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ACH is organising a lecture by Prof. Moishe Postone

ACH is organising a lecture by Prof. Moishe Postone

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ACH is organising a lecture by Prof. Moishe Postone
Event Details

Archives on Contemporary History
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

cordially invites you to a Lecture on

Marx, Temporality, and Modernity
Rethinking Marx's Critical Theory for the Contemporary World

By
Prof. Moishe Postone
University of Chicago

Presided over by
Prof. C.P.Chandrasekhar
Dean, School of Social Sciences, JNU

March 2, 2017, 3.00 pm
Committee Room, School of Social Sciences I, JNU

Tea at 4.30 pm

Moishe Postone is the Thomas E. Donnelley Professor of the College, the Center for Jewish Studies, and History Codirector, Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory Coeditor, Critical Historical Studies. His research interests include modern European intellectual history; social theory, especially critical theories of modernity; twentieth-century Germany; anti-Semitism; and contemporary global transformations. He is author of the prize-winning book, Time, Labor and Social Domination: A Reinterpretation of Marx's Critical Theory. He is also co-editor with Eric Santner of Catastrophe and Meaning: The Holocaust and the Twentieth Century, a collection of essays that consider the meaning of the holocaust in twentieth-century history and its influence on historical practice. Postone's work attempts to rethink the whole Marxist project through a reinterpretation of Marx's mature texts, such as Das Kapital. His work has been translated into German, French, Portugese, Japanese and Chinese. Scholars have used his theories in various disciplines including History, Sociology, Anthropology and Literature.

Abstract: The lecture seeks to explain that an adequate understanding of modern historical development of any country or region in the world today – must be framed with reference to global historical developments of the modern world, and that those forms of development can best be illuminated by a theory of capitalism.

Marx's critical theory is not, on its most fundamental level, a critique of a mode of class exploitation, undertaken from a standpoint that affirms labor. Rather it uncovers and analyzes a unique, abstract form of social domination ultimately rooted in a historically specific form of social interdependence that structures modernity itself as a determinate form of social life. This form of mediation is socially constituted by a historically specific function of labor and manifests itself in peculiar, quasi-objective forms of domination that cannot sufficiently be understood in terms of the domination of a class or, indeed, of any concrete social and/or political entity. These forms of domination, grasped by categories such as commodity and capital, are moreover, not static, and cannot adequately be conceptualized in terms of the market. Rather, they are temporal, constitutive of a historical dynamic that is at the very heart of capitalist modernity. Marx's critical analysis, then, is not an affirmation of the central role played by labor in human society. Rather it is a critique of labor's centrality as historically specific and of the historical dynamic it generates.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.