Books by Christopher J. Lee
Kwame Anthony Appiah, 2021
This clear and engaging introduction is the first book to assess the ideas of Kwame Anthony Appia... more This clear and engaging introduction is the first book to assess the ideas of Kwame Anthony Appiah, the Ghanaian-British philosopher who is a leading public intellectual today. The book focuses on the theme of 'identity' and is structured around five main topics, corresponding to the subjects of his major works: race, culture, liberalism, cosmopolitanism, and moral revolutions.
An extract from a new book in the Object Lessons Series (Bloomsbury).
Introduction. Unthinking Fanon: Worlds, Legacies, Politics
Africa Is a Country, 2020
A commentary about the political and literary importance of Alex La Guma's travel memoir, _A Sovi... more A commentary about the political and literary importance of Alex La Guma's travel memoir, _A Soviet Journey_, one of the longest accounts of the Soviet Union by an African writer.
An op-ed on Frantz Fanon for the webzine Africa is a Country.
Christopher J. Lee examines the complex evolution of political solidarity between Asian and Afric... more Christopher J. Lee examines the complex evolution of political solidarity between Asian and African countries in the sixty years since the 1955 Asian-African Conference in Bandung, Indonesia.
Review Essays by Christopher J. Lee
Review for the American Historical Review, December 2014.
Papers by Christopher J. Lee
Kronos, 2020
This article examines the visual archive of the 1955 Asian-African Conference held in Bandung, In... more This article examines the visual archive of the 1955 Asian-African Conference held in Bandung, Indonesia. Better known as the Bandung Conference or simply Bandung, this diplomatic meeting hosted 29 delegations from countries in Africa and Asia to address questions of sovereignty and development facing the emergent postcolonial world. A number of well-known leaders attended, including Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Zhou Enlai of China, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, and Sukarno of the host country, Indonesia. Given its importance, the meeting was documented extensively by photojournalists. The argument of this article is that the visual archive that resulted has contributed to the enduring symbolism and mythology of Bandung as a moment of Third World solidarity. More specifically, the street photography style of many images-with leaders walking down the streets of Bandung surrounded by adoring crowds-depicted an informality and intimacy that conveyed an accessible, anti-hierarchical view of the leaders who were present. These qualities of conviviality and optimism can also be seen in images of conference dinners, airport arrivals, delegate speeches, and working groups. Drawing upon the critical work of scholars of southern Africa and Southeast Asia, this article summarily positions the concept of the 'decolonising camera' to describe both the act of documenting political decolonisation as well as the ways in which visual archives produced during decolonisation can contribute to new iconographies of the political, which are both factual and mythic at once.
Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 2022
This roundtable intervention applies the concept of cruel optimism, as formulated by Lauren Berla... more This roundtable intervention applies the concept of cruel optimism, as formulated by Lauren Berlant, to situations of decolonization with the purpose of understanding the myths and fantasies of political self-determination. It also examines the idea of a Jacobin spirit, as explored by C. L. R. James, as a counterpoint to the limits of cruel optimism. This intervention subsequently concludes that interpretations of decolonization that assert either tragic or utopian outcomes must be redrawn to accommodate these competing perspectives. Decolonization and revolution, as mutual political phenomena of the “Third World Historical,” inhabit temporalities of incompletion, of unsustained dialectics, that require the continuation of political struggle by other means.
Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 2022
This roundtable intervention applies the concept of cruel optimism, as formulated by Lauren Berla... more This roundtable intervention applies the concept of cruel optimism, as formulated by Lauren Berlant, to situations of decolonization with the purpose of understanding the myths and fantasies of political self-determination. It also examines the idea of a Jacobin spirit, as explored by C. L. R. James, as a counterpoint to the limits of cruel optimism. This intervention subsequently concludes that interpretations of decolonization that assert either tragic or utopian outcomes must be redrawn to accommodate these competing perspectives. Decolonization and revolution, as mutual political phenomena of the “Third World Historical,” inhabit temporalities of incompletion, of unsustained dialectics, that require the continuation of political struggle by other means.
The Palgrave Handbook of Cold War Literature, 2020
A book chapter examining the uses of Hannah Arendt for postcolonial studies.
The table of contents for a special issue of Radical History Review on the Global South.
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Books by Christopher J. Lee
Op-Eds/Commentary by Christopher J. Lee
Review Essays by Christopher J. Lee
Papers by Christopher J. Lee