CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: AESTHETIC CRITIQUE OF FASCISM AND HUMANIST EXPRESSION 

 

The editors are pleased to announce a call for abstracts for the upcoming issue of Problématique, York University's revived Political Science graduate journal. The upcoming issue will be dedicated to the aesthetic critique of Fascist politics and the expression of humanist political aesthetics. 

 

In Joseph and His Brothers, Thomas Mann articulates an aesthetic ambition to achieve a political objective, aiming to wrest the myth "out of Fascist hands." Responding to the rise of Fascism in Germany, Mann employs the richness of world literature, Egyptian mythology, as well as Jewish and Christian theology, to reclaim mythological thinking from its appropriation by reactionary political forces. His perilous journey into the origins—a journey backward that paradoxically propels the reader forward towards a "new humanism"—puts into sharp relief the fraught nature of constructing a myth of cosmopolitan humanity. In arrogating authority as an author of “new humanism”, Mann risks the deployment of the same means that allowed Fascism to capture the political imagination of his contemporaries. Yet, Mann’s literary expression of counter-Fascism was lauded by some critical theorists of the Frankfurt School who also sought to render art politically formative. 

 

The forthcoming issue of Problématique – Journal of Political Studies/Revue D'Études Politiques seeks to investigate aesthetic strategies to counter contemporary political forces that bear a resemblance to Fascism. Contributions will build upon diverse traditions compatible with the impulse of the Frankfurt School's critical theory, fusing literary and aesthetic criticism with a social and political critique of conditions that catalyze Fascist politics. The contradictions inherent to the modern state and capitalist economic society will be discerned in nationalist mythologies of primordial origins and colonial and imperial narratives. In countering these myths, contributors will interpret aesthetic expressions that resist these pernicious forces aesthetically, aiming at humanist and emancipatory politics.

 

Contributors are encouraged to consider the following questions: 

We welcome original research, as well as book reviews and artistic contributions. Your analysis does not need to be limited to a single region, aesthetic tradition, or field of study. Please include a brief description of your background, field of study, and institutional affiliation (if any) with your submission. Selected papers will be published in the academic journal Problématique –  Journal of Political Studies/Revue D'Études Politiques, in association with the Political Science Department of York University (Canada).

 

The deadline for abstracts is January 15, 2024.

 

Review the submission guidelines:

Important dates: 


For further inquiries, contact the editorial collective at [log in to unmask] (cc: [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask]). 


Viktoriya Vinik, M.A. 

PhD Candidate 

Political Science 

[log in to unmask] | laps.yorku.ca 

Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
York University 

Ross Building South, 6th Floor 

4700 Keele Street Toronto ON, Canada M3J 1P3 


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