Problématique Journal

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. His artful expression was impactful for the critical theorists of the Frankfurt School, who perceived it as a potent expression of counter-Fascism that does not reduce art to a mere ‘superstructure.’ Like the first generation of the Frankfurt School critical theory, Mann held the firm belief that art can be politically formative.

The forthcoming issue of Problématique seeks to investigate aesthetic strategies to counter contemporary political forces that bear a resemblance to Fascism. Contributions will offer a synthesis of diagnosis and expression. The diagnostic approaches 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 condi-tions 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:

• What are the methods and approaches of integrating the socio-political critique of Fascism with aesthetic criticism? How might the critique of formalism in art and political institutions be applied to the rise of Fascist politics?

• How is the issue of “origins” exploited by political forces deemed Fascist, and how might the emancipatory “origins” of humanity be reclaimed in the aftermath of the fall of socialism and the persisting crisis of liberalism?

• What role does modern literature play in expressing the maladies of modernity? Can the Cold War liberal rejection of Romanticism as a precursor to Fascism be itself dismissed to unlock romantic irony and expressionism as politically formative tools? Is aesthetic hu-manism at odds with the critique of political economy, or a complementary tool of such a critique?

• What role does aesthetic authority play in our scholarly writings on politics and society? How does the reflexivity of authorial expression safeguard against turning the author into a spiritual leader, a destiny that befell thinkers like Nietzsche? How , a practice of “writing the self,” can reflect the inevitability of one’s partiality while advancing universal political interest?

• How do artistic expressions within non-European political cultures draw on the resources of European aesthetic and critical theory? How do such expressions enhance the humanist tradition? What are the potential pathways to shape “new humanism,” either in line with Mann or broadly conceived, by blending aesthetic sources and comparative political theory?

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, in association with the Political Science Department of York University (Canada).