UC Irvine

This dissertation consists of two historico-theoretical investigations and theorizations. The first part concerns a comprehensive theorization of a leftist and Marxist concept of political strategy, what I term a leftist realpolitik. Here I review the history of modern Western realpolitik from the 17th century onward, and I trace and theorize the historical origins of a modernized and Marxist realpolitik that arises in response to the dominant realpolitik of the era.

The second part concerns a comprehensive retheorization of a leftist and Marxist concept of a strategic political fiction, what I term a leftist folkloric. Here I review the history of Western political fiction from the Greek tragedy to the television dramas of the present era, in order to trace the operations of a strategic current and rationale throughout this literature. I then use this historical lineage as a means to envisioning and prescribing a modernized strategic fiction of the left, one that is concerned with influencing and transforming practices of realpolitik here and now.

My methodology throughout this work is inspired by Walter Benjamin’s own method in his study of the origins of the German tragic drama. It is as such neither simply historicistic nor dialectical, but rather a historical study of transitions and transformations in politics and aesthetics with the intent of glimpsing the political will and imaginary of such transitions and transformations. As such, the literature review is focused on studying period of volatility and transition, and theorization is carried out not only to explicate and elucidate formations in politics and aesthetics here and now, but also with a mind to transforming the here and now through prescriptive concepts that function as theoretical latches and levers of practical transitions.