The ultimate decision of students of this generation to revolt cannot be separated from the development of their unique subculture, from their style. I recall the narrative of 68 and the development of postmodernism, only to illustrate that the inception of many of the radical ideas that are now commonplace in the academy was not spontaneous. Style serves to root radicalness in contingency and in performance. Style is locatable and practiced and yet always somewhat unstable, transforming. Style is not simply fashion trends or patterns of consumerism.
Style is innovation of cultural minutia, mundane forms of self-expression and communication.
Radicalness, though it is routinely invoked, is largely being ignored within theoretical discourse. The radical that can be made manifest in the everyday is given the shaft. One way to enact the second option, which may just be to enact anything at all, is to genuinely reconsider radical as style. We could use a little more tangible radicalism, and a little less of the immobilizing and abstract radical doubt, radical difference, and radical democracy that we encounter in the academy. All rights reserved.