Politics as Radical Creation: Herbert Marcuse and Hannah Arendt on Political Performativity
© 2013
Politics as Radical Creation examines the meaning of democratic practice through the critical social theory of the Frankfurt School. It provides an understanding of democratic politics as a potentially performative good-in-itself, undertaken not just to the extent that it seeks to achieve a certain extrinsic goal, but also in that it functions as a medium for the expression of creative human impulses. Christopher Holman develops this potential model through a critical examination of the political philosophies of Herbert Marcuse and Hannah Arendt.
Holman argues that, while Arendt and Marcuse’s respective theorizations each ultimately restrict the potential scope of creative human expression, their juxtaposition – which has not been previously explored – results in a more comprehensive theory of democratic existence, one that is uniquely able to affirm the creative capacities of the human being. Yielding important theoretical results that will interest scholars of each theorist and of theories of democracy more generally, Politics as Radical Creation provides a valuable means for rethinking the nature of contemporary democratic practice.
Product Details
- World Rights
- Page Count: 272 pages
- Dimensions: 6.4in x 0.9in x 9.0in
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Reviews
‘Holman’s is a compelling and important project… with its timely rich analysis of the parallels between Arendt and Marcuse, Holman’s book is well positioned to inspire and propel forward such work.’
Jennie Han
Theory and Event vol 17:03:2014‘Politics as Radical Creation consists of rigorous interpretations of texts by Marcuse and Arendt, that bring out the richness of these texts and suggest promising possibilities for further connections between critical theory and Arendt’s political thinking.’
Michiel Bot
Political Theory June 2016“This is a thorough and well-written work of intellectual history that highlights connections rarely made between Herbert Marcuse and Hannah Arendt.”
Stephen Bronner, Department of Political Science, Rutgers University“This is a well-written, illuminating, and analytically-argued read of two of the twentieth century’s most penetrating thinkers that presents possibilities for a new type of political action—politics as performance.”
Rick Matthews, Department of Political Science, LeHigh University -
Author Information
Christopher Holman is an assistant professor in the Public Policy and Global Affairs program at Nanyang Technological University. -
Table of contents
Introduction: Marcuse, Arendt, and the Idea of Politics
Chapter One: Marcuse’s Critique and Reformulation of the Philosophical Concept of Essence
- Culture and Bourgeois Freedom
- Critical Theory and the Ethical Imperative: Happiness-Reason-Freedom
- Hegel and the Dialectic of Negativity
- Essence and the Dialectic of Labour
Chapter Two: The Dialectic of Instinctual Liberation: Essence and Non-Repressive Sublimation
- The Problem of Repression: Individual and Social, Basic and Surplus
- The Affirmation of Sensuousness: Primary Narcissism and Non-Repressive Sublimation
- Non-Repressive Sublimation and Non-Alienated Labour
Chapter Three: The Problem of Politics
- Marx’s Political Ambiguity
- The Limits of Western Marxism
- Marcuse’s Reproduction of the Marxian Anti-Politics
- Administration as Domination and Liberation
Chapter Four: Hannah Arendt’s Theory of Public Freedom
- Performativity and Essence: The Need for Radical Creation
- The Subject of Radical Creation: Politics and the We
- Agonism, Democracy, and Political Objectification
- Arendt and Revolutionary History
- The Institutionalization of the Revolutionary Impulse: The Council Tradition
Chapter Five: Marcuse Contra Arendt: Dialectics, Destiny, Distinction
- Questioning Distinction: the Vita Activa and Marx’s Ontology of Labour
- Arendt’s Critique of the Dialectic: On the Need for Distinction
- Marcuse’s Critique of Non-Dialectical Dialectics
Chapter Six: Marcuse: Reconsidering the Political
- The Theory of the Radical Act
- The Affirmation of Socialist Nature
- Politics and the New Left
- Spontaneity and the Council Tradition
Conclusion: From the New Left to Global Justice and from the Councils to
Cochabamba
Works Cited
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