Description
Book SynopsisKarl Marx has rarely, if ever, been treated as a writer. Charles Barbour argues not only that we can examine the literary and rhetorical aspects of Marx's texts, but also that, as soon as we begin to do so, those texts begin to take on new and entirely unexpected political implications. In the past, Marx scholars have characterized his literary remains as either a relatively coherent body of work, or a structure cut in half by a single, all-important epistemological break. Neither metaphor really captures the incredible proliferation of documents that we retroactively label Karl Marx. Barbour proposes that we characterize them, instead, as a machine, or an assemblage of fragments and components that can be put together and taken apart in any number of different ways for any number of different purposes. Focusing primarily on Marx's early polemical writings, and especially the debates with Bruno Bauer and Max Stirner that make up most of the voluminous manuscript now called The German
Trade ReviewThe triumph of neoliberalism and the end of the Cold War have virtually obliterated Marx’s legacy – outside doctrinaire circles. Going beyond both structuralist and deconstructive readings, Barbour’s book presents 'another Marx' whose texts reveal multiple plateaus of meaning (held together by a commitment to equality). What becomes evident in the study is that exorcising legacies exacts a steep price on critical thought. -- Fred Dallmayr, University of Notre Dame
In this extraordinary study Babour shows that he is Marx’s star reader, finding subtleties in neglected minor works as well as in major ones supposedly well known. Deploying an impressive philosophical apparatus—Althusser to Rancière—Babour’s work creates a stimulating and lively intertextuality that liberates Marx from his best friends and worst enemies. -- Terrell Carver, University of Bristol
Barbour (Univ. of Western Sydney, Australia) adopts what he calls a deliberately averted gaze when analyzing Marx and the tension between theory and practice. Given the volume of work produced on Marx, and the volume of his works still left underanalyzed, the book's conceit is that the construct of "Marx" represents "components or parts [that] can be attached to or assembled with other texts, or other components and parts both inside and outside of the Marxist tradition or traditions." The book intends to reconstruct a version of Marxism that is conscious of its mechanistic conception of Marx through a system of meanings launched from "a thousand plateaus," which must be deciphered by recognizing that the "literary form of Marx's work is as significant as is its supposedly scientific content." Toward this end, the first two chapters cohere much more clearly than the latter two. Although each of the latter have their independent merits, the whole project, perhaps intentionally, lacks a precisely consistent overall arc. Since the author seeks to show the import and revealing character of the discontinuities in Marx's work in order to undermine the simple, mechanistic readings, this might be intentional. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, and research collections. * CHOICE *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Another Marx Chapter 1: Of Multiple Breaks: Marx in Res Publica Chapter 2: Copying Machines: Reading “The Leipzig Council” Chapter 3: The Fractured Essence: On Historical Materialism Chapter 4: Allegories of Writing: Marx and Literature Conclusion: Marx and Us
