Tainted tools

Bol

Tainted Tools addresses the tension between new materialisms’ decolonial ambitions and its perception as a White discourse. Framing the new materialist method as ‘decolonising from within’, the book examines its benefits and dangers. Rather than pointing to failures of decolonial allyship, the book charts pathways to greater theoretical solidarity. Tainted tools addresses the tension between new materialisms’ decolonial ambitions and practices. Emerging out of anthropology, history of science, sociology and feminist studies, new materialisms have claimed to contest Western knowledge divisions and hierarchies. Despite this overlap with decolonial projects, new materialisms are generally perceived to be a White discourse that disregards racism, economics and the critique of postcolonial, decolonial and critical race theories. The book makes sense of this contradiction by returning to an earlier convergence of both sets of theories: the transition from Marx to Nietzsche. This shift took place not only in Europe – where it was used to combat fascism and Stalinism – but also in its colonies, where it informed anti-colonial resistance. While these early new materialisms had a different political focus and were performed in different political spaces, they jointly attacked Western philosophical and social norms. As anti-authoritarian new materialisms, they also rejected the illusions of European humanism and experimented with performances of ‘objecthood’. The aim of this book is not to revive these earlier new materialisms, but to highlight their strategies in an extreme political environment that today feels closer than ever. By combining past and present new materialisms, as well as postcolonial, decolonial and critical race theories, Tainted tools provokes a rethinking of theoretical solidarity in times of crisis. It will be of interest to postgraduate students, academics and artists working with new materialisms, as well as Marxist, Foucauldian and decolonial sceptics. Tainted Tools offers a provocative intervention into the tense relationship between new materialist and decolonial thought. Although both seek to challenge dominant European categories and hierarchies, they are often treated as incompatible. New materialisms, in particular, have been criticised for sustaining a white, universalised vision of the human and overlooking the racialised histories embedded in the “nonhuman.” The book traces these tensions to an earlier encounter between new materialist and decolonial projects forged through experimental combinations of Marx and Nietzsche. Once used to counter fascism, Stalinism and colonialism, this politically charged fusion gradually became depoliticised, leaving unresolved contradictions. Rather than reviving these early formations, the book brings their strategies into dialogue with contemporary new materialist and decolonial approaches to build greater theoretical solidarity in times of crisis.

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Pages: 246, Hardcover, Manchester University Press