The ‘Cultural Location of Fascism’ series seeks to understand how sadism, ressentiment, and reaction manifest in culture, and how counter-fascist energies exist in the same places. The pieces can be read in any order.
‘Black Boy Lane, Heritage of Our Times‘ by Gabriel Bristow
Gabriel Bristow asks what the past and present of Tottenham’s La Rose Lane can tell us about the future of multiculturalism.
‘Fascist Immediacy, Fascist Mediations‘ by Charlotte Fraser
Charlotte Fraser explores how fascism’s political economy influences its choices of mediation.
‘Free Speech Is Coming For You‘ by Gavan Titley
Gavan Titley explores the ways in which dominant understandings of ‘freedom of speech’ have become productive of a vicious form of ressentiment.
‘On Political Entrepreneurs‘ by George Edwards
George Edwards examines the rise of far-right political entrepreneurs, focusing on their mobilisation of entrepreneurial cultures and producerist moral economies.
‘Fatalism and Redemption‘ by Malcolm James
Malcolm James argues that fascism’s popularity can be understood through the pervasive fatalism that many feel and get pleasure from, and that tragedy in popular culture might be an antidote.
‘Melodrama: the Political Promiscuity of High Emotion‘ by Sita Balani
Sita Balani asks whether melodrama’s high emotion can serve as a resource for left politics, or if it remains tainted by its authoritarian deployment?
‘The Altar of Net Zero‘ by Rebekah Diski
Rebekah Diski considers the role of trade unions in bolstering an ecologically reactionary common sense that ultimately serves the interests of fossil capital.
‘Blackshirts at the Beach: Remembering Fascism on the Kent Coast‘ by Tommy Maddinson
Tommy Maddinson looks at historical fascist organising on the Kent coast in the 1930s and the broader cultural politics of wartime memory in England today.
‘Exit Here For the Ordinary‘ by Sivamohan Valluvan and Luke de Noronha
Sivamohan Valluvan and Luke de Noronha discuss the varied ‘exit ramps’ promised by the new right, paying attention in turn to the slow and sociable spaces where fascist solace might still fail to land.
‘Anomie and the Fascist Art of Meaning‘ by Joseph Ironside
Joseph Ironside argues for a focus on how fascism responds to anomie and the absence of meaning.