Communal Luxury: The Political Imaginary Of The Paris Commune Imaginaire De La Commune. English

Reclaiming the legacy of the Paris Commune for the twenty-first century Kristin Ross’s new work on the thought and culture of the Communard uprising of 1871 resonates with the motivations and actions of contemporary protest, which has found its most powerful expression in the reclamation of public space. Today’s concerns—internationalism, education, the future of labor, the status of art, and ecological theory and practice—frame and inform her carefully researched restaging of the words and actions of individual Communards. This original analysis of an event and its centrifugal effects brings to life the workers in Paris who became revolutionaries, the significance they attributed to their struggle, and the elaboration and continuation of their thought in the encounters that transpired between the insurrection’s survivors and supporters like Marx, Kropotkin, and William Morris. The Paris Commune was a laboratory of political invention, important simply and above all for, as Marx reminds us, its own “working existence.” Communal Luxury allows readers to revisit the intricate workings of an extraordinary experiment. The Commune Is Back On The Agenda. From Madrid To Istanbul, From Cairo To New York, People Are Reappropriating Public And Private Spaces, Reorienting Them Towards A New Function In Common. A Return To The Great 19th Century Insurrection That Most Fully Instantiated Urban Insurrection May Well Be Due. Communal Luxury Revisits What Marx Called The Commune's Own Working Existence, A Lived Experience Of Equality In Action, Focusing Particularly On Questions Of The Commune Form Itself, Internationalism, Work, Art, Education And Ecology. Ross Intertwines The Actual Words Spoken, Positions Taken, And Physical Displacements Made By The Event's Participant And Its Fellow Travelers, As Well As The Bubbling Thought It Generated. In Its Original Engagement With, But Not Slavish Allegiance To, Anarchism And Marxism, The Commune Experience Is Of Particular Timeliness Today. Beyond The Cellular Regime Of Nationality -- Communal Luxury -- The Literature Of The North -- The Seeds Beneath The Snow -- Solidarity. Kristin Ross. First Published As L'imaginaire De La Commune, ©la Fabrique 2015--title Page Verso. Includes Biblliographical References And Index. Reclaiming the legacy of the Paris Commune for the twenty-first century Kristin Ross’s highly acclaimed work on the thought and culture of the Communard uprising of 1871 resonates with the motivations and actions of contemporary protest, which has found its most powerful expression in the reclamation of public space. Today’s concerns—internationalism, education, the future of labor, the status of art, and ecological theory and practice—frame and inform her carefully researched restaging of the words and actions of individual Communards. This original analysis of an event and its centrifugal effects brings to life the workers in Paris who became revolutionaries, the significance they attributed to their struggle, and the elaboration and continuation of their thought in the encounters that transpired between the insurrection’s survivors and supporters like Marx, Kropotkin, and William Morris. The Paris Commune was a laboratory of political invention, important simply and above all for, as Marx reminds us, its own “working existence.” Communal Luxury allows readers to revisit the intricate workings of an extraordinary experiment. "Kristin Ross's new work on the thought and culture of the Communard uprising of 1871 resonates with the motivations and actions of contemporary protest, which has found its most powerful expression in the reclamation of public space. Today's concerns--internationalism, education, the future of labor, the status of art, and ecological theory and practice--frame and inform her carefully researched restaging of the words and actions of individual Communards. This original analysis of an event and its centrifugal effects brings to life the workers in Paris who became revolutionaries, the significance they attributed to their struggle, and the elaboration and continuation of their thought in the encounters that transpired between the insurrection's survivors and supporters like Marx, Kropotkin, and William Morris. The Paris Commune was a laboratory of political invention, important simply and above all for, as Marx reminds us, its own 'working existence.' Communal Luxury allows readers to revisit the intricate workings of an extraordinary experiment."--Publisher's description Halftitle Page 2 Title Page 3 Copyright Page 5 Contents 6 Acknowledgments 7 Introduction 9 1. Beyond the “Cellular Regime of Nationality” 22 2. Communal Luxury 65 3. The Literature of the North 106 4. The Seeds Beneath the Snow 142 5. Solidarity 182 Index 222