On the notion of the political in postmarxist theory.


Syllabus 2007: On politics of potentiality

February: Impotential potentiality

8.2. Agamben: Potentialities (Bartleby, or On Contingency) 243-271
9.2. Agamben: Homo sacer (Potentiality and Law)39-49

March: To bring about the real state of exception

8.3. Agamben: Homo sacer (Potentiality and Law) 39-49
Agamben: State of Exception (Gigantomachy concerning a Void)52-64
Löwy: Fire Alarm (Thesis VIII)57-60

Guest Lecture: Sovereign Police. Notes on Asymmetric Warfare and Governance, Raul Zelik

Screening: Road to Guantanamo (UK 2006 95 min)
A Movie directed by M. Winterbottom + M. Whitecross

9.3. Benjamin: Critique of Violence 277-300
Derrida: Force of Law (Part II) 29-63
Paper: Anthony Auerbach

April: Revolution at the Gates

4.4. Guest Lecture:  Hey Production: The Imposition of Creative Work, Judith Hopf

5.4.  Balibar: On the Dictatorship of the Proletariat
http://www.marx2mao.com/Other/ODP77ii.html

Paper: Ozren Pupovac

Guest Lecture: Dictatorship of the Proletariat, Grahame Lock

6.4. Negri: Insurgencies (Lenin and the Soviets) 268-291
Fischer: Stalin and German Communism (Road to the NEP) 148-186


May: The Soviet Experience: Dictatorship of the Proletariat and Council Movement

29.5. Rosa Luxemburg (1918): The Russian Revolution
30.5. Discussion of the positions of Luxemburg, Balibar, Fischer and Negri

Paper: Tanja Widman

June: The Relation of Marxism and Post-Structuralism

29.6. Etienne Balibar: Foucault and Marx
30.6. Michel Foucault: History of Sexuality, Volume 1, Chapter IV
02.7. Malgre Tout Collective: Manifesto

Paper: Marina Vishmidt

Guest Lecture: In the mood for work, Jaron Rowan, Ruben Martinez

From class to minority

September: Domestic Work and Class Struggle within the Class

Mariarosa dalla Costa/ Selma James (1972): Women and the Subversion of the Community. Falling Wall Press.
http://libcom.org/library/power-women-subversion-community-della-costa-selma-james

Etienne Balibar (1987): From Class Struggle to Classless Struggle. In: E. Balibar/ I. Wallerstein: Race, Class, Nation. London: Verso 1991, pp. 153-184. (library)

Paper: Marina Vishmidt

October: Micropolitics

Gilles Deleuze/ Félix Guattari (1980): A Thousand Plateaus. Chapter IX: 1933 - Micropolitics and Segmentarity, London: Continuum 2004, pp. 208-232.

Guest Lecture: On political hegemony and militant becoming, Serhat Karakayalı

November: The supplementary part that disconnects the people from itself

Jacques Ranciere (2001): Ten Theses on Politics. In: Theory & Event. John Hopkins University Pr., pp.1-16.

Guest Lecture: From Foucault to Ranciere, Maria Muhle

Guest Lecture: In the figurative sense: Fassbinder's narrative strategies, Manfred Hermes.

December: Assigning a measure to the excessive power of the state

Alain Badiou (1998): Politics as a Truth Procedure. In: Theoretical Writings, London: Continuum 2004, pp 153-160.

http://www.lacan.com/badtruth.htm

Guest Lecture: Politics of Bohemia, Stephan Dillemuth

Screening: Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Satan's Brew, D 1976, 112 min