New York University Department of Media, Culture, and Communication Special Topics in Critical Theory: Marx

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1 New York University Department of Media, Culture, and Communication Special Topics in Critical Theory: Marx Course numbers MCC-GE.3013 and COLIT-GA FALL 2011 Prof. Alexander R. Galloway Time: Wednesdays 2:00-4:10pm Pless Annex, 5th floor, Room 551 Location: Silver 518 Office hrs: T 3:20-5, Th 10:30-12:30 Course Description Much of what one calls critical theory today finds its origin in the work of Karl Marx. The purpose of this doctoral course, Special Topics in Critical Theory: Marx, is to read key works by Marx, supplemented by some contemporary texts in western Marxist political theory, with the ultimate goal of understanding the various political and philosophical debates with which these texts engage. The course emphasizes Marxism as as a political theory, but will also address Marxism as a scholarly methodology for critique applicable to disciplines beyond political theory. Themes include: the commodity, alienation and reification, surplus value, ideology, consumerism, spectacle, empire, postfordism, community, and communism. Books Alain Badiou, The Meaning of Sarkozy, trans. David Fernbach (London: Verso, 2008). Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle, trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith (New York: Zone, 2006). Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Commonwealth (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009)., Empire (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000)., Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire (New York: Penguin, 2004). The Invisible Committee, The Coming Insurrection, trans. anonymous (Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2009). Rosa Luxemburg, The Russian Revolution and Leninism or Marxism? (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1961). Karl Marx, Capital, volume 1: A Critique of Political Economy, trans. Ben Fowkes (London: Penguin, 1976)., Early Writings, trans. Rodney Livingstone and Gregor Benton (London: Penguin, 1992)., The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (New York: International Page 1 of 7

2 Publishers, 1963). Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The Communist Manifesto, trans. Samuel Moore (London: Penguin, 2002). Karl Marx and V. I. Lenin, The Civil War in France: The Paris Commune (New York: International Publishers, 1988). V. I. Lenin, Revolution at the Gates: A Selection of Writings from February to October 1917, Slavoj Žižek, ed. (New York: Verso, 2002). McKenzie Wark, A Hacker Manifesto (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004). Course Assignments Reading -- All students are expected to read the assigned texts in advance of class. Discussion Leaders -- All students will be required to act as a discussion leader for two different weeks during the semester. Writing -- Each student should write a total of 20 pages for the semester, preferably split into two shorter papers of 10 pages each, but other combinations are also possible. Suggested paper topics will be provided, but students are also encouraged to create their own topics. All papers should be on par with doctoral level work and should demonstrate a close reading of the required materials and exhibit a methodology of critical analysis. Grading Requirements Each student will be evaluated based on the course assignments. All students will be expected to do the course reading, and to write papers of approximately 20 pages total. Grades will be determined according to the following formula: 80% paper(s); 20% inclass participation. Laptop Policy I discourage the use of electronic devices in class. This includes all laptops, ipads, PDAs, phones, and other devices. There is mounting evidence that such devices impede learning and place an undo strain on the pedagogical experience of both students and teachers. While an outright ban poses its own difficulties, please note that I discourage the use of such devices and consider them to be detrimental to the social and pedagogical climate of the classroom. (Exceptions can be made for readings that have been distributed in electronic form, and for students with special learning needs.) Page 2 of 7

3 September 7--Course Introduction Part I: Historical and Political Analyses September 14--Young Marx Karl Marx, "Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts" in Early Writings, , , , and Karl Marx, "Letter to Ruge," "Concerning Feurbach," and "Preface" in Early Writings, , and William Morris, "How I Became A Socialist" in News from Nowhere and Other Writings (London: Penguin, 1993), (PDF.) Karl Korsch, Why I Am a Marxist in Three Essays on Marxism (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1972), (PDF.) September 21--Communism Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The Communist Manifesto. Karl Marx, On the Jewish Question and A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right in Early Writings, September 28--Case Studies in Historical and Political Analysis Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. Karl Marx and V. I. Lenin, The Civil War in France. (Optional: Alain Badiou, The Paris Commune: A Political Declaration on Politics in The Communist Hypothesis, trans. David Macey and Steve Corcoran [New York: Verso, 2010], [PDF.]) October 5--Case Studies in Historical and Political Analysis (continued) V. I. Lenin, Revolution at the Gates: A Selection of Writings from February to October Rosa Luxemburg, The Russian Revolution and Leninism or Marxism? Claire Fontaine, Human Strike within the Field of the Libidinal Economy (PDF). (Recommended: October: Ten Days That Shook the World [d. Sergei Eisenstein, 1927].) (Optional: Tiqqun, How Is It to be Done? in Tiqqun, Introduction to Civil War, [Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2010].) October 10--Alain Badiou lecture at NYU. October 12--Communism Reconsidered Alain Badiou, The Meaning of Sarkozy, trans. David Fernbach (London: Verso, 2008). Alain Badiou, Thinking the Event in Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek, Philosophy in the Present, trans. Peter Thomas and Alberto Toscano (Cambridge: Polity, 2009), (PDF.) Page 3 of 7

4 October 19--Midterm papers due. October 19--Primitive Accumulation Karl Marx, Capital, vol 1., pp Part II: Critique of Political Economy October 26--Commodities and Reification Karl Marx, Capital, vol. 1, , November 2--Surplus Value and Reproduction Karl Marx, Capital, vol. 1, , , , , and Karl Marx, Fragment on machines, in Grundrisse, trans. Martin Nicolaus (London: Penguin, 1973), (PDF.) Mariarosa Dalla Costa, "Domestic Labour and the Feminist Movement in Italy since the 1970s (PDF.) (Optional: Karl Marx, Capital, vol. 1, [Chapter 10: The Working Day]) November 9 Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle. Part III: Postfordism & Empire November Special guest in seminar today: McKenzie Wark McKenzie Wark, A Hacker Manifesto. November 23 Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Empire. Silvia Federici, The Debt Crisis, Africa and the New Enclosures (PDF.) (Optional: Nancy Fraser, "Feminism, Capitalism, and the Cunning of History" [PDF.]) November 30 The Invisible Committee, The Coming Insurrection. Alberto Toscano, The War Against Preterrorism, Radical Philosophy 154 (March/April 2009) (PDF). (Optional: Tiqqun, Introduction to Civil War, [Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2010].) December 7 Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Multitude (selections). Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Commonwealth (selections). December 12--All papers due. Page 4 of 7

5 Additional Background Texts (Optional) While there exist innumerable books on Marx, here are some additional texts that might help--particularly when it comes to Capital. They address some of the most canonical interpretations of Marx that have influenced contemporary theoretical debates. Louis Althusser and Étienne Balibar, Reading Capital, trans. Ben Brewster (London: Verso, 1997). One of the most influential interventions into marxist theory during the post World War II period; advocates the scientific Marx and a new structuralist marxism rooted in symptomatic readings. Étienne Balibar, The Philosophy of Marx, trans. Chris Turner (London: Verso, 2007). A clear overview of Marx and his ideas. David Harvey, A Companion to Marx's Capital (London: Verso, 2010). Quite possibly the clearest, best book on understanding what Marx actually means page by page in Capital. There are also online videos that follow Harvey's seminar, which served as the basis for this book. Fredric Jameson, Representing Capital: A Reading of Volume One (New York: Verso, 2011). A recent text that also provides a gloss of Capital, although different from the more detailed, close reading provided by Harvey. Suggests that Capital should be interpreted as a dialectical event in and of itself. Page 5 of 7

6 Related Film and Video (Optional) For various historical and ideological reasons Marx and marxism have only infrequently been the subject of filmmaking in capitalist countries. A number of important documentaries and dramas exist depicting labor struggle, unions, and the worker's movement. There is also a significant amount of Bolshevik and Soviet cinema. While not exhaustive by any means, the following list provides some initial direction for those wishing to explore Marx and marxism on film and video. Note that this list does not consider allegorical readings of ostensibly non-marxist films, since that would conceivably open the field to much or all of film history. (Acknowledgements to Jason LaRiviere who contributed ideas to this list.) An Injury to One (d. Travis Wilkerson, 2003) On the 1917 death of Wobbly organizer Frank Little and other events in the labor history of Butte, Montana. Capitalism: Child Labor (d. Ken Jacobs, 2006) Experimental/avant garde short film based on a nineteenth-century stereoscopic image of children in a textile factory. Entranced Earth (d. Glauber Rocha, 1967) Brazilian drama and canonical example of Third Cinema from the author of an important manifesto of revolutionary filmmaking Aesthetic of Hunger. Harlan County, U.S.A. (d. Barbara Kopple, 1976) Documentary on the coal miners' strike in Harlan County, Kentucky in I Married a Communist (d. Robert Stevenson, 1949) Hollywood noir drama involving the specter of the Communist Party. La Commune (Paris, 1871) (d. Peter Watkins, 2000) A historical re-enactment of the Paris Commune. Ambitious and unclassifiable. La terra trema (d. Luchino Visconti, 1948) A classic of Italian neorealism depicting the exploitation of working-class Sicilian families. La Trinchera Luminosa del Presidente Gonzalo (d. Jim Finn, 2007) Recreation of events in a Peruvian women's prison populated by Maoists militants from the Shining Path. The Last Bolshevik (d. Chris Marker, 1993) Marker's portrait of Russian filmmaker Alexander Medvedkin. Page 6 of 7

7 Le Camp de Thiaroye (d. Ousmane Sembène, 1987) Gramscian interrogation of the role of the intellectual in a post-colonial context from the great Senegalese filmmaker, Sembène. Matewan (d. John Sayles, 1987) Fictional period film dramatizing West Virginia coal miners during the 1920s. News from Ideological Antiquity: Marx - Eisenstein - Das Kapital (d. Alexander Kluge, 2008) Difficult to classify; a documentary/art film on Sergei Eisenstein, marxism, and other themes. Kluge's signature style produces some good documentary and archival details. Norma Rae (d. Martin Ritt, 1979) Mainstream Hollywood film about union organizing. October: Ten Days That Shook the World (d. Sergei Eisenstein, 1927) Dramatization of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. Our Daily Bread (d. King Vidor, 1934) Melodrama set in the Depression depicting the triumph of collectivist farming. Extremely rare for Hollywood. Roger & Me (d. Michael Moore, 1989) Influential documentary on lost automotive jobs and economic depression in the Rust Belt. Salt of the Earth (d. Herbert Biberman, 1954) Notorious communist film about the wives of mineworkers on strike in New Mexico in The Society of the Spectacle (d. Guy Debord, 1973) Debord's fourth film, which, following the book of the same name, addresses how Marx's theory of the commodity can be extended to encompass the image. Tout va bien (d. Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin, 1972) While much of Godard is relevant to marxism, Tout va bien is one of his most developed explorations of marxist critique at the level of narrative and cinematic form. The Wobblies (d. Deborah Shaffer, 2006) Documentary on the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, a.k.a. the Wobblies). Page 7 of 7

New York University Department of Media, Culture, and Communication Special Topics in Critical Theory: Marx

New York University Department of Media, Culture, and Communication Special Topics in Critical Theory: Marx Course number MCC-GE.3013 SPRING 2014 Assoc. Prof. Alexander R. Galloway Time: Wednesdays 2:00-4:50pm