Critical Theory and the Humanities in the Age of the Alt-Right

This edited collection uses critical theory in order to understand the rise of the Alt-Right and the election of Donald Trump―and, in doing so, to assert the necessity and value of various disciplines within the humanities. While neoliberal mainstream culture has expressed shock at the seemingly expeditious rise of the Alt-Right movement and the outcome of the 2016 United States presidential election, a rich tradition of theory may not only explain the occurrence of this “phenomenon,” but may also chart an alternative understanding of the movement, revealing the persistence of right-wing populism throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Though the humanities have seen themselves undervalued and under attack in recent years, the historical and cultural contextualization of the current moment via theory is a means of reaffirming the value of the humanities in teaching the ever-important and multifaceted skill of critical literacy. This book re-affirms the humanities, particularly the study of literature, theory, and philosophy, through questions such as how the humanities can help us understand the here and now. Critical Theory and the Humanities in the Age of the Alt-Right Acknowledgments Contents Notes on Contributors Chapter 1: Introduction: The State of the Humanities and the Age of the Alt-Right Chapter 2: “For Every Two Steps Forward, it Often Feels like we Take One Step Back”: Foucauldian Historiography and the Current Political Moment Foucault’s Historiography and Genealogy: From The Order of Things to Discipline and Punish A Decentered Genealogy of the Current Moment Alt-Right Populism and Narrativizing Hegemony Narrating Opposition: Responses from the Left Conclusion Chapter 3: Cultural Marxism and the Cathedral: Two Alt-Right Perspectives on Critical Theory Chapter 4: The Right to Anger: Combative Publics On Anger Angry Feminist Culture of Incivility Transforming the Public Sphere Chapter 5: Herrenvolk Democracy: The Rise of the Alt-Right in Trump’s America Introduction Illusions of Innocence and Virtue: Reflections on Reinhold Niebuhr Southern Civil Religion Trumpian Politics: Weaponizing Ressentiment for the Herrenvolk 2016 GOP Party Platform: The Road Not Taken Conclusion Chapter 6: From NeoReactionary Theory to the Alt-Right Introduction What Is the Alt-Right? What Is NRx? Who Are the NeoReactionaries? Why Is NRx Unique? The Cathedral Neocamerialism How Successful Has NRx Been? How Can Critical Theory Respond to the Theory of the Cathedral? Chapter 7: Skepticism, Relativism, and Identity: The Origins of (Pseudo-)Conservatism Dogma and Doubt The Counterrevolution of Tradition Contemporary Right-Wing Politics and White Identity Concluding Remarks Chapter 8: The Materialist Conception of Fiction Chapter 9: Liberation Through Oppression: Deleuze’s Minor Literature and Deterritorialized Nationalisms in James Joyce’s Ulysses Deleuze, Joyce, and Deterritorialization in Minor Literature Ulysses Chapter 10: Death by a Thousand Hyperlinks: The Commodification of Communication and Mediated Ideologies The Acceleration of Non-communication Doubling Conservatism The Alt-Right and the Hyperreal of Nationalism Conclusion: Critical Theory Must Seek Dialogic and Dialectic Intersections Chapter 11: Critical Race Theory, Transborder Theory, and Code Switching in the Trump Years Code Switching Critical Race Theory Transborder Theory Parsing Deterritorialized Hyperspace Chagoya Cuadros Chapter 12: Conclusion: Mining the Past for Usable Futures: The Global Rise of the Alt-Right and the Frankfurt School A Final Return to the Question of the Humanities Index This books uses critical theory in order to understand the rise of the Alt-Right and the election of Donald Trump--and, in doing so, to assert the necessity and value of various disciplines within the humanities. While neoliberal mainstream culture has expressed shock at the seemingly expeditious rise of the Alt-Right movement and the outcome of the 2016 United States presidential election, a rich tradition of theory may not only explain the occurrence of this "phenomenon," but may also chart an alternative understanding of the movement, revealing the persistence of right-wing populism throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Though the humanities have seen themselves undervalued and under attack in recent years, the historical and cultural contextualization of the current moment via theory is a means of reaffirming the value of the humanities in teaching the ever-important and multifaceted skill of critical literacy. This book re-affirms the humanities, particularly the study of literature, theory, and philosophy, through questions such as how the humanities can help us understand the here and now. Christine M. Battista is Assistant Professor of English at Johnson & Wales University, USA. She is co-editor of Ecocriticism and Geocriticism: Overlapping Territories in Environmental and Spatial Literary Studies (Palgrave, 2016). She specializes in the environmental humanities, theory and criticism, postcolonial studies, and American literature. Melissa R. Sande is Dean of Humanities at Union County College, USA. Her work has been published in such venues as Quarterly Horse and The Journal of South Texas English Studies. She specializes in American and Caribbean womens writing, as well as literary theory This edited collection uses critical theory in order to understand the rise of the Alt-Right and the election of Donald Trump?and, in doing so, to assert the necessity and value of various disciplines within the humanities. While neoliberal mainstream culture has expressed shock at the seemingly expeditious rise of the Alt-Right movement and the outcome of the 2016 United States presidential election, a rich tradition of theory may not only explain the occurrence of this?phenomenon,? but may also chart an alternative understanding of the movement, revealing the persistence of right-wing populism throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.0Though the humanities have seen themselves undervalued and under attack in recent years, the historical and cultural contextualization of the current moment via theory is a means of reaffirming the value of the humanities in teaching the ever-important and multifaceted skill of critical literacy. This book re-affirms the humanities, particularly the study of literature, theory, and philosophy, through questions such as how the humanities can help us understand the here and now