On Transference: Badiou and the Chinese Cultural Revolution

This article draws on insights of trauma studies to intervene in the political realm of revolutionary politics. I analyze French intellectuals’ reception of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and characterize it as a transformation from hope and admiration to trauma. The principal aim is to ascertain the historical perspective of Badiou’s uninterrupted identification with Maoism and argue that his fidelity to the Cultural Revolution signifies not positivism but passivity of trauma and disavowal of loss.