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Cultures of the Crowd: The Idea and Image of the Masses in Modern European History

Abstract

This project analyzes the idea and image of the masses in modern European history. To write the history of the masses is at once to write the history of the political, ideological, and aesthetic boundaries that have been fabricated in order for a certain people, nation, or ethnicity to view itself as a unity, and this by rejecting certain segments of the population as "masses". The problem at the heart of this research undertaking is thus central to the ways in which cultural and collective identities have been construed throughout European modernity. The project is completed and has resulted in two major monographs and a number of articles; the first one is "A Brief History of the Masses: Three Revolutions", published in Swedish in 2005, and in English in 2008; the second one is entitled "Crowds and Democracy: The Idea and Image of the Masses in Europe between the Wars", and is (2011) forthcoming.

Keywords:

Ethnicity, Populism, Social exclusion/inclusion, Democracy, Crowd theory

Description

In political theory dealing with democracy reference is sometimes made to "the boundary problem". This is a relatively underresearched notion in the theory of democracy. Far more attention has been given to the "how" (how to furnish the adequate methods by which the people may represent itself in political institutions) than to the "who" (who are the people seeking representation), or, how do the many constitute themselves as one? This project, which was completed in 2010/2011 consists of an analysis of the idea and image of the masses in European history. To write the history of the masses is at once to write the history of the political, ideological, and aesthetic boundaries that have been fabricated in order for a certain people or nation to view itself as a unity, and this by rejecting certain segments of the population as "masses".
The project has resulted in two major monographs and a number of articles; the first one is "A Brief History of the Masses: Three Revolutions", published in Swedish in 2005, and in English in 2008; the second one is entitled "Crowds and Democracy: The Idea and Image of the Masses in Europe between the Wars", and is under review. The problem at the heart of both are central to the ways in which cultural and collective identities (classes, nations, ethnicities) have been construed throughout European modernity. The first book examines art by Jacques-Louis David, James Ensor, Alfredo Jaar, and others, in order to investigate how visual artists have sought to fashion a truthful representation of the people. Instead of seeing art and politics as two distinct historical formations, the book establishes parallels between the methods by which "the people" has been represented politically (in the form of a parliament) and the ways in which it has been represented aesthetically (in the form of a painting). It also argues that the arts offer a lesson about politics that politicians and most political theorists must deny: in order to represent "the people", the people must be framed. But to frame the people is to divide it. Certain individuals are placed at the center, while others are pushed outside the frame. Hence all the boundaries (between elites and masses, citizens and mobs, civilized and barbarians) that continue to operate in the political world today.
The second part of the project, "Crowds and Democracy", deals with the image and idea of the masses in interwar European culture, and especially in Weimar Germany. Throughout the Weimar 1920s and 1930s, "the mass" was obsessively created and recreated. By demonstrating how the mass is a term placed at the exact junction of aesthetics and politics, the project explains why "die Masse" became the preferred conceptual tool for social scientists, the ideal slogan for politicians, and the chosen image for artists and writers, all of whom felt compelled to represent a society in flux and a people in upheaval. At once a social category, a political idea, and an aesthetic fantasy, "the masses" served as the perfect vehicle in the struggles surrounding the overriding problem of Germany?s Weimar republic and Austria?s first republic: how to circumscribe the new sovereign of the people? How to shape the content of the damaged and leaking container of the nation? In a word, how to understand democracy? In addition to its analysis of collective identities in the interwar period, this book also provides new insights into the nature and history of fascism, populism, and elitism.

Publications

BOOKS
Jonsson, Stefan (2013) Crowds and Democracy. The Idea and Image of the Masses from Revolution to Fascism. Columbia University Press.

Jonsson, Stefan (2008) A Brief History of the Masses: Three revolutions. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. (242pp) Translated into Korean and Turkish.

Jonsson, Stefan (2005) Tre revolutioner. En kort historia om folket. Stockholm: Norstedts, 2005.

ARTICLES

Jonsson, Stefan (2014) ?The Wisdom of Crowds?. TANK Magazine (London), vol. 8, no. 1 (2014): 62?65.

Jonsson, Stefan (2013) "After Individuality: Freud's Mass Psychology and Weimar Politics". New German Critique, vol. 40, no. 2.

Jonsson, Stefan (2012) 'Total teater: Samhällsutopier på scen under Weimarrepubliken'. K&K - Kultur og Klasse 46, no. 114: 77?92.

Jonsson, Stefan (2012) 'The Face of the Masses, the Gaze of the Masses: New Matrixes of historical consciousness in inter-war Europe'. Eurozine, 25 maj.

Jonsson, Stefan (2011) 'Hannah Arendt i Weimarrepubliken'. In Konsten att handla - konsten att tänka: Hannah Arendt om det politiska, eds. Ulrika Björk and Anders Burman. Stockholm: Axl Books, 129-144.

Jonsson, Stefan (2010) 'Neither Masses nor Individuals: Representations Of The Collective In Interwar German Culture'. In Weimar Publics/Weimar Subjects: Rethinking The Political Culture Of Germany In The 1920s. Ed. Kathleen Canning, Kerstin Barndt, Kristin Mcguire. New York: Berghahn Books.

Jonsson, Stefan (2006) 'The Invention of the Masses: The Crowd in French Culture from the Revolution to the Commune.' In Crowds. Ed. Jeffrey Schnapp och Matthew Tiews. Stanford: Stanford University Press: 47-75.

Jonsson, Stefan (2003) 'Masses Mind Matter: Political Passions and Collective Violence in Post-Imperial Austria'. In Representing the Passions: Histories, Bodies, Visions. Ed. Richard Meyer. London: The Getty Research Institute Publications.

Jonsson, Stefan (2001) 'Society Degree Zero: Christ, Crowds, and Communism in the Art of James Ensor'. Representations 75: 1-32.

Jonsson, Stefan (2001) 'Wiener Blut: Leidenschaften und Gewalt im Zeitalter der Massen', Lettre International (Berlin), no. 50.

Jonsson, Stefan (2001) 'Demokratins ursprung: politiska lidelser och kollektivt våld i massornas tid'. Ord och Bild, no. 2-3: 19-42.

Other Academic Output

INVITED INTERNATIONAL LECTURES

Columbia University, Global Cultural Studies, 27 Feb. 2014. "Crowds and Democracy". A conversation with Andreas Huyssen moderated by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak.

University of Michigan, Dept. of German Studies, 25 Feb. 2014. "The Shapelessness of German Crowds".

Cambridge University, dept. of German, 1 Nov. 2013. "Crowds and Democracy".

School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Wroclaw, 9 Oct. 2013. "Crowds and Democracy".

Bilgi University, Istanbul, Turkey 17-19 juni 2013. Invited lecture at the conference Crowds: Law Violence and Democracy.

MASKA, Institute for Publishing, Production and Education, Ljubljana, 10 June 2010. "Painting Democracy: Reflections on the Relation of Arts and Politics."

Bard College, Center for Curatorial Studies, New York, 14 Nov 2008: "Images of the masses in documentary narration".

University of Chicago, Dept. of German Languages and Literature, 1 April 2006: "Musil's Masses. From the Psychology of the Crowd to the Intelligent Collective".

University of Michigan, Dept. of Comparative Literature, 10 March 2006: "The Invention of the Crowd. Numbers and Democracy".

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 19-21 April 2002. Conference Rethinking Weimar: Lecture: "Mass, Crowd, Collective, Multitude, and people: Weimar Ways of Representing Society."

Stanford University. Stanford Humanities Laboratory, 17 April 17, 2002: "The Crowds Project".
Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, 20 June 2000: "Society Degree Zero: Christ, Communism and the Madness of Crowds in James Ensor's Masterpiece."

Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, 28 Feb. 2000: "The notion of the masses in Simmel and Moholy-Nagy."

Approximately 25 other presentations, seminars and panels within the Nordic countries.

2000 - 2010

Funding

Getty Research Institute for the Humanities
Helge Ax:son Johnsons fond
Riksbankens Jubileumsfond

REMESO Project Leader

Stefan Jonsson, Professor

Contact for project

stefan.jonsson@liu.se


Last updated: 2014-10-09



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Last updated: 2020-05-27