Performing Marx

Bradley J. Macdonald

Description

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.
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

NOTES
INDEX

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie politique

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791482230
• Langue: English

Extrait

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perfor bra m dley j.macdonald contemporary negotiations of a living tradition ing marx

Performing Marx

SUNYseries in Political Theory Contemporary Issues

Philip Green, editor

P E R F O R M I N G M A R X

Contemporary Negotiations of a Living Tradition

B R A D L E Y J . M A C D O N A L D

S T AT E U N I V E R S I T Y O F N E W Y O R K P R E S S

Published by State University of New York Press Albany

© 2006 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

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For information, address State University of New York Press 194 Washington Avenue, Suite 305, Albany, NY 12210-2384

Production, Laurie Searl Marketing, Michael Campochiaro

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Macdonald, Bradley J. Performing Marx : contemporary negotiations of a living tradition / Bradley J. Macdonald. p. cm. — (SUNY series in political theory. Contemporary issues) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7914-6665-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Socialism—Philosophy. 2. Communism—Philosophy. 3. Marx, Karl, 1818–1883. I. Title. II. Series.

HX73.M315 2006 320.53'15—dc22

ISBN-13: 978-0-7914-6665-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)

10

 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2005008566

Acknowledgments

Contents

Introduction Genealogies of Performance

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Marx and Living Traditions

Marx and Desire

Ecologizing Marx? William Morris and a Genealogy of Ecosocialism

Marx and a Politics of Everyday Life: Revisiting Situationist Theory

Finding Marx Through Foucault

(Re)Marx on the Political: Antonio Negri, Antagonism, and the Politics of the Multitude

Conclusion Globalizing Marx? Radical Politics in the Twenty-first Century

Notes

Index

v

vii

1

13

31

47

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Acknowledgments

AS WITH ALL WORKS that have developed over a number of years, the ideas and arguments that would becomePerforming Marxbegan in fits and starts, originally articulated in articles, essays, and papers delivered to different audi- ences and published in different forums. This means, of course, that there are many individuals who have been part of this intellectual process and who have been extremely instrumental in helping me bring this manuscript to publication. First, I want to thank Michael Rinella at SUNY Press for being quick to see the worth of this book and getting the comments of two anony- mous reviewers to me in seemingly record fashion. This, I think, speaks to the incredible efficiency—and deserved reputation—of their editorial process. Along the way of formulating my ideas and arguments, I was helped immensely by discussions and dialogues with the following individuals, many of whom read and commented on aspects of this manuscript: Clyde Barrow, Terrell Carver, William Chaloupka, William Connolly, Zillah Eisenstein, Manfred Enssle, Keith Foskin, Kevin Foskin, Eugene Holland, Timothy Luke, Peter McLaren, William Niemi, Dan O’Connor, Manfred Steger, Paul Trem- bath, and Jim Wiltgen. As we have learned in different ways from the thought of Marx and Niet- zsche, intellectual work is never the result of a disembodied intellectual exis- tence; it can only flourish in a rich soil of affective and social support. In this respect, I want to thank Susanne for continuing to provide such a fertile ground, a provision that has meant many hours of my absence in the life of a relationship. I am grateful for kind permission from copyright holders to republish the following in revised and/or partial form: chapter 1, “Marxism as a Living Tra- dition: Some Metatheoretical Issues,”Strategies: Journal of Theory, Culture, and Politics, Volume 12, Number 2, 1999, pp. 203–217 (seehttp://tandf.co.uk/jour- nals); chapter 2, “Marx and the Figure of Desire,”Rethinking Marxism, Volume 11, Number 4, 1999, pp. 21–37 (seehttp://tandf.co.uk/journals); chapter 3,

vii

viii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

“Eco/Theory at the Millenium,”Strategies: Journal of Theory, Culture, and Pol- itics, Volume 13, Number 1, pp. 5–8, and, “William Morris and the Vision of Ecosocialism,”Contemporary Justice Review, Volume 7, Number 3, 2004, pp. 287–303 (seehttp://tandf.co.uk/journals); chapter 4, “From the Spectacle to Unitary Urbanism: Reassessing Situationist Theory,”Rethinking Marxism, Vol- ume 8, Number 2, 1995, pp. 89–111 (seehttp://tandf.co.uk/journals); chapter 5, “Marx, Foucault, Genealogy,”Polity, Volume XXXIV, Number 3, Spring 2002, pp. 259–284; and, chapter 6, “Thinking Through Marx: An Introduc- tion to the Political Theory of Antonio Negri,”Strategies: Journal of Theory, Culture, and Politics, Volume 16, Number 2, 2003, pp. 85–95 (seehttp://tandf. co.uk/journals).

INTRODUCTION

Genealogies of Performance

Performance will be to the twentieth and twenty-first centuries what discipline was to the eighteenth and nineteenth: an onto-historical formation of power and knowledge. —Jon McKenzie

IN A THEORETICAL tour de force, Jon McKenzie argues inPerform or Else 1 (2001) that our current world is increasingly defined by performance. In this discussion, McKenzie focuses on the interrelated and multi-layered perfor- mance discourses that have increasingly infiltrated our lives in organiza- tional, technological, and socio-cultural ways. For McKenzie, at least, such a recognition of our transformed social and cultural conditions is important (that is, a transformation from “discipline” to the mutational, post-Fordist logic of “performance” as a contemporary discourse of domination and con- trol), for it allows us to perceive the limitations of our previous conceptual- izations and look toward new pathways of struggle that tweak and contest our current normative horizons, modes of resistance he argues are best captured 2 by the neologism “perfumance.” The latter represent the always already counter-performances inscribed within the normative matrixes of our perfor- mance regimes. While performances demand adherence, such a demand is always undermined by the contingency of their enactment. In a sense, though not raised by McKenzie, such an “onto-historical” discussion could not be more relevant to our understanding of Karl Marx’s theory in the twenty-first century: in what way can Marx’s ideas “perform” and/or “perfume” in our cur- rent context? Thus, in what ways have Marx’s ideas been a part of the nor- mative horizon of performances in our world? Importantly, how do Marx’s ideas and concepts represent, if at all, lines of flight, destratifying molecular struggles, a conceptual “perfumance” in the way that McKenzie indicates?

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