Serena Bassi (Italian Studies, Yale)

In this talk, I will think through the mulitple meanings of the word “crisis” from my position as a Marxist scholar of gender and sexuality in the contemporary corporate university. The talk will be divided in two parts. First, I consider what we mean when we talk of a “crisis of the humanities” in debates about the place of knowledge production in increasingly privatized universities. I will argue that, from the standpoint of a progressive critic of late capitalist society, the crisis is, first and foremost, one of purpose and meaning, as historical materialism moves to the margins of the contemporary humanities.

Following on from Nancy Frazer, I will seek to trace a brief history of Marxist theory’s move to the margins of humanistic enquiry since the 1970s, and focus particularly on the responsibilities of Anglophone Queer Theory in that process. By contrast, the second part of my talk will take a reparative approach. I will turn to a little-known non-Anglophone archive of queer activism and theorizing.

In Italy, the 1970s radical Left produced a set of interesting political engagements with non-normative identities, queerness and transness, which can be read as providing an alternative to contemporary Anglophone Queer Theory. By looking at how the movement thought about genders, sexualities, economic justice, and anti-capitalist politics, I will attempt to chart a new way forward out of the crisis of materialist thinking in the Humanities today.

Ort & Zeit: Bibliothek Erich Auerbach Institut, Weyertal 59 (Rückgebäude, 3. OG), 50937 Köln |
Montag, 16.12.2024 | 18:00 Uhr