ABSTRACT

Revolutionary Hope in a Time of Crisis takes up the question of how to theorize and revive revolutionary hope in the present era of political disillusion. The collection consists of new cutting-edge research essays written by an interdisciplinary mix of established and emerging scholars, bringing together a wide range of intellectual traditions and perspectives. The contributors confront the challenge of relearning hope by exploring the politically transformative potential of past disappointments and defeats. They encourage us to acknowledge, come to terms with and learn from the complexities, failures, and losses entailed in resistance, and to consider them as an occasion for rethinking the established patterns of revolutionary thought. Specifically, the essays question how engagement with past disappointments, losses, and defeats can help us creatively respond to the difficulties and failures of resistance—and inspire our imagination of revolutionary possibilities in the present.

Written in an accessible tone without theoretical density or academic jargon, Revolutionary Hope in a Time of Crisis provides theoretical and historical contexts to what it means to engage in left activism today. A vital resource for those interested in intellectual history, political history, radical politics, democracy, and contemporary political theory.

chapter |8 pages

Introduction

part I|52 pages

Rethinking the Relationship between Loss and Revolutionary Politics

chapter 2|14 pages

The Promise of Solidarity

Learning from Failure with Rosa Luxemburg

chapter 3|10 pages

Between Loss and Hope

Reflections on the Black Revolutionary Tradition

part II|48 pages

Negative Affect, Mobilization, and the Troubles of Democracy

chapter 7|14 pages

Resistance and/or Metamorphosis

Politics as Breathwork

part III|30 pages

Facing Failure and Pessimistic Seductions

chapter 8|14 pages

Responding to Failure

The Case of the US Disability Rights Movement

chapter 9|14 pages

Beside(s) Hope

A Thought Experiment on (Black) Life, Death, and Literary Puncturing