Barbarism – The Active Dystopia
This is the corrected version of the retracted article under the same title, which was published with the following DOI: https://doi.org/10.11649/slh.2817. In this article, I argue that dystopia also has an ambivalently “active” function in Bauman’s sociology. Across his work, as a counter-image...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
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Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences
2023-10-01
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| Series: | Studia Litteraria et Historica |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.ispan.edu.pl/index.php/slh/article/view/3125 |
| _version_ | 1827769424468246528 |
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| author | Jack Palmer |
| author_facet | Jack Palmer |
| author_sort | Jack Palmer |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
This is the corrected version of the retracted article under the same title, which was published with the following DOI: https://doi.org/10.11649/slh.2817.
In this article, I argue that dystopia also has an ambivalently “active” function in Bauman’s sociology. Across his work, as a counter-image to the “active utopia” of socialism, the traces of the “active dystopia” can be tracked, defined as a pointed elucidation of the possibilities for barbarism latent within the present, the clearest expression of which is presented in Modernity and the Holocaust (1989). The article proceeds roughly in three steps. Firstly, I revisit the arguments in Bauman’s foundational cultural and critical sociology that developed alongside his revisionist reading of Marxism in the 1960s and 1970s, on epistemologies of the future, common sense and the limitations of the predictive ambitions of social science. Then, I develop a particular focus on an unpublished, though essential, typescript entitled “Is the Science of the Possible Possible?”, suggesting that it is usefully read in terms of the emphasis on possibility and potentiality in Modernity and the Holocaust. Throughout these sections, I intersperse a reading of Modernity and the Holocaust in the light of this foundational work, presenting it as an exemplary form of critical sociology as active dystopia, which elucidates the possibility for barbarism residing within modern societies. Finally, I consider how his thinking situates him in a lineage of critical thought animated by the “active dystopia”, arguing that what is often mistaken for gloominess and pessimism is, in fact, a crucial resource for sociology in its speculative imagination of possible futures.
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T12:24:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6f6a5dbf75bd418989f4a728d333c44c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2299-7571 |
| language | deu |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T12:24:44Z |
| publishDate | 2023-10-01 |
| publisher | Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Studia Litteraria et Historica |
| spelling | doaj.art-6f6a5dbf75bd418989f4a728d333c44c2023-11-06T11:12:47ZdeuInstitute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of SciencesStudia Litteraria et Historica2299-75712023-10-011110.11649/slh.3125Barbarism – The Active DystopiaJack Palmer0Bauman Institute and Leeds Trinity University, Leeds This is the corrected version of the retracted article under the same title, which was published with the following DOI: https://doi.org/10.11649/slh.2817. In this article, I argue that dystopia also has an ambivalently “active” function in Bauman’s sociology. Across his work, as a counter-image to the “active utopia” of socialism, the traces of the “active dystopia” can be tracked, defined as a pointed elucidation of the possibilities for barbarism latent within the present, the clearest expression of which is presented in Modernity and the Holocaust (1989). The article proceeds roughly in three steps. Firstly, I revisit the arguments in Bauman’s foundational cultural and critical sociology that developed alongside his revisionist reading of Marxism in the 1960s and 1970s, on epistemologies of the future, common sense and the limitations of the predictive ambitions of social science. Then, I develop a particular focus on an unpublished, though essential, typescript entitled “Is the Science of the Possible Possible?”, suggesting that it is usefully read in terms of the emphasis on possibility and potentiality in Modernity and the Holocaust. Throughout these sections, I intersperse a reading of Modernity and the Holocaust in the light of this foundational work, presenting it as an exemplary form of critical sociology as active dystopia, which elucidates the possibility for barbarism residing within modern societies. Finally, I consider how his thinking situates him in a lineage of critical thought animated by the “active dystopia”, arguing that what is often mistaken for gloominess and pessimism is, in fact, a crucial resource for sociology in its speculative imagination of possible futures. https://journals.ispan.edu.pl/index.php/slh/article/view/3125Zygmunt BaumanmodernityHolocaustpossibilityutopiadystopia |
| spellingShingle | Jack Palmer Barbarism – The Active Dystopia Studia Litteraria et Historica Zygmunt Bauman modernity Holocaust possibility utopia dystopia |
| title | Barbarism – The Active Dystopia |
| title_full | Barbarism – The Active Dystopia |
| title_fullStr | Barbarism – The Active Dystopia |
| title_full_unstemmed | Barbarism – The Active Dystopia |
| title_short | Barbarism – The Active Dystopia |
| title_sort | barbarism the active dystopia |
| topic | Zygmunt Bauman modernity Holocaust possibility utopia dystopia |
| url | https://journals.ispan.edu.pl/index.php/slh/article/view/3125 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jackpalmer barbarismtheactivedystopia |