Dissertation Research

In recent years, the term resentment conjures up the image of the angry white man: the Brexiteer or the Trump supporter. Resentment has become a key weapon in the liberal rhetorical arsenal—scholars and public figures alike invoke the concept to condemn right-wing populist supporters as dangerous, deplorable, and all too easily manipulated by their leaders. My work uncovers a hidden history behind this concept. The same emotion has been theorized, and indeed criticized, as a prelude to radically egalitarian forms of politics, even by its most well-known interlocutor. Friedrich Nietzsche’s ressentiment was explicitly a reaction to the mass-based movements of the nineteenth century. By invoking the idea of resentment to ward off democratic, socialist, and anticolonial demands, thinkers like Nietzsche place a question mark over the political potential of this emotion. Turning the genealogy against Nietzsche himself, I find that many forms of emancipatory politics are colored by bitterness, brooding, and the feeling of being wronged. 

My work intervenes in the growing body of research on resentment by moving away from the reflexive association of this emotion with the right. It also contributes to debates on populism and radical democracy, fields of study that often underestimate the utility of emotions, particularly unhappy ones. Politically speaking, my project provides a path out for a stagnated left by recuperating the Manichean force of resentment.