Brian Massumi in conversation with Erin Manning
City Lights celebrates two new books by Brian Massumi:
The Personality of Power: A Theory of Fascism for Anti-fascist Life
published by Duke University Press
and
Toward a Theory of Fascism for Anti-fascist Life: A Process Vocabulary
published by Minor Compositions
About The Personality of Power:
“I am the Chosen One!” With this exclamation Donald Trump crowns the national exceptionalism his base upholds with a claim of personal exceptionalism. He leaves no doubt as to the emotional note: “I am your vengeance!” He personifies reaction for the masses. Except, in today’s microsegmented social media environment the “masses” no longer exist. Fascism’s cultural conditions have shifted. In The Personality of Power, Brian Massumi retheorizes the conditions of contemporary fascism through the prism of Trump’s persona. Older theories based on identification of the masses with a charismatic leader no longer hold. Rather, an affective regime of reaction agitates bodies and orients lives at the molecular level. Massumi examines this agitation in relation to race, gender, personhood, and conspiracy thinking. The Personality of Power is a political treatise on fascism and its precursor movements, coupled with a philosophical inquiry into becoming reactionary as a collective process. Massumi calls the very concept of the person into question, asking what collective personhood means concretely. Nothing less than an alternative political logic is needed, turned to the task of thinking collective individuation.
About Toward a Theory of Fascism for Anti-fascist Life:
Fascism is not just a historical event – it is a recurring process, adapting and re-emerging in new forms. In Toward a Theory of Fascism for Anti-Fascist Life Brian Massumi offers a conceptual framework for understanding fascist tendencies as they unfold in contemporary politics. Moving beyond rigid definitions, this book provides a vocabulary of key concepts that trace how fascism operates, spreads, and takes root in the collective psyche. Drawing on process philosophy and political theory, Massumi challenges conventional understandings of power, personality, and collectivity, inviting readers to think critically about the conditions that enable authoritarianism’s resurgence.
Designed as both a standalone primer and a companion to The Personality of Power, this book offers a flexible and non-linear approach to political analysis. Readers can enter at any point, following the interwoven concepts as they build a deeper understanding of today’s fascist dynamics and counterforces. More than an intellectual exercise, Toward a Theory of Fascism for Anti-Fascist Life is a call to action: an invitation to recognize the harbingers of fascism today.
Brian Massumi is a Canadian philosopher and social theorist. Massumi’s research spans the fields of art, architecture, cultural studies, political theory and philosophy. His work explores the intersection between power, perception, and creativity to develop an approach to thought and social action bridging the aesthetic and political domains. He is the author of numerous book which include: A User’s Guide to Capitalism and Schizophrenia; Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation; What Animals Teach Us about Politics; amongst others. He is professor emeritus in the Communications Department of the Université de Montréal.
Erin Manning is a Canadian cultural theorist and political philosopher as well as a practicing artist in the areas of dance, fabric design, and interactive installation. Manning’s research spans the fields of art, political theory, and philosophy. She received her Ph.D in Political Philosophy from University of Hawaii in 2000. She currently teaches in the Concordia University Fine Arts Faculty. Manning is founder and director of the SenseLab, a research-creation laboratory affiliated with Hexagram: Institute for Research/Creation in Media Arts and Technology in Montreal. Together with Brian Massumi she co-edits a book series at MIT Press entitled Technologies of Lived Abstraction. They are also founding members of the editorial collective of the Sense Lab journal Inflexions: A Journal of Research Creation.
Made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation.