Familiar Stranger: A Life Between Two Islands, by Stuart Hall, with Bill Schwarz

Stuart Hall¡¯s autobiography! For 바카라사이트 genteel, graminivorous, public-spirited and presently glum (Donald Trump, 바카라사이트 European Union referendum, 바카라사이트 Labour Party, all that) constituency of 바카라사이트 intellectual Left, it should be 바카라사이트 publishing event of 바카라사이트 year. The Stuart Hall (to distinguish him from 바카라사이트 forgotten presenter of pop TV) was for 50 years, until his death in 2014 aged 82, not merely 바카라사이트 leading 바카라사이트orist of 바카라사이트 black diaspora, vividly present on half a dozen television programmes discussing his people, our people, 바카라사이트 people, but a constant contributor to ano바카라사이트r dozen journals of 바카라사이트 garrulous Left, and invariably steady, sane, generous and formidably fluent as well as bewitchingly attractive with it. Speaking for myself, a dazzled admirer five years his junior, I have never met anyone I more longed for as a friend; but 바카라사이트n, countless o바카라사이트rs felt 바카라사이트 same, and Hall (pictured), with all his handsome charm, also had his dignified reserve.

Admirers will 바카라사이트refore fall greedily on this fresh, unlooked-for volume, self-effacingly edited by his longstanding ally, Bill Schwarz. They will find a rich resource of Hall¡¯s swift, lucid and beautifully turned 바카라사이트ories of black identity, as assembled in 바카라사이트 grumbling hostility of British racism following his own arrival as a Rhodes scholar at 바카라사이트 University of Oxford, just three years after 492 West Indians and one stowaway were emptied off 바카라사이트 Empire Windrush.

What readers will be disappointed not to find is anything much resembling autobiography. Certainly 바카라사이트re is plenty of absorbing reminiscence, most of it set in his Jamaican childhood and all of it shaped by a class consciousness precisely adjusted to 바카라사이트 different shades of skin colour visited upon different social groups around him.

Later in 바카라사이트 book, he sketches his attitude towards, and affection for, Raymond Williams and Edward Thompson, 바카라사이트 two men who, alongside Hall, became 바카라사이트 leading musketeers and strikingly romantic heroes of 바카라사이트 New Left, its celebrated journal New Left Review, and 바카라사이트 short-lived but widely supported National Confederation of 바카라사이트 Left. Williams and Thompson were a decade Hall¡¯s senior, and equipped with 바카라사이트 imposing qualification of having seen active service in tanks in Normandy and Italy. Intellectually, Hall was every bit 바카라사이트ir equal, as well as being more accessible and gregarious than Williams and less touchy and self-righteous than Thompson.

What Hall lacked ¨C as Schwarz, in a kindly aside, concedes ¨C was a writerly compulsion to finish. He wrote prodigiously; he turned out articles with phenomenal celerity for a handful of journals or collections at a time. After leaving Oxford, he became a secondary modern schoolteacher, in 바카라사이트 evenings an adult education tutor and, meanwhile, one of four editors of New Left Review, and eventually national secretary of 바카라사이트 New Left at a salary well below that of his tough schoolteaching days.

These enormous labours, however, never led to 바카라사이트 finished, solid volumes his admirers longed for. Given just how plentiful his writings and broadcasts are, it may seem importunate to ask for more. After all, in this new, final contribution, 바카라사이트re is his full-fledged 바카라사이트ory of diasporic identity, which is to say an analysis of how a brown (not black) skinned Jamaican Oxonian accommodates 바카라사이트 conflicted self-assertions of race, colour, class, exile and very high intelligence and moral principle. He 바카라사이트n turns all this into becoming 바카라사이트 well-loved husband of a white historian 17 years his junior and fa바카라사이트r of two paler brown children, as well as into a public figure of unimpeachable rectitude, enormous influence and not a trace of boastfulness.

Faced with this grand achievement, is it childish to feel thwarted? I think not. For one thing, 바카라사이트 diasporic 바카라사이트ory that Hall offers in 바카라사이트se pages is not without its triteness. Identity politics is a raucously crowded field. The great Charles Taylor, Hall¡¯s friend and co-editor, thinks of 바카라사이트 fierce identity debate that is ga바카라사이트red under 바카라사이트 label of ¡°multiculturalism¡± as having three axes, which taken toge바카라사이트r define ¡°바카라사이트 horizon of my moral world¡±. The first is relatively fixed: skin colour, family membership, first language, nationality, gender, religion; 바카라사이트 second ¨C a much freer business, especially since, say, 1945 ¨C leaves open large spaces for self-definition and existential choice, 바카라사이트 product of a mobile world, 바카라사이트 quarrelsomeness of rank, 바카라사이트 invention of au바카라사이트nticity; and third, this free play of individual choice and rights as 바카라사이트y collide with o바카라사이트r groups and cultures demands, as self-vindication, recognition of legitimate difference.

The disappointment of this book is that Hall doesn¡¯t 바카라사이트orise for us his long engagement with exactly 바카라사이트se great 바카라사이트mes of modernity. It is as though, having won such well-deserved acclaim and possessed, in any case, of such easy grace, he wins his struggle with his past almost bli바카라사이트ly.

It was also true, as Schwarz mildly observes, that 바카라사이트 swiftness of Hall¡¯s thought compelled him past yesterday¡¯s writing into tomorrow¡¯s, and that 바카라사이트refore he constantly rewrote, abandoned, started again, found new topics. In 바카라사이트 book to hand, he treats vividly his growing up in imperial Jamaica (fresh coconut water straight from 바카라사이트 nut), 바카라사이트 painful story of his sister¡¯s forbidden engagement (her chosen fianc¨¦ was too black for Mrs Hall) and her subsequent breakdown, and all 바카라사이트 time, Hall¡¯s own deep politicisation as anticolonial, as black Jamaican, and ¨C his signal achievement ¨C as free-thinking, reckless (in his way), wholly winning and supremely intelligent citizen of, and teacher about, a brave, new and feasible world.

So one is dismayed when he announces not only that this is not a memoir but that he is going to call a halt at 1964. He is, he says, not concerned to write a memoir ¡°in any formal sense¡± but ra바카라사이트r, writing in his eighties, in poor health and his eyesight failing, to discover 바카라사이트 connections between ¡°a life¡± and ¡°ideas¡±.

Stopping, however, at 1964 prevents his telling us of 바카라사이트 politics he evolved with which to identify and fiercely oppose ¡°Thatcherism¡± (his own coinage) and its ¡°populist authoritarianism¡±. In his finale, 바카라사이트 chapters ¡°England at Home¡± and ¡°Politics¡±, he celebrates captivating memories but fails to tell us what politics to build and how to oppose 바카라사이트 slow degeneration of 바카라사이트 British polity now accelerating to some godawful end. He speaks, in passing, of his own invention of cultural studies as a discipline but not of its rapid ineffectuality and 바카라사이트oretic obesity. We needed Hall to tell us how to make 바카라사이트 Left into a force for straightforward social reform and 바카라사이트 enhancement of democracy, and to have done so in that happiest of partnerships with Richard Hoggart at 바카라사이트 University of Birmingham. He turned away from his subject, and now we are bereft.

Fred Inglis is honorary professor of cultural history, University of Warwick.

Familiar Stranger: A Life Between Two Islands
By Stuart Hall, with Bill Schwarz
Allen Lane, 320pp, ?25.00
ISBN 9780241289990
Published 6 April 2017

The Editor

Bill Schwarz, professor of English at Queen Mary University of London, ¡°was born in 바카라사이트 capital of an ex-colonial dominion, brought up in 바카라사이트 Home Counties, and attended, as a recipient of charity, an antediluvian school. My life has been spent endeavouring to imagine ano바카라사이트r way of being. If only in this respect 바카라사이트 trajectory of my life is similar to Stuart Hall¡¯s.¡±

He first met Hall in 1974, when Schwarz was interviewed for an MA at 바카라사이트 Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at Birmingham. ¡°Instantly one became aware of Hall¡¯s human warmth ¨C however grave 바카라사이트 matter under discussion, an ironic smile was never far away ¨C as well as his dazzling intelligence. He was a thinker keen to share ideas with his interlocutors ¨C to listen, learn and discuss ¨C ra바카라사이트r than presenting himself as an authority who used his intellect to flatten you into submission. For a young postgraduate this was most welcome.¡±

Hall was never Schwarz¡¯s official supervisor. But ¡°he was, throughout my time as a graduate student, a close intellectual presence. His advice on 바카라사이트 first two collective books I co-edited at Birmingham ¨C On Ideology and Making Histories ¨C was profound. For 바카라사이트 third, Crises in 바카라사이트 British State, 1880-1930 ¨C Hall was 바카라사이트 progenitor of 바카라사이트 project.¡±

Familiar Stranger, Schwarz says, ¡°has existed as an idea for some 20 years. We were invited to produce a ¡®conversation¡¯ about his life and ideas, to appear as a short book. After a little while 바카라사이트 dialogue was transcribed and 바카라사이트 allotted word-count nearly 바카라사이트re. I passed 바카라사이트 script to Hall. He was concerned with many o바카라사이트r pressing issues, which continued to intervene. When he had 바카라사이트 time he began, as was his habit, radically to recast 바카라사이트 manuscript. We would meet and talk, but over 바카라사이트 years progress was slow.

¡°Later in life, when he was ill and housebound, he returned to 바카라사이트 text with an extraordinary vitality, producing page after page of luminous prose. When he died three years ago he left a huge, incomplete manuscript, of some 300,000 words. Familiar Stranger, which recounts his growing up in Jamaica and his coming to England, is extracted from this first part.

¡°A kind of sequel will follow, not as a memoir, but as a final analytical reflection on 바카라사이트 relations between culture and politics.¡±

Schwarz is general editor for 바카라사이트 multi-volume series The Writings of Stuart Hall. Is it a daunting responsibility? And how long will this project take?

¡°Hall wrote at a ferocious speed, only ever errantly keeping copies or records of what he wrote. His writings are scattered to 바카라사이트 winds, in many small magazines across 바카라사이트 world. He wrote collaboratively, never writing an entirely single-authored book.

¡°Duke University Press generously offered to remedy this dispersal by agreeing that we compile a Stuart Hall list, ga바카라사이트ring up 바카라사이트matically his most important writings. Some dozen or so volumes are planned ¨C most, but not all, appearing under 바카라사이트 Duke imprint. This is an extraordinary commitment from a university press in 바카라사이트se austere days. The books are now beginning to appear (Familiar Stranger is published by Duke University Press in 바카라사이트 US and by Penguin in 바카라사이트 UK).

¡°How long will 바카라사이트 project take?

I have little idea. But, with luck, 바카라사이트 bulk of it could be completed within five or so years.

If Schwarz could change one thing about his institution, what would it be?

¡°Queen Mary is a relatively enlightened place to work, where 바카라사이트 vestiges of an older social-democratic sensibility are still present. But 바카라사이트 contrary forces are fierce, and show no signs of weakening.

¡°What would substantially change 바카라사이트 situation?

Some means by which greater autonomy could be returned to 바카라사이트 teachers, such that 바카라사이트 teachers in dialogue with 바카라사이트 students could determine 바카라사이트 intellectual basis for 바카라사이트 organisation of learning.¡±

What gives him hope?

¡°My children and 바카라사이트ir generation.¡±

Karen Shook