Description
Book Synopsis Following the convulsions of 1968, one element uniting many of the disparate social movements that arose across Europe was the pursuit of an elusive “authenticity” that could help activists to understand fundamental truths about themselves—their feelings, aspirations, sexualities, and disappointments. This volume offers a fascinating exploration of the politics of authenticity as they manifested themselves among such groups as Italian leftists, East German lesbian activists, and punks on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Together they show not only how authenticity came to define varied social contexts, but also how it helped to usher in the neoliberalism of a subsequent era.
Trade Review “The Politics of Authenticity raises a number of meaningful—and provocative—interpretive questions, which makes it valuable reading for students of postwar social movements and countercultures, as well as those seeking to understand the recent history of democratic cultures and political participation in Europe.” • Central European History
“This is one of the most distinctive and inspiring explorations of protest cultures that I have read in the last decade or so. While building on existing studies of social movements, it is original in its geographical breadth, diversity of topics and methodologies, and theoretical approach.” • Malgorzata Fidelis, University of Illinois at Chicago
“The innovative studies collected here contribute to important discussions within contemporary history. This book will be very useful for both undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as scholars in history, sociology, and other fields.” • Pascal Eitler, Max Planck Institute for Human Development
Table of Contents Acknowledgements
Introduction
Joachim C. Häberlen and Mark Keck-Szjabel
Chapter 1. Revolution as a Quest for an Authentic Life: The 1960s and 1970s in Italy
Angelo Ventrone
Chapter 2. Authenticity through Transgression: Small Acts of Resentment in Post-1968 Czechoslovakia
Barış Yörümez
Chapter 3. The Political, Emotional, and Therapeutic: Narratives of Consciousness-Raising and Authenticity in the English Women’s Liberation Movement
Kate Mahoney
Chapter 4. A Genealogy of a Politics of Subjectivity: Guy Hocquenghem, Homosexuality, and the Radical Left in Post-1968 France
Antoine Idier
Chapter 5. New Feminism, Women’s Subjectivity, and Feminist Politics: Conceptual Transfers and Activist Inspirations in Yugoslavia in the 1970s and 1980s
Zsófia Lóránd
Chapter 6. Women’s Bodies and Feminist Subjectivities in West Germany
Jane Freeland
Chapter 7. The Rise of a New Consciousness: Lesbian Activism in East Germany in the 1980s
Maria Bühner
Chapter 8. The Italian Movement of 1977 and the Cultural Praxis of the Youthful Proletariat
Danilo Mariscalco
Chapter 9. The Struggle for the Minds of the Youth: The Securitate and Musical Countercultures in Communist Romania
Manuela Marin
Chapter 10. Punk Authenticity: Difference across the Iron Curtain
Jeff Hayton
Chapter 11. Humanitarianism on Stage: Live Aid and the Origins of Humanitarian Pop Music
Benjamin Möckel
Chapter 12. Embedded Abstractions: Authenticity, Aura, and Abject Domesticity in Hamburg’s Hafenstraße
Jake P. Smith
Afterword: Concluding Thoughts: Authenticity’s Visual Turn
Sara Blaylock
Index
