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CRISIS CULTURE: the THEORY & POLITICS of HISTORICAL RUPTURE by David W

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CRISIS CULTURE: the THEORY & POLITICS of HISTORICAL RUPTURE by David W CRISIS CULTURE: THE THEORY & POLITICS OF HISTORICAL RUPTURE by David W. Janzen A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Department of English & Film Studies University of Alberta © David W. Janzen, 2017 ABSTRACT Everywhere, we are told, we are in crisis. And yet, the concept “crisis” obscures as much as it clarifies. Crisis Culture: The Theory & Politics of Historical Rupture examines how modern conceptions of crisis structure the ways we experience, narrate, and respond to moments of historical rupture and upheaval. It analyzes how logics of crisis and event limit and facilitate the emergence of new forms of social and political relations. In its modern conceptions, “crisis” names an event in historical time, while simultaneously constituting historical temporality; crises reconfigure time by defining a new relation between past and future. Both academic and vernacular discourses frame crisis in normative terms: to name a situation a crisis is to posit and affirm (explicitly or implicitly) a definition of a “normal” or non-crisis situation. As such, the logic of crisis tends to reproduce existing hierarchies—specifically, those determining who has the power to name the situation and prescribe solutions. Contemporary Marxist theories of crisis—including Wertkritik and Neue Marx-Lectüre resist normative understandings by locating crisis in the concrete, historical dynamics related to capitalist forms of value. In doing so, they account for the broader, transformative possibilities inherent to crises. Such theories tend, however, to understand crisis in overly objective terms. Analyzing and responding to this limitation, I develop a reconceptualization of historical rupture that—grounded in the political ontology of the Event (Alain Badiou), and what I call the Evental ii Crisis—recovers the political, subjective force of “crisis.” Specifically, I develop a theory of embodied subjectivity that grounds crisis in political intervention; within this framework a crisis marks a “new time,” not in the objective movements of history per se, but rather in the process of deciding upon and working through the consequences of an event. Shifting the time of crisis from the (objective) moment of rupture to the (subjective) processes of decision-making, this conceptualization prioritizes political actors over abstract structures. Lastly, Crisis Culture theorizes a material basis for the subject of the evental-crisis by contrasting Karl Marx’s theory of crisis, Jacques Lacan’s theory of the subject, and Alain Badiou’s theory of the event. I conclude that the thought of politics depends on the practice of political subjects, today generated by anti-colonial, feminist, and anti-capitalist struggle. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I began thinking about the politics of crisis in an occupied park in downtown Edmonton with Jeff Diamanti, Marija Cetinic, Brent Bellamy, and Norman Mack. These four have been challenging, inspiring and formative influences on my thinking during the last six years. They have also been wonderful comrades, along with Sean O’Brien, Amy De’ath, Shama Rangwala, and my old friends Chris Neufeldt and Michael Granzow. I’m equally grateful for my friends and collaborators in London, Ontario, including David Huebert, Natasha Bastien, and Andy Verboom. Their ideas, contentions, and friendship are woven into this writing. The anxiety of influence is a great motivator, and astute guidance is invaluable; my supervisor Imre Szeman provided both. Mark Simpson and Nat Hurley also contributed a lot to this project I acknowledge the generous support of SSHRC, which funded this project with a Canada Graduate Scholarship. I’ve had numerous opportunities to develop my work beyond the University. I’m especially thankful for my time with Peter Hallward at the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy where I drafted the sections on Alain Badiou. And for an artist/research residency in the Banff Research in Culture Program. I am forever grateful for my family: for Robert and Kristina Janzen, for my Mom, for my Dad whose sense of wonder and capacity for thought set me on this path, and for Ayasha and Mailey Horner. Most of all, I am grateful for Kate Lawless. She is my inspiration, my collaborator, and my greatest friend. This work is dedicated to our son Nikolas. It is for him, most of all, that I dream of a world where collective joy surmounts crisis. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: CRITIQUE IN THE TIME OF CRISIS ................................................................. 1 1. CRISIS GENERATION: CONCEPT AND HISTORY ..................................................................................... 2 i. The dual nature of a concept ............................................................................................................. 2 ii. The last one hundred years .............................................................................................................. 6 2. THEORIZING CRISIS ............................................................................................................................. 11 i. “World History is the Last Judgment”: Koselleck and the modern concept .................................. 11 ii. Recovering a transformative conception of crisis .......................................................................... 16 3. CHAPTER OUTLINE ............................................................................................................................. 19 CHAPTER 2. THE SURPLUS PARADOX: VALUE AND THE CRISIS OF CAPITALISM ......... 24 INTRODUCTION: CAPITALISM IS CRISIS .................................................................................................. 24 1. CENTRAL TENETS OF WERTKRITIK ..................................................................................................... 31 i. Labor: historicizing an abstraction ................................................................................................ 34 ii. The Absence of Ontological Condition of Social Emancipation .................................................... 40 2. VALUE CRITIQUE AND THE CRISIS DYNAMIC ..................................................................................... 43 i. Capital and the separation of use value and exchange value ......................................................... 43 ii. Conditions of crisis: labor and environment ................................................................................. 48 3. BEYOND STRUCTURE AND MOVEMENT .............................................................................................. 54 3: THE ENDS OF CAPITAL: HISTORICAL SUBSTANTIALISM VS ANTI-SUBSTANTIALIST APPROACHES TO CRISIS .................................................................................................................... 59 1. CRISIS AND THE SUBSTANCE OF VALUE ............................................................................................. 64 i. Locating Value: Substantialism vs Anti-substantialism .................................................................. 64 ii. Production, Circulation, and Exchange......................................................................................... 76 iii. Anti-/Substantialism and Crisis .................................................................................................... 78 v 2. THE POLITICS OF CRISIS...................................................................................................................... 81 3. HISTORICITY OF “CRISIS” .................................................................................................................... 87 4. CRISIS AND EVENT: FROM CRISIS OF CAPITALISM TO CRISIS OF NEGATION ........... 92 A RECOMMENCEMENT? BADIOU WITH AND AGAINST MARX ................................................................. 92 1. SUBTRACTIVE ONTOLOGY: COUNT, SITUATION, AND STATE ............................................................ 99 2. DECISION, SUBJECT, TRUTH ............................................................................................................. 106 i. Affirming multiplicity against critique: Truth and Immanent Decision ........................................ 110 ii. Thinking the Factory as Multiple ................................................................................................. 113 3. CRITICAL JUNCTURES: CRISIS OF THE SITUATION VS CRISIS OF THE IDEA ...................................... 117 i. Crisis of the idea (of revolution) ................................................................................................... 118 ii. Crisis of the Negative ................................................................................................................... 120 iii. Crisis of Dialectics ...................................................................................................................... 122 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................................... 124 5. TOWARD A MATERIALIST BASIS FOR THE SUBJECT OF CRISIS: MARX, LACAN, BADIOU .................................................................................................................................................. 127 1. WORLDLESSNESS .............................................................................................................................. 129 2. NON-COINCIDENCE, CRISIS, SUBJECT ..............................................................................................
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