Studies in Contemporary Literature

Course taught in English

This course examines the fundamental Italian contribution to the contemporary redefinition of the category of the political. We will begin by reviewing Gramsci’s classic reflections on the question of hegemony and on the relationship between politics and culture. Our investigation will continue through an analysis of more recent writings by Agamben, Esposito, Negri, Tronti, and Virno which have consistently put into question the cogency and relevance of the political paradigms of modernity (including those of Marx and Gramsci).  We will concentrate especially on the critical interpretation of such crucial terms as “workerism,” “biopower,” “the impolitical,” “empire,” and “multitude.” A central aim of the course will be to assess the significance of Italian thought for contemporary French and American debates on the afterlife of Marxism in the epoch of so-called globalization. To what extent do the Italian thinkers succeed in reconfiguring politics as a vital catalyst of culture, creativity, and forms of life, rather than as a ghastly, cynical practice? How do they revise the task of the intellectual for the twenty-first century? With these questions in mind, we will give consideration to the different ways in which the efforts of contemporary Italian thinkers enter into dialogue with works by figures as various as as Balibar, Butler, Laclau, Mouffe, Nancy, Ranciere, Said, Spivak, and Zizek. Readings will be available in both English and Italian.

Texts

Agamben: La comunità che viene, Homo sacer, Mezzi senza fine; Quel che resta di Auschwitz; Stato di Eccezione.

Negri: L’anomalia selvaggia, Marx oltre Marx, Il potere costituente.

Negri and Hardt: Impero Tronti: Operai e capitale, La politica al tramonto.

Esposito: Categorie dell’impolitico, Communitas: origine e destino dell comunità, Bios: biopolitica e filosofia.

Virno: Mondanità: l’idea di mondo tra esperienza sensibile e sfera pubblica, Il ricordo del presente: saggio sul tempo storico.