Hello! This is my first post on Lemmygrad.
I have a lesson from my Literature Theory class in college about Marxist analysis. It has some stuff about “British Cultural Materialism”, “American New Historicism” and calls Simone de Beauvoir a Marxist among other things. I have a basic understanding of ML theory, though not enough to properly counter what is being said here.
The lesson is in PDF form, but I formatted it to Markdown and uploaded it to PrivateBin, here. I will also attach a screenshot showing the final questions regarding the lesson.
What points are there to be made against what is written there? It often feels like idealism and the lesson itself is filled with pseudo-Marxists.
Thank you comrades!
Huh, looks like I linked it incorrectly. Here is the link plainly:
http://www.abstraktdergi.net/this-ruthless-criticism-of-all-that-exists-marxism-as-science/
It’s an essay by J Moufawad-Paul on how Marxism’s status as an attempt at a scientific understanding of political-economy is its very foundation and must be defended, both from self-professed “Marxists” who disparage this element as well as liberal academics who do just as you describe, treating it as merely another “lens” and functionally as a sort of rhetorical flavor and roleplay rather than a method to understand the world:
I do think Weber and Foucault are quite interesting and can be useful, but they do not hold the same ground that Marx and his successors do.
Thanks for this. I quite like JMP but I haven’t read this essay. If that quote is anything to go by, I’ll enjoy this one, too. I agree about Weber and Foucault; they can be useful, especially if they’re read in light of a Marxist perspective.