The seminar, open to graduate students from all disciplines, will consider the virtues and risks of “tarrying with the negative” (Hegel) as a principle of theoretical, political, and ethical critique. In what way can negation promote productive change without falling into the trap of (re)conciliation? How can the negation of a negation avoid producing a cheerful positivity and erasure? Can thought or action proceed without negation at all? Concepts to be discussed will include refusal, disavowal, protest, negative dialectics, and destituent politics. Readings (in English) will include excerpts from the Cynic protest tradition, Hegel, Marx, Freud, Nietzsche, Bataille, Adorno, Agamben, Berlant, Honig, Zupančič, Swarbrick and Tremblay, C. Warren, D. Marriott, Okiji, and Telò.