Engaging with the literature

[soup]

Any good tips on how to effectively engage with literature to get a better understanding of it, whether it be philosophy, political philosophy, history, etc?

[Redistribute the Rep]

This is a good question, and something I've been trying to figure out as I read and write. I would say it's helpful to look for materialist analysis of certain art movements, since they are a product of the social relations of their respective time periods

[BIXX]

Any good tips on how to effectively engage with literature to get a better understanding of it, whether it be philosophy, political philosophy, history, etc?
It really depends on the writing themselves. Some are more self-contained so you won't need to do a bunch of background research, but a lot of academic texts are constantly referring to this or that book or using this or that terminology etc... until it gets to the point that you can't understand it without a larger background in that field of literature.

Honestly one thing I've always felt is that the author's intent (especially with books that start taking a turn towards praxis opposed to pure theory) is secondary to what you draw from it. A lot of the time the same can be said about theory to tbh. So I'd spend less time trying to worry about the "correct" interpretation of this and that piece and mainly focus on drawing whatever you can from it and not becoming a liberal.

[Decolonize The Left]

Take it slow. Don't bite off more than you can chew. Use wikipedia often for clarification. Use a dictionary as well. Follow a vein of thought until you begin to lose interest and then leave it alone for a while.

Mostly common sense but I think too often people try too hard to 'get' one thing or another, or shoot for too complex a text. Just use your best judgement and try to stay critical.