Platypus presents:

Tuesday, May 18th 8:00 PM
5710 S. Woodlawn

Featuring a presentation by Chris Cutrone on Juliet Mitchell’s “Women: The longest revolution” (1966)

Join us for dinner and discussion

“Socialism will be a process of change, of becoming. A fixed image of the future is in the worst sense ahistorical. . . . As Marx wrote: ‘What is progress if not the absolute elaboration of humanity’s creative dispositions . . . unmeasured by any previously established yardstick[,] an end in itself . . . the absolute movement of becoming?’ . . . The liberation of women under socialism will [be] . . . a human achievement, in the long passage from Nature to Culture which is the definition of history and society.”

-- Juliet Mitchell

Juliet Mitchell’s groundbreaking essay, “Women: The longest revolution” (1966), brilliantly anticipated the feminist critique of Marxian socialism. But Mitchell found feminism, too to be lacking. Far from dismissing Marxism as a retrograde, patriarchal theory, Mitchell embarked on an effort to reconstruct Marxism as a philosophy of freedom that could orient political activists' efforts to overturn male dominance and establish the equality of the sexes. Unfortunately, feminism after Mitchell's essay failed to heed her call to attend critically to history to help get a better grasp and clarity about the pursuit of gender and sexual liberation, and abandoned the utopian possibilities of socialism in favor of the politics of established social identities. Join us to reconsider the paths not taken out of 1960s radicalism, and work towards reformulating a theory of sexual freedom that answers the needs of the present.

Reading:

Juliet Mitchell Women: The Longest Revolution (1966)

The Platypus Affiliated Society at Woodlawn Collaborative present...
When:Saturday, May 8 1:30pm - 3:00pm.
Where: Woodlawn Collaborative 6400 S. Kimbark Ave., John Knox Hall.

The German Marxist critical theorist Theodor W. Adorno (1903-69) is known, along with his friend and mentor Walter Benjamin, for the critique of mid-20th century art and culture. What is less well understood is the specific character of Adorno’s Marxism, how his political perspective related to his philosophical concerns. This workshop will address several aspects of Adorno’s Marxism that relate to his critique of Leftist politics, in both periods of his early and late life, in the Old Left (1920s-40s) and New Left (1960s), and how Adorno remains relevant to issues and problems of Leftist politics today.

Recommended background readings:

Max Horkheimer, “The Little Man and the Philosophy of Freedom” (1926)

Adorno, “Imaginative Excesses” (1944)

Adorno, “Marginalia to Theory and Praxis” (1969)

Adorno, “Resignation” (1969)

Adorno and Herbert Marcuse, correspondence on the German New Left (1969)

A talk given by Platypus member Chris Cutrone at Loyola University, on April 21st, 2010.

The German Marxist critical theorist Theodor W. Adorno (1903-69) is known, along with his friend and mentor Walter Benjamin, for the critique of mid-20th century art and culture. What is less well understood is the specific character of Adorno's Marxism, how his political perspective related to his philosophical concerns. This workshop will address several aspects of Adorno's Marxism that relate to his critique of Leftist politics, in both periods of his early and late life, in the Old Left (1920s-40s) and New Left (1960s), and how Adorno remains relevant to issues and problems of Leftist politics today.

Recommended background readings:

Max Horkheimer, "The Little Man and the Philosophy of Freedom" (1926)

Adorno, "Imaginative Excesses" (1944)

Adorno, "Marginalia to Theory and Praxis" (1969)

Adorno, "Resignation" (1969)

Adorno and Herbert Marcuse, correspondence on the German New Left (1969)

Cosponsored by Pi Sigma Tau, STAND, and SAF.

Transcript in Platypus Review #37:

The Platypus Affiliated Society at Loyola University present...
Adorno’s political relevance toda
When: Wednesday, April 21, 2010. 7-8:30pm.
Where: Loyola University - Crown Center Room 530.

The German Marxist critical theorist Theodor W. Adorno (1903-69) is known, along with his friend and mentor Walter Benjamin, for the critique of mid-20th century art and culture. What is less well understood is the specific character of Adorno’s Marxism, how his political perspective related to his philosophical concerns. This workshop will address several aspects of Adorno’s Marxism that relate to his critique of Leftist politics, in both periods of his early and late life, in the Old Left (1920s-40s) and New Left (1960s), and how Adorno remains relevant to issues and problems of Leftist politics today.

Recommended background readings:

Max Horkheimer, “The Little Man and the Philosophy of Freedom” (1926)

Adorno, “Imaginative Excesses” (1944)

Adorno, “Marginalia to Theory and Praxis” (1969)

Adorno, “Resignation” (1969)

Adorno and Herbert Marcuse, correspondence on the German New Left (1969)

Cosponsored by Pi Sigma Tau, STAND, and SAF.

Fanon: On Interracial Utopia and Anti-Colonialism

A teach-in led by Sunit Singh

Where: Quinlan Life Science Center, Room 312, 1032 W. Sheridan Road.

When: February 1st, 7pm.

Free and open to the public.

Suggested Readings:

David Macey - Franz Fannon

Fanon - Wretched of the Earth - Conclusion

Fanon - Black Skin White Masks (Introduction) (Conclusion)

"The Negro, however sincere, is the slave of the past. None the less I am a man, and in this sense the Peloponnesian War is as much mine as the invention of the compass. Face to face with the white man, the Negro has a part to legitimate, a vengeance to exact; face to face with the Negro, the contemporary white man feels the need to recall the times of cannibalism... Some men want to fill the world with their presence. A German philosopher described this mechanism as the pathology of freedom... The problem considered here is one of time. Those Negroes and white men will be disalienated who refuse to let themselves be sealed away in the materialized Tower of the Past. For many other Negroes, in other ways, disalienation will come into being through their refusal to accept the present as definitive. I am a man, and what I have to recapture is the whole past of the world... In no way should I derive my basic purpose from the past of the peoples of color. In no way should I dedicate myself to the revival of an unjustly unrecognized Negro civilization. I will not make myself the man of any past. I do not want to exalt the past at the expense of my present and of my future."