Erica Sherover-Marcuse (1938-1988)
Erica
(known to her friends as Ricky) studied with my grandfather, Herbert Marcuse,
at UC San Diego in the 1970s. After his second wife, Inge Neumann, died,
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 by and about Ricky and her work.
Ricky was perhaps best known for the "Unlearning Racism" workshops
she developed and led in the Bay area of California and nationally. Her
partner after Herbert's death, Kostas
Bagakis, still works in the movement.
The place on the web to go to for more information
about Ricky is UnlearningRacism.org (site),
a website devoted to her life's work. It has a detailed illustrated biographical
article that Bettina Aptheker wrote in 1989 (page
1, page 2,
page 3), which
includes photos from Ricky's childhood (born in New York City, she lived
in Mexico and had a communist German refugee governess from ages 5 to
9, ca. 1943-1947) and all phases of her life right up until her death.
The Unlearning Racism site also has the texts of many of Ricky's
writings about racism and activism, and welcomes submission of personal
stories about Ricky.
See also this reminiscence from JDD,
whose work in AIDS prevention was inspired by Ricky.
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.
|
Herbert, Ricky and Harold Marcuse, Frankfurt, July
1978 |
See Ricky's September
27, 1979 letter to the New York Review of Books after Herbert's
death (authored jointly with Herbert's son Peter).
Her major book, deriving from her dissertation, was published in 1986:
Emancipation and Consciousness: Dogmatic and Dialectical Perspectives
in the Early Marx (Oxford: Blackwell, 1986), 211 pages. Bibliography:
p. [143]-203. amazon.com
page
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.
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 "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.
March 30, 1986 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.
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.
|