The Subjunctive Poetics Of The Undocument: C. L. R. James'S American Civilization

I

What was published in 1993 as American Civilization by the Afro-Trinidadian writer and revolutionary C. L. R. James¹ is an effort to identify organic, instinctive, spontaneous revolutionary tendencies within the United States. It seeks to mark those tendencies' historical origins, track their persistence and evolution, and forecast their convergence and culmination in the full creative self-expression and self-organization first of the American masses and then of the masses worldwide. Both critical of the present and utopian in its anticipation of the future, it is a comprehensive rendering, an attempt to give "a total impression of society in movement."² But, at the same time, its author insists, it is not quite that, not quite that yet. Indeed, while revealing this movement, a movement he wishes to be a part of, and giving us a glimpse of the future he sees in it, the author hesitates, apologizes, disavows the very picture of American civilization he has produced. Everything in this text, we are told, will be reworked, everything is provisional, a starting point for a whole other work, for what he imagined would be a wholly other kind of work.

From the beginning, and again and again, the author warns his specific and limited circle of readers that the work they are reading is not what they are supposed to be reading. Moreover, they are not the readers for whom the work is ultimately intended. As he explains in the preface:

The following is an attempt not to outline but to give a preliminary view of an essay I propose to write for the general public. Essay because it is a statement of position. It will be 75,000 words, no more. This Ms. is neither an outline nor an abridgement. It seeks only the best way to convey certain ideas.

Moreover,

This document is absolutely confidential. This means that it should not be talked about to anyone, should not be seen by anyone. Any exception made to this will be looked upon as a breach of trust.³

He repeats all this, elaborating, at the end of the the introductory section of the book:

Such then is the book I propose to write. I have, however, to give a warning. What is written here is not a rough draft of the book. It is not an outline. It is not an abridgement.

New things will be added. Much of this will be drastically cut.

The whole will be put together in one closely interconnected logical and historical exposition for the average reader, in 75,000 words, not a word more, and written so that it can be read on a Sunday or on two evenings.

The final draft will therefore be quite different from this. I use in this manuscript long quotations, repetitions, digressions, historical and literary references, etc. because for the limited circle before whom I am placing these ideas and this project, it is the most convenient form.

The finished book is something else. For one thing I propose an immense research into the actual lives and opinions of the people so that the ideas which are expressed here in quotations by authorities will emerge in an entirely different form, will emerge as expressions of the lives and activities of the people concerned.⁴

James wanted to create a document not only about, not only for, but also and equally importantly, with the American masses, amongst whom he lived from 1938 to 1953 when, after coming to the United States on a temporary visa to act as advisor to the Trotskyite movement, he decided to stay on, living and working unofficially, undocumented and underground. The manuscript James produced, however, did not yet address or reach those masses. It circulated only among James's closest comrades, fellow revolutionary intellectuals who were asked to respond, "preferably," as stipulated in the preface, "in writing." This writing and the writing James would have produced in response were interrupted, however, when James was detained for "passport violations" by the US government, which deemed him a dangerous...