Episode Details

We are joined by writer and literary scholar Tyler Austin Harper, whose writing in The Atlantic and New York Times has raised debates on class, race and the meaning of the left in ideologically turbulent times.

In this conversation, we discuss the meaning of the left, how Marxism is to be interpreted in terms of class analysis, the merits of different interpretive models of class power and ideology, the professional or "New Class" problem which arose after the Second World War, and what is now referred to as the "PMC problem." We also discuss psychoanalysis and the theme of subjective limits and why Freud and Lacan are important for politics. To learn more about Tyler's work, please visit (https://www.bates.edu/faculty-expertise/profile/tyler-a-harper/).