Comrade - An Essay on Political Belonging

In the twentieth-century millions of people across the globe addressed each other as "comrade". Now, it's more common to hear talk of "allies" on the left than it is of comrades. In Comrade, Jodi Dean insists that this shift exemplifies the key problem with the contemporary left: the substitution of political identity for a relation of political belonging that must be built, sustained, and defended.In Comrade, Dean offers a theory of the comrade. Comrades are equals on the same side of a political struggle. Voluntarily coming together in the struggle for justice, their relationship is characterised by discipline, joy, courage, and enthusiasm. Considering the generic egalitarianism of the comrade in light of differences of race and gender, Dean draws from an array of historical and literary examples such as Harry Haywood, C.L.R James, Alexandra Kollontai, and Doris Lessing. She argues that if we are to be a left at all, we have to be comrades.

About the author

Jodi Dean teaches political, feminist, and media theory in Geneva, New York. She has written or edited thirteen books, including The Communist Horizon and Crowds and Party, both published by Verso.

Report

Jodi's sharp analysis of the impasses of the left is also a kind of requiem for much of the 2.0 bluster of the last decade. Mark Fisher, author of Capitalist Realism

Product details

• Authors: Jodi Dean, Dean Jodi
• Publisher: Verso
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.10.2019
• EAN: 9781788735018
• ISBN: 978-1-78873-501-8
• No. of pages: 176
• Dimensions: 150 mm x 220 mm x 15 mm
• Subjects: Non-fiction book; Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; Kommunismus, Politikwissenschaft, Marxismus, Soziale und politische Philosophie, History of Ideas, Moderne Philosophie: nach 1800, PHILOSOPHY / Social, PHILOSOPHY / Political, PHILOSOPHY / History & Surveys / Modern, POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory, Philosophy, Politik / Politikwissenschaft, Politologie, Philosophie / Gesellschaft, Politik, Staat, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Communism, Post-Communism & Socialism, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Essays, Social & political philosophy, social and political philosophy, Western philosophy from c 1800, Far-left political ideologies and movements, Marxism & Communism