Synopses & Reviews
This volume brings together works written by international theorists since the fall of the Berlin Wall, showing how today's crisis-ridden global capitalism is making Marxist theory more relevant and necessary than ever. This collection of key texts by prominent and lesser-known thinkers from Latin America, Asia, Africa, America, and Europe showcases an area of scholarly analysis whose impact on academic and popular discourses as well as political action will only grow in the coming years. It reflects today's sense of planetary eco-emergency and a heightened interest in political economy that follows discontentment with the growing inequalities in the West and the unequal nature of development in the "global South."
The work is organized thematically, with sections covering the present historical conjuncture, the contemporary shapes of the social, philosophical concepts, theories of culture, and the status of the political today. This new formulation of the unity and nature of contemporary Marxist theory will be an invaluable resource to any humanities and social science student learning about social and political thought and theory.
About the Author
Andrew Pendakis is Assistant Professor of Theory and Rhetoric in the English Department at Brock University and a Research Fellow at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.
Jeff Diamanti is an Izaak Walton Killam Doctoral Scholar and Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholar at the University of Alberta, Canada.
Nicholas Brown teaches modernism, African literature, and critical theory in the English Department and in the Department of African American Studies at the University of Illinois-Chicago, USA.
Josh Robinson has been a Lecturer in English Literature at the School of English, Communication and Philosophy, Cardiff University, and an Affiliated Professor of the University of Haifa, Israel.
Imre Szeman is Canada Research Chair of Cultural Studies and Professor of English, Film Studies and Sociology at the University of Alberta, Canada.
Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION // MARXISMS LOST AND FOUND
PART A: NOTES ON THE CONJUNCTURE
INTRODUCTION
1. FELIX GUATTARI AND ERIC ALLIEZ, “CAPITALISTIC SYSTEMS, STRUCTURES, AND PROCESSES”
2. MOISHE POSTONE, “RETHINKING MARX'S CRITICAL THEORY”
3. ALAN LIPIETZ, “THE IMPASSES OF LIBERAL PRODUCTIVISM”
4. PAULIN HOUNTONDJI, “RECAPTURING”
5. MAURIZIO LAZZARATO, “IMMATERIAL LABOR”
6. SILVIA FEDERICI, “WOMEN, LAND STRUGGLES AND GLOBALIZATION: AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE”
7. ARIF DIRLIK, “THE IDEA OF A 'CHINESE MODEL'”
PART B: SHAPES OF THE SOCIAL
INTRODUCTION
8. ÉTIENNE BALIBAR, “IS THERE A NEO-RACISM?”
9. DIPESH CHAKRABARTY, “MARX AFTER MARXISM: A SUBALTERN HISTORIAN'S PERSPECTIVE”
10. MAYA GONZALEZ AND JEANNE NETON (ENDNOTES), “THE LOGIC OF GENDER: ON THE SEPERATION OF SPHERES AND THE PROCESS OF ABJECTION”
11. SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK, “POSTMODERNISM OR CLASS? YES PLEASE”
12. THÉORIE COMMUNISTE, “COMMUNIZATION IN THE PRESENT TENSE”
13. ROSWITHA SCHOLZ, “PATRIARCHY AND COMMODITY SOCIETY: GENDER WITHOUT THE BODY”
PART C: VICISSITUDES OF TRUTH
INTRODUCTION
14. GAYATRI SPIVAK, “SCATTERED SPECULATIONS ON THE QUESTION OF VALUE”
15. PIERRE MACHEREY, “PHILOSOPHY AS OPERATION”
16. KOJIN KARATANI, “WHAT IS TRANSCRITIQUE?”
17. ALAIN BADIOU, “THE IDEA OF COMMUNISM”
18. BORIS GROYS, “THE KINGDOM OF PHILSOPHY: THE ADMINISTRATION OF METANOIA”
19. IMRE SZEMAN & NICHOLAS BROWN, “TWENTY-FIVE THESES ON PHILOSOPHY IN THE AGE OF FINANCE CAPITAL”
PART D: THEORIES OF CULTURE
INTRODUCTION
20. ROBERTO SCHWARZ, “MISPLACED IDEAS: LITERATURE AND SOCIETY IN LATE-NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRAZIL”
21. CHIDI AMUTA, “TRADITIONALISM AND THE QUEST FOR AN AFRICAN LITERARY AESTHETIC”
22. IMRE SZEMAN, “MARXIST LITERARY THEORY, THEN AND NOW”
23. FREDRIC JAMESON, “THE ANTINOMIES OF POSTMODERNITY”
24. CAROLYN LESJAK, “READING DIALECTICALLY”
25. SARAH BROUILLETTE, “CREATIVE LABOR”
26. NICHOLAS BROWN, “THE WORK OF ART IN THE AGE OF ITS REAL SUBSUMPTION UNDER CAPITAL”
PART E: MACHINATIONS OF THE POLITICAL
INTRODUCTION
27. ÁLVARO GARCÍA LINERA, “STATE CRISIS AND POPULAR POWER”
28. ANTONIO NEGRI, “CONSTITUENT POWER: THE CONCEPT OF A CRISIS”
29. CHANTAL MOUFFE, “RADICAL POLITICS TODAY”
30. PETER HALLWARD, “ON POLITICAL WILL”
31. JODI DEAN, “COMMUNICATIVE CAPITALISM: CIRCULATION AND THE FORECLOSURE OF POLITICS”
32. JACQUES RANCIÈRE, “TEN THESES ON POLITICS.”
33. CLAUS PETER ORTLIEB, “A CONTRADICTION BETWEEN MATTER AND FORM”
34. AARON BENANAV AND JOHN CLEGG (ENDNOTES), “MISERY AND DEBT.”
SOURCES
INDEX