Post-Marxist Theory

An Introduction

Philip Goldstein

• Publisher: SUNY Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780791463024, 9780791463017
• eBook ISBN: 9780791484029
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism Theory
• Index: Politics & International Relations

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

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.

Table of contents

• Post-Marxist Theory: An Introduction
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: From Marx toPost-Marxism
• 1. Economics and Theory: Althusserian Post-Marxism
• 2. From Archaeologyto Genealogy: Michel Foucault and Post-Marxist Histories
• 3. Post-Marxism andDemocracy: The Political Theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe
• 4. Sex, Gender, andPhilosophy: 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