When Karl Marx wrote “the Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte,” he interpreted the historical stage and his writing of history as parts of a theatre: he writes; “Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak twice. He forgot to add the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. Caussidiere for Danton, Louis Blanc for Robespierre, the Montagne of 1848 to 1851 for the Montagne of 1793 to 1795, the nephew for the uncle. And the same caricature occurs in the circumstances of the second edition of the Eighteenth Brumaire.” Here, Marx’s theatrical interpretation of the historical process appears to be somewhat contradictory to his own theories of base and superstructure, teleological understanding of history, and historical materialism: In the view of the historical materialist, history never repeats, and both Napoleon’s acting and the peasant culture to support it belong to “superstructure.” Marx’s introduction of theatrical interpretation of history might be his theoretical compromise to the reality. However, what Marx found in “the Eighteenth Brumaire” is that in a short period of time, societies as theatrical-spheres could function as the main stages of historical processes. The French peasant class’ support to Napoleon, in Marx’s view, was a result of the politician’s self-representation as the reincarnation of his uncle, the “true” representative of the class. For the part of the peasant class, they were easily deceived as they had a faith that someone named Napoleon would save them. As people must make decisions based on imperfect knowledge, “acting” - as in literally sense- constitutes an important aspect in the historical processes. Is theatrical ... ... middle of paper ... ...versity Press, 2009 Karl Marx, the preface to the second edition, “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte,” written December 1851-1852, translated by Saul K. Padover, proofed by Alek Blain, 2006. Karl Marx, the preface, “a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy,” written 1859, Progress Publisher, Moscow, Translated by S. W. Ryazanskaya 1999 Section Seven, Marx. P. 38-39, Friedrich Nietzsche, “Beyond Good and Evil” Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy, translated by Judith Norman, Cambridge University Press, 2002 Xanana Gusmao “To Resist is to Win! The Autobiography of Xanana Gusmao with selected letters and speeches” Aurora Books with David Lovell Publishing, 2000 In the opening theoretical argument on “publics” the author quotes the words of Jan Kiely that publics “exist by virtue of being addressed.” (p. 7) P. 258
In his play Fuenteovejuna, Lope de Vega presents his audience with a provocative subversion of traditional class dynamics, depicting the peasants of the village of Fuenteovejuna revolting against and then killing the Commander who presides over them. This dramatic disruption of conventional class hierarchies would certainly be shocking to Vega’s original 17th century audience because they would be familiar with the structure of feudal societies such as the town of Fuenteovejuna. On the other hand, a modern audience lacks the necessary knowledge of European feudal politics to truly experience the same impact as an audience from Vega’s era. To remedy this issue, the class conflict in Fuenteovejuna should be portrayed as a Marxist revolution,
September 10, 2009. Cambridge Critical Guide to Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morality, Simon May, ed., 2010. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1473095>. Nietzsche, Friedrich.
Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. "The Communist Manifesto." The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch. New York: Norton, 2001. 769-773.
Marx states that the bourgeoisie not only took advantage of the proletariat through a horrible ratio of wages to labor, but also through other atrocities; he claims that it was common pract...
"SOCY 151 - Lecture 12 - Marx's Theory of History." Open Yale Courses. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.
In his article "'Funeral Bak'd Meats:' Carnival and the Carnivalesque in Hamlet," Michael D. Bristol mingles Marxism and Bakhtin's notion of double discoursed textuality into an unique reading of Shakespeare's drama as a struggle between opposing economic classes. Bristol opens with a two paragraph preface on Marxism, highlighting Marx's own abnegation of Marxism: "Marx is famous for the paradoxical claim that he was not a Marxist" (Bristol 348). While he acknowledges some of the flaws inherent in Marxist criticism, Bristol uses the introductory paragraphs to assert the "enormous importance" of "the theory of class consciousness and class struggle" which Marxist theory includes (349). Having prepared readers for a discourse whose foundation lies upon "the most fundamental idea in Marxism," Bristol recasts Hamlet as a class struggle.
The political philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Karl Marx examined the role that the state played and its relationship to its citizen’s participation and access to the political economy during different struggles and tumultuous times. Rousseau was a believer of the concept of social contract with limits established by the good will and community participation of citizens while government receives its powers given to it. Karl Marx believed that power was to be taken by the people through the elimination of the upper class bourgeois’ personal property and capital. While both philosophers created a different approach to establishing the governing principles of their beliefs they do share a similar concept of eliminating ownership of capital and distributions from the government. Studying the different approaches will let us show the similarities of principles that eliminate abuse of power and concentration of wealth by few, and allow access for all. To further evaluate these similarities, we must first understand the primary principles of each of the philosophers’ concepts.
"History is nothing but the succession of separate generations, each of which exploits the materials, capital, and productive forces handed down to it by all preceding generations." Marx resists any abstraction from this idea, believing that his materialistic ideas alone stand supported by empirical evidence which seems impossible to the Hegelian. His history then begin...
Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. The Communist Manifesto. Trans. Paul M. Sweeny. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1998.
Appignanesi, Richard. (1976). Marx for Beginners. London, England: Writers and Readers Publishing Co-operative (Society Limited).
Bender, Frederic L. Karl Marx: The Communist Manifesto. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. ed. 1988.
The writings of Karl Marx spell out the philosophic foundations of his radicalism. Marx’s philosophy is complicated and detailed. However, the central theme to Marx’s theories was his view that economic forces were increasingly oppressing human beings and his belief that political action and change were necessary. Marx’s thinking is a reaction to the industrial society of the mid ninete...
Karl Marx was a German philosopher, economist, and sociologist, as well as a political revolutionary. In 1843 he began constructing the “Communist Manifesto” alongside his companion Friedrich Engels. The Manifesto began by arguing class struggles and elaborating on the exploitation of one class from another throughout history. “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” (__) Marx explains that throughout history we see the oppressor and the oppressed in constant opposition to one another—sometimes openly and others concealed. Each time the fight ends between the two either a revolutionary reconstruction is implicated or in the classes demise. The Manifesto continues to show that the modern bourgeoisie is the product of several of th...
In high school, Marx was a good student, whom often expressed interest in the peasant community. He also evolved into a reader of new romantic literature. In 1835, he was a student at the University of Bonn and had ...
Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. "The Communist Manifesto." The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch. New York: Norton, 2001. 769-773.