Politics of the Wretched

<p>The Politics of the Wretched argues for ressentiment's generative negativity prompting a shift from ressentiment as a personal expression of frustration to ressentiment as a collective No. Inspired by Kant and Nietzsche's philosophy Zalloua identifies two modes of deploying ressentiment - private and public use - by substituting ressentiment for reason. This reinterpretation argues for a public use of ressentiment for the wretched to universalize their grievances to see their antagonism as cutting across societies and to turn personal trauma into a common cause.</p><p>A public use of ressentiment rails against the ideology of identity and victimhood and insists on ressentiment's generative negativity its own rationality prompting a shift from ressentiment as a personal expression of frustration to ressentiment as a collective No. Reframing ressentiment as a tool to oppose the evils of capitalism anti-Blackness and neocolonialism it both alarms the liberal gatekeepers of the status quo and promises to energize the anti-racist Left in its ongoing struggles for universal justice and emancipation.</p>