Disappointment: Reclaiming the Unfulfilled Promise of Resistance – RESIST

This project addresses the pressing question within critical theory of how we can reanimate resistance in the current climate of profound disappointment over the emancipatory potentials of contemporary democracies. The increasing influence of right-wing parties and factions, deep global socio-economic inequalities, the climate emergency and the continued disenfranchisement of already marginalised groups leave little space for hope. Theorists’ and activists’ efforts to revive the imaginaries of resistance retain a deep-seated distrust of the twentieth-century narratives of universal human emancipation. Visions of a better future, on these accounts, must remain grounded in past losses and failures that cannot be harmoniously integrated into tropes of progress and redemption. The project contributes to these efforts by inquiring into the politically transformative potential of disappointment as a constitutive part of the resistance experience. In particular, it focuses on disappointment’s ability to incite the resisters to creatively respond to the difficulties and failures of resistance. Resistance is taken to denote collective struggles against structural oppression that involve a commitment to greater justice and equality. I explore the political potential of disappointment by studying three political thinkers, whose revolutionary aspirations were significantly shaped by their experiences of disappointment – Rosa Luxemburg, Frantz Fanon and Albert Camus. I bring their insights to bear on the recent example of a popular uprising against an oppressive regime, where the initial promise of resistance ended in deep disappointment over the lack of social and political change – the Arab Spring in Egypt. The purpose is to outline how these theoretical and practical engagements with experiences of disappointment can help us confront the challenges involved in resisting oppression in the present era of political disillusionment.

The project is funded by the REWIRE (Reinforcing Women in Research) Programme, a Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions COFUND project funded by the European Commission.