So Veeky Forums i'm taking a seminar on marxist theory in the fall, what are the essentials of marxist criticism/theory...

so Veeky Forums i'm taking a seminar on marxist theory in the fall, what are the essentials of marxist criticism/theory? essentials meaning works, points, ideas, etc.

read marx

prof said we'll also be reading post-structuralist stuff and new historicism so what are some essentials of those?

don't bother, it is total failure and should be disregarded like all idealist philosophies for anything other that historical interest

the only other senior seminars being offered are Literature and Religion, and Author Studies: Edgar Allan Poe. I like Poe but have read most of his works already

Honestly you're probably so fucking new at this shit you're better off just waiting until the course and listening to your professor

I like to get a headstart what can I say

Start with the greeks

Start with John Green.

Eventually, you'll run out of other people's money

Essential works:

Lukacs' early work collected in History and Class consciousness, most importantly "reification and the consciousness of the proletariat"
Adorno and Horkheimer: dialectic of enlightenment
Adorno: minima moralia, aesthetic theory, negative dialectics (although the english translation of this is so bad just ignore it if you cant read german)
horkheimer's essay traditional and critical theory
Walter Benjamin--the work of art in the age of its mechanical reproducability

fredric jameson's marxism and form is great
michael rosen--on voluntary servitude
allen wood--marx
raymond geuss--the idea of a critical theory


the most interesting conceps are reification and ideology. i don't know what else you will be reading, if you will be getting into Marx's theory of history or labor theory of value or whatever.

also the analytical marxist school is quite good...g.a. (jerry) cohen is the most prominent person.

prof said we'll be reading das kapital and some other marx

also said barthes too

okay, well that's good. I would start with marx's early works, on the jewish question and his economic and philosophical manuscripts of 1844. wood's book on marx is probably the best general intro i know of. barthes is trash, but as a rule of thumb everything written in french is trash.

thanks for being helpful my dude

no problem friend. have fun.

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHHHH

kill me already

Can you explain what you find so humorous?

>the jewish question

>tfw marx's entire body of work is just sublimation of anger at jews because he was broke and in debt

the jewish question isn't an anti-semitic work. you are silly.

marx was a jew fuccboi

marx was an atheist, and while his mother was somewhat religious he father converted to lutheranism and was secular

"Let us consider the actual, worldly Jew – not the Sabbath Jew, as Bauer does, but the everyday Jew.

Let us not look for the secret of the Jew in his religion, but let us look for the secret of his religion in the real Jew.

What is the secular basis of Judaism? Practical need, self-interest. What is the worldly religion of the Jew? Huckstering. What is his worldly God? Money.

The Jew has emancipated himself in a Jewish manner, not only because he has acquired financial power, but also because, through him and also apart from him, money has become a world power and the practical Jewish spirit has become the practical spirit of the Christian nations. The Jews have emancipated themselves insofar as the Christians have become Jews.

In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism."