Description
Book SynopsisMonsters of the Market investigates the rise of capitalism through the prism of the body-panics it arouses. Drawing on folklore, literature and popular culture, the book links tales of monstrosity from early-modern England, including Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, to a spate of recent vampire and zombie fables from sub-Saharan Africa and it connects these to Marx's persistent use of monster-metaphors in his descriptions of capitalism.
Trade ReviewThis outstanding new work from David McNally is indispensable for serious monster fans and radicals both and almost giddyingly so for those of us who are both.” China Miéville, author of Embassytown "McNally delivers a tour de force analysis of global capital from the upper registers of derivatives trading down to popular fables of African monsters
Monsters of the Market is one of the best books I’ve read in years and it will definitely stimulate thinking about the nature of globalization, the labor theory of value and the relationship between commodities and speculative objects, collective fantasy, and other nebulous problems confronting historical materialism in the future." Mark Worrell, Marx and Philosophy Review of Books "The most vicious of monsters are those with human faces. Monsters of the Market: Zombies, Vampires, and Global Capitalism explores Marx's consistent use of folklore and monster as metaphor in his criticism of capitalism. From Frankenstein and the dissection of the market, vampires that feed off the misery of others, among other ideas ... Monsters of the Market is an intriguing way of explorig economics, very much recommended reading." Midwest Book Review "David McNally ... has written an excellent book. [He] approaches the topic from a more comprehensive framework. Unlike other works of "monsterology," he links the production of meaning with the economic mode of production while also researching its manifestations across the world ... Monsters of the Market is well worth reading: it demonstrates that the marginalizedthose who inevitably become the misshapenhave a long history across different cultures of articulating narratives of resistance to the various modes of night thrown up by a pitiless global system." Thomas Ponniah, rabble.ca
“This outstanding new work from David McNally is indispensable for serious monster fans and radicals both – and almost giddyingly so for those of us who are both.” —China Miéville, author of Embassytown "McNally delivers a tour de force analysis of global capital from the upper registers of derivatives trading down to popular fables of African monsters … Monsters of the Market is one of the best books I’ve read in years and it will definitely stimulate thinking about the nature of globalization, the labor theory of value and the relationship between commodities and speculative objects, collective fantasy, and other nebulous problems confronting historical materialism in the future." —Mark Worrell, Marx and Philosophy Review of Books "The most vicious of monsters are those with human faces. Monsters of the Market: Zombies, Vampires, and Global Capitalism explores Marx's consistent use of folklore and monster as metaphor in his criticism of capitalism. From Frankenstein and the dissection of the market, vampires that feed off the misery of others, among other ideas ... Monsters of the Market is an intriguing way of explorig economics, very much recommended reading." —Midwest Book Review "David McNally ... has written an excellent book. [He] approaches the topic from a more comprehensive framework. Unlike other works of "monsterology," he links the production of meaning with the economic mode of production while also researching its manifestations across the world ... Monsters of the Market is well worth reading: it demonstrates that the marginalized—those who inevitably become the misshapen—have a long history across different cultures of articulating narratives of resistance to the various modes of night thrown up by a pitiless global system." —Thomas Ponniah, rabble.ca
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction 1. Dissecting the Labouring Body: Frankenstein, Political Anatomy and the Rise of Capitalism ‘Save my body from the surgeons’ The culture of dissection: anatomy, colonisation and social order Political anatomy, wage-labour and destruction of the English commons Anatomy and the corpse-economy Monsters of rebellion Jacobins, Irishmen and Luddites: rebel-monsters in the age of Frankenstein The rights of monsters: horror and the split society 2. Marx’s Monsters: Vampire-Capital and the Nightmare-World of Late Capitalism Dialectics and the doubled life of the commodity The spectre of value and the fetishism of commodities ‘As if by love possessed’: vampire capital and the labouring body Zombie-labour and the ‘monstrous outrages’ of capital Money: capitalism’s second nature ‘Self-birthing’ capital and the alchemy of money Wild money: the occult economies of late-capitalist globalisation Enron: case-study in the occult economy of late capitalism ‘Capital comes into the world dripping in blood from every pore’ 3. African Vampires in the Age of Globalisation Kinship and accumulation: from the old witchcraft to the new Zombies, vampires, and spectres of capital: the new occult economies of globalising capitalism African fetishes and the fetishism of commodities The living dead: zombie-labourers in the age of globalisation Vampire-capitalism in Sub-Saharan Africa Bewitched accumulation, famished roads, and the endless toilers of the Earth Conclusion: Ugly Beauty: Monstrous Dreams of Utopia References Index
