On the notion of the political in postmarxist theory.

Research project by Katja Diefenbach

Members: Emiliano Battista, Pietro Bianchi, Giuseppe Bianco, Vanessa Brito, Sara Farris, Myriam Van Imschoot, Fiorenzo Iuliano, Gal Kirn, Eli Noe, Georgios Papadopoulos, Kerstin Stakemeier, Lukasz J. Stanek, Tzuchien Tho, Peter Thomas, Samo Tomsic.

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

Syllabus 2009 

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 societal 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 on the question of the political in Postmarxism 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 idea of a neo-Leninist decision, Agamben's notion of a potentiality that is in any relation to the act, the concept of an empty universality in hegemony theory, the post-workerist idea of an ontology of the multitude and a coming communism of creative potentiality, Rancičre's suggestion that the political conflict resides in the tension between the structured social body and the part with no-part.

The project "After 1968" negotiates the differences between these concepts and debates how the following problems could be thought: the relationship between governmentality, valorization, law and resistance; the conflicting ideas of an ontological foundation or irreducible relativity and inner differentiation of the political; the difference between an immanent or transcendent excessivity of a political community.

In 2009 the seminar series will focus on the differend between several ways of articulating life in political terms: a vitalist creative thread (Spinoza - Bergson - Simondon - Deleuze - Negri/ Virno) on one side, a negative exceptionalist thread (Heidegger - Agamben - Nancy) on the other side, non-concentric to both, the position of Roberto Esposito, and the analytical line of Michel Foucault centered on the productivity of power integrating life to a realm of utility and value.

09.10.2009
11.10.2009
Encountering Althusser International Conference
- organised by Gal Kirn, Peter Thomas, Katja Diefenbach
- with G. Fourtounis, G. Goshgarian, S. Karamanić, K. Kolšek, M.Kržan, M. Lahtinen, R. Mocnik, V. Morfino, O. Pupovac, J. Read, P. Sotiris, M. Turchetto, C. Williams, F.O. Wolf
- Auditorium

08.10.2009
A selection of texts
Reading Althusser

07.10.2009
14:00 - 17:00
The lesson of Althusser Rancičre's farewell to structural Marxism
- Seminar
- Auditorium

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

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

01.09.2009
18:00 - 20:00
The cinema of Pierre and Jean-Luc Dardenne
- Lecture by 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
- 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
- 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
Workshop on Baudrillard
— The Annex
— organised by Georgios 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 Rancičre'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
Rancičre 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
Porto Marghera: the last firebrands Workers' autonomy in the Veneto in the 1960s and 70s
- Screening
- Auditorium

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

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

05.10.2007
11.00 - 13.00
The poetics of knowledge On political hegemony and militant becoming: Gramsci and Deleuze
- Lecture
- 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
- 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
- Gallery Space

30.05.2007
11:00 - 15:00
La Commune. Paris 1871 Part II
- 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
- 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
- Auditorium

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

08.03.2007
21.00 - 23.00
Road to Guantanamo
- 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