cliché of cultural studies and identity politics. Even more important, recent diag-
noses of the decline of civilsociety have coincided with rising concerns over the
divisive impact of emotions in the context of new massmobilizations.With the
resurgence of nativism, populism, andxenophobia,critics now warn, fear and
anger have not simply taken over public debate but actuallytaken the place
of political arguments.Confirming this point,formulaic expressionsofempathy
(with victims), hollow phrases about tolerance (of others), and publicperform-
ances of what Germans callBetroffenheit(i.e., of being moved, concerned,
and involved) have further ritualized the culture of political emotions and pro-
foundlyaltered the traditional public sphere asaplace of reasoned andrational
debate.
IV
“Aspecterishaunting Europe–the specter of socialism.”Thus begins the most
influential German-languagetext of the nineteenth century,TheCommunist Man-
ifesto.In avariation of the theme of haunting,the point of departure for this
book can be identifiedbyasimilar sentence:Aspecter has been haunting social-
ism–the specterofthe proletariat.For about one hundred and fiftyyears, the
proletarian dream embodied the hopes, needs, and desires of the revolutionary
workingclass, but it alsotroubled the project of socialism through its compen-
satory and disciplining effects. InProletarian Nights,Jacques Rancière recalls sit-
ting in the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris duringthe 1970sand searchingfor au-
thenticvoices from theFrench proletariat:
Iset out lookingfor wild expressions of revolt,but Icame across politelywrittentexts re-
questingthat workers be treatedasequals.[...]Iwent to consult the archivesofacarpenter
to find informationabout workingconditions, andIcame across letters fromthe 1830s in
which thisworkertoldafriend aboutaSundayinMay when he set out with twocompan-
ionsto enjoy the sunrise on the river. [...]Itbecame apparent that workers had never need-
ed the secrets of domination explained to them, as their problem was quiteadifferent one.
It was to withdrawthemselves, intellectuallyand materially, from the forms bywhich this
domination imprinted on their bodies,and imposedontheir actions,modes of perception,
attitudes,and alanguage.²⁵Jacques Rancière,Proletarian Nights: TheWorkers’DreaminNineteenth-CenturyFrance,
trans. John Drury (London:Verso,2012), ix. First published inFrenchin1981 and previously
published in English asTheNights of Labor(1991). On the return of the proletariat asapolitical
and theoretical concept,also seeJacques Rancière, Preface,Staging the People: The Proletarian
and His Double,trans.David Fernbach(London:Verso,2011), 7–19.
26 Introduction