Seminar on history and political theory held as part of the screening of Anna Negri’s film Toni, My Father and co-organised with the Institute of Contemporary History at NOVA-FCSH
Antonio Negri (1933-2024) was a prominent political figure in the history of Italy’s long 1968, as well as a thinker who gained great international relevance in the 21st century. His life and ideas have always been the subject of great controversy. In this seminar, the first part seeks to raise awareness of the so-called Italian long 68, contextualising Negri’s emergence in light of the social, economic and political transformations of the 1960s and 1970s. In the second part, the seminar analyses the development of Negri’s thinking from the 1980s onwards, in the aftermath of his militant experience in the previous period and in line with his particular way of combining the Marxist tradition with authors such as Michel Foucault, bringing together notions such as general intellect and biopolitics.
First part, with Giulia Strippoli
In Italy, the term ‘long 1968’ or ‘era of movements’ is used to refer to a period stretching from the early 1960s to the end of the 1970s. Protagonists and historians interpreted the labour and student movement with an emphasis on the long duration of both the events and the ‘spirit’, a perspective that was also used in historiographical interpretations from a ‘global’ perspective, as in the case of G. Rainer Horn’s The Spirit of ’68. The first part of this seminar focuses on the chronology, protagonists, political ideas and memory of this long period, from the end of the economic boom to the end of the 1970s.
Second part, with José Neves
In 2000, the publication of Empire, which Negri wrote with Michael Hardt, offered different social movements and the left an alternative framework for analysis and conceptualisation to the liberal narratives that at the time saw the fall of the Berlin Wall as the end of history itself. Contributing in a seminal way to reconciling often conflicting traditions, such as Marxism and post-structuralism, the success of Empire closely accompanied the emergence of movements for another globalisation and also inspired collectives and initiatives around themes such as precariousness, migration and intellectual property. In the second part of this seminar, we will map out the main ideas of Negri’s thinking.
Registration required through the email giuliastrippoli@fcsh.unl.pt