HU13118

WiSe 21/22: Black Marxism

Andreas Eckert

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Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition, first published in 1983, continues to proliferate and being referenced. This study was largely ignored when it came out first, but now apparently resonates with the pulse of our current times. As the historian Robin D.G. Kelley put it: “Today’s insurgent black movements against state violence and mass incarceration call for an end to ‘racial capitalism’ and see their work as part of a ‘black radical tradition’ – terms associated with Robinson’s work.” We will take Robinson’s book as a starting point to explore the history of black radical thinking in the 20th and early 21st century and analyze and contextualize key texts of intellectuals (often cum activists) such as Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. Du Bois, C.L.R. James, Eric Williams, Aimé Césaire, Cheikh Anta Diop, Frantz Fanon, Angela Davis and Robin D.G. Kelley. Other than the seminar title might suggest, the encounter of Marxism and Black radicalism is only one among the several topics we will address in order to engage with the intellectual and political contours of a black radical tradition. Warning: This course requires intensive and regular reading! Ref.: Cedric J. Robinson: Black Marxism. The Making of the Radical Black Tradition, revised and updated 3rd ed., Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2021. close