Marxist (n.) 1886, "a devotee of the teachings of German political theorist Karl Marx" (1818-1883), from French marxiste. The adjective, "of or pertaining to the socialist doctrines and theories of Karl Marx," is attested from 1884.[1]
Questions over the adaptability of marxism and its association with crimes, such as crimes against humanity, has led some to refer to themselves as post-marxist and/or post-communist.
Marxism is a method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict as well as a dialectical perspective to view social transformation.[2]
Adaptability and contradictions[]
The development of Marxist theory and politics in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries has been characterized by debates and conflicts over the boundaries to and best interpretation of Marx’s work. Marx’s work is sufficiently incomplete, fissured and contradictory to lend itself to such disputes, particularly as, con�trary to Marx’s own wishes, interpretation of his work became reified and synonymous with holding the high ground in the socialist analysis of capitalism. Hence it is possible to look at such diverse traditions as critical theory, Trotskyist analyses, Leninist democratic centralism and the Eurocommunist reading of Gramsci’s writings and see departures from Marx and continuities with Marx. The question of when a particular theoretical exposition moves from a balance of continuities with Marx’s core categories and analyses to divergences beyond them has been a prevalent feature of Marxists’, rather than post-Marxists’, cri�tiques of ‘Marxist’ works.
Post-marxism[]
Post-Marxism is a an umbrella term for a range of positions that claim to challenge, reinterpret or reject key features of Marxist thinking. "Sim, taking a lead from Laclau and Mouffe’s Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, distinguishes two forms of post-Marxism:"
To be post-Marxist is to have turned one’s back on the principles of Marxism (the case of Jean-Francois Lyotard or Jean Baudrillard . . .); whereas to be post-Marxist is, in the style of Laclau and Mouffe, to attempt to graft recent theoretical developments in post-structuralism, deconstruction, post-modernism and feminism, such that Marxism can be made relevant to a new cultural climate . . . One could sum up post-Marxism as a series of hostile and/or revisionary responses from classical Marxism . . . by figures who at one time . . . would have considered themselves as Marxists, or whose thought processes had been significantly shaped by the classical Marxist tradition.[3]
"This simplification distinguishes ‘anti-Marxists’ who reject Marxism, and those who transgress its fundamental categories in the belief that such transgression moves forward the spirit of Marxist enterprise – a radical project of human emancipation." Post-Marxism is a trend in political philosophy and social theory which deconstructs Karl Marx's writings and Marxism proper, bypassing orthodox Marxism. The term post-Marxism first appeared in Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe's theoretical work Hegemony and Socialist Strategy.[4] " (post-Marxism) The development of radical reworkings of Marxism from the late 1970s, arising in reaction to classical Marxist materialism, economism, historical determinism, anti-humanism, and class reductionism and influenced by poststructuralism and postmodernism, notably in the rejection of grand narratives (including classical Marxism itself). These emerged in the late 1970s, associated with theorists such as Lyotard, Baudrillard, Foucault, the Argentine political theorist Ernesto Laclau (b.1935), the Belgian political theorist Chantal Mouffe (b.1943), and Stuart Hall."[5] 2. (post-Marxism) Sometimes loosely referring to an abandonment of Marxism by many former Marxists, particularly after the collapse of Soviet communism in Eastern Europe in 1989–91, when the Marxism which had animated cultural studies in the 1960s and 1970s was widely disavowed.[5]
- ↑ Origin and meaning of marxist by Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com).
- ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism#:~:text=Marxism%20is%20a%20method%20of,perspective%20to%20view%20social%20transformation.
- ↑ Reynolds, P. (2000). Post-Marxism: Radical Political Theory and Practice Beyond Marxism? Marxism, the Millennium and Beyond, 257–279. doi:10.1057/9780230518766_13
- ↑ Wikipedia.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 A Dictionary of Media and Communication.