English 556

Marx and Marxist Theory

This course will introduce students to key works by Marx and Engels and to the debates that have grown up around them. The course will be organized into three units that treat several of the problematics that have been repeatedly returned to by readers of Marx and Marxist theorists, historians, and cultural critics today and in the past: 1) History and Class; 2) Capital and Labor; and 3) Culture and Ideology. In addition to Marx and Engels, thinkers we will consider include Balibar, Wallerstein, Chakrabarty, Lukacs, Fraad et al, Goldman, Pietz, Althusser, Williams, Eagleton, Benjamin, Spivak, Butler, Denning, Jameson, Rajan, Hardt and Negri. Emphasis will be placed on close reading of texts and on animation, elaboration and analysis of the dialogues emergent amongst them. Previous work in philosophy or critical theory will be helpful, but is not required as a prerequisite.