Category Archives: Autonomy

“Πέρα από την αριστερή ήττα & μελαγχολία”

“Ξεκινώντας από την απογοήτευση η οποία διαδέχεται την αριστερή ήττα, την υποχώρηση των αξιών και των ιδεωδών της Αριστεράς και από τη συχνότητα αυτής της ήττας, η συζήτηση τονίζει τόσο την ανάγκη για ουσιώδη αυτοκριτική και επαναθεμελίωση όσο και το δυναμικό … Continue reading

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“Tragic Self-Determination in Post-Colonial Drama” at the University of Michigan

Μy talk about the antinomy of autonomy, the tragic in political theory, post-colonial determination in the 1960s, and post-revolutionary tragedy. Monday, March 11, at noon, Comparative Literature library, 2021C Tisch Hall

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“A Conversation on Left Melancholia” at New York University

How do we muster the courage to struggle for freedom after the defeat of the revolution?  I am inspired to participate in a conversation on Left melancholia at the Remarque Institute of New York University.  https://as.nyu.edu/research-centers/remarque/events/Spring-2024/emotional-histories-of-the-left.html

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“Ιστορικότητα και πολιτική στις συνθέσεις της ποιητικής γενιάς του 2000”

“Η σθεναρή ιστορική αντίληψη που χαρακτηρίζει τη λογοτεχνική και πολιτική στάση της γενιάς του 2000 μελαγχολεί από τις απογοητευτικές εμπειρίες της αλλά δεν απελπίζεται.  Δικάζει την ιστορία, αντιμετωπίζει κριτικά το Τωρινό καθεστώς ιστορικότητας, αντιστέκεται στον παροντισμό και δοκιμάζει άφοβα να … Continue reading

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Political reflections on Schiller’s The Robbers

I have posted a new section of my work-in-progress, The Tragedy of Revolution:Revolution as Hubris in Modern Tragedy, on the work’s own website.  The site is centered on a book-length scholarly project and reflects my study of political hubris in modern … Continue reading

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Heightening the contradictions of radical autonomy

I approached the new film Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) from the standpoint of political theory as a tragedy of revolutionary governance where the pursuit of an autonomous polity resorts to heteronomous means. Its framework is state and stasis.  … Continue reading

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Elements of the modern tragedy of sovereignty as activated in Schiller’s “The Robbers” (1781)

An individual claims agency as an autonomous subject by rebelling against a declining ruling order. He searches for principles of self-authorizing legitimacy of a new order, based on absolute freedom, which will plot its own history. The antinomy of the … Continue reading

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The protesters’ raised hands

Today, as riot police dispersed the last protesters in Seattle’s Capitol Hill Organized Protest area, which became an “autonomous zone” for the past two weeks as part of nation-wide protests against police brutality, images of the zone’s creation and operation … Continue reading

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Betraying the revolution

While Bertolt Brecht in his learning plays explored the antinomies of revolutionary autonomy, Heiner Müller responded by experimenting in his learning plays with the revolt against autonomy, specifically, the betrayal of the revolution.  The tragic structure of Brecht’s The Measures … Continue reading

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The antinomy of autonomy

In my current research project, The Tragedy of Revolution, I argue that α central topic of modern tragedy is the ethico-political dilemma of rebellion, namely, the predicament of the revolutionary beginning caught between limitless self-authorization and self-limiting rule. Modern tragedy … Continue reading

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