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Human Conditions

London Review of Books
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Adam Shatz talks separately to three guests – Judith Butler, Pankaj Mishra and Brent Hayes Edwards – about some of the most revolutionary thought of the 20th century. Judith, Pankaj and Brent will each discuss four texts over four episodes, as they uncover the inner life of the 20th century through works that have sought to find freedom in different ways and remake the world around them. They explore, among other things, the development of arguments against racism and colonialism, the experience of artistic expression in oppressive conditions and how language has been used in politically substantive ways. Authors covered: Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Frantz Fanon, Hannah Arendt, V. S. Naipaul, Ashis Nandy, Doris Lessing, Nadezhda Mandelstam, W. E. B. Du Bois, Aimé Césaire, Amiri Baraka and Audre Lorde. Human Conditions is part of the Close Readings podcast from the London Review of Books. To listen to the full episodes, subscribe to Close Readings: Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPq In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings

  1. Introducing Human Conditions

    EPISODE 1

    Introducing Human Conditions

    In the second of three introductions to our full Close Readings programme for 2024, Adam Shatz presents his series, Human Conditions, in which he’ll be talking separately to three guests – Judith Butler, Pankaj Mishra and Brent Hayes Edwards – about some of the most revolutionary thought of the 20th century. Judith, Pankaj and Brent will each discuss four texts over four episodes, as they uncover the inner life of the 20th century through works that have sought to find freedom in different ways and remake the world around them. They explore, among other things, the development of arguments against racism and colonialism, the experience of artistic expression in oppressive conditions and how language has been used in politically substantive ways. Authors covered: Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Frantz Fanon, Hannah Arendt, V. S. Naipaul, Ashis Nandy, Doris Lessing, Nadezhda Mandelstam, W. E. B. Du Bois, Aimé Césaire, Amiri Baraka and Audre Lorde. First episode released on 14 January 2024, then on the fourteenth of each month for the rest of the year. To listen to the full series, subscribe: Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPq In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    25 min
  2. 'Anti-Semite and Jew' by Jean-Paul Sartre

    EPISODE 2

    'Anti-Semite and Jew' by Jean-Paul Sartre

    Judith Butler joins Adam Shatz for the first episode of Human Conditions to look at Jean-Paul Sartre’s 1946 book Anti-Semite and Jew, originally published in French as Réflexions Sur La Question Juive. Sartre’s ‘portraits’ of the ‘anti-Semite’ and the ‘Jew’, as he saw them, caused controversy at the time for directly confronting anti-Jewish bigotry in France and how Jewish people had been treated under the Vichy government and before the war. Judith and Adam discuss Sartre’s attempt to develop a philosophical understanding of this kind of hatred and the apparent moral satisfaction it brings, and his contentious suggestion that not only does the antisemite owe his identity to the Jew, but that 'the Jew' is a creation of the antisemitic gaze. They also consider some of the criticisms levelled at the book, such as its focus on the bourgeois personality, and Sartre’s definition of Jews in entirely negative terms. NOTE: This episode was recorded on 5 October 2023. Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from the rest of the episodes in this series. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up: Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPq In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings Read more in the LRB: Adam Shatz: Sartre in Cairo https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v40/n22/adam-shatz/one-day-i-ll-tell-you-what-i-think Jonathan Rée: Being and Nothingness https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v41/n08/jonathan-ree/peas-in-a-matchbox Pierre Bourdieu: Sartre https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v02/n22/pierre-bourdieu/sartre Julian Barnes: Sartre's Flaubert https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v04/n10/julian-barnes/double-bind Judith Butler is Distinguished Professor in the Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley, and Adam Shatz is the the LRB's US editor and author of, most recently, The Rebel's Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon. Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    55 min
  3. 'The Second Sex' by Simone de Beauvoir

    EPISODE 3

    'The Second Sex' by Simone de Beauvoir

    Judith Butler joins Adam Shatz to discuss a landmark in feminist thought, Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949). Dazzling in its scope, The Second Sex incorporates anthropology, psychology, historiography, mythology and biology to ask an ‘impossible’ question: what is a woman? Focusing on three key chapters, Adam and Judith navigate this dense and dizzying book, exploring the nuances of Beauvoir’s original French phrasing and drawing on Judith’s own experiences teaching and writing about the text. They discuss the book’s startling relevance as well as its stark limitations for contemporary feminism, Beauvoir’s refusal to call herself a philosopher, and the radical possibilities released by her claim that one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up: Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPq In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings Read more in the LRB: Joanna Biggs: The earth had need of me https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n08/joanna-biggs/the-earth-had-need-of-me Toril Moi: The Adulteress Wife https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v32/n03/toril-moi/the-adulteress-wife Judith Butler is Distinguished Professor in the Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley, and Adam Shatz is the LRB's US editor and author of, most recently, The Rebel's Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon. Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    12 min
  4. ‘Black Skin, White Masks’ by Frantz Fanon

    EPISODE 4

    ‘Black Skin, White Masks’ by Frantz Fanon

    Begun as a psychiatric dissertation, Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks (1952) became a genre-shattering study of antiblack racism and its effect on the psyche. At turns expressionistic, confessional, clinical, sharply satirical and politically charged, the book is dazzlingly multivocal, sometimes self-contradictory but always compelling. Judith Butler and Adam Shatz, whose biography of Fanon was released in January, chart a course through some of the most explosive and elusive chapters of the book, and show why Fanon is still essential reading. Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up: Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPq In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings Read more in the LRB: Adam Shatz: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v39/n02/adam-shatz/where-life-is-seized Megan Vaughan: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v23/n20/megan-vaughan/i-am-my-own-foundation T.J. Clark: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n18/t.j.-clark/knife-at-the-throat Judith Butler is Distinguished Professor in the Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley, and Adam Shatz is the the LRB's US editor and author of, most recently, The Rebel's Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon. Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    13 min
  5. ‘The Human Condition’ by Hannah Arendt

    EPISODE 5

    ‘The Human Condition’ by Hannah Arendt

    In the fourth episode of Human Conditions, Judith Butler and Adam Shatz turn to The Human Condition (1956). Hannah Arendt defines action as the highest form of human activity: distinct from work and labour, action includes collaborative expression, collective decision-making and, crucially, initiating change. Focusing on the chapter on action, Judith and Adam consider why this approach is so innovative and incisive and discuss Arendt’s continued relevance and shortcomings, the book’s many surprising and baffling turns, and the transformative power of forgiveness.  Non-subscriber will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up: Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPq In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings Read more in the LRB: Jenny Turner: We must think! https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n21/jenny-turner/we-must-think Judith Butler: 'I merely belong to them' https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v29/n09/judith-butler/i-merely-belong-to-them Judith Butler is Distinguished Professor in the Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley, and Adam Shatz is the the LRB's US editor and author of, most recently, The Rebel's Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon. Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    12 min
  6. ‘A House for Mr Biswas’ by V.S. Naipaul

    EPISODE 6

    ‘A House for Mr Biswas’ by V.S. Naipaul

    In A House for Mr Biswas, his 1961 comic masterpiece, V.S. Naipaul pays tribute to his father and the vanishing world of his Trinidadian youth. Pankaj Mishra joins Adam Shatz in their first of four episodes to discuss the novel, a pathbreaking work of postcolonial literature and a particularly powerful influence on Pankaj himself. They explore Naipaul’s fraught relationship to modernity, and the tensions between his attachment to individual freedom and his insistence on the constraints imposed by history.  Non-subscriber will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up: Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPq In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings Read more in the LRB: D.A.N. Jones: The Enchantment of Vidia Naipaul https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v06/n08/d.a.n.-jones/the-enchantment-of-vidia-naipaul Frank Kermode: What Naipaul Knows https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v23/n17/frank-kermode/what-naipaul-knows Paul Theroux: Out of Sir Vidia’s Shadow https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v44/n04/paul-theroux/diary Sanjay Subramahnyam: Where does he come from?  https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v29/n21/sanjay-subrahmanyam/where-does-he-come-from Pankaj Mishra is a writer, critic and reporter who regularly contributes to the LRB. His books include Age of Anger: A History of the Present, From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia and two novels, most recently Run and Hide. Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    11 min
  7. ‘The Intimate Enemy’ by Ashis Nandy

    EPISODE 7

    ‘The Intimate Enemy’ by Ashis Nandy

    Ashis Nandy’s The Intimate Enemy is a study of the psychological toll of colonialism on both the coloniser and colonised, showing how Western conceptions of masculinity and adulthood served as tools of conquest. Using figures as disparate as Gandhi, Oscar Wilde and Aurobindo Ghosh, Nandy suggests ways in which alternative models of age and gender can provide compelling challenges to colonial authority. Pankaj Mishra joins Adam to unpack Nandy’s subtle and unexpected lines of thought and to explain why The Intimate Enemy remains as innovative today as it did in 1983. Non-subscriber will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up: Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPq In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings Further reading in the LRB: Ashis Nandy: The Last Englishman to Rule India https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v20/n10/ashis-nandy/the-last-englishman-to-rule-india Amit Chaudhuri: India before Kipling https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v22/n01/amit-chaudhuri/a-feather!-a-very-feather-upon-the-face Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    13 min
  8. ‘The Golden Notebook’ by Doris Lessing

    EPISODE 8

    ‘The Golden Notebook’ by Doris Lessing

    Pankaj Mishra joins Adam Shatz to discuss The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing’s formally brilliant and startlingly frank 1962 novel. In her portrait of ‘free women’ – unmarried, creatively ambitious, politically engaged – Lessing wrestles with the breakdown of Stalinism, settler colonialism and traditional gender roles. Pankaj and Adam explore the lived experiences that shaped the novel, its feminist reception and why Pankaj considers it to be one of the best representations of ‘the strange uncapturable sensation of living from day to day.’ Non-subscriber will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up: Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPq In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings Further reading: Anita Brookner: Women Against Men https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v04/n16/anita-brookner/women-against-men Frank Kermode: The Daughter Who Hated Her https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v30/n14/frank-kermode/the-daughter-who-hated-her Jenny Diski: Why can‘t people just be sensible? https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v37/n15/jenny-diski/why-can-t-people-just-be-sensible Pankaj Mishra is a writer, critic and reporter who regularly contributes to the LRB. His books include Age of Anger: A History of the Present, From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia and two novels, most recently Run and Hide. Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    13 min
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Adam Shatz talks separately to three guests – Judith Butler, Pankaj Mishra and Brent Hayes Edwards – about some of the most revolutionary thought of the 20th century. Judith, Pankaj and Brent will each discuss four texts over four episodes, as they uncover the inner life of the 20th century through works that have sought to find freedom in different ways and remake the world around them. They explore, among other things, the development of arguments against racism and colonialism, the experience of artistic expression in oppressive conditions and how language has been used in politically substantive ways. Authors covered: Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Frantz Fanon, Hannah Arendt, V. S. Naipaul, Ashis Nandy, Doris Lessing, Nadezhda Mandelstam, W. E. B. Du Bois, Aimé Césaire, Amiri Baraka and Audre Lorde. Human Conditions is part of the Close Readings podcast from the London Review of Books. To listen to the full episodes, subscribe to Close Readings: Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPq In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings

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