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Summary
Draws upon Marx, Western Marxism, and poststructuralist theory to constructively engage contemporary issues.
Performing Marx looks at what it means to be a Marxist dealing with contemporary political and theoretical developments in the twenty-first century. Drawing upon Marx’s work, Western Marxism, and poststructuralist theory, Bradley J. Macdonald explores how a living tradition of Marx’s ideas can constructively engage a politics of desire and pleasure, ecological sustainability, a politics of everyday life that takes seriously popular culture, and the nature of globalization and of the radical forces being arrayed against the logics of global capitalism. By engaging such crucial issues, Macdonald also provides important clarifications of the work of William Morris, Guy Debord and the situationists, Michel Foucault, Antonio Negri, Ernesto Laclau, and Chantal Mouffe, as they relate to Marx.
“In Performing Marx, Bradley J. Macdonald makes a resourceful contribution to debates in Marxism and post-Marxism.” — Political Studies Review
“Macdonald’s analysis brings the classic critiques of Marx into an important exchange with contemporary studies on performance. He opens new vital negotiations between Marx’s political economy and the challenges of twenty-first century politics. His work is essential reading for anyone interested in mobilizing Marxian thought to comprehend today’s cultural, economic, and social conflicts.” — Timothy W. Luke, author of Capitalism, Democracy, and Ecology: Departing from Marx
“This book is a vibrant exploration of the numerous ways that Marx’s thought continues to inform radical political theories, including many theories assumed to be inconsistent with Marxism, if not anti-Marxist.” — Clyde W. Barrow, author of Critical Theories of the State: Marxist, Neo-Marxist, Post-Marxist
Bradley J. Macdonald is Associate Professor of Political Science at Colorado State University. He is the coeditor (with R. L. Rutsky) of Strategies for Theory: From Marx to Madonna, also published by SUNY Press; the editor of Theory as a Prayerful Act: The Collected Essays of James B. Macdonald; and the author of William Morris and the Aesthetic Constitution of Politics.
Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION. Genealogies of Performance
1. Marx and Living Traditions
2. Marx and Desire
3. Ecologizing Marx? William Morris and a Genealogy of Ecosocialism
4. Marx and a Politics of Everyday Life: Revisiting Situationist Theory
5. Finding Marx Through Foucault
6. (Re)Marx on the Political: Antonio Negri, Antagonism, and the Politics of the Multitude
CONCLUSION. Globalizing Marx? Radical Politics in the Twenty-first Century
