Totality, Hope and Bloch

When: Thursday, March 20, 2025, 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Where: Online

Critical Hope Collective online reading meeting 

The Marxism and Totality (Jay, 1984, Uni California Press) reading group meets the QMUL Critical Hope Collective for a one off exchange on totality and hope, via a reading of two texts: 

1. Jay, M., 1984. ‘Ernst Bloch and the Extension of Marxist Holism to Nature’, in Marxism and Totality. Uni California Press, 174-195 
2. Bloch’s introduction to Vol 1 of Principle of Hope, available here, https://www.marxists.org/archive/bloch/hope/introduction.htm

Those with additional time and interest may want to explore sections from Bloch Vol 1 on "Anticipatory Consciousness” that elaborates in more detail his notion of the “not-yet".

The organisers are interested in exploring hope as a critical category of normative totality, in understanding Bloch’s work in relation to Western Marxist understandings of totality and what this has to offer critical approaches to hope. 

Please email c.nash@qmul.ac.uk for the Zoom link and PDF of the Jay reading.