Reviews for Lenin reloaded

The average rating for Lenin reloaded based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2007-08-14 00:00:00 William Hickey This book consists of an interesting set of essays, each of which asks the question of what is to be done with the work of Lenin. The presupposition of this question is that interpreting Lenin means asking how one relates to his historical reality in the present. For many of the writers (Jameson, Eagleton, Zizek, Badiou, Negri...), this is an opportunity to 1) suggest a critique recognizing systemic problems/contradictions in the capitalist world-system (in other words, the figure of Lenin looks at the larger picture, not just the local conditions); 2) articulate the possibility of radical antagonism (not just the shuffling of party positions, but a critique of the state system, and, more significantly perhaps, a division of the world into capitalists and a revolutionary subject). In a sense, Badiou's "one becomes two" is a distillation of these thrusts - the unified system of global capitalism is countered by dividing it against itself, by splitting it into those willing to support it and those willing to overthrow it. All of these writers confront the question of whether revolution is or ever will be on the table of political and historical possibilities, which is to say they all confront the sense of the "end of history" (the unchallenged hegemony of liberal democracy and capitalism) that some hasty and over-simplifying liberal intellectuals imagined following from the end of the Soviet Union. For Jameson, thinking of Lenin keeps alive the very idea of revolution as systematic change or even the change of the system itself, instead of permutations or modifications of an already established system. All of this being said, Lenin constitutes not an answer in this volume but a series of questions or problematics. Many authors disagree about the direction to take Lenin. For example, some argue for a dialectical Lenin, others for a biopolitical Lenin incompatible with the logic of the dialectic. Some argue for Lenin as the figure of the analyst (Eagleton, Zizek), others as the figure of spontaneity. I think what makes this an interesting volume is that one finds communication between these different takes on Lenin's thought, without collapsing into any homogenous party-line.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-05-16 00:00:00 Robert Anaya Zizek este unul dintre puținii filozofi contemporani care ne merită atenția. Recunosc că am luat cartea datorită numelui autorului. Ea este o colecție interesantă de eseuri pe tema relevanței contemporane a lui Lenin, însă mă așteptam la puțin mai mult decât a fost prezentat. Zizek reușește să prindă atenția cititorului cu câte un argument aparent relevant, dar îl pierde în explicarea acestui argument. Unele argumente le-am recunoscut din alte lucrări ale lui, deci n-a fost nevoie să le înțeleg. Altele însă m-au pierdut. De aceea zic că această carte este un pic cam "pentru fani". Și în timp ce ajută la înțelegerea Leninismului și a unor aspecte bune ale acestuia, are carențe în a realiza ceea ce-și propune: relevanța contemporană a primului lider Soviet.