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Peter Kropotkin and His Vision of Anarchist Aesthetics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

André Reszler

Extract

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Anarchist aesthetics are virtually unheard-of today. As a reflection of the birth of a new anti-authoritarian sensibility, as well as of the somewhat mechanical application of the general theses of the philosophy of anarchism to the problems of literary and artistic creation, these aesthetics did, however, know an hour of glory in the 19th century. But at the turn of the century anarchism lost its sense of immediacy when it no longer held its position as the ideology of the international worker's movement. Its fortune, like the fortune of any “political” aesthetic, depends very closely on the successes and failures of the ideology of which it is a point of reference.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 20 , Issue 78 , June 1972 , pp. 52 - 63
Copyright
Copyright © 1972 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

1 "You, poets, painters, sculptors, musicians, if you have understood your true mission and the interests of art itself, then come and put your pens and your brushes and your chisels at the service of the revolution." (Words of a. Rebel p. 73.)

2 From all sides we are getting complaints about the decadence of art … art seems to be running away from the civilized world. Technics are progressing, but artists' studios are visited less than ever by inspiration." (La Conquête du pain. p. 146.) Art is becoming banal. Mediocrity reigns.

3 Words of a Rebel. p. 67. — The italics are mine.

4 Du Principe de l'art et de sa destination sociale. p. 360.

5 Bakunin, Michael. Confession écrite au tsar. p. 171.

6 In order to understand Kropotkin's cult of the unknown, one should relate this to the young officer's love of adventure. From 1864 until his resignation from the imperial army, Kropotkin undertook several missions in the recently annexed frontier regions of Siberia. He was often the first man to penetrate regions hitherto unexplored by Europeans. In carrying out these missions, he must have found new responses within himself to questions whose existence he cannot have known about beforehand. This discovery, together with the creation of new scientific theories, plays a primordial part in the formation of Kropotkin's anarchist attitudes. His aim, henceforth, is to make the "joy of scientific creation," which is reserved today for a small minority, accessible to the greatest number of people possible. (Cf. Woodcock, George and Avakumovic, Ivan. The Anarchist Prince. A Biographical Study of Peter Kropotkin. p. 82.)

7 Words of a Rebel. p. 17 — Italics are mine.

8 La Conquête du pain. p. 147.

9 Tolstoy, Leo. What is Art? pp. 68-69.

10 Mutual Aid. pp. 266-267.

11 Ibid. pp. 229-230.

12 La Conquête du pain. p. 147.

13 Mutual Aid. pp. 230-231.

14 Jean Grave, his French disciple, qualifies the art of revolt as anarchist. But he too ends up by requiring of the artist a direct participation in political struggles.

15 Russian Literature. Ideals and Realities. p. 281.

16 Words of a Rebel. pp. 58-9.

17 Russian Literature. p. 90.

18 Ibid. p. 180.

19 Ibid. pp. 93-94.

20 Ibid. p. 326. - The reference to Tolstoy is clear.

21 Baldwin, Roger N. (Ed.) Kropotkin's Revolutionary Pampblets. p. 299.

22 In a letter written in 1902 to Max Nettlau, Kropotkin shows himself to be quite reserved with regard to Ibsen; if the latter has a correct conception of individualism, he does not succeed, according to Kropotkin, in expressing it in a comprehensible manner. But at the time of their first productions (respectively October and December 1893), La Révolte salutes Rosmersholm and An Enemy of the People as anarchist theatre. According to the critique which appeared in Jean Grave's weekly magazine, there were cries of "Vive l'Anarchie"! after the production of An Enemy of the People, at the Theatre de l'Oeuvre. (La Révolte. Issue of Dec. 2nd - 8th, 1893. p. 148.

23 La Conquête du pain. p. 134. - Kropotkin would like to exclude the "commercial artist," who puts his works up for sale, from the city.

24 Kropotkin's Revolutionary Pamphlets. p. 285.

25 La Conquête du pain. p. 126.

26 Ibid. p. 137 - Kropotkin would like to subject the artist to manual work: the artist is a citizen like any other person. The workshop strikes him as being like a school of reality.

27 La Conquête du pain. pp. 149-150.

28 Autour d'une vie. p. 123.

29 Ibid. p. 129.

30 Russian Literature. pp. 265-66.