Post-Marxist Theory

An Introduction

By Philip Goldstein

Subjects: Marxism, Literary Theory, Cultural Studies
Series: SUNY series in Postmodern Culture
Paperback : 9780791463024, 154 pages, January 2005
Hardcover : 9780791463017, 154 pages, December 2004

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Table of contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: From Marx to Post-Marxism

1. Economics and Theory: Althusserian Post-Marxism

2. From Archaeology to Genealogy: Michel Foucault and Post-Marxist Histories

3. Post-Marxism and Democracy: The Political Theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe

4. Sex, Gender, and Philosophy: The Feminist Post-Marxism of Judith Butler

5. From Althusserian Science to Foucauldian Materialism: The Later Work of Pierre Macherey

6. Post-Marxism and Cultural Studies: The Reception Theory of Tony Bennett and John Frow

Conclusion

Notes

Works Cited

Index

An introduction to the philosophical, economic, historical, feminist, and cultural versions of post-Marxist theory.

Description

Poststructuralist Marxism, or post-Marxism, is a theoretical viewpoint that elaborates and revises the work of Louis Althusser and Michel Foucault. Unlike traditional Marxism, which emphasizes the priority of class struggle and the common humanity of oppressed groups, post-Marxism reveals the sexual, racial, class, and ethnic divisions of modern Western society. This book surveys the different versions of post-Marxist theory: the economic theory of Stephen Resnick and Richard Wolff, the historical methodology of Michel Foucault, the political theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, the feminism of Judith Butler, the materialist philosophy of Pierre Macherey, and the cultural studies of Tony Bennett and John Frow. Providing a coherent framework for these otherwise quite divergent theorists, Philip Goldstein outlines the history of Marxist philosophical or theoretical views and explains how they all count as post-Marxist.

Philip Goldstein is Professor of English at the University of Delaware and the author of Communities of Cultural Value: Reception Study, Political Differences, and Literary History and The Politics of Literary Theory: An Introduction to Marxist Criticism.