In Praise of the Common: A Conversation on Philosophy and Politics - Softcover

Casarino, Cesare; Negri, Antonio

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816647437 ISBN 13: 9780816647439

Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press, 2008

Synopsis

Negri, a leading Marxist philosopher, has inspired anti-empire movements around the world through his writings and personal example. This work, which began as a conversation between Negri and literary critic Casarino, is the most complete review of the philosopher's work.

About this title

Book Description:

A leading Marxist political philosopher and intellectual firebrand, Antonio Negri has inspired anti-empire movements around the world through his writings and personal example. Born in 1933, he was imprisoned in Italy in 1979 and convicted, nearly five years later, on questionable charges of “association and insurrection against the state,” whereupon he left the country to teach in France. In 1997, he voluntarily returned to Italy to serve out his seventeen-year prison sentence. He was freed in 2003.

In Praise of the Common, which began as a conversation between Negri and literary critic Cesare Casarino, is the most complete review of the philosopher’s work ever published. It includes five exchanges in which the two intellectuals discuss Negri’s evolution as a thinker from 1950 to the present, detailing for the first time the genealogy of his concepts. In Praise of the Common contains two essays by Casarino that expand Negri’s most recent work by relating it to the work of other prominent thinkers.

This is at once a book by Negri and on Negri. It presents, for the first time in English, a major essay by Negri on the “monster” as a political figure in the history of Western thought, engaging with discourses of biopolitics, eugenics, and genetic engineering. More candid and self-critical than ever before, Negri provides his wide audience with a rich and revelatory assessment of his controversial, highly influential thought.

About the Author:

Casarino teaches in the department of Cultural Studies and Comparative literature at the University of Minnesota.

Antonio Negri is a philosopher, essay writer, and teacher. A political and social activist in the 1960s and 1970s in Italy, he has taught political science for many years and has written numerous books on political philosophy, including "Marx beyond Marx, The Savage Anomaly, Insurgencies, The Porcelain Workshop: For a New Grammar of Politics" (Semiotext(e)), and, in collaboration with Michael Hardt, "Empire", "Multitude", and "Commonwealth".

About this edition

• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0816647437
• ISBN 13: 9780816647439
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 312