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Anarchist Authorities Anarchist Authorities Rebel Signifiers and the Struggle for Control of the Anarchist Text Gareth Gordon A thesis submitted in candidature for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Cardiff University June 2006 UMI Number: U584803 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U584803 Published by ProQuest LLC 2013. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Abstract Anarchism rarely turns its revolutionary energies towards questions of textual politics. While anarchists have historically offered an uncompromising rejection of state authority, this thesis applies this position to the discourse of anarchism, mapping its critique onto a consideration of the authority in certain key texts. By investigating such anti-authoritarianism, this study marks the beginning of an anarchist theory of textual politics. Understanding the text in both its literary and political guises, this study draws on the work of Jacques Derrida, Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault to interrogate the figure of authority legible within anarchist discourse. Commencing with a critical reappraisal of Emma Goldman’s writings on theatre, chapter two compares them to the radical theatre criticism of Bertolt Brecht and Augusto Boal, establishing the centrality of the question of form, and identifying how anarchism does not depend on the figure of the author in order to produce meaning. Turning to the political texts of anarchism, chapter three deconstructs the work of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, bringing his logic of authority to a point of crisis while at the same time maintaining the force of his analysis. Focusing on Michael Bakunin, chapter four shows how critical authority can enforce a univocality on its subject which simultaneously restricts interpretative freedom. Chapter five turns to Goldman’s political writing, demonstrating how her textual constructions divorce the reader from the (revolutionary) referent. Returning to literature, chapter six is informed by recent autobiographical theory, and establishes how questions of faith, interpretation and memory underwrite textual authorities in the overlooked genre of anarchist autobiography. Chapter seven ends the study with a consideration of the internally contradictory rhetorical strategies of contemporary anarchist writing. Concluding that anarchist discourse has too long left the figure of authority unchallenged within its own texts, this thesis argues that if anarchism is to maintain the commensurability of its means and ends, new textual forms must be sought. Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................i Declaration ...................................................................................................................ii 1 - I ntroduction ...................................................................................................................................1 2 - E m m a G o l d m a n ’s T h e a t r e C r it ic is m : R e h e a r s in g R e v o l u t io n ? ............................................................................................. 20 The Social Insignificance of the Author ........................................................ 25 Playing Emma ..................................................................................................46 3 - T h e P a r a d o x o f P e r e P r o u d h o n : T h e ‘M y s t e r y ’ o f A u t h o r i t y ..................................................................................... 53 Fathering Anarchism........................................................................................55 Contracting Readers .........................................................................................62 Proudhon the Proprietor .................................................................................. 68 4 - A b o l is h in g B a k u n i n ................................................................................................................ 79 The Unreality of Bakunin’s ‘Flesh and Blood’ .............................................84 Freeing Bakunin ............................................................................................... 89 Finally, Abolishing Bakunin ......................................................................... 105 5 - T h e I n d iv i d u a l , S o c ie t y a n d E m m a G o l d m a n ..................................................I l l Goldman’s ‘Ignorant Masses’ ....................................................................... 118 Baby People - Divorcing the Reader from the Referent .............................125 6 - F a c t s a n d F a i t h : A n a r c h is t L iv e s V S . A n a r c h is t S t o r ie s ..........................................................134 Emma Goldman - Believing the Story .........................................................142 Alexander Berkman - Learning the Story ....................................................156 Remembering the Rockers ............................................................................ 170 7 - C ontemporary A n a r c h is t W r it in g : ‘M o r e S u b t l e t h a n P r o g r a m s ’? ............................................................................ 175 Murray Bookchin ........................................................................................... 179 David Watson ................................................................................................ 184 John Zerzan .....................................................................................................191 Fredy Perlman ................................................................................................ 195 John Moore .................................................................................................... 201 The Crimethlnc Collective............................................................................204 8 - (IN)CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................210 B ibliography .................................................................................................................................... 219 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor Professor Chris Weedon for the past years of patience, understanding and advice, through some less than usual circumstances. The realisation of this thesis would not have been possible without the generous support of a scholarship from the Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory. I would like to thank Professor Catherine Belsey for her assistance with securing this support, and for welcoming me back to the Centre. This thesis has been immeasurably enriched by the help and suggestions of many individuals, but in particular I would like to thank: Andrew Williams for years of friendship above and beyond the call of academic duty, Anne McMonagle, Jodie Poppleton, Charlotte McBride, Dan Haines, Chris Michael, Jessica Osbom, Kieron Farrow, Jesse Cohn, Alex Prichard, Spencer Sunshine, John Purkis, Joe Mannion, Rhyall Gordon, and my compaheros of the Cardiff Anarchist Network for putting the theory into practice together. My thanks to Patricia Barrera for unflagging patience and indulgence. Con todo mi amor, como siempre. For Nuala DECLARATION This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not being concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree. Signed LfflU't 'J, . - (candidate) Date ________ /*• , ■ a * - ^ / _____________________ STATEMENT 1 This thesis is the result of my own investigations, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by footnotes giving explicit references. A bibliography is appended. Signed ________________ (candidate) Date ' :i-*i_____ . • - / _____________________ STATEMENT 2 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signed ./ - ■ r ( Q- (candidate) 1 1 Introduction Deconstruction’s politics have been hotly debated in recent years. Yet encounters between anarchism and deconstruction have rarely been staged. It is not the purpose of this thesis to theorise an anarchist deconstruction - and by ‘deconstruction’ I am referring specifically to the work of Jacques Derrida. My project here is to bring a deconstructive critique to bear on a number of texts that can be gathered together under the rubric of anarchism.1 The selection of these texts, for reasons that will become clear, is neither an attempt to represent the totality of the historical (textual) legacy known as anarchism nor the prospective elements of a future canon. It is, rather, an attempt to mark both a continuity and a point of rupture, to address previously unconsidered problems within a discursive field (anarchism) while simultaneously renewing the critique that that discourse has offered. What, though, is ‘anarchism’? The very question
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