Subversive Affirmation
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An analysis of the concept of subversive affirmation, a radical alternative to saying “no” as a form of resistance.
Since the 1960s, theory, the arts, and political activism have increasingly rejected the notion of resistance through negation, raising such arguments as: Doesn’t a critique based on negation make itself dependent on the very system it wants to overcome? Does it not remain trapped in a thinking of oppositions? Although coming from radically different angles, the formulation of concepts like subversive affirmation, hyperaffirmation, overidentification, paradoxical intervention, revolution of the yes, and affirmative sabotage all reflect the emergence of an affirmative critique that overcomes this negation while also making us aware of the difference between conscious consent and conformity, capitulation, indifference, or pragmatism. In her new book, Sylvia Sasse explores and analyzes subversive affirmation as a critical practice in different political systems. She examines the effectiveness of such criticism and its relevance at a time when various political actors have begun appropriating subversive affirmation and are no longer using it as a method of criticism.
Since the 1960s, theory, the arts, and political activism have increasingly rejected the notion of resistance through negation, raising such arguments as: Doesn’t a critique based on negation make itself dependent on the very system it wants to overcome? Does it not remain trapped in a thinking of oppositions? Although coming from radically different angles, the formulation of concepts like subversive affirmation, hyperaffirmation, overidentification, paradoxical intervention, revolution of the yes, and affirmative sabotage all reflect the emergence of an affirmative critique that overcomes this negation while also making us aware of the difference between conscious consent and conformity, capitulation, indifference, or pragmatism. In her new book, Sylvia Sasse explores and analyzes subversive affirmation as a critical practice in different political systems. She examines the effectiveness of such criticism and its relevance at a time when various political actors have begun appropriating subversive affirmation and are no longer using it as a method of criticism.
Sylvia Sasse is professor of Slavic studies at the University of Zurich and cofounder of the ZKK (Center for Arts and Cultural Theory), a member of ZGW (Center "History of Knowledge"). Brian Alkire is part of the Department of German at New York University.