Karl Ekeman, Uppsala University, Sweden, Zeynep Gambetti, Bogazici University, Renata Salecl, Birkbeck, University of London, Jason Stanley, Yale University in conversation with Michael Taussig, Columbia University, and Bernard E. Harcourt, Columbia University
Read and discuss
The Real Right Returns: A Handbook for the True Opposition by Daniel Friberg, A Fair Hearing: The Alt-Right in the Words of Its Members and Leader edited by George T. Shaw, and Why We Fight: Manifesto of the European Resistance by Guillaume Faye
The relationship between the Alt-Right and Left critical theory is puzzling, to say the least. For many in the European Alt-Right, Gramsci and the Frankfurt School are the very source of what they believe is the decline of European civilization. As Andreas Huyssen writes over at Public Seminar, there is a baffling “obsession with the Frankfurt School as bête noire not just in Breitbart himself, but in the wider circles of American white supremacists and their publications.” This obsession with critical theory is not just a matter of curiosity, it actually motivates the entire praxis of the Alt-Right, insofar as the movement believes that the central political struggle is at the cultural and ideological level—and that ideologie kritik needs to be appropriated by the Alt-Right. Join us for this session to explore these issues. Welcome to Praxis 4/13!