NYU Reading Group (Fall 2017-Winter 2018): What is the Left? What is Marxism?
NYU Reading Group (Fall 2017 â Winter 2018): What is the Left? What is Marxism?
- required/ + recommended reading
- Marx and Engels readings pp. from Robert C. Tucker, ed., Marx-Engels Reader (Norton 2nd ed., 1978)
Week A. Radical bourgeois philosophy I. Rousseau: Crossroads of society | Aug. 7, 2017
Whoever dares undertake to establish a peopleâs institutions must feel himself capable of changing, as it were, human nature, of transforming each individual, who by himself is a complete and solitary whole, into a part of a larger whole, from which, in a sense, the individual receives his life and his being, of substituting a limited and mental existence for the physical and independent existence. He has to take from man his own powers, and give him in exchange alien powers which he cannot employ without the help of other men.
-- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, On the Social Contract (1762)
- Max Horkheimer, "The little man and the philosophy of freedom"(1926â31)
- epigraphs on modern history and freedom by James Miller(on Jean-Jacques Rousseau), Louis Menand(on Edmund Wilson), Karl Marx, on "becoming" (from the Grundrisse, 1857â58), and Peter Preuss (on Nietzsche)
+ Rainer Maria Rilke, "Archaic Torso of Apollo" (1908)
+ Robert Pippin, "On Critical Theory" (2004)
+Â Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) chart of terms
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality(1754) PDFsof preferred translation (5 parts): [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
- Rousseau, selectionfrom On the Social Contract (1762)
Week B. Radical bourgeois philosophy II. Hegel: Freedom in history | Aug. 14, 2017
- G.W.F. Hegel, Introduction to the Philosophy of History(1831) [HTML] [PDF pp. 14-128] [Audiobook]
+Â Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) chart of terms
Week C. Radical bourgeois philosophy III. Nietzsche (1): Life in history | Aug. 21, 2017
- Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Use and Abuse of History for Life(1874) [translator's introduction by Peter Preuss]
+Â Nietzsche on history chart of terms
+Â Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) chart of terms
Week D. Radical bourgeois philosophy IV. Nietzsche (2): Asceticism of moderns | Aug. 28, 2017
+ Human, All Too Human: Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil (1999)
- Nietzsche, selectionfrom On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense (1873)
- Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals: A Polemic(1887)
Week E. 1960s New Left I. Neo-Marxism | 2017 U.S. Labor Day weekend (Cancelled)
- Martin Nicolaus, âThe unknown Marxâ(1968)
+Â Commodity form chart of terms
- Theodor W. Adorno, âLate Capitalism or Industrial Society?â (AKA âIs Marx Obsolete?â)(1968)
- Moishe Postone, âNecessity, labor, and timeâ(1978)
+ Postone, âInterview: Marx after Marxismâ (2008)
+ Postone, âHistory and helplessness: Mass mobilization and contemporary forms of anticapitalismâ (2006)
+ Postone, âTheorizing the contemporary world: Brenner, Arrighi, Harveyâ (2006)
Week F. 1960s New Left II. Gender and sexuality | Sep. 11, 2017
- Juliet Mitchell, âWomen: The longest revolutionâ(1966)
- Clara Zetkin and Vladimir Lenin, âAn interview on the woman questionâ(1920)
- Theodor W. Adorno, âSexual taboos and the law todayâ(1963)
- John DâEmilio, âCapitalism and gay identityâ(1983)
Week G. 1960s New Left III. Anti-black racism in the U.S. | Sep. 18, 2017
- Richard Fraser, âTwo lectures on the black question in America and revolutionary integrationismâ(1953)
- James Robertson and Shirley Stoute, âFor black Trotskyismâ(1963)
+ Spartacist League, âBlack and red: Class struggle road to Negro freedomâ (1966)
+ Bayard Rustin, âThe failure of black separatismâ (1970)
- Adolph Reed, âBlack particularity reconsideredâ(1979)
+ Reed, âPaths to Critical Theoryâ (1984)
Week H. Frankfurt School precursors | Sep. 25, 2017
- Wilhelm Reich, âIdeology as material powerâ(1933/46)
- Siegfried Kracauer, âThe mass ornamentâ(1927)
+ Kracauer, âPhotographyâ (1927)
Week 1. What is the Left? I. Capital in history | Oct. 2, 2017
- Max Horkheimer, "The little man and the philosophy of freedom"(1926â31)
- epigraphs on modern history and freedom by Louis Menand(on Marx and Engels) and Karl Marx, on "becoming"(from the Grundrisse, 1857â58)
- Chris Cutrone, "Capital in history"(2008)
+Â Capital in history timeline and chart of terms
+Â Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) chart of terms
+Â video of Communist University 2011 London presentation
- Cutrone, "The Marxist hypothesis"(2010)
- Cutrone, âClass consciousness (from a Marxist persective) todayâ
Week 2. What is the Left? II. Bourgeois society | Oct. 9, 2017
- Immanuel Kant, "Idea for a universal history from a cosmopolitan point of view"and "What is Enlightenment?"(1784)
+Â Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) chart of terms
- Benjamin Constant, "The liberty of the ancients compared with that of the moderns"(1819)
+ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the origin of inequality (1754)
+ Rousseau, selection from On the social contract (1762)
Week 3. What is the Left? III. Failure of Marxism | Oct. 16, 2017
- Max Horkheimer, selections from DĂ€mmerung(1926â31)
- Adorno, âImaginative Excessesâ(1944â47)
Week 4. What is the Left? IV. Utopia and critique | Oct. 23, 2017
- Leszek Kolakowski, âThe concept of the Leftâ(1968)
- Marx, To make the world philosophical(from Marx's dissertation, 1839â41), pp. 9â11
- Marx, For the ruthless criticism of everything existing(letter to Arnold Ruge, September 1843), pp. 12â15
Week 5. What is Marxism? I. Socialism | Oct. 30, 2017
- Marx, selections from Economic and philosophic manuscripts(1844), pp. 70â101
+Â Commodity form chart of terms
- Marx and Friedrich Engels, selectionsfrom the Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848), pp. 469-500
- Marx, Address to the Central Committee of the Communist League(1850), pp. 501â511
Week 6. What is Marxism? II. Revolution in 1848 | Nov. 6, 2017
- Marx, The coming upheaval (from The Poverty of Philosophy, 1847) and Class struggle and mode of production (letter to Weydemeyer, 1852), pp. 218-220
- Engels, The tactics of social democracy(Engels's 1895 introduction to Marx, The Class Struggles in France), pp. 556â573
- Marx, selectionsfrom The Class Struggles in France 1848â50 (1850), pp. 586â593
- Marx, selectionsfrom The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852), pp. 594â617
Week 7. What is Marxism? III. Bonapartism | Nov. 13, 2017
+ Karl Korsch, "The Marxism of the First International" (1924)
- Marx, Inaugural address to the First International(1864), pp. 512â519
- Marx, selectionsfrom The Civil War in France (1871, including Engels's 1891 Introduction), pp. 618â652
+ Korsch, Introduction to Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme (1922)
- Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme, pp. 525â541
- Marx, Programme of the Parti Ouvrier(1880)
Week 8. What is Marxism? IV. Critique of political economy | Nov. 20, 2017
+Â Commodity form chart of terms
- Marx, selections from the Grundrisse(1857â61), pp. 222â226, 236â244, 247â250, 276â293 ME Reader pp. 276-281
- Marx, CapitalVol. I, Ch. 1 Sec. 4 "The fetishism of commodities" (1867), pp. 319â329
Week 9. Nov. 27, 2017 U.S. Thanksgiving break
Week 10. What is Marxism? V. Reification | Dec. 4, 2017
- Georg LukĂĄcs, âThe phenomenon of reificationâ(Part I of âReification and the consciousness of the proletariat,â History and Class Consciousness, 1923)
+Â Commodity form chart of terms
Winter break readings
+ Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate / A&Z, Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution / Lenin for Beginners (1977)
+ Sebastian Haffner, Failure of a Revolution: Germany 1918â19 (1968)
+ Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station: A Study in the Writing and Acting of History (1940), Part II. Ch. (1â4,) 5â10, 12â16; Part III. Ch. 1â6
+ Tariq Ali and Phil Evans, Introducing Trotsky and Marxism / Trotsky for Beginners (1980)
+ James Joll, The Second International 1889â1914 (1966)
Week 11. What is Marxism? VI. Class consciousness | Dec. 11, 2017
- LukĂĄcs, Original Preface(1922), âWhat is Orthodox Marxism?â (1919), âClass Consciousnessâ (1920), History and Class Consciousness (1923)
+ Marx, Preface to the First German Edition and Afterword to the Second German Edition (1873) of Capital (1867), pp. 294â298, 299â302
Week 12. What is Marxism? VII. Ends of philosophy | Dec. 18, 2017
- Korsch, âMarxism and philosophyâ(1923)
+Â Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) chart of terms
+ Marx, To make the world philosophical (from Marx's dissertation, 1839â41), pp. 9â11
+ Marx, For the ruthless criticism of everything existing (letter to Arnold Ruge, September 1843), pp. 12â15
+ Marx, "Theses on Feuerbach" (1845), pp. 143â145