Spartakus: The Symbology of Revolt

by Furio Jesi, Alberto Toscano (Translation), Andrea Cavalletti (Introduction)

On December 29, 1918, the Spartakus League, a Marxist revolutionary movement, rose up in Germany calling for an end to class rule by the bourgeoisie. Massive demonstrations followed and more than 500,000 Berliners took to the streets in January―only to be crushed by police and anticommunist paramilitary troops. Several leaders of the League were killed and the revolt was quashed.Through a detailed reconstruction of the events of that bloody winter, historian and critic Furio Jesi recasts our understanding of a foundational political difference―revolt or revolution? Drawing on a deep reserve of literary sources like Brecht, Eliade, Dostoyevsky, and Mann, Jesi outlines a uniquely incisive phenomenology of revolt that distinguishes between the purposeful historical temporality of revolution and the suspension of time that marks a revolt. And with the addition of an essay on the politics of time and revolution by Rosa Luxemburg, a founding leader of the Spartakus League, this volume becomes a crucial text at the intersection of history and philosophy.

Genres: Philosophy, Theory, Politics, Nonfiction, Italy, History

180 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Furio Jesi (May 19, 1941 - June 17, 1980) was an Italian historian, writer, archaeologist, germanist and philosopher.
The only son of "war hero" Bruno Jesi, Furio Jesi was an independent scholar of myth, Egyptology, history of Mediterranean religions, philology and archeology, most notable for his work on extending the ideas of Karl Kerényi including studies of the science of myth and the difference between classic Myths and "Technified Myths".
With no formal degree, Jesi published, beginning at the age of 15, a series of studies on the world of ancient Greece and Egypt, including on the topic of mythological themes and mystery cults. His focus on the consistency of myths in modern times has influenced political activists like the Wu Ming collective in Italy.
Jesi was also an active translator and consultant for Italian publishers on the topic of German literature.

Jesi died at age 39 carbon monoxide poisoning at his home in Genoa, Italy.

Reviews

[Dante]

Banners stitched with emblems, beware the 'paladins of reaction' who prowl amongst us. Jesi's famously protean tracings (not to distract from their vision; his insistence on the unknowable dimensions of life and myth - and their eruptive fusion in struggle - is always well italicised) are acute in both caution and conviction. The intractable aporia of revolt and the dark threat of subsumption under the enemy's gaze. The stunning, useless clarity of existential choice and the collective epiphany which cleanses us of the great burdens of historical existence. Untimely meditations on the militant. Joys of grandeur.

[Shulamith Farhi · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting exploration of mythic time as it relates to historical time, correlated respectively to revolt and revolution. Jesi is best characterized as a kind of Left-Eliadean thinker, and even if we don't accept the details of his left-wing appropriation of myth with its ominous insinuations of self-sacrifice, it is a merit of the argument that it criticizes the tendency of Marxism to be caught flat-footed when faced with seemingly reactionary narratives.

***

Take two. Adding a star. Jesi's argument can't be dismissed as romanticizing myth and revolt. A lot of people on the left are obsessed with riot porn. Jesi isn't content with this, and formulates a theory of the symbolic space of revolt. In the insurrectionary struggles that punctuate historical time,

"Everyone experiences the epiphany of the same symbols—everyone’s individual space, dominated by one’s personal symbols, by the shelter from historical time that everyone enjoys in their individual symbology and mythology, expands, becoming the symbolic space common to an
entire collective, the shelter from historical time in which the collective finds safety."

If we want to understand revolts we need to investigate how they produce and circulate symbols. Jesi's main example is Rosa Luxemburg, and the text convincingly argues that she deliberately turned herself into a symbol. For her, proletarian struggle doesn't succeed in a single climax. We only emancipate ourselves from the conditioning of the bourgeoisie if we are able to turn their weapons against them.

[Martim Maçãs]

Li a edição da vs. traduzida por João Coles

gostei muito dos capítulos iniciais, especialmente quando contrasta a revolta com a revolução temporalmente e quando toca na relação entre o mito e o poeta, mesmo que brevemente. De resto, muito me passou ao lado.

Voltarei a ler

[Benja Calderon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jesi ocupa como ejemplo el Levantamiento Espartaquista (uno de los tantos hechos sintetizados en lo que se llama la Revolución de Noviembre) para graficar la diferencia de dos tipos de sublevaciones: la revuelta y la revolución
Bajo esta misma mirada, pensando siempre en el Mito como leitmotiv en el libro, se realiza un análisis a diversos autores literarios