Negri, Antonio 1933-

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NEGRI, Antonio 1933-

PERSONAL: Born 1933, in Padua, Italy.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Penguin Group, 375 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014.

CAREER: Activist, educator, philosopher, and writer. Former lecturer in political science at University of Paris; former professor of political science at University of Padua. Spent sixteen years in prison.

WRITINGS:

(With C. Ghisalberti and J. Charpentier) Ideali e realizzazioni d'integrazione Europea, A Giuffré (Milan, Italy), 1967.

Crisi dello stato-piano, comunismo e organizzazione rivoluzionaria, Clusf (Florence, Italy), 1971.

Crisi dello stato-piano, Feltrinelli (Milan, Italy), 1974.

(With Paolo Carpignano and Sergio Bologna) Crisi e organizzazione operaia, Feltrinelli (Milan, Italy), 1974.

Proletari e stato: per una discussione su autonomia operaia e compromesso storico, Feltrinelli (Milan, Italy), 1976.

La forma stato: per la critica dell'economia politica della costituzione, Feltrinelli (Milan, Italy), 1977.

La fabbrica della strategia: 33 lezioni su Lenin, Collettivo Editoriale Librirossi (Padua, Italy), 1977.

Il dominio el il sabotaggio: sul metodo Marxista della trasformazione sociale, Feltrinelli (Milan, Italy), 1978.

(With F. Borkenau and H. Grossmann) Manifattura, societa Borghese, ideologia, edited by Pierangelo Shiera, Savelli (Rome, Italy), 1978.

Marx oltre Marx: quaderno di lavoro sui Grundrisse, Feltrinelli (Milan, Italy), 1979, translation by Harry Cleaver, Michael Ryan, and Maurizio Viano, published as Marx beyond Marx: Lessons on the Grundrisse, edited by Jim Fleming, Bergin & Garvey (South Hadley, MA), 1984.

Il comunismo e la guerra, Feltrinellli (Milan, Italy), 1980.

L'anomalia Selvaggia: saggio su potere e potenza inBaruch Spinoza, Feltrinelli (Milan, Italy), 1981, translation by Michael Hardt, published as The Savage Anomaly: The Power of Spinoza's Metaphysics and Politics, University of Minnesota Press (Minneapolis, MN), 1991.

Macchina tempo: rompicapi, liberazione, costituzione, Feltrinelli (Milan, Italy), 1982.

Italie rouge et noire: journal, février 1983-novembre1983, translation, notes and adaptation by Yann Moulier, preface by Bernard-Henri Lévy, Hachette (Paris, France), 1985.

(With Félix Guattari) Les nouveaux espaces de liberté D. Bedou (Gourdon, France), 1985, translation by Michael Ryan, published as Communists like Us: New Spaces of Liberty, New Lines of Alliance, postscript by Antonio Negri, Semiotext (New York, NY), 1990.

Lenta Ginestra: saggio sull'ontologia di GiacomoLeopardi, Sugarco (Milan, Italy), 1987.

Fine secolo: un manifesto per l'operaio sociale, Sugarco (Milan, Italy), 1988.

Revolution Retrieved: Writing on Marx, Keynes,Capitalist Crisis, and New Social Subjects (1967-83), Red Notes (London, England), 1988.

The Politics of Subversion: A Manifesto for theTwenty-first Century, translation by James Newell, B. Blackwell (Cambridge, MA), 1989.

Arte e multitudo: sette lettere del dicembre 1988, G. Politi (Milan, Italy), 1990.

Il lavoro di giobbe: il famoso testo ciblico come parabola del lavoro Umano, Sugarco (Milan, Italy), 1990.

Il potere costituente: saggio sulle alternative del moderno, Sugarco (Carnago, Italy), 1992.

(With Michael Hardt) Labor of Dionysus: A Critique of the State-Form, University of Minnesota Press (Minneapolis, MN), 1994.

Las verdades nómadas: por nuevos espacios de libertad, (Tercera Prensa (Donostia, Spain), 1996.

(With A. Corsani and M. Lazzarato) Le bassin de travail immatériel (BTI) dans la Métropole Parisienne, L'Harmattan (Paris, France), 1996.

Spinoza, l'anomalia Selvaggia; Spinoza sovversivo;Democrazia ed eternita in Spinoza, introductions by Gilles Deleuze, Pierre Macherey, Alexandre Matheron, DeriveApprodi (Rome, Italy), 1998.

Insurgencies: Constituent Power and the Modern State, translation by Maurizia Boscagli, University of Minnesota Press (Minneapolis, MN), 1999.

Kairos, alma Venus, multitudo: nove lezioni impartite a me stesso, Manifestolibri (Rome, Italy), 2000.

Empire, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 2000.

(With others) Contrapoder, una introducción, Ediciones de Mano en Mano (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 2001.

(And editor with Ubaldo Fadini and Charles T. Wolfe) Desiderio del mostro: dal circo al laboratorio alla politica, Manifestolibri (Rome, Italy), 2001.

(With H. Friese and P. Wagner) Europa politica: [ragioni di una necessita], Manifestolibri (Rome, Italy), 2002.

Di´logo sobre la globalización, la multitud y la experiencia Argentina, Paidós (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 2003.

(With Michael Hardt and Danilo Zolo) Guide: cinque lezioni su impero e dintorni, R. Cortina (Milan, Italy), 2003.

Luciano Ferrari Bravo: ritratto di una cattivo maestro: con alcuni cenni sulla sua epoca, Manifestolibri (Rome, Italy), 2003.

Time for Revolution, translation by Matteo Mandarini, Continuum (New York, NY), 2003.

(With Anne Dufourmantelle) Negri on Negri, translation by M. B. DeBevoise, Routledge (New York, NY), 2004.

(With Michael Hardt) Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire, Penguin (New York, NY), 2004.

Trentatre lezioni su Lenin, Manifestolibri (Rome, Italy), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: The revolutionary political thinker Antonio Negri gained notoriety in the 1970s when he joined revolutionary groups associated with Marxism and Communism. As political violence on the right and left grew in Italy, the president of the Christian Democratic Party, Aldo Moro, was kidnapped and killed. The Italian government declared a state of emergency and arrested about fifteen hundred people, including Negri. Initially charged with masterminding terrorist efforts, Negri waited in prison for four years before facing trial. During that time, he wrote The Savage Anomaly: The Power of Spinoza's Metaphysics and Politics. Despite being on trial, Negri was voted to the Italian Parliament on the Radical Party ticket. When his immunity was later rescinded, he fled to France. He returned in 1997 and was eventually sentenced to thirteen years in prison. Over the next several years in prison, he worked on Empire, which promotes globalization and the idea that it could serve worker resistance. Katharine Ainqer, writing in the New Statesman, called Negri "not just one of the most significant figures of current political thought, but one of the few contemporary western intellectuals to have been imprisoned for his ideas." Others have viewed Negri in a much different light. For example, former Italian President Francesco Cossigia once referred to Negri as "a psychopath."

In Empire Negri teams up with his protégé, and former American student Michael Hardt, a Duke University faculty member. The two write about globalization as a new era in history, based on an intricate maze of sociopolitical forces rather than traditional military or capitalistic power. The authors delve into the meaning behind the economic, cultural, and legal globalization of the modern world, revealing how the modern scenario differs from imperialism and capitalism. Relating the changes to the United States Constitution, they see a world of hybrid identities and ever-expanding frontiers. They delve in the negative aspects of this change, including new forms of racism, and the potential benefits of a new view of identity. Ultimately, they see a new order arising from interrelated factors such as international corporations, a growing nonindustrial labor, and a more fluid workplace. Empire is visionary in that Negri and Hardt ultimately see globalization as offering a revolutionary new freedom for workers. As described by Ainquer in the New Statesman, the changing dynamics of power provides "a new, global form of sovereignty, and recognizes that there can be no return to national sovereignty." Ainquer added, "Negri supports the free movement of migrants across the world and believes that globalisation has helped to break open the 'infernal cage' of the nation state."

Writing in the Nation, Stanley Aronowitz commented that the authors propose "a system in which disputes between nations are adjudicated by a legitimate international authority and by consensus, upon which world policing may be premised." As Aronowitz added, "Although Empire sometimes strays from its central theme, it is a bold move away from established doctrine. Hardt and Negri's insistence that there really is a new world is promulgated with energy and conviction." Although the book caused a sensation in the academic world of political thought, some reviewers were not convinced. Modern Age contributor Carl Guldager noted that "the suspicion is irresistible that beyond the scholarly scaffolding, the heavy academic prose, the strained effort to come up with something timely and new, and the shock value of the various sermonettes, there lurks the same old tired view of the world as a struggle between capital (bad) and labor (good)." Tom Peyser wrote in Reason, "The book's success is owed partly to the grandeur of its topic—the nature and trajectory of globalization—and partly to the glamorous hint of danger brought by one of its authors, Antonio Negri." Peyser also felt that, "[as] an explanation of globalization . . . or as a blueprint for how such globalization might be overcome, whatever that might mean, Empire does not have much to offer."

Other reviewers praised the authors' effort. Laura Cook, writing in American Studies International, commented that the authors "offer a strong and synthetic analysis of political theory and political praxis in Empire." She went on to say that the book's "greatest contribution, indeed, may be this provocative melding of theories of power and theories of sovereignty not only to describe the increasingly global geopolitical and economic terrain but to theorize its constitution as the manifestation of a postmodern power formation that is imperial but not simply imperialism." Although he found faults with some of the authors' case for a new world order and noted that it could also turn out badly, Social Analysis, reviewer Bruce Kapferer called the book "unquestionably stimulating and thought provoking."

Negri and Hardt followed Empire with Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire. This time the authors discuss how the radical new type of democracy described in Empire might possible take place. The "Multitude" of the title refers to the global billions of citizens who, partly through new technology, are becoming networked as a power that the authors believe will help "the destruction of sovereignty in favor of democracy." Negri and Hardt explore the current state of affairs for the multitude and describe it as a type of "permanent war." They also take an exhaustive look at the nature of the multitude. Finally, they provide what some have termed a "utopian view" of the future. Writing in Booklist, Brendan Driscoll commented, "The operative concept of their analysis is that the future will look much like the Internet . . . [that will] tend toward a global sovereignty structure like the distributive network." The authors caution however, that one of the prerequisites to realizing this future is a move away from an endless cycle of global violence.

Lev Grossman, writing in Time, both praised and criticized the authors, noting that their "signature tone is one of rock-anthem optimism, and Multitude is definitely animated by a warmhearted belief in human goodness. But it is, ultimately, a work of Utopian thinking, occasionally shading into utter fantasy." Some reviewers continued to view the authors' vision as a neo-Marxist tract that was advocating a type of communism. Writing in the New Criterion, Robert Kimball called the book an "incitement to violence and terrorism" and related it to their previous book, concluding that "it is the same amalgam of menacing Marxist rhetoric, reader-proof prose, and political fantasy." However, writing that the book is "rich in ideas," a Publishers Weekly contributor noted that "this timely book brings together myriad loose strands of far left thinking with clarity, measured reasoning and humor, major accomplishments in and of themselves."