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APRIL17,2016
JRMY MATTHW GLICK The Black Radical
Tragic: Performance, Aesthetics, and the Unnished

TheBlack
RadicalTragic
JeremGlick
Pulihed01.15.2016
NYUPre
296Page

HaitianRevolutioniaookwewereallwaiting
forwithoutknowingit.Onlnow,aernding
it, do we know what we were waiting for. In
order to get an idea of it tremendou
achievement, one ha to take it title and
utitleerioulandconiderthethreetopic
theindicate.Firt,Glickiconcernedwiththe
immanent tragic dimenion of the radical
(revolutionar) proce. econd, he elaorate
thi tragic dimenion through a erie of
hitoricalcae,omtheGermanPeaantWar
to Cua and Vietnam, whoe focal point i the
Haitian Revolution. Third, the matter of anali
inothitoricalrealitutitechoeinartistic
texts,pla,novel,andlm.Theethreetopic
form a true Hegelian llogim where each
termmediatethetwoother.
o wh doe Glick focu on art performance

JeremGlick
Pulihed01.15.2016
NYUPre
296Page

PHILOOPHY&
CRITICALTHORY
CULTURALTUDI

(theater and cinema) in dealing with thi

complexpoliticaltopic?Aquoteomdouard
Gliant provide the ke: Martinican realit
canonleundertoodomtheperpectiveof
all the poiilitie, aorted or not, of thi
Relation. That wh one need narrative

RCOMMNDD
ALaboratorySittingon
aGraveyard:Greeceand
theNeoliberalDebt
Crisis

ction, om Gliant to ONeill, om

ientein to Fanon. Art pla with poile
alternative and thu provide the dene
cowe againt the ackground of which the
realit of what happened acquire it true
prole. We thu get, a enjamin would have
put it, a prophetic viion of the pat, a pat
portentoffuturetragicpoiilitie.AlthoughI
willfocuinthireviewonomeaicpolitical
andtheoreticaldilemmatouchedonGlick,
I cannot emphaize enough the irreitile
charm of hi reading of ergei ientein
deate with hi tudent on how to hoot
Dealine ecape through a window, of Paul
Roeonactingandinging.
A for the tragic dimenion, Glick goe much
further

than

the

tandard

notion

of

revolutionar traged. Marx and ngel locate

the traged of a revolution in the gure of a
hero who come too earl, ahead of hi time,
andwhoithereforedetinedtofail,although,
in the long view, he tand for hitorical
progre. Their exemplar gure i Thoma
Mntzer. For Glick, contrat, traged i
immanent to a revolutionar proce. It i
incried into that proce ver core and
dened a erie of oppoition: leader(hip)
veru mae, radicalit veru compromie,
and o on. For example, the gap etween
leader(hip)

and

mae,

their

micommunication, emerge necearil. There

i no ea wa out. Glick quote a touching

Crisis

ruceRoin

TheSymbolIsDead,
LongLivetheSymbolic
AxelAnderon

APracticalCommunism
forthe21stCentury
LukeDavie

PhilosophysFilm:On
AlainBadiousCinema
Nicoaumach

TheSecularist'sDogma:
SimonCritchley's"The
FaithoftheFaithless"
DavidWinter

paage om douard Gliant pla Monsieur

Toussaint (Act IV, cene V) where Touaint,
laughing in delirium, adl reect upon how
he can arel write: I write the word
Touaint, Macaia pell out traitor. I write
theworddiciplineandMoewithoutevena
glance at the page hout trann. I write
properit;Dealineackawa,hethinkin
hiheartweakne.No,Idonotknowhowto
write,Manuel.
(Note the iron of how thi paage refer to
theracitclichaoutlackpeoplewhocannot
write.)
The ackground of thi paage i the tenion
in the revolutionar proce a reected in
peronal relation: Touaint nephew Moe
advocatedtheuncompromiingdelittolack
mae and wanted to reak up large etate,
whileTouainthimelfwapoeedafear
of mae and aw it a hi tak to retain
dicipline and to run the production proce
moothl, o he ordered Moe to e executed
for edition. Dealine later triumphed and,
aer the etalihment of a lack tate,
proclaimed

himelf

emperor

of

Haiti,

introducinganewformofdomination(awell
aorderingthemaacreofallremainingwhite
inhaitantofHaiti)inthevertriumphofthe
revolution.Inordertograptheetragictwit,
it i crucial to count the crowd (which, in the
theatricaldispositif,appearachoru)aoneof

the active agent, not jut a the paive

commentatoroftheevent.Thetitleofchapter
two of Glick ook i therefore, quite
appropriatel,ringingintheChoru.
owhHaiti?ForGlick,theHaitianRevolution
i not jut an aritrar example ued to
articulateageneralrevolutionardnamic,ut
a kind of nodal point, a ingularit that
revererate in all other later revolutionar
attempt. True, the Haitian Revolution i not
the eginning, ut alread a repetition.
However, it i a repetition in the Hegelian
ene,arepetitionthatinotjutacopofthe
originalinceitelevatethecontingentoriginal
into a univeral event. The French Revolution
ecame a world-hitorical event with a
univeral

ignicance

onl

through

it

repetitioninHaitiwherethelacklaveleda
uccefulreellionwiththegoaltoetaliha
eerepulicliketheFrenchone.Withoutthi
repetition, the French Revolution would have
remainedalocal,idioncraticevent.
utthereianothertenion,whichexplodedin
an exemplar wa in the Haitian Revolution,
theoneetweenlacklierationanduniveral
emancipationwhoepolearetheuniveralit
Touaint and Dealine, the agent of the
maacreofallnon-lackinHaiti.Amongthe
et page in Glick ook are thoe where he
directl addree thi iue. If I undertand
himcorrectl,hilineofthoughtreemlethe

poition exemplied Malcolm X. While in

prion,theoungMalcolmjoinedtheNationof
Ilam,and,aerhiparolein1952,heengaged
inittruggle,advocatinglackupremacand
the eparation of white and lack American.
Forhim,integrationwaafakeattemptofthe
lack to ecome like the white. However, in
1964,herejectedtheNationofIlamand,while
continuing

to

emphaize

lack

elf-

determination and elf-defene, he ditanced

himelf om ever form of racim, advocating
emancipatoruniveralit.Aaconequenceof
thietraal,hewakilledthreeNationof
Ilam memer in Feruar 1965. When
MalcolmadoptedXahifamilname,there
ignalingthatthelavetraderwhoroughtthe
enlavedAicanomtheirhomelandrutall
deprivedthemoftheirfamilandethnicroot,
of their entire cultural life-world, the point of
thigeturewanottomoilizelackpeopleto
ghtforthereturntoomeprimordialAican
root, ut preciel to eize the opening
provided X, an unknown new (lack of )
identit engendered the ver proce of
laver, which made the Aican root forever
lot. The idea i that thi X, which deprive
lackpeopleoftheirparticulartradition,oer
a unique chance to redene (reinvent)
themelve,toeelformanewidentitmuch
more univeral than white people profeed
univeralit. Although Malcolm X found thi
new identit in the univeralim of Ilam, he
wakilledMulimfundamentalit.Therein

reide the hard choice to e made: e, lack

people are marginalized, exploited, humiliated,
mocked, alo feared, at the level of everda
practice; e, the experience dail the
hpocri of lieral eedom and human
right, ut in the ame movement the
experience the promie of true eedom with
regardtowhichtheexitingeedomifale
itithiseedomthatfundamentalitecape.
What thi mean i that, in the truggle for
lack emancipation, one hould leave ehind
the lament for the lo of authentic Aican
root. Let leave thi lament to TV erie like
theoneaedonAlexHaleRoots.Toputitin
peculative Hegelian term (and one of the
great point of Glick ook i it continuing
reference to Hegel), the true lo i the lo of
theloitelf:whenalackAicanienlaved
andtornoutofhiroot,hedoenotonlloe
thee root. He mut alo realize that he never
had thee root. What he, aer thi lo,
experienceahirootiaretroactivefanta,
a projection lling in the void. And the ame
hold for human right. Ye, univeral human
right are eectivel the right of white male
propert owner to exchange eel on the
market,exploitworkerandwomen,awella
exert political domination. However, thi i
onlhalfofthetor.Whenweexperiencethe
gap etween the fale univeralit of human
right and the particular injutice thi
univeral form jutie, thi gap hould not

puh u to renounce human right and

eedom a fake, ut to egin to truggle for
their content. I the entire truggle for human
right not alo the truggle for thi content?
Firt,

women

(eginning

with

Mar

Wolltonecra)demandedtheameright,then
the lave in Haiti did it in the rt ucceful
lack upriing (for which the are punihed
eventoda).
Glick i here ver precie: while advocating
univeralemancipation,hedoenotneglectit
mediation with the topic of lack Power. The
ettooltothinkthimediationiprovided
Hegel notion of determinate negation. In a
political proce, thi mean that it i not
enough to directl aert univeralit againt a
particular identit the pecic path to
univeralit matter. Which particularit i
negated in a new univeralit? If, in a conict
etweenuniveralitofhumanrightandlack
identit, the univeralit i directl the white
lieralone,thenlackpeoplearecalledtojoin
it, to acrice part of themelve. The whitelieral

univeralit

therefore

falel

univeral, which i wh univeralit had to

proceed a growing out of the lack Power
proce. The paradox i thu that the
overcoming of lack identit politic ha to
proceed a a doule negation. Ye, one hould
negate excluive lack particularit, ut one
hould imultaneoul negate the hegemonic
white univeralit, which ecretl privilege

white people. a, in France toda, the true

repreentative of galit/libert i not a pure
Frenchman,

Frenchman

sans

phrase,

advocating univeral citizenhip and exerting

preure on Aican immigrant to aandon
their local cutom and integrate themelve
intotheFrenchwaoflife,utprecielthoe
immigrant who want to e part of French
ociet a equal and reject anti-immigrant
populittheareliterallmoreFrenchthan
Frenchmenthemelve.
The principal antagonim that underlie thi
tenion i the one etween delit to the
univeral

caue

and

the

neceit

of

compromie and, at leat om m

tandpoint,

Glick

deploment

of

thi

antagonim i the theoretical and political

climaxofhiook.Glicktartingpointithe
reference to C. L. R. Jame, who clearl aw
that the earl Chritian revolutionarie were
nottrugglingtoetalihthemedievalpapac.
Themedievalpapacwaamediationtowhich
the ruling force of ociet rallied in order to
trangle the quet for univeralit of the
Chritian mae. Revolution explode with
radical millenarian demand of actualizing a
newuniveralit,andmediationaremptom
ofitfailure,ofthwartingpeopleexpectation.
The quet for univeralit of the mae
forid an mediation. Wa the tragic
turnaround of the riza government not the
lat ig cae of uch a mediation? The

principled No to uropean lackmail wa

immediatel followed a Yes to the
mediation.
Glick mention here Georg Lukc, the great
advocate of mediation who, in 1935, wrote
Hlderlin Hperion, a weird, ut crucial,
hort ea in which he praie Hegel
endorement of the Napoleonic Thermidor
againt Hlderlin intranigent delit to the
heroicrevolutionarutopia:
Hegel come to term with the potThermidorian epoch and the cloe of the
revolutionar

period

of

ourgeoi

development, and he uild up hi

philooph preciel on an undertanding
ofthinewturning-pointinworldhitor.
Hlderlin make no compromie with the
pot-Thermidorian realit; he remain
faithful to the old revolutionar ideal of
renovatingpolidemocracandiroken
a realit which ha no place for hi
ideal, not even on the level of poetr and
thought.
Lukc i here referring to Marx notion that
theheroicperiodoftheFrenchRevolutionwa
the

necear

enthuiatic

reakthrough

followed the unheroic phae of market

relation. The true ocial function of the
revolution wa to etalih the condition for
theproaicreignofourgeoieconom,andthe

true heroim reide not in lindl clinging to

the earl revolutionar enthuiam, ut in
recognizing the roe in the cro of the
preent, a Hegel liked to paraphrae Luther,
that i, in aandoning the poition of the
eautiful oul and full accepting the preent
a the onl poile domain of actual eedom.
Itithuthicompromiewithocialrealit
which enaled Hegel crucial philoophical
tep forward, that of overcoming the protoFacit notion of organic communit in hi
SystemderSittlichkeitmanucriptandengagingin
the dialectical anali of the antagonim of
theourgeoicivilociet.
It i oviou that thi anali of Lukc i
deepl allegorical: it wa written a couple of
month aer Trotk (another gure that
appear in Glick ook) launched hi thei of
talinim a the Thermidor of the Octoer
Revolution.Lukctexthathutoereada
an anwer to Trotk. He accept Trotk
characterization

of

talin

regime

Thermidorian, ut give that decription a

poitivetwit.Inteadofemoaningtheloof
utopian energ, one hould, in a heroicall
reigned wa, accept it conequence a the
onl actual pace of ocial progre. For Marx,
of coure, the oering da aer which
follow the revolutionar intoxication ignal
the original limitation of the ourgeoi
revolutionarproject,thefalitofitpromie
of univeral eedom. The truth of the

univeral human right are the right of

commerce and private propert. Lukc
endorementofthetalinitThermidorimplie
(argual againt hi conciou intention) an
utterl anti-Marxit peimitic perpective.
The proletarian revolution itelf can alo e
characterized the gap etween it illuor
univeralaertionofeedomandtheenuing
awakening in the new relation of domination
and exploitation, which mean that the
communit

project

of

realizing

actual

eedomnecearilfailed.
I ee a third wa eond the alternative of
principled elf-detruction and compromie:
not ome kind of proper meaure etween
the two extreme ut focuing on what one
might call the point of the impoile of a
certain eld. The great art of politic i to
detectitlocall,inaerieofmodetdemand,
which are not impl impoile ut appear a
poile although the are de facto impoile.
The ituation i like the one in cience ction
torie where the hero open the wrong door
(or pree the wrong utton) and all of a
udden

the

entire

realit

around

him

diintegrate. In the United tate, univeral

healthcare i ovioul uch a point of the
impoile; in urope, it eem to e the
cancellation of the Greek det, and o on. It i
omething ou can (in principle) do ut de
facto ou cannot or hould not do it. You are
ee to chooe it on condition you do not actually

chooseit.
Toda political predicament provide a clear
example of how la verite surgit de la meprise, of
howthewrongchoicehatoprecedetheright
choice.Inprinciple,thechoiceofleitpolitic
i

the

one

etween

ocial-democratic

reformim and radical revolution, ut the

radical choice, although atractl correct and
true, i elf-defeating and get tuck in
eautiful
developed

oul

immoilit.

ocietie,

call

In

for

Wetern
a

radical

revolution have no moilizing power. Onl a

modet wrong choice can create ujective
conditionforanactualcommunitpropect.If
it fail or if it ucceed, it et in motion a
erie of further demand (in order to reall
have univeral healthcare, we alo need),
whichwillleadtotherightchoice.Thereino
hortcut here, the need for a radical univeral
change ha to emerge through uch mediation
withparticulardemand.Todirectleginwith
therightchoiceithereforeevenworethanto
make a wrong choice. It i a verion of the
eautiful oul, amounting to a poition that
a, I am right and the mier of the world,
which got it wrong, jut conrm how right I
am.
uch

tance

relie

on

wrong

(contemplative) notion of truth, it totall

neglectthepracticaldimenionoftruth.Inhi
(unpulihed) eminar XVIII on a dicoure

which would not e that of a emlance,

Lacan provided a uccinct denition of the
truth of interpretation in pchoanali:
Interpretation i not teted a truth that
woulddecideeorno,itunleahetrutha
uch. It i onl true inamuch a it i trul
followed.Thereinothingtheologicalinthi
precie formulation, onl the inight into the
properldialecticalunitoftheorandpractice
in (not onl) pchoanaltic interpretation: the
tet of the analt interpretation i in the
truth eect it unleahe in the patient. Thi i
how we hould alo (re)read Marx Thei XI.
ThetetofMarxittheorithetrutheectit
unleahe in it addreee (the proletarian), in
tranforming

them

into

emancipator

revolutionar uject. The true art of politic

i thu not to avoid mitake and to make the
right choice, ut to commit the right mistake, to
electtheright(appropriate)wrongchoice.
Would Glick accept thi concluion? He
decrie the revolutionar leaderhip a
vanihing mediator a the onl reponile
vanguard model. And he conclude that
[p]olitical work in order to quali a radical
workhouldtrivetowarditredundanc.He
cominehereaoerandruthleinightinto
theneceartragictwitoftherevolutionar
proce with the unconditional delit to thi
proce. He tand a far a poile om the
tandard anti-totalitarian claim that, ince
ever revolutionar proce i detined to

degenerate, it etter to atain om it. Thi

readine to take the rik and engage in the
attle,althoughweknowthatwewillproal
e acriced in the coure of the truggle, i
the mot preciou inight for u who live in
newdarktime.

SlavojiekisaSlovenianphilosopherandcritic.He
isaprofessorattheEuropeanGraduateSchool,
InternationalDirectoroftheBirkbeckInstituteforthe
Humanities,BirkbeckCollege,UniversityofLondon,
andaseniorresearcherattheInstituteofSociology,
UniversityofLjubljana,Slovenia.Hisbooksinclude
LivinginthendTime,FirtaTraged,Then
aFarce,InDefeneofLotCaue,andothers.

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