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James Crane @jamescrane.bsky.social · 10d

HAS THIS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU: You find yourself wondering: why can’t I find any two hour long podcast episode about Kanafani’s literary works as condition/consequence of his conception of resistance culture? YOUR SEARCH IS OVER

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James Crane @jamescrane.bsky.social · 10d

New Recording—Pod EP 3: Ghassan Kanafani: Realism Against Reality, with Sebastian Kokesch & yours truly. On the necessary connection between aesthetic autonomy & revolutionary political commitment in some of Ghassan Kanafani's best-known literary works!
www.patreon.com/posts/episod...

Episode 3: Ghassan Kanafani: Realism Against Reality | crittheoryworkgroup

www.patreon.com

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Verso Books @versobooks.bsky.social · 12d

On this day in 1940, Walter Benjamin took his own life in the town of Portbou, after being denied entry by Spanish officials.

“If the killing of Lorca was Fascism’s first crime against literature, Benjamin’s death was undoubtedly the second.” - The Listener

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 14d

it’s not too late to sign up for the last meeting of the session (eventbrite.com/e/views-from...), & thanks to everyone who’s already contributed to the PCRF fundraiser—as of today we’re 87% of the way to meeting our goal! Help us to 100% if you can! pcrf1.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/p...

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 18d

We'll be starting up in 20 minutes

Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 24d

Thanks to everyone who came out for the conclusion to Rabea Eghbariah’s “Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept”—join us next Sat., 9/20 @ noon EST as Anatarah bin AlKaf opens our discussion of “Resisting Erasure” (2025) by Adam Hanieh, Robert Knox, & Rafeef Ziadah!

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 24d

New CTWG Fall '25 Recording: Ghassan Kanafani's On Zionist Literature II (8/30), presented by Sebastian Kokesch. Reading Ch. 5-8 in the context of Kanafani's trajectory as author/critic & that of the Palestinian liberation struggle around the '67 Naksa
www.patreon.com/posts/138830...

Ghassan Kanafani's On Zionist Literature II (8/30), Presented by Sebastian Kokesch | crittheoryworkgroup

www.patreon.com

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 24d

it’s not too late to sign up for the last 2 meetings of the session (via the Eventbrite in the link below), & thanks to everyone who’s already contributed to our fundraiser through PCRF—as of today we’re 72% of the way to meeting our goal!

link: ctwgwebsite.github.io/news/announc...

Update + Summer/Fall 2025 Reading Group Announcement | CTWG

A website for collective self-clarification without consolation

ctwgwebsite.github.io

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 24d

Thanks to everyone who came out for the conclusion to Rabea Eghbariah’s “Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept”—join us next Sat., 9/20 @ noon EST as Anatarah bin AlKaf opens our discussion of “Resisting Erasure” (2025) by Adam Hanieh, Robert Knox, & Rafeef Ziadah!

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 26d

Theodor Adorno 🤝 Felix Dzerzhinsky

Sharing a birthday

James Crane @jamescrane.bsky.social · 26d

happy 9/11—Theodor W. Adorno’s Birthday—to those who celebrate, here’s my translation from a while back of Horkheimer’s 1938 birthday letter to Adorno on dialogue and dialectics! open.substack.com/pub/jamescra...

Translation: Horkheimer's Birthday Letter to Adorno (9/11/1938)

On dialectics and dialogue

open.substack.com

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James Crane @jamescrane.bsky.social · 26d

happy 9/11—Theodor W. Adorno’s Birthday—to those who celebrate, here’s my translation from a while back of Horkheimer’s 1938 birthday letter to Adorno on dialogue and dialectics! open.substack.com/pub/jamescra...

Translation: Horkheimer's Birthday Letter to Adorno (9/11/1938)

On dialectics and dialogue

open.substack.com

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James Crane @jamescrane.bsky.social · 29d

We’re going to finish Eghbariah’s article by reading g the history of settler colonialism through the concept of the Nakba & the concept of the Nakba through the history of settler colonialism, within & beyond the framework of international law! Better see your ass there!

Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 29d

Thanks to everyone who came out for the discussion of Sections I-II of “Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept” by Rabea Eghbariah—see you this Saturday, 9/13, @ noon EST for our discussion of section III & the conclusion with J.E. Morain. See you there!

A picture depicting the progressive theft of Palestinian land

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · 29d

Thanks to everyone who came out for the discussion of Sections I-II of “Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept” by Rabea Eghbariah—see you this Saturday, 9/13, @ noon EST for our discussion of section III & the conclusion with J.E. Morain. See you there!

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James Crane @jamescrane.bsky.social · Sep 6

see you all in just over 20 minutes! Discussing, alongside Eghbariah, Darwish’s “In Jerusalem,” as we work through the role of law & language in the occupation of Palestine.

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · Sep 6

We're starting in 30 minutes

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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · Sep 4

Our podcast of the week reframes the Frankfurt School’s later turn toward abstract cultural critique not as a depoliticized retreat, but as a strategic pivot born from concrete political defeat.

With @jamescrane.bsky.social et al. on @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social

buff.ly/vymFkap

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James Crane @jamescrane.bsky.social · Sep 3

don’t remember if i posted here or not but here’s a snippet from Adorno’s letter to Horkheimer in the middle of their worst fight (1935) where A goes “By the way I LOVED Dämmerung if you even still care…” lol

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · Sep 1

Thanks to everyone who came out for the second study of Kanafani’s “On Zionist Literature”! Next up: two meetings on “Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept” by Rabea Eghbariah—Sections I & II presented by Esther Planas Balduz & Morgan Lily this Saturday, 9/6, @ noon EST. See you there!

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · Aug 31

FACT: the CTWG is run by a secretive group of canines and felines which dictate our overall policy by using our editorial boards' subjective aims for ends beyond their ken.

James Crane @jamescrane.bsky.social · Aug 29

the council has convened to decide your fate (CTWG editorial meeting)

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James Crane @jamescrane.bsky.social · Aug 29

the council has convened to decide your fate (CTWG editorial meeting)

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · Aug 30

30 minutes until we start our 2nd discussion on Kanafani's On Zionist Literature! See you there!

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James Crane @jamescrane.bsky.social · Aug 28

short entry today: translations of 4 reviews Otto Fenichel writes for the ISR’s ZfS in 33/34, with a note on the problems & commitments he shared with Adorno & Horkheimer despite all seeming to agree so rarely on what, exactly, their common Freudo-Marxist orthodoxy involved! 🔗⬇️

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Critical Theory Working Group @crittheoryworkgrp.bsky.social · Aug 29

Remember that this is happening tomorrow!

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Cominsitu @cominsitu.bsky.social · Aug 27

older kid: “who even invented money anyway?”

me: “The wealth of those societies in which the capitalist mode of production prevails, presents itself as ‘an immense accumulation of commodities,’ its unit being a single commodity. Our investigation must thus begin with the analysis of a commodity.”

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James Crane @jamescrane.bsky.social · Aug 28

Translation of Horkheimer’s essay (ca. 1926) Ethics after Metaphysics, a crit of Hartmann’s Ethics via Kantian practical philosophy, ending with what Horkheimer considers the sole viable post-Kantianism: historical struggle for socialism w/o ultimate grounds or guarantees 🔗 ⬇️

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James Crane @jamescrane.bsky.social · Aug 26

New recording up: Kanafani’s On Zionist Literature I

Intro to his 1967 genealogy of the ideological consolidation of political from literary Zionism in the late 19th century, with a focus on his critical method!

www.patreon.com/posts/137400...

Ghassan Kanafani's On Zionist Literature I (8/23), presented by James Crane | crittheoryworkgroup

www.patreon.com

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