Radical theory shifted from socialist revolution to Third-Worldist nationalism as national bourgeoisies consolidated
Evidence
Ifin 1968 the epoch had seemed to belong to the revolutionary vanguard, it seemed to belong now, as the 1980s dawned, to the national bourgeoisie. Radical thought in the universities paid irs homage to this new consolidation of the post-colonial national bourgeoisies by shifting irs focus, decisively, from socialist revolution to Third- Worldisr nationalism - first in political theory, then in its literary reflections. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 272
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the reader’s project tracing the turn toward strategic essentialism — Ahmad locates identity-centered theory as an effect of bourgeois-national consolidation, not a neutral intellectual fashion. — connects to: Socialist revolutions required sidelining the national bourgeoisie during anti-colonial struggle — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, 89; A strong national bourgeoisie made decolonization quicker and smoother — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, 139; Postcolonial national bourgeoisies consolidated while nationalism evaporated or caused havoc — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, 150 (+8 more)
- SEED: Possible essay angle: ‘The class history of strategic essentialism’ — how the discursive turn in theory tracks the defeat of anti-capitalist movements, not just intellectual genealogy.
Broader Connections
- Poststructuralist Third World theory arose as a substitute for failed nationalist ideology
#expands(0.75) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 274 - Post-1968 Western radicalism abandoned belief in domestic socialist revolution
#corroborates(0.72) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 126 - Three Worlds Theory subordinated mass movements to national-bourgeois states
#exemplifies(0.72) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 1260 - Marxist-Leninism compromised with nationalism for alliance-building.
#corroborates(0.70) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1066