Rosa Luxemburg and the Constructing of a Political Subject

Abstract

Rosa Luxemburg is not only an economic author. In texts written indramatic days of 1905 revolution she presented a path-breaking account of constructionof political subjectivities, and thus revolutionary subject, in the very processof revolutionary struggles. The political dimension of her interventions shed anew light on her overall theoretical oeuvre. There is a constant tension between adetermination of revolutionary process by economy and a political construction ofrevolutionary subject out of plurality of social demands. This article is an attemptto “symptomally read” of her texts, as evidence – I argue – of her theoretical strugglewith the political – a radical contingency of the political dimension, whichemerged in the given historical circumstances. Therefore, her works from 1905period could be read as a very early attempt to comprehend the problem, whichwe are still dealing now in thinking revolutionary and emancipatory politics. However,a “closure”in the certain intellectual horizon prevented Luxemburg from drawingultimate consequences of this condition. Nevertheless, the political is still an “invisible cause” generating tension and peculiar theoretical oscillation in Luxemburg’sthinking.

Keywords

• Róża Luksemburg
• polityczność
• rewolucja
• radykalna kontyngencja
• Ernesto Laclau
• podmiotowość polityczna