Critical Companion to Contemporary Marxism

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Published Dec 2007
ISBN: 9789004145986

Edited by Jacques Bidet, University of Paris-X and Stathis Kouvelakis, King’s College London

The Critical Companion to Contemporary Marxism is an international and interdisciplinary volume which aims to provide a thorough and precise panorama of recent developments in Marxist theory in the US, Europe, Asia and beyond. Drawing on the work of thirty of the most authoritative scholars, the Companion spans all the humanities and social sciences, with particular emphasis on philosophy. The work is divided into three parts: ‘General Trends’, which provides a broad intellectual and historical context; ‘Currents’, which tracks the trajectories of twenty specific currents or disciplinary fields; and ‘Figures’, which examines in detail the work of fifteen key actors of Marxist or para-Marxist theory (Adorno, Althusser, Badiou, Benjamin, Bhaskar, Bourdieu, Deleuze, Derrida, Foucault, Gramsci, Habermas, Jameson, Lefebvre, Uno, Williams). The Companion is set to be unsurpassed for many years, in breadth and depth, as the definitive guide to contemporary Marxism.

Biographical note

Jacques Bidet is Professor at the University of Paris-X, holding the chair of Political Philosophy and Theories of Society. His other publications include Théorie de la modernité (1990), John Rawls et la théorie de la justice (1995), Théorie générale, Théorie du droit, de l’économie et de la politique (1999) and Explication et reconstruction du ‘Capital’ (2004). His Exploring Marx’s ‘Capital’ was published in the HM Book Series in 2007.

Stathis Kouvelakis teaches Political Theory and Philosophy at King’s College London. He is the author of Philosophy and Revolution. From Kant to Marx (London, 2003) and the co-editor, with Slavoj Zizek and Sebastian Budgen, of Lenin Reloaded. Towards a Politics of Truth (Durham, 2007).

Readership

All those interested in Marxist theory, in the critical social sciences and in 20th century intellectual history.

Reviews

The central purpose of this volume is both to highlight the recent crises that Marxism has endured and to offer a number of ways to move Marxism beyond these challanges.
Michael Arfken Marx & Philosophy Review of Books, 26 July 2011

Recommended by CHOICE (September 2008)

Table of contents

Introduction: Marxism, Post-Marxism, Neo-Marxisms, Jacques Bidet and Stathis Kouvélakis

PREFIGURATIONS

1. A Key to the Critical Companion to Contemporary Marxism, Jacques Bidet
2. The Crises of Marxism and the Transformation of Capitalism, Stathis Kouvelakis
3.The Development of Marxism in France and Italy, 1975–2005: From the End of Marxism-Leninism to a Thousand Marxisms, André Tosel
4. Where is Anglo-Saxon Marxism Going?, Alex Callinicos
5. Old Theories and New Capitalism: The Actuality of a Marxist Economics, Gérard Duménil and Dominique Lévy

CONFIGURATIONS

6. Analytical Marxism, Christopher Bertram
7. The Frankfurt School’s Critical Theory: From Neo-Marxism to Post-Marxism, Gérard Raulet
8. The Late Lukács and the Budapest School, André Tosel
9. The Regulation School: A One-Way Ticket from Marx to the Saint-Simon Foundation?, Michel Husson
10. Ecological Marxism or Marxian Political Ecology, Jean-Marie Harribey
11. Theories of the Capitalist World-System, Rémy Herrera
12. Liberation-Theology Marxism, Michael Löwy
13. Market Socialism: Problems and Models, Tony Andréani
14. The American Radicals: A Subversive Current at the Heart of Empire, Thomas Coutrot
15. Political Marxism, Paul Blackledge
16. From the ‘Mass Worker’ to ‘Empire’, or the Uncanny Trajectory of Italian Operaismo, Maria Turchetto
17. Marxism and Postcolonial Studies, Neil Lazarus and Rashmi Varma
18. The Marxism of British Marxist Historians, Paul Blackledge
19. Developments in Marxist Class Analysis, Vivek Chibber
20. New Interpretations of Capital, Jacques Bidet
21. The New Dialectic, Jim Kincaid
22. States, State Power and State Theory, Bob Jessop
23. Marxism and Theories of Racism, Robert Carter
24. Historical Materialism and International Relations, Frédérick Guillaume Dufour
25. Marxism and Language, Jean-Jacques Lecercle

FIGURES

26. Adorno and Marx, Jean-Marie Vincent
27. Louis Althusser, or the Impure Purity of the Concept, François Matheron
28. Marxism Expatriated: Alain Badiou’s Turn, Alberto Toscano
29. Walter Benjamin, Esther Leslie
30. Critical Realism and Beyond: The Dialectic of Roy BhaskarAlex Callinicos
31. Bourdieu and Historical Materialism, Jacques Bidet
32. Deleuze, Marx and Revolution: What It Means to ‘Remain Marxist’, Isabelle Garo
33. Jacques Derrida: ‘Crypto-Communist’?, Jason Smith
34. Foucault, Reader and Critic of Marx, Roberto Nigro
35. Beyond the Crisis of Marxism: Thirty Years Contesting Gramsci’s Legacy, Fabio Frosini
36. Falling Short of Marx: Habermas, Jacques Bidet
37. Fredric Jameson: An Unslaked Thirst for Totalisation, Stathis Kouvélakis
38. Henri Lefebvre, Thinker of Urban Modernity, Stathis Kouvélakis
39. Kôzo Uno and His School : A Pure Theory of Capitalism, Jacques Bidet
40. Raymond Williams’s Cultural Materialism, Jean-Jacques Lecercle

Notes on Contributors
Bibliography
Index