The Politics of the Wretched - by Zahi Zalloua (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The Politics of the Wretched argues for ressentiment's generative negativity, prompting a shift from ressentiment as a personal expression of frustration to ressentiment as a collective "No". Inspired by Kant and Nietzsche's philosophy, Zalloua identifies two modes of deploying ressentiment - private and public use - by substituting ressentiment for reason. This reinterpretation argues for a public use of ressentiment, for the wretched to universalize their grievances, to see their antagonism as cutting across societies, and to turn personal trauma into a common cause.

A public use of ressentiment rails against the ideology of identity and victimhood and insists on ressentiment's generative negativity, its own rationality, prompting a shift from ressentiment as a personal expression of frustration to ressentiment as a collective "No". Reframing ressentiment as a tool to oppose the evils of capitalism, anti-Blackness, and neocolonialism, it both alarms the liberal gatekeepers of the status quo and promises to energize the anti-racist Left in its ongoing struggles for universal justice and emancipation.

Review Quotes

"One could not pick a better guide through the intellectual and political history of ressentiment than Zahi Zalloua. His account of the radical contemporary potential of ressentiment - the political affect par excellence, the primary affect of the wretched, as he reminds us - is incisive, nuanced, politically astute, intellectually dexterous, and nothing short of indispensable in our current period of crisis. Reading The Politics of the Wretched forces us to leave behind our many presumptions of the uses and values of the affective and political force of ressentiment and recognize its capacity for ontological upheaval and mutation." --Derek Hook, Associate Professor, Duquesne University, USA

"This compelling and engaging political and philosophical treatise is a needed critique of identity politics, including Afro-Pessimism, based on forms of Nietzschean ressentiment. Reclaiming ressentiment as a positive negation of oppression, Zalloua builds on what Frantz Fanon considered the rationality of revolt of the wretched of earth, claiming solidarity with every social action for human dignity and freedom." --Nigel Gibson, Professor of Africana Studies, Emerson College, USA

"This book offers the most compelling embrace of the disruptive force of ressentiment to date. Drawing on inspirations from psychoanalysis to the black radical tradition, Zalloua removes the concept of slave morality from the Nietzschean orbit of fetishized victimhood and its destiny in postmodern identity politics once and for all." --Sjoerd van Tuinen, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands

About the Author