On the notion of the political in postmarxist theory.

Research project by Katja Diefenbach

All seminars take place at the Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht

Syllabus 2010

Foucault once wrote: “Do not think that one has to be sad in order to be militant, even though the thing one is fighting is abominable.” By criticizing the bureaucrats of the revolution and the sad passions of the militants, Foucault conjured up a positive grammar of the political awakening of 1968 that has not been a second Freudo-Marxist golden age, but an incision into the political itself, in that a changed analysis of power came together with a changed model of rebellion. The events of 1968 saw the emergence of a practise that had left the Leninist model of revolution behind, and turned to a minoritarian and molecular model of the break. It focussed around the question of how various forms of dissidence traversing a situation unfold their forces in the process by which the social order is overthrown.

Since 1968, however, minoritarian politics have failed. After they have been detached from an anticapitalist approach, differences are exclusively acknowledged in the mode of commercialized life-forms or essentialist predicates. Thus, the concrete particularity of culturalized or ethnicized differences supplements the homogeneity of capital, and dissident practises disappear in the modernization of normal. This successful failure has led to a controversial debate about the question of the political in post-Marxism that is shaped among others along the following lines:

Butler's Levinasian ethics of the vulnerability and passivity of a precarious life-form, Derrida's messianic expectation of an event which evades any expectation, Badiou’s event of truth, Zizek’s neo-leninist idea of the primacy of decision, the concept of an empty universality in hegemony theory, Agamben's notion of a potentiality that is in no relation to the act, the post-workerist idea of an ontology of the multitude and a coming communism of creative potentiality, Rancière's suggestion that the political conflict resides in the tension between the structured social body and the part with no-part.

In the project "After 1968" we discuss the differences between these positions and ask how the following problems can be thought: the relationship between valorisation, governmentality, law, and politics; the conflicting ideas of an ontological foundation, irreducible relativity, or inner differentiation of politics; and the difference between an immanent or transcendent idea of the excessivity of the political.

In 2010 we will focus on the concepts of becoming and molecular politics elaborated by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari in "A thousand plateaus" and "Anti-Oedipus", supplemented by a discussion of Deleuze's readings of Nietzsche, Spinoza and Tarde.

Particularily, I would like to pay attention to two questions: how does Deleuze use the concepts of force, affect, and micrological relationality in Nietzsche, Spinoza and Tarde in order to construct an ontology of becoming, and, secondly, how does the ontological perspective of Deleuze and Guattari's thought (infinite pure becoming) relate to their political perspective of actively producing a concatanation of forces.

In the second part of the seminar, we will confront the legacy of micropolitics with two opposing approaches, today's nouvelle vague of Leninism that enjoys short-circuiting and identifying molecular politics with its failure, and Nancy and Lacoue-Labarthe's left-heideggerian idea of politics retreating.

04.02.2010
11:00-11:30
Abécédaire A comme animal
- Screening of a movie by Claire Denis, F 1988
- Auditorium
- English transcript by Dominique Hurth

04.02.2010
11:00 - 13:30
Becoming The notion of becoming in Deleuze and Guattari
- Seminar
- Auditorium
- introduced by Oxana Timofeeva

03.12.2009
05.12.2009
Becoming-major, becoming-minor International conference
- Auditorium
- organized by Vanessa Brito

02.12.2009
15:00 - 17:00
Global capitalism, necropolitics and contemporary art
- Lecture by Marina Gržinić
- Auditorium

01.12.2009
17:00 - 19:00
The dispositif of the person
- Lecture by Roberto Esposito
- Auditorium
- introduced by G. Bianco

04.11.2009
19:00 - 21:00
Biopotentiality On Esposito's concept of bio/politics
- Seminar
- Auditorium

09.10.2009
11.10.2009
Encountering Althusser International Conference
- organised by Sara Farris, Gal Kirn, Peter Thomas, and Katja Diefenbach
- Studio

09.10.2009
11.10.2009
Encountering Althusser Conference material: schedule, abstracts, articles

08.10.2009
A selection of texts
Reading Althusser

07.10.2009
14:00 - 16:00
La leçon d'Althusser Rancière's farewell to Althusserian Marxism
- Seminar
- Auditorium
- introduced by Emiliano Battista

06.10.2009
17:00 - 19:00
What is aleatory materialism? Debating Althusser's philosophy of the encounter
- Seminar
- Auditorium
- introduced by Gal Kirn

03.09.2009
11:00 - 13:00
Kairos, Alma Venus, Multitudo Negri on materialism
- Seminar with Matteo Mandarini
- Auditorium
- introduced by Giorgos Papadopoulos

03.09.2009
20:00 - 22:00
The Surplus of Paradoxes Queer/ing Images of Sexuality and Economy
- Lecture by Antke Engel
- Auditorium
- introduced by Giorgos Papadopoulos

02.09.2009
10:30 - 12:30
Communists like us Negri's encounter with Guattari: the elision of Lenin
- Lecture by Matteo Mandarini
- Auditorium

02.09.2009
14:00 - 18:00
The autonomy of the political Tronti and Cacciari's concept of the political
- Workshop with Sara Farris, Matteo Mandarini, Peter Thomas
- Auditorium

01.09.2009
17:00 - 19:00
The cinema of Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne A cinematic diagnosis of biopolitics
- Lecture by Ruth Sonderegger
- Auditorium

01.09.2009
20:00-22:00
Screening Dardenne's Rosetta Portray of a precarious survival
- Screening & discussion with Ruth Sonderegger
- Auditorium

17.06.2009
11:00 - 13:00
Invention "From Capital-Labor to Capital-Life" by M. Lazzarato
- Seminar
- Auditorium
- Introduced by K. Stakemeier + P. Thomas

16.06.2009
11:00 - 13:00
The Meanings of Immanence in Deleuze's Philosophy The specter of an unsolved problematic
- Lecture by Christian Kerslake
- Auditorium
- Introduced by Peter Thomas

20.05.2009
14:00-16:00
Individuation Reading Simondon
- Auditorium
- Seminar
- Introduction by Sara Farris

19.05.2009
14:00 - 18:00
The singular, the trans-individual and the common A French Marx
- Auditorium
- Lectures by L. Basso + V. Morfino
- Organised by Sara Farris

09.04.2009
14:00 - 16:30
The Intruder Screening of a film by Claire Denis
- Auditorium
- Introduction by Pietro Bianchi

09.04.2009
17:00 - 19:00
Excess Nancy on the singularity of death
- Seminar
- Auditorium
- Introduction by Pietro Bianchi

07.04.2009
08.04.2009
Biopolitics of scale State-space symposium no. 1
- Berlage Institute Rotterdam
- Workshop
- organised by L. Stanek

11.03.2009
14:00-16:00
Immanence Agamben and Deleuze on pure immanence
— Seminar
— Auditorium
— Introduced by V. Brito + T. Tho

11.03.2009
16:30-18:00
Preparatory meeting Encountering Althusser
— Room 204

11.03.2009
20:00-22:00
Preparatory meeting Workshop: becoming-major, becoming-minor
- initiated by Vanessa Brito
- Room 204

09.03.2009
10.03.2009 10:00 - 19:00
A Workshop on Baudrillard Against the economic: Reading Baudrillard with Bataille, Lacan, Marx, and Debord
— The Annex
— organised by Giorgos Papadopoulos

07.02.2009
10:00 - 12:00
The force of the outside II Foucault with Deleuze
— Seminar
— Auditorium

06.02.2009
14:00-16:00
The force of the outside Superimposing diagrams: discipline and governmentality
- Seminar
- Auditorium

06.02.2009
16:30-18:30
Preparatory Meeting Encountering Althusser
- Group meeting
- Room 204

03.02.2009
19:30-21:30
Is Marx a Fichtean? Lecture of Tom Rockmore at the International Institute for Research and Education, Amsterdam
- organised by Sara Farris
- Returns of Marxism Series

05.12.2008
11:00 - 13:00
Marx's Metapolitics Reading Jacques Rancière's "Dis-agreement"
- Seminar with Martin Saar
- Paper by E. Battista
- Room 204

04.12.2008
16:00 - 18:00
Political Spinozism Negri on Power.
- Guest Lecture by Martin Saar
- Auditorium

04.11.2008
11:00 - 13:00
The non-totalizable complexity of the historical process Reading Balibar's "The Vacillation of Ideology in Marxism"
- Seminar with Steve Wright
- Paper by O. Pupovac + S. Wright
- Room 204

03.11.2008
18:00 - 20:00
Tronti's Legacy The Refusal of Labor
- Guest Lecture by Steve Wright
- Auditorium

05.10.2008
17:00 - 19:00
Deconstructing Value Theory Reading Jacques Derrida's "Specters of Marx"
- Seminar
- Room 204

11.09.2008
10:00 - 12.00
Value and Capitalist Capacities Reading Moishe Postone's "Time, Labor and Social Domination"
- Seminar
- Room 204

01.07.2008
12:30-14:30
Marx with Bataille Debating "The mirror of production" by Jean Baudrillard
- Seminar
- Auditorium

06.06.2008
12:00 - 14:00
The coming communities of commons
- Workshop with Massimo De Angelis, Pier Vittorio Aureli, Anne Querrien
- Room 201

05.06.2008
14:00 - 16:00
The arcane of reproduction Feminist comments on the relation between politics and labor
- Seminar, introduced by M. Vishmidt
- Auditorium
- Guest: Anne Querrien

05.06.2008
17:00 - 21:30
Communists like us The production of commons, subjectivity and space
- Lectures
- Massimo De Angelis, Pier Vittorio Aureli, Anne Querrien
- Gallery Space

09.05.2008
11.00 - 13.00
Rancière on the inactuality of communism and the intelligence of the unqualified
- Seminar
- Room 204

07.05.2008
15:00 - 17:00
Notes on the general intellect Virno on Marx's "Fragments on machines"
- Seminar
- Paper: Gal Kirn
- Guest: Stephan Geene

06.05.2008
17:00 - 19:00
After effect The cool despair of young creatives. Discussion with the filmmaker S. Geene
- Screening
- Room 201

04.04.2008
11.00 - 13.00
What is living and what is dead in Marx's philosophy? II Virno on the concept of bio-politics in Postoperaism
- Seminar
- Room 204

03.04.2008
17.00 - 19.00
What is living and what is dead in Marx's philosophy? Jason Read on abstract and living labor
- Seminar
- Auditorium

07.03.2008
11:00 - 13:00
The autonomy of living labor Reading Negri's "Twenty Theses on Marx"
- Seminar
- Room 204

06.03.2008
16.00 - 19.00
The cell - Toni Negri and the prison Screening + Discussion with the filmmaker Angela Melitopoulos
- Auditorium

04.03.2008
20.00 - 23.00
The body of the worker as paradoxical machine and teaching aid Happiness (1934) by Aleksandr Medvedkin + Cine-Train excerpts (Medvedkin and others)
- Screening
- Introduction by Marina Vishmidt
- Auditorium

08.02.2008
10.00 - 12.00
The emergence of the socialised worker II Class composition in Italian autonomist Marxism
- Seminar & Screening
- Auditorium

08.02.2008
10.00 - 12.00
Porto Marghera: the last firebrands Workers' autonomy in the Veneto in the 1960s and 70s
- Screening
- Auditorium

07.02.2008
16:00 - 18:00
The emergence of the socialised worker Class composition in Italian autonomist Marxism
- Seminar
- Room 204

05.02.2008
20.00 - 22.00
Kuhle Wampe Politics of montage
- Screening + Discussion
- Auditorium
- Introduction by Gal Kirn

07.12.2007
11.00 - 13.00
Assigning a measure to the excessive power of the state On Badiou's concept of truth procedure
- Seminar
- Room 204

06.12.2007
14.00 - open end
A visual genealogy of bohemia Video seminar with S. Dillemuth
- Screening
- Auditorium

05.12.2007
18.00 - 20.00
The politics of bohemia
- Lectures by S. Dillemuth and others
- Auditorium

05.12.2007
21.00 - 23.30
Politics of Bohemia Remembering Fassbinder
- Screening with S. Dillemuth
- Gallery Space

04.12.2007
20:00 - 24:00
The century of the self Adam Curtis' documentary on consumerist subjectivity
- Screening
- Auditorium
- Introduction: M. Vishmidt

09.11.2007
12:00 - 14:00
The supplementary part that disconnects the people from itself Reading Jacques Ranciere's "Ten theses on politics"
- Seminar
- Guest: Maria Muhle

08.11.2007
18:00 - 20:00
Politics, police and power from Foucault to Rancière
- Lecture by Maria Muhle
- Auditorium

07.11.2007
18:00 - 20:00
In the figurative sense Narrative strategies of subjectivisation in Fassbinder’s "Berlin Alexanderplatz"
- Lecture by Manfred Hermes
- Auditorium

05.10.2007
11.00 - 13.00
The poetics of knowledge On political hegemony and militant becoming: Gramsci and Deleuze
- Lecture by Serhat Karakayali
- Room 204

04.10.2007
16:00 – 18:00
Micropolitics Deleuze and Guattari on the concept of minoritarian struggle
- Seminar
- Room 204

07.09.2007
11.00 - 13.00
Domestic work and class struggle within the class II On class composition and radical negativity
- Seminar
- Room 204

06.09.2007
16.00 - 18.00
Domestic work and class struggle within the class On class composition and radical negativity
- Seminar
- Room 204
- Paper: Marina Vishmidt

02.07.2007
11.00 - 13.00
The relationship of Marxism and Post-Structuralism III From class to minority
- Seminar
- Room 204
- Paper: Marina Vishmidt

01.07.2007
14.00 - 16.00
The relationship of Marxism and Post-Structuralism II On the concept of the concrete universal
- Seminar
- Room 204

30.06.2007
14.00 - 16.00
The relationship of Marxism and Post-Structuralism On Marx and Foucault
- Seminar
- Room 204

30.06.2007
20:00 - 24:00
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict A selection of movies presented by Tsila Hassine
- Screening
- Auditorium
- Introduction: T. Hassine

29.06.2007
18:00 - 21:00
In the mood for work The cultural producer as model of the post-fordist worker
- Lectures by R. Martinez, J. Rowan, M. Vishmidt, K. Diefenbach
- Gallery Space

30.05.2007
11:00 - 15:00
La Commune. Paris 1871 Part II A movie by Peter Watkins
- Screening
- Studio

30.05.2007
15.00 - 17.00
The Soviet experience II Dictatorship of the proletariat and council movement
- Seminar
- Room 204

29.05.2007
17:00 - 19:00
The Soviet experience Rosa Luxemburg on the Russian Revolution
- Seminar
- Room 204
- Paper: Tanja Widmann

29.05.2007
20:00 - 23:00
La Commune. Paris 1871 Part I A movie by Peter Watkins
- Screening
- Studio

06.04.2007
11.00 - 13.00
Democracy beyond law II Negri on Lenin
- Seminar
- Room 204

05.04.2007
17.00 - 19.00
Democracy beyond law Lenin's concept of the dictatorship of protetariat
- Seminar
- Room 204
- Guest: Grahame Lock
- Paper: Ozren Pupovac

05.04.2007
18:00 - 20:00
Dictatorship of the proletariat as political science The actuality of Althusser's thinking
- Lecture by Grahame Lock
- Auditorium

04.04.2007
19:00 - 21:00
Hey production! The imposition of creative work
- Lecture by Judith Hopf
- Auditorium

09.03.2007
11.00 - 13.00
To bring about the real state of exception II Benjamin's concept of mysthic and divine violence
- Seminar
- Room 204
- Paper: Anthony Auerbach

08.03.2007
16:00 - 18:00
To bring about the real state of exception Agamben's reading of Benjamin
- Seminar
- Auditorium

08.03.2007
18:00 - 20:00
Sovereign police Notes on asymmetric warfare and governance
- Lecture by Raul Zelik
- Auditorium

08.03.2007
21.00 - 23.00
Road to Guantanamo Winterbottom and Whitecross's image of exception
- Screening
- Auditorium
- Guest: Raul Zelik

09.02.2007
11.00 - 13.00
Potentiality of impotentiality II Agamben's sovereign theoretical turn in thinking potentiality
- Seminar
- Auditorium

08.02.2007
16:00 - 18:00
Potentiality of impotentiality Agamben's theory of autonomous potentiality
- Seminar
- Auditorium