Cultural Revolution and Revolutionary Culture by Alessandro Russo
Alessandro Russo presents a dramatic new reading of China's Cultural Revolution as a mass political experiment aimed at thoroughly reexamining the tenets of communism. This scholarly work explores four critical phases of the Cultural Revolution, each with its own reworking of communist political subjectivity.
Critical Phases of the Cultural Revolution
The book examines the historical-theatrical "prologue" of 1965, followed by Mao's attempts to shape the Cultural Revolution in 1965 and 1966. Russo analyzes the movements and organizing between 1966 and 1968, including the factional divides that ended them. The final phase covers the mass study campaigns from 1973 to 1976 and the unfinished attempt to evaluate the inadequacies of the political decade that brought the Revolution to a close.
Key Political-Cultural Moments
Russo demonstrates how the dispute around the play Hai Rui Dismissed from Office was not the result of a Maoist conspiracy, but rather a series of intense and unresolved political and intellectual controversies. The book examines the Shanghai January Storm and the problematic foundation of the short-lived Shanghai Commune. By exploring these political-cultural moments of Chinese confrontations with communist principles, Russo overturns conventional wisdom about the Cultural Revolution.
Academic Perspective
This paperback edition from Duke University Press offers a comprehensive analysis of political culture in China during this transformative period. The work challenges established narratives and provides fresh insights into the revolutionary culture that defined this era of Chinese history.
