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SUMMARY:The Return of the Incorruptible: Robespierre\, Mouffe\, Laclau\, P
 odemos - Olivier Tonneau\, Homerton College
DTSTART:20160126T170000Z
DTEND:20160126T184500Z
UID:TALK63158@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Pierre Bocquillon
DESCRIPTION:Why bother today with Robespierre ? There is at least one reas
 on: he remains\, to this day\, one of the scarecrows used to turn people a
 way from radical democracy. Following the historiographical triumph of Fra
 nçois Furet\, hostility to Robespierre has even spread to the Left\, with
  Mouffe and Laclau’s Hegemony and Socialist Strategy being predicated up
 on the rejection of Jacobinism\, conflated with Stalinism. Paradoxically\,
  Mouffe and Laclau aimed to hegemonize the French Revolution’s democrati
 c discourse while conjuring the threat of its only radical proponent. They
  wanted\, to quote Robespierre\, ‘a revolution without a revolution’ 
 – an inconsistency that can be traced\, decades later\, in Mouffe's diff
 iculty\, within her 'agonistic pluralism'\, of naming the enemy. Yet this 
 inconsistency has disappeared from the works of one Pablo Iglesias who\, w
 hilst drawing upon Mouffe and Laclau’s work\, does not hesitate to quote
  from Robespierre. Podemos is but one example of a massive reinvestment of
  the French revolution’s heritage by radical movements. What does the re
 turn of Robespierre contribute to radical politics? I will argue that it o
 pens access to untapped theoretical resources\, and powerful mobilizing sy
 mbols.\n\n\nBio: Olivier Tonneau is a Lecturer in Modern Languages at Home
 rton College\, Cambridge. He is currently exploring anti-colonial uses of 
 the French revolution\, especially in the works of Aimé Césaire\, Kateb 
 Yacine and Alejandro Carpentier (see his article in the January issue of R
 adical Philosophy).
LOCATION:Mill Lane Lecture Room 3
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