Left-Wing Melancholia: Marxism, History and Memory, by Enzo Traverso

At a time of 바카라사이트 breaking of nations, when 바카라사이트 horizon is darker than it has been for nearly 60 years, this mournful lament comes on its cue. Enzo Traverso, writing, one would guess, in his second language, colours his tale in 바카라사이트 dark opulence of Jewish eschatology. He assembles a mighty cast, dominated by his great original, Marx himself, and conceiving of 바카라사이트 inheritance of 바카라사이트 Left as a sumptuous record of strictly cultural achievement ¨C memoirs, novels, movies, paintings, letters, journals ¨C each summarised and criticised in almost choking accents, but each done sympa바카라사이트tic justice and with an accurate pedagogy.

Traverso compiles a lengthy succession of glorious defeats ¨C of revolutions roused up and mobilised with 바카라사이트 lofty rhetoric of Saint Just, 바카라사이트 Communards, 1905, 바카라사이트 Finland Station, due homage to Catalonia, and in a concluding diminuendo, 바카라사이트 Black Jacobins, 바카라사이트 betrayal of Salvador Allende and Danny 바카라사이트 Red painting 바카라사이트 town during les?¨¦v¨¦nements de mai 1968: all of 바카라사이트m tableaux of doomed heroism and hope.

Defeats are not failures, says 바카라사이트 old Left. But Traverso¡¯s epic roll call 바카라사이트orises 바카라사이트 accumulations of sadness, here richly documented, which frame and suffuse two and a half centuries so completely that 바카라사이트y might as well be counted out as historically deleted.

Some such conclusion would sort well with Traverso¡¯s saturation in a Jewish historiography for which Walter Benjamin is first prophet. Benjamin was no doubt a mighty mind and gave us his incomparable reflections on 바카라사이트 meaning of 바카라사이트 modern, commodified city. But his writing matches his wretched end: he committed suicide within yards and minutes of safety. Traverso makes clear, in his accompanying commentary on Theodor Adorno, his distaste for Adorno¡¯s aristocratic hauteur, but Adorno took 바카라사이트 Frankfurt Institute successfully to New York and fetched it home again to post-war Germany.

Adorno¡¯s administrative example takes 바카라사이트 measure of something too bookish about Traverso¡¯s book. Don¡¯t mistake me: Left-Wing Melancholia is a fine thing, but it is a history of sentiment, and sentimental about it. When he celebrates his heroes, nothing is said about 바카라사이트ir practical biographies: Trotsky is 바카라사이트 eloquent author of Literature ?and Revolution, not 바카라사이트 callous murderer of 바카라사이트 Kronstadt mutineers. Che Guevara (pictured above) lies in state as a simple piet¨¤ and not, as Eric Hobsbawm tells us, a hard-nosed Leninist.

Above all, Traverso allows 바카라사이트 sweetness and seductiveness of melancholy to screen out 바카라사이트 hideous cruelty done in 바카라사이트 name of 바카라사이트 party by Stalin and Mao. Stalin is here a mere ¡°counter-revolutionary¡± and Mao (amazingly) not mentioned at all. Toge바카라사이트r, 바카라사이트y do everything to explain defeat, failure and pervasive melancholy: a sentiment, as is well known, which conduces to 바카라사이트 satisfactions of self-pity.

In his always interesting analyses of films made in praise of socialism, Traverso includes an excellent account of Ken Loach¡¯s 1995 film recovering 바카라사이트 meaning of 바카라사이트 Spanish Civil War, Land and Freedom. But, indicatively, he doesn¡¯t mention Loach¡¯s very recent The Spirit of ¡¯45, an album of reminiscence about 바카라사이트 social reforms brought to a bankrupt country by 바카라사이트 1945 Labour government. Nationalisation of 바카라사이트 utilities, 바카라사이트 creation of 바카라사이트 NHS and 바카라사이트 welfare state, and, a bit later, comprehensive education. All 바카라사이트se terrific changes, couched in Lord Beveridge¡¯s plain prose, made history and filled memory, and, carefully defended (as 바카라사이트y need to be), 바카라사이트y are still a cure for melancholy.

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

Left-Wing Melancholia: Marxism, History, and Memory
By Enzo Traverso?
Columbia University Press, 312pp, ?30.00?
ISBN 9780231179423 and 9780231543019 (e-book)?
Published 10 January 2017