The opening stages of the French Revolution helped generate widespread enthusiasm for reform in Britain. It did so especially amongst a group of intellectual and literary women and men who contributed to the emerging ‘revolution controversy’ in pamphlets, poetry and novels and were bonded together by acquaintance and friendship in an increasingly febrile political atmosphere.
Tag: Radical Friendship
‘Safe in your thoughtful arms’: The Radical Friendship of Frank O’Hara and Allen Ginsberg
Frank O’Hara insisted that poetry should be ‘between two persons instead of two pages’. The enduring friendship between Allen Ginsberg and Frank O’Hara reveals the ways in which it was possible to resist the post-war ideals of uncompromising heterosexual masculinity and the nuclear family.
Striking Solidarity: Friendship and the 1984-5 Miners’ Strike
There are many stories of friendship during the miners’ strike. The importance of this was in part the sense – in the middle of extraordinary hostility from multiple directions – that they weren’t alone. The long-term, mutual and egalitarian relationships signalled by the word ‘friendship’ during the miners’ strike should be embedded in our organising, anticipating the type of world we want to make.
Black Women Writers and Radical Friendship
‘It began with an email of simple praise. A senior scholar reached out to me about my academic writing. Her words were hospitable and soft; and, I responded. Now, almost a year later, we continue to write…’ Celeste Henery on the radical importance of friendship for Black women writers and scholars.
Radical Friendship
This is the first in a series of pieces about Radical Friendship. The feature is intended as an exploration of different configurations of friendship, both intimate and symbolic, and the radical potential of these relationships.