|
|
Herbert, Ricky and Harold Marcuse, Frankfurt, July
1978 |
Erica (known to her friends
as Ricky) was born in New York City. She lived in Mexico and had a communist
German refugee governess from ages 5 to 9, ca. 1943-1947.
Ricky studied with Herbert
Marcuse at UC San Diego in the 1970s. Herbert's second wife, Inge Neumann,
died in 1972, and Ricky and Herbert were married on June 21, 1976.
Herbert died in July 1979; Ricky died of cancer on December 15, 1988.
This page collects some of
the documents available on the web about Ricky and her work.
- Ricky was best known for the "Unlearning
Racism" workshops she developed and led in the Bay area
of California and nationally. The place on the web to go to for more
information about Ricky is UnlearningRacism.org
- It has a detailed, illustrated 1989
biographical article by Bettina Aptheker (page
1, page
2, page
3), which includes photos from Ricky's childhood and all phases
of her life right up until her death.
- The site also has the texts of many of Ricky's
writings about racism and activism, and welcomes submission
of personal stories about Ricky.
- Ricky's partner after Herbert's death, Kostas
Bagakis, still works in the movement.
- In August 2004, a conference was dedicated to Ricky and her work:
"Activists’ Conference
on Anti-Semitism and The Left", dedicated to Ricky Sherover-Marcuse
in the spirit of continuing development of her anti-oppression work.
- Ricky is mentioned by Hugh
Vasquez in this Sept. 1997 conversation published in TheInSite's
series of personal stories about people who work to create social
justice.
- factbite.com offers Ricky's
definition of "Oppression" (scroll, or do page search
on Erica)
- Doug
Kellner's interviews with Ricky in 1984 are cited in footnote 6
of this 1984 paper he presented at the American Political Association
Convention.
As most academics,
Ricky is traceable in her publications:
- 1975: Erica Sherover, review
of Russell Jacoby's Social Amnesia: A Critique of Conformist
Psychology, in: Telos no. 25, Fall 1975.
- 1979: "The Virtue of Poverty: Marx's Transformation of Hegel's
Concept of the Poor" in Canadian Journal of Political and Social
Theory (vol. 3, no. 1), 53-66.
- 14 page pdf [2.2MB=long download!]
- with comment by Jeremy J. Shapiro, 67-70; pdf).
compressed
version archived on ctheory.net
- The Canadian Journal of Political and Social Theory was
published from 1976-91 as a peer-reviewed journal of critical thought.
Envisioned as an independent intellectual journal, the CJPST
quickly attracted to its pages an expanding circle of theorists,
writers, artists, and poets who explored forms of critical thinking
that were historically engaged, politically critical, and theoretically
diverse.
- 1979: September 27,
1979 letter to the New York Review of Books after Herbert's
death (authored jointly with Herbert's son Peter).
Also published in New German
Critique Fall 1979,
p. 28.
- 1986: Emancipation
and Consciousness: Dogmatic and Dialectical Perspectives in the Early
Marx (Oxford: Blackwell, 1986), 211 pages. Bibliography:
p. [143]-203.
- Originally presented as her doctoral thesis at the Johann Wolfgang
Goethe University, Frankfurt/Main, in 1983. Having begun her dissertation
under Herbert's direction, Ricky defended under Habermas. (Harold
Marcuse has Ricky's handout and his notes from the defense.)
- amazon.com
Emancipation & Consciousness page
- Synopsis: Focusing especially on Marx's 1842-43
writings, Sherover-Marcuse seeks to develop a theory of emancipatory
consciousness. She argues that in Marx's philosophy there is an
unresolved tension between a deterministic (dogmatic) and a dialectical
approach, and that this tension has been a major factor leading
to the contemporary rethinking of Marxist theory.
- From Choice:
"In the last 60 years a wide variety of thinkers have tried
to show what Marxism 'truly' consists of. The Sherover-Marcuse (women's
studies, San Francisco State) study is one of the more recent efforts.
. . . {The author} clearly has a deep knowledge of Marxist literature;
almost a third of the book consists of wide-ranging bibliographical
notes. Although somewhat prolix, her presentation is well organized
and evenhanded but presumes some familiarity with Marxist vocabulary
and philosophy--most undergraduates would find it difficult.Devotees
of Marxist thought will probably not learn much from it either,
but they will enjoy its tight reasoning and its erudition. Only
for strong Marxist collections."
- From Robert J. Antonio - American Journal of Sociology:
"[The author], like many other critical Marxist
intellectuals, believes that the contemporary 'crisis' of the Left
begins in Marx's thought and, particularly, in his failure to elaborate
the forms of communication and modes of thought that would produce
a liberated society. Although Emancipation and Consciousness addresses
a heavily discussed problematic, it expresses a fresh perspective
and opens some new terrain. . . . Postmodernist skeptics would argue
that Sherover-Marcuse's critique of Marx is not radical enough because
it does not address their primary contention that the very idea
of 'universal human emancipation' is inherently dogmatic and potentially
authoritarian. . . . [This] is a high-quality scholarly work, deserving
of the honors that it was awarded as a doctoral dissertation at
the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University. The analysis is insightful
and provocative, and, throughout, the argument is skillfullycrafted
and well written. Sherover-Marcuse contributes significantly to
debate over Marx's thought and to the current dialogue on the intellectual
foundations of politically engaged social theory."
- Cited in Chap.
5 of "Toward a Transformative Model for Ethics Education
in the First World" of Mark W. Young's 1995 Queensland University
of Technology B.A. honors thesis Transforming Perspectives: An
Approach to Ethics Education in a First World Context. (link
in web archive; on web from 1/2001 to 2/2003; do page search)
- March 30, 1986 personal letter from
Ricky to Harold Marcuse, in which she describes how Herbert could
spend a whole year reading 150 pages of Hegel with a graduate seminar
(a practice he learned with Heidegger). Ricky also mentions beginning
cancer treatments.
- posthumously published: "Liberation theory: Axioms and
working assumptions about the perpetuation of social oppression,"
in N. Gonzalez-Yuen (Ed.), The Politics of Liberation (Dubuque,
IA: Kendall/Hunt, 1994).
Ricky died on Dec. 15, 1988,
having been diagnosed with cancer less than two years earlier.
- Obituary from the Los Angeles Times, Sunday Dec. 25, 1988,
pg. 54:
Erica Sherover-Marcuse; Created Workshops on Racism
Erica Sherover-Marcuse, 49, creator of workshops to help people overcome
racist attitudes. Miss Sherover-Marcuse, the widow of leftist political
philosopher Herbert Marcuse, developed the workshops for small groups
as well as large gatherings in institutional settings. They focused
on helping participants take pride in their own heritage as a means
of building alliances with racial minorities. In 1976, she married Herbert
Marcuse, a controversial political philosopher and professor at UC San
Diego. He died in 1979 at the age of 81. Miss Sherover-Marcuse led workshops
in Israel, Germany and the Netherlands as well as across the United
States. In 1985, she co-founded New Bridges, an Oakland-based multicultural
awareness group designed to spread her philosophy to teen-agers. In
Oakland on Dec. 15 of cancer.
Visitors to this site are welcome
to submit additional materials for publication.
|
