Art, Literature and Culture from a Marxist Perspective

This title offers a Marxist take on a selection of artistic and cultural achievements from the rap music of Tupac Shakur to the painting of Van Gogh, from HBO's Breaking Bad to Balzac's Cousin Bette , from the magical realm of Harry Potter to the apocalyptic landscape of The Walking Dead , from The Hunger Games to Game of Thrones .

My strongest recommendation is to read Tony McKenna's book as an exercise in Marxist dialectics. Not only will it help you to understand Tupac Shakur and Vincent Van Gogh better it will arm you for the big battles we face down the road. (The Unrepentent Marxist, louisproyect.org, May, 2016)

Tony McKenna's book illustrates both the possibility and relevance of a consistent Marxist approach to culture, which understands it both as a social product and as autonomous art in its own right. McKenna writes like a fan, and thus speaks to the fan in all of us. As a result he has produced a work which should enrich our understanding of both popular culture and the Marxist tradition, and is almost as enjoyable as its subjects. (Dan Swain, Marx and Philosophy Reviews, marxandphilosophy.org.uk, February, 2016)

Autorentext
Tony McKenna is a philosopher and journalist whose work has been featured in many publications including The Huffington Post, ABC Australia, The United Nations, The Progressive, New Statesman, New Internationalist, New Humanist, Adbusters, In These Times, Critique: Journal of Socialist Theory, Science and Society, Socialism and Democracy, Rethinking Marxism, Overland Literary Journal, Ceasefire Magazine and Marx and Philosophy Review of Books.

Inhalt

Introduction

1. Breaking Bad: Capital as Cancer
2. In Time: The First Hollywood Movie of the Occupy Wall Street Era
3. The Walking Dead: The Archetype of the Zombie in the Modern Epoch
4. Let Me In: The Figure of the Vampire as Kantian Noumenal
5. True Detective and Capitalist Development in its Twilight Phase
6. Tupac Shakur: History ' 's Poet
7. Vincent Van Gogh
8. The Song of Achilles: How the Future Transforms the Past
9. Barbara Kingsolver ' 's The Lacuna and the Nature of the Historical Novel
10. Balzac ' 's Women and the Impossibility of Redemption in Cousin Bette
11. The Wife - A Study in Patriarchy and Veiled Oppression
12. The Vigilante in Film: The Movement from Death-Wish, to Batman, to Taxi-driver
13. A Mirror into our World: The Radical Politics of Game of Thrones
14. Harry Potter and the Modern Age
15. The Hunger Games Trilogy - Art for the Occupy Era
16. The Politics of Deduction: Why has Sherlock Holmes Proven so Durable
17. Literary Love as Transcendental Sublime: Wuthering Heights and The Sea, The Sea
18. Brief Loves that Live Forever: the Historical Melancholy of Andreï Makine
19. John William ' 's novel Stoner and the Dialectic of the Infinite and Finite
20. From Tragedy to Farce: The Comedy of Ricky Gervais as Capitalist Critique