‘The Instigation I Aspire To’: Erri De Luca and Contrarian Education

This essay begins with a summary of the trial of Erri De Luca by the Italian state for the alleged crime of instigation, focusing in particular on the discussion during that trial of the definition of the word ‘sabotage’. It then elaborates on the theme of education in De Luca’s self-defense against the Italian state’s charges and connects the Italian writer’s ideas on this subject to the ongoing neoliberal attack in the US against liberal arts education, using the recent history of Hampshire College in Massachusetts as a key example. The essay ends by summarizing an argument that reveals how the US Supreme Court decision from 1957, Sweezy v. New Hampshire – traditionally cited in discussions of free speech on campuses – was in fact borrowed from an earlier debate during the initial phase of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.