Murdoch University
The Krishna Somers Foundation presents the second lecture for 2008. The lecture will be given by
Dr Dimitris Vardoulakis.
Please come to the lecture, enjoy debating with Dimitris and drink some excellent wine (or orange juice).
Abstract
The Mission Box is widely regarded as the best Greek novel of the 20th century. It is set during the painful experience of the Greek Civil War (1945-1949), fought between the forces of the Communist Party and the Greek Army supported by Western forces. I will argue that Alexandrou makes an argument about oppression. The style and the thoughts expressed by the anonymous narrator are rational and assume a teleological conception of history. This corresponds to the “autarchic utopia” represented by the Party’s demands for sacrifice. At crucial points, however, rationality and teleology are subverted. This gives rise to another perspective on history, which Dimitris Rautopoulos has termed “anarchic utopia.” It is anarchic, I will argue, not because it negates law tout court, but precisely because it denies the hold of law and regulation over time. Through a close reading of the text, I will show how this leads to a subaltern politics.
Dimitris Vardoulakis teaches at Monash University. He has co-edited with Andrew Benjamin a volume of Angelaki journal on “The Politics of Place” (2004) and with Leslie Hill and Brian Nelson a collection of essays titled After Blanchot: Literature, Criticism, Philosophy (2005). He has two forthcoming edited volumes, one titled Spinoza Now (Stanford UP) and the other titled The Political Anima (special issue of Substance journal). He has also translated two books into Greek, Alasdair Gray’s Poor Things and Peter Lyssiotis’ The Bird, The Belltwoer. His articles have been published in edited collections and journals, most recently in Walter Benjamin and History (2005) and The British Journal for the History of Philosophy (2006).
