Name and Surname
Aleksandar Novaković
Affiliation
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
Contact email
novakovic.aleksandar@gmx.at
Short Biography
Aleksandar Novakovic is a PhD candidate in philosophy at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. In his research, he focusses on the histories and legacies of state socialism in Eastern Europe, and Yugoslavia in particular, as well as forms of dissidence in theory, art and politics. He works in fields of Marxism, critical theory, and the Black radical tradition. Aleksandar also works as an editor of non-fiction and is currently a guest researcher at the Institute of Philosophy and Social Theory in Belgrade.
Research abstract
This research project focuses on dissidence in socialist Yugoslavia (1942–1992) in order to provide a situated theoretical account of political resistance that challenges central tenets of (Marxist) subject theory. Dissident movements in Yugoslavia developed a unique form of critique and practice. They often did not reject revolutionary politics as such, but opposed a certain state-centric, patriarchal and colonial understanding of revolution. Such revolutionary dissidence breaks with the liberal understanding of Eastern European dissidence, which does not adequately represent the different political visions of the opposition in state socialism. The conceptualization of dissidence as a critique of traditional understandings of social transformation therefore requires a dialogue with current feminist and decolonial theories, which develop non-hierarchical and anti-authoritarian approaches as well as new concepts and practices of revolution. Since the Yugoslav dissidents were located in the midst of the historical failure of revolutionary politics and its reversal into violent authoritarianism, new conceptions of social transformation in critical theory can no longer afford to ignore the theoretical consequences of dissidence.