A necessarily historical materialist moment for whom? A tale of two literary rhythms
| Author | Ian Bruff |
| DOI | 10.1177/0047117821991608 |
| Date | 01 March 2021 |
| Published date | 01 March 2021 |
| Subject Matter | A Necessarily Historical Materialist Moment? Forum on Global Capitalism, Global War, Global Crisis |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0047117821991608
International Relations
2021, Vol. 35(1) 158 –161
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/0047117821991608
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A necessarily historical
materialist moment for whom?
A tale of two literary rhythms
Ian Bruff
University of Manchester
My contribution to this forum on Andreas Bieler and Adam David Morton’s monograph
reflects on how their work over the last two decades informs Global Capitalism, Global
War, Global Crisis.1 In particular, I enquire into the thematic sequencing of the argument,
which primarily reflects their socialization into the discipline of International Relations
(IR) in the late 1990s. Yet the final chapter in parts II and III – on the social factory and
ruptural resistances respectively – indicates a broader, cross-disciplinary approach to the
world of international relations. Hence, I ask whether the necessarily historical material-
ist moment that Bieler and Morton call for is aimed at IR the discipline or the study of
international relations more holistically.
In order to make sense of this, I deploy the term “literary rhythms.” This combines the
observations of Walter Benjamin and Antonio Gramsci on the process of authoring a
text: the former’s discussions of literary tendencies and techniques, and the latter’s writ-
ings on the rhythms of thought as they develop across an author’s biography.2 What I find
useful about their contributions is the emphasis that is placed on authoring as a purpose-
ful, productive practice which nevertheless cannot be reduced to “single causal affirma-
tions and isolated aphorisms.”3 Consequently, the production of a text such as the
monograph under review here must be situated within the wider literary relationships
that the authors have found themselves; yet, these relationships will evolve over time,
meaning that the text is never fully singular or coherent in form or content. Hence, all
texts are comprised of various literary rhythms, and, in the case of GCGWGC, which of
the two main rhythms is prioritized by the reader is of lasting significance for how the
book will be received and interpreted.
Corresponding author:
Ian Bruff, Department of Politics, University of Manchester, Arthur Lewis Building, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK.
Email: ianbruff@gmail.com
991608IRE0010.1177/0047117821991608International RelationsBru
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