Revolution and Disenchantment: Arab Marxism and the Binds of Emancipation

by Fadi A. Bardawil

Overview

The Arab Revolutions that began in 2011 reignited interest in the question of theory and practice, imbuing it with a burning political urgency. In Revolution and Disenchantment Fadi A. Bardawil redescribes for our present how an earlier generation of revolutionaries, the 1960s Arab New Left, addressed this question. Bardawil excavates the long-lost archive of the Marxist organization Socialist Lebanon and its main theorist, Waddah Charara, who articulated answers in their political practice to fundamental issues confronting revolutionaries worldwide: intellectuals as vectors of revolutionary theory; political organizations as mediators of theory and praxis; and nonemancipatory attachments as impediments to revolutionary practice. Drawing on historical and ethnographic methods and moving beyond familiar reception narratives of Marxist thought in the postcolony, Bardawil engages in "fieldwork in theory" that analyzes how theory seduces intellectuals, cultivates sensibilities, and authorizes political practice. Throughout, Bardawil underscores the resonances and tensions between Arab intellectual traditions and Western critical theory and postcolonial theory, deftly placing intellectuals from those traditions into a much-needed conversation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781478006756
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Publication date:	04/10/2020
Series:	Theory in Forms
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	282
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.59(d)

About the Author

Fadi A. Bardawil is Assistant Professor of Asian and Middle East Studies at Duke University.

Table of Contents

A Note on Transliteration and Translation  ix
Prologue  xi
Introduction  1
Part I. Time of History
1. O Youth, O Arabs, O Nationalists: Recalling the High Tides of Anticolonial Pan-Arabism  27
2. Dreams of a Dual Birth: Socialist Lebanon's Theoretical Imaginary (1964–1970)  53
3. June 1967 and Its Historiographical Afterlives  82
Part II. Times of the Sociocultural
4. Paradoxes of Emancipation: Revolution and Power in Light of Mao  113
5. Exit Marx/Enter Ibn Khaldun: Wartime Disenchantment and Critique  138
6. Traveling Theory and Political Practice: Orientalism in the Age of the Islamic Revolution  165
Epilogue  187
Acknowledgments  195
Notes  201
Bibliography  241
Index  255

What People are Saying About This

David Scott

“Fadi A. Bardawil's Revolution and Disenchantment is at once a rich redescription and rehistoricization of the rise and fall of the Lebanese New Left, and an exemplary illustration of how to rework the problem of theory in relation to the practices of nonmetropolitan political intellectuals. With a timely attunement to the paradoxical conundrums of his present and an uncommon generosity of spirit, Bardawil challenges us to reconceive the contemporary demand for a dialogue between Arab intellectual traditions and the traditions of Western critical theory.”

The Arabic Freud: Psychoanalysis and Islam in Modern Egypt - Omnia El Shakry

“Conceptually brilliant, prodigiously researched, and appealingly written, Revolution and Disenchantment tracks the theoretical innovations and political stakes of Arab revolutionary Marxism in the postwar era, contributing to timely debates about the necessity of decolonizing critical theory and the relationship between revolutionary militancy and political disenchantment. Fadi A. Bardawil's innovative archival excavation recovers the theoretical labor of Arab intellectuals, theorists, and militants from Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and Palestine in the midst of a multiplicity of political upheavals.”

Editorial Reviews

"[Bardawil's] thoughtful excavation of [a] forgotten archive of Arab Marxist theory, critical attention to social and political conditions, and nuanced analysis of the relationship between theory and practice produce a provocative argument about the pitfalls of adopting binary visions of power relations."--Kevin M. Jones "American Historical Review" (3/26/2022 12:00:00 AM)

"This volume is an impressive example of critical scholarship examining the intellectual and political dynamics of the modern history of Lebanon and its Arab neighbors. It vividly demonstrates the revolutionary hope and political disenchantment that continue to characterize the Middle East today."--A. Rassam "Choice" (11/1/2020 12:00:00 AM)

"Revolution and Disenchantment is a different kind of academic book, profoundly interdisciplinary as it weaves together the crux of postcolonial studies, intellectual history, political theory and anthropological inquiries.... The book truly pries open the epistemological categories of modern social sciences."--Myriam Amri "LSE Review of Books" (2/4/2021 12:00:00 AM)

"Revolution and Disenchantment...dismantles the 'critique of Eurocentrism' as the only way to conduct critical scholarship in Arab thought. Most significantly, it deftly and incisively performs the theoretical ground-clearing that will enable scholars of Arab and postcolonial thought to stage the fine-grained, sustained, generous-yet-critical readings of Arab intellectuals as thinkers...."--Yasmeen Daifallah "Postcolonial Studies" (1/7/2021 12:00:00 AM)

"Is the question of social inequality eclipsed by sectarianism in the Near East? Is it possible to found a Left which is both autonomous and critical of nationalism? Fadi Bardawil brings this important episode of theoretical elaboration back to the history of Arab thought. Further, he invites us to break away from the colonial perspective which stipulates that social theory is created in the North and applied to the South." (translated from French)--Jean-Michel Landry "Le Monde Diplomatique" (9/1/2020 12:00:00 AM)

"Revolution and Disenchantment brings Lebanon back into the story of the twentieth century francophone left and elegantly delivers a new framework for understanding the translation and transformation of theory."--Sarah K. Miles "Global Intellectual History" (8/14/2020 12:00:00 AM)

"Conceptually brilliant, prodigiously researched, and appealingly written, Revolution and Disenchantment tracks the theoretical innovations and political stakes of Arab revolutionary Marxism in the postwar era, contributing to timely debates about the necessity of decolonizing critical theory and the relationship between revolutionary militancy and political disenchantment. Fadi A. Bardawil's innovative archival excavation recovers the theoretical labor of Arab intellectuals, theorists, and militants from Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and Palestine in the midst of a multiplicity of political upheavals."--Omnia El Shakry, author of "The Arabic Freud: Psychoanalysis and Islam in Modern Egypt"

"Fadi A. Bardawil's Revolution and Disenchantment is at once a rich redescription and rehistoricization of the rise and fall of the Lebanese New Left, and an exemplary illustration of how to rework the problem of theory in relation to the practices of nonmetropolitan political intellectuals. With a timely attunement to the paradoxical conundrums of his present and an uncommon generosity of spirit, Bardawil challenges us to reconceive the contemporary demand for a dialogue between Arab intellectual traditions and the traditions of Western critical theory."--David Scott, Columbia University

From the Publisher

Revolution and Disenchantment…dismantles the ‘critique of Eurocentrism’ as the only way to conduct critical scholarship in Arab thought. Most significantly, it deftly and incisively performs the theoretical ground-clearing that will enable scholars of Arab and postcolonial thought to stage the fine-grained, sustained, generous-yet-critical readings of Arab intellectuals as thinkers….

Postcolonial Studies - Yasmeen Daifallah

"Revolution and Disenchantment is a different kind of academic book, profoundly interdisciplinary as it weaves together the crux of postcolonial studies, intellectual history, political theory and anthropological inquiries…. The book truly pries open the epistemological categories of modern social sciences."

LSE Review of Books - Myriam Amri

"Is the question of social inequality eclipsed by sectarianism in the Near East? Is it possible to found a Left which is both autonomous and critical of nationalism? Fadi Bardawil brings this important episode of theoretical elaboration back to the history of Arab thought. Further, he invites us to break away from the colonial perspective which stipulates that social theory is created in the North and applied to the South." (translated from French)

Le Monde Diplomatique - Jean-Michel Landry

[Bardawil’s] thoughtful excavation of [a] forgotten archive of Arab Marxist theory, critical attention to social and political conditions, and nuanced analysis of the relationship between theory and practice produce a provocative argument about the pitfalls of adopting binary visions of power relations.

American Historical Review - Kevin M. Jones

Conceptually brilliant, prodigiously researched, and appealingly written, Revolution and Disenchantment tracks the theoretical innovations and political stakes of Arab revolutionary Marxism in the postwar era, contributing to timely debates about the necessity of decolonizing critical theory and the relationship between revolutionary militancy and political disenchantment. Fadi A. Bardawil's innovative archival excavation recovers the theoretical labor of Arab intellectuals, theorists, and militants from Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and Palestine in the midst of a multiplicity of political upheavals.

The Arabic Freud: Psychoanalysis and Islam in Modern Egypt - Omnia El Shakry

"Revolution and Disenchantment brings Lebanon back into the story of the twentieth century francophone left and elegantly delivers a new framework for understanding the translation and transformation of theory."

Global Intellectual History - Sarah K. Miles

Fadi A. Bardawil's Revolution and Disenchantment is at once a rich redescription and rehistoricization of the rise and fall of the Lebanese New Left, and an exemplary illustration of how to rework the problem of theory in relation to the practices of nonmetropolitan political intellectuals. With a timely attunement to the paradoxical conundrums of his present and an uncommon generosity of spirit, Bardawil challenges us to reconceive the contemporary demand for a dialogue between Arab intellectual traditions and the traditions of Western critical theory.

David Scott

"This volume is an impressive example of critical scholarship examining the intellectual and political dynamics of the modern history of Lebanon and its Arab neighbors. It vividly demonstrates the revolutionary hope and political disenchantment that continue to characterize the Middle East today."

Choice - A. Rassam