Reading Marx in Beirut: Disorganised Study and the Politics of Queer Utopia
| Main author: | Chamas, Sophie |
|---|---|
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Online access: |
Click here to view record |
| id |
eprints-37923 |
|---|---|
| recordtype |
eprints |
| institution |
SOAS, University of London |
| collection |
SOAS Research Online |
| language |
English |
| language_search |
English |
| description |
This article draws on ethnographic research carried out with Marxist reading groups run by a Lebanese revolutionary socialist organization. I examine the labor that Marxist theoretical practice was doing in a political conjuncture widely viewed as post-Marxist , discussing the relationship between theory and affect, and the role that affective infrastructures play in maintaining and reproducing social movements and political organisations. Drawing on Moten and Harney, I frame this intellectual labor as a form of dissonant , disorganized study - a mode of preparing for revolution by being together in brokenness and routinely generating a commitment to a particular political horizon. This form of political praxis as study unfolded within a
Lebanese activist scene dominated by a pragmatic conception of politics, within which the critical labor of the radical and revolutionary left was largely considered sterile , mired in something akin to what Berlant calls cruel optimism. Drawing on Munoz, his conceptualisation of the politics of queer utopia, and his defence of utopian imaginativeness, I argue that for radical and revolutionary leftists in counter-revolutionary times, cultivating solidarity and camaraderie by maintaining a space of study that could enable technologies of both self and collective constituted a productive political act. |
| format |
Journal Article |
| author |
Chamas, Sophie |
| author_facet |
Chamas, Sophie |
| authorStr |
Chamas, Sophie |
| author_letter |
Chamas, Sophie |
| title |
Reading Marx in Beirut: Disorganised Study and the Politics of Queer Utopia |
| publisher |
Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies |
| publishDate |
2020 |
| url |
https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/37923/
|