The Crisis of Marxism

In this book, Elías José Palti analyzes the writings of key thinkers who have theorised the present situation of Marxism: Anderson, Jameson, Laclau, Zizek, Butler, Badiou and Derrida. The Crisis of Marxism aspires to clarify why the current crisis of Marxism contains some fundamental clues for it.

In this book, Elías J. Palti analyzes the writings of key thinkers who have theorized the present situation of Marxism: Perry Anderson, Fredric Jameson, Ernesto Laclau, Slavoj Zizek, Judith Butler, Alain Badiou, and Jacques Derrida. His aim is to interrogate what appears to be the final crisis of Marxist political tradition from a historical-intellectual point of view, placing it within a broader framework, which is the present crisis of politics, at large. Yet, it also reveals why we cannot, even then, avoid confronting it, stubbornly trying to think of what seems to be unthinkable today, namely, the idea of an emancipatory horizon.

Unlike traditional works of political philosophy, The Crisis of Marxism: A Historical-Intellectual Problem does not intend to provide political or philosophical answers to today's dislocation of politics. Instead, it aspires to clarify the nature of the questions that such a situation raises and demonstrates why the current crisis of Marxism contains some fundamental clues for it.

Autorentext

Elías J. Palti obtained his doctoral degree from the University of California at Berkeley. He is currently a consulting professor at the University of Buenos Aires and formerly was the director of the Center for Intellectual History at the National University of Quilmes and a principal researcher at Argentina's National Research Council (CONICET). Palti has published widely in the field of intellectual history across six different languages. His more recent publications include An Archaeology of the Political: Regimes of Power from the Seventeenth Century to the Present (2017), Misplaced Ideas: Political-Intellectual History in Latin America (2024), and Political-Intellectual History and the Problem of Conceptual Change (2024).

Inhalt

Preface to the English Edition. Prologue. Introduction: Crisis of Ideas and Ideas of Crisis: Marxism as a Laboratory. PART I: Marxism's Truth and Knowledge in the "Short 20th Century" 1. Knowledge without Truth: (Perry Anderson and Fredric Jameson: Marxism and Postmodernism) 2. Trotskyism as the Implicit Truth of Marxism: Nahuel Moreno: History, Contingency, and Tragic Sense PART II: Marxism in the Post-Tragic Scene 3. Truth as a Postulate: Ernesto Laclau and Slavoj iek: The Real and the Imaginary of Marxism 4. Truth as Promise: Jacques Derrida and His Specters 5. Truth as a Bet: Alain Badiou and the "Experience of the Disaster" Epilogue: The Quest for the Politics of Our Time