Revolutionary Hope in a Time of Crisis

Maša Mrovlje is Lecturer in Political Theory at the University of Leeds. Her research interests are located within contemporary political thought, with a specific emphasis on theories of resistance and resistance movements. She is the author of Rethinking Political Judgement: Arendt and Existentialism (Edinburgh University Press, 2019). Her articles appeared in leading international journals, including The Journal of Politics, Millennium, Philosophy & Social Criticism and Political Theory . Her current project, entitled Disappointment: Reclaiming the Unfulfilled Promise of Resistance , explores the political potentials of disappointment within the modern revolutionary tradition.Alex Zamalin is Professor of Africana Studies and Political Science at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. He is the author of six books, African American Political Thought and American Culture: The Nation’s Struggle for Racial Justice (New York: Palgrave, 2015), Struggle on their Minds: The Political Thought of African American Resistance (New York: Columbia University Press, 2017), Antiracism: An Introduction (NYU Press, 2019), Black Utopia: The History of an Idea from Black Nationalism to Afrofuturism (Columbia University Press, 2019) which was named a 2020 Choice Outstanding Title by the American Library Association, and Against Civility: The Hidden Racism in Our Obsession with Civility (Beacon, 2021). His most recent book is All Is Not Lost: 20 Ways to Revolutionize Disaster (Beacon Press, spring 2022). Zamalin is also a co-editor for a collection of scholarly essays aimed at reinterpreting the American political tradition, American Political Thought: An Alternative View (New York: Routledge, 2017). His scholarly essays have appeared in various edited book collections and journals like New Political Science , Contemporary Political Theory and Political Theory . Zamalin has been a guest on NPR and MSNBC and his work has been featured in The Guardian , Literary Hub , Religion Dispatches , ESPN’s Undefeated , and YES! magazine.

• Introduction Maša Mrovlje and Alex Zamalin Part 1: Rethinking the Relationship Between Loss and Revolutionary Politics 1. Gramsci and the Problem of Fatalism Lukas Slothuus 2. The Promise of Solidarity: Learning from Failure with Rosa Luxemburg Maša Mrovlje 3. Between Loss and Hope: Reflections on the Black Revolutionary Tradition Alex Zamalin 4. Displacing Hope: A Black Thought Experiment Joseph Winters Part 2: Negative Affect, Mobilisation and the Troubles of Democracy 5. Staying with melancholy? An archive of the future’s past Brigitte Bargetz 6. Negative Affect and Political (De)Mobilization Deborah Gould 7. Politics as Breath-work David McIvor Part 3: Resisting Resistance, Disavowal and Resilience 8. Existential Political Commitment and Radical Love as Resources Against Resisting Resistance Lewis R. Gordon 9. Revolutionary Nonviolence and the Problem of Disavowal Erin Pineda 10. The Promise of Resilience: Governance and Resistance in ‘Complex Times’ Alix Olson

"Confronting the catastrophes of the 21st century, Revolutionary Hope in a Time of Crisis brilliantly illuminates how past defeats can stoke the imagination of emancipatory futures. Maša Mrovlje and Alex Zamalin’s powerful essay collection explores the work of artists, activists, and intellectuals who have refused to accept injustice as fated. This is political thinking at its most vital."Lawrie Balfour, James Hart Professor of Politics, University of Virginia, author of Imagining Freedom: Toni Morrison and the Work of Words"Despair and anxiety seem to be the presiding affects of our time, and for good reasons too. And yet, revolutionary love and hope have been the vectors of all great social changes. This collection of uniformly excellent essays revisits the meaning of political hope in our dark democratic times. Starting with the realisation that hope presents paradoxical possibilities - of spurring revolutionary action, as well as being politically counterproductive - the contributors to this volume theorise hope in capacious and challenging ways. Through an exploration of political traditions that question the hegemony of western political thought - be they Afromodern, queer, Latinx, or feminist - the volume equally contributes to current decolonial imperatives to resignify key political theoretical concepts."Srila Roy, Professor of Sociology, the University of the Witwatersrand, author of Remembering Revolution: Gender, Violence, and Subjectivity in India's Naxalbari Movement"This thought-provoking collection of essays offers help on one of the most fundamental issues of our age. Essential reading for all those wanting to rethink hope and its importance."Ann Rigney, Professor of Comparative Literature, Utrecht University, co-editor of The Visual Memory of Protest"Rejecting simple narratives of either progress or decline, this exciting volume brings a multitude of voices to bear on the question of hope today. From a kaleidoscopic array of perspectives – including Marxist, Black, postcolonial, feminist, queer, and activist orientations – its contributors examine how past failure and present disappointment may be mined for a brighter future of emancipatory politics. At once erudite, challenging, and invigorating, the essays in Revolutionary Hope in a Time of Crisis illuminate both the complexity and the ever-present actuality of utopian vision in the ongoing struggle for a more just and equitable world."Loren Goldman, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania, author of The Principle of Political Hope