Excavating the comedic crack in historical repetitions
 
What happens when those who have been denied political subjectivity fully play out their negative role in a historical drama that damned them from the beginning? Hegel, Marx, and the Laughing Matter of Spirit locates the eruption of revolutionary laughter in historical cracks across nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe, where exiled philosophers, partisan fighters, and artists framed their political resistance as a historical comedy. Hegelian comedy fuels the Young Hegelian critique of Prussian censorship, Walter Benjamin’s staging of the anti-fascist resistance, and the Yugoslavian partisan attempt to begin again in fascism’s aftermath. Revolution erupts from a historical stage that can no longer look on its own contradictions with a straight face. Drawing on the defiant spirit of comedy, this Hegelian feminist manifesto defies political despair, overturning the perception that history tragically repeats itself. Invoking the phrase “Nothing changes” as a mantra, R. A. Aumiller turns a concession of defeat into a battle cry for political resistance.

R. A. AUMILLER is an assistant professor in the Department of Metaphysics and Philosophical Anthropology at Radboud University, The Netherlands.

“In crisis-ridden moments, critical thought must not forget to sharpen the one tool that helps us handle impossible political situations: wit. R. A. Aumiller shows us how it’s done, through an admirable return to Hegel, whose philosophical comedy remains an indispensable guidance in troublesome times. Hegel, Marx, and the Laughing Matter of Spirit demonstrates that philosophy, if it truly wants to perform its task, must practice a materialist humor that will make the spirit of time, literally, “crack up”. Only through such comical act, a change other than tragic downfall becomes possible. So, this book is indeed a matter of urgency.” —Samo Tomšič, Dresden University of Fine Arts

"Hegel, Marx, and the Laughing Matter of Spirit is brilliant, mordant, and politically astute—a powerful riposte to “left wing melancholia,” to the pieties of memory politics, and the heroics of failure. At a time of global counterrevolution, this eloquent manifesto could not be more urgent reading." —Rebecca Comay, University of Toronto

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