Capital in the Mirror: Critical Social Theory and the Aesthetic Dimension

344 Pages·2020·1.58 MB·English

by  Dan Krier (editor), Mark P. Worrell (editor)

Capital in the Mirror
SUNY series in New Political Science
—————
Bradley J. Macdonald, editor
Capital in the Mirror
CRITICAL SOCIAL THEORY AND
THE AESTHETIC DIMENSION
Edited by
Dan Krier and Mark P. Worrell
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2020 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic,
electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise
without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Krier, Dan, 1965– editor. | Worrell, Mark P., editor.
Title: Capital in the mirror : critical social theory and the aesthetic
dimension / editors, Dan Krier, Mark Worrell.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, 2020. | Series:
SUNY series in new political science | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019016748 | ISBN 9781438477756 (hardcover : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781438477770 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Critical theory. | Capitalism—Social aspects. | Capitalism
in literature.
Classification: LCC HM480 .C37 2020 | DDC 142—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019016748
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
The Mirror of Capital: An Introduction to Critical Poiesis 1
Dan Krier and Mark P. Worrell
PART I. TWILIGHT
1. An Insane Book, an Insane Country, an Insane System:
Moby-Dick, U.S. Hegemony, and the Catastrophe of Capital 19
Tony Smith
2. Marxist Aesthetics, Realism, and Photography:
On Brecht’s War Primer 63
Christian Lotz
3. The Poetics of Nihilism: Representing Capital’s
Indifference in Dickens’ Hard Times 89
Patrick Murray and Jeanne Schuler
4. The Repressed Returns: Mann’s Doctor Faustus and the
Fugue of Capital 123
Dan Krier
PART II. DAWN
5. “Shakespearean Politics” and World History 147
Tony Smith
vi Contents
6. The Radical Implications of Hölderlin’s Aesthetic
Rationalism 185
Michael J. Thompson
7. From Mirror to Catalyst: Whitman and the Literature of
Re-Creation 213
James Block
8. The City of Brothers 223
Mark P. Worrell and Dan Krier
9. Critical Theory, Sociology, and Science-Fiction Films:
Love, Radical Transformation, and the Socio-Logic
of Capital 231
Harry F. Dahms
10. Magical Marx: Objective Method and Aesthetics 301
Mark P. Worrell
List of Contributors 323
Index 327
Acknowledgments
The editors thank Bradley J. Macdonald, series editor for the SUNY
Series in New Political Science, and Michael A. Rinella, senior editor at
SUNY Press, for their support and guidance. We wish to thank colleagues
at Iowa State University who supported the 2016 Symposium on New
Directions in Critical Social Theory, especially Chester Britt, Chair of
the Department of Sociology; Beate Schmittmann, Dean of the College
of Arts and Sciences; Arne Hallam, Associate Dean of the College of
Liberal Arts and Sciences; Chad Gasta, Chair of World Languages and
Cultures; Heimir Geirsson, Chair of Philosophy and Religious Studies:
and Christopher Hopkins, Director of the Center for Excellence in Arts
and Humanities. We thank Kevin Amidon and Giles Fowler for their
thoughtful comments on several chapters. We also extend our gratitude
to faculty, students, and staff in ISU’s Department of Sociology who
assisted with the symposium or with the preparation of this manuscript,
including Leanna Bouffard, Rachel Burlingame, Sydney Dighton, Deb
McKay, Nick Van Berkum, and Danqing Yu.
vii

The Mirror of Capital
An Introduction to Critical Poiesis
Dan Krier and Mark P. Worrell
Critical theorists periodically anticipate the demise of capitalism like
presumptive heirs in detective fiction; they hover around the sickbed
of a despised aunt straining to hear the rattle of death in each phlegm-
filled hack. The last such scene began a decade ago, when localized
financial crises spread globally, leading to severe recession, septicemia,
and a terminal diagnosis by critical theorists. In fiction, the dying testa-
trix often rallies to an inconvenient recovery that disappoints her heirs,
embarrassed in their desire for premature burial. Similarly, capitalism
perpetually rebounds from crises, evading the grave prepared for it by
dismayed critical theorists. Of course, Marx dispelled all doubt about the
dynamics of capital and its ultimate fate over 150 years ago: one fine
day, in the fullness of time, it will die. Eventually, in the midst of some
future crisis, one sickbed prognostication will turn out to be correct, and
capital will go the way of all flesh. Critical theorists have always been
right about capitalism’s impending doom, but the manner and timing of
its inevitable passing remains in question.
To comprehend capitalism’s resilience, critical theorists have been
led beyond the field of political economy onto the wider plain of aes-
thetics. Critical theory first ventured into the aesthetic dimension when
Eduard Fuchs completed his pioneering historical-m aterialist analyses of
Western popular culture (Amidon & Krier, 2017). This foray continued
1