Activist Writers

In this concise introduction, Chad Kautzer demonstrates the shared emancipatory goals and methods of several radical philosophies, from Marxism and feminism to critical race and queer theory. Radical Philosophy examines the relations of theory and practice, knowledge and power, as well as the function of law in creating extralegal forms of domination. Through a critical engagement with the history of philosophy, Kautzer reconstructs important counter-traditions of historical, dialectical, and reflexive forms of critique relevant to contemporary social struggles. The result is an innovative, systematic guide to radical theory and critical resistance.

จดหมายที่โด่งดังที่สุดฉบับหนึ่งในโลกของดร.มาร์ติน ลูเธอร์ คิง จูเนียร์ อธิบายขยายความ ทำไมต้องต่อสู้สันติวิธีแบบซึ่งหน้า ทำไมไม่นิ่งเงียบอยู่ที่บ้าน ต้องออกมาประท้วง เป็นงานที่ให้แรงบันดาลใจกับผู้ต่อสู้การกดขี่ทั่วโลก

แปลโดย เนติวิทย์ โชติภัทร์ไพศาล และภวัต อัครพิพัฒนา

During the 1950's and 60's, several "angry young men" rose to prominence in British theater. The most notable of these playwrights, John Osbourne, demonstrated the frustration felt by the working class in his play Look Back in Anger. Edward Bond, Britain's premier Marxist playwright, continues in Osbourne's tradition. Like Look Back in Anger, Bond's provoking play Saved uses shock tactics and violence as vehicles to express working class frustration. Unlike many of his contemporaries, however, Bond goes one step further.

A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR:

Previous issues of The St. John’s University Humanities Review mainly focused on book reviews, essays, and interviews. With this issue, I wanted to do something different, so I also asked for personal stories and essays that answered the question: How do you define and/or use the humanities as activism?

In the middle of May of 2016, when I was asked to edit this issue of the journal, I said yes. But what I didn’t say was that I truly didn’t want to do it, and that I didn’t think that I was capable of doing it. This was because I felt that I had nothing new to say about the humanities that had not already been said ad nauseam. 

Then, in June, 49 people were killed at the LGBTQ nightclub, Pulse, on “Latin Night,” in Orlando, Florida. And I knew that homophobia shot those bullets.

Then, in July, two more Black men—Philando Castile and Alton Sterling—were killed by the police. And I knew that racism shot those bullets.

For me, it was a summer of attending vigils and protests. And I observed that the various disciplines of the arts and humanities were explicitly being utilized as activism in the streets at these vigils and protests. Specific language on protest signs. Writers reading poems at rallies. Performance artists theatrically marching. Etc. The summer of 2016 proved the value of the humanities. Nothing more to debate!

This idea of the humanities as activism is not a new one for me because for many years, in my own work, I have been connecting the two. But I noticed that it was obvious that others realized that the two were inextricable. And that was when I knew that I had something new to say about the humanities, and that I would use this issue to say it.

And then Trump won the election.

One of the many wonderful things that feminism taught me was that the personal is political. I chose the theme of “The Humanities As Activism” for this issue of the journal because it is personal. It truly is that simple. I believe that in order to improve our current social-political problems, we must make use of the humanities as activism. The arts and humanities must be utilized as agents of change.

As I edit this issue, I keep re-reading two of Dorothy Allison’s essays (for inspiration): “Believing in Literature,” in which she tells us that “literature should push people to change the world”; and “Survival Is the Least of My Desires,” in which she writes: “I became convinced that to survive I would have to re-make the world so that it came closer to matching its own ideals.” I think that it is time that all of us start to re-make this cruel world. And I think that the contributors in this issue of the journal agree with me; they, too, are trying to re-make this world.   

What you are about to read are forceful pieces that demand and deserve the same attention that we would give to any energizing speech at a protest rally. So, with your fists up, voices screaming, and feet marching, I hope that you enjoy the journey and movement that is this issue of The St. John’s University Humanities Review. The revolution is coming and it is documented in this journal.

In solidarity,
Michael Carosone, Editor
New York City, May 2017

Dedicated to the activists, artists, humanists, scholars, and writers,
to the oppressed and marginalized,
to the victims.
Dedicated to revealing the truth.

“The arts [humanities], it has been said, cannot change the world, but they may change human beings who might change the world.”
–Maxine Greene

Building on the suggestion by the editors of the Routledge Companion to World Literature (2011) to re-frame the fi eld of literary studies from a global and transnational perspective, this article suggests a new approach to the concept of ‘contact literature’. Reading American literature as ‘contact literature’ assumes that even if an American literary text is written in English, the other languages of the ‘contact zone’ in which the text originated and/or to which it alludes also impacted the writing process and therefore need to be included in the analysis. This new approach to the analysis of American literature is applied here to Sojourner Truth’s famous slave narrative, published in 1850. Since Truth spent the first 30 years of her life as a slave in a
predominantly Dutch-speaking environment in the Hudson Valley, analyzing her narrative as ‘contact literature’ implies a focus on Dutch cultural traces. This is done in two chapters — one dealing with Dutch language and literature, the other with Dutch Pietism and the slave narrative of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw — that present new perspectives on the impact of Dutch culture on Truth’s Narrative.

This paper outlines some potential strategies for growing revolutionary left organisations in Aotearoa, using the case study of People Against Prisons Aotearoa (PAPA), previously known as No Pride in Prisons. Lamusse provides a brief history of PAPA and outlines their experiences organising with the prison abolitionist organisation since its founding, sharing the lessons they learned about growing revolutionary left organisations in Aotearoa. They argue that to ensure democracy, transparency, and a fair division of labour, left organisations need clearly defined decisionmaking structures and roles. They demonstrate how, since PAPA transformed from a structureless organisation, it has not only become more democratic, but has also become a far more effective movement.

Questions for Postmodern Educators:
1. How can education be a political act in a positive way?
2. How can an educator (intellectual) be an activist who effects positive change?
3. How can we be educator-activists in English Education?
4. How can we use English Education to make sure that the Holocaust never happens again?
5. How can we use literature, literacy, reading, and writing as social justice?

Contents:

About this issue’s cover

George Woodcock’s Transatlantic Anarchism
- Allan Antliff and Matthew Adams

Pacifism, Violence and Aesthetics: George Woodcock’s Anarchist Sojourn, 1940-1950
- Mark Antliff

George Woodcock: The Ghost Writer of Anarchism
- Süreyyya Evren and Ruth Kinna

Kropotkin, Woodcock and Les Temps Nouveaux
- Iain McKay

Memory, History, and Homesteading: George Woodcock, Herbert Read and Intellectual Networks
- Matthew Adams

George Woodcock on ‘The Anarchist Critic’
- Allan Antliff