fire. Verso. [Chapter 2: "Learning from Past Struggles"]
Redecker, E. (2021). Revolution for Life: Philosophy of New Forms of Resistance. S. Fischer.
Ross, K. (2015). Communal Luxury: The Political Imaginary of the Paris Commune. Verso.
It is possible to do a "Prüfungsleistung" / Modulprüfung. Details will be discussed in our first session.
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