InfinityforMarxists Historical Materialism Book Series EditorialBoard LorenBalhorn(Berlin) DavidBroder(Rome) SebastianBudgen(Paris) SteveEdwards(London) JuanGrigera(London) MarcelvanderLinden(Amsterdam) PeterThomas(London) GavinWalker(Montréal) volume 281 Thetitlespublishedinthisseriesarelistedatbrill.com/hm TheLibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationDataisavailableonlineathttp://catalog.loc.gov lcrecordavailableathttp://lccn.loc.gov/2022059002 TypefacefortheLatin,Greek,andCyrillicscripts:“Brill”.Seeanddownload:brill.com/brill‑typeface. issn1570-1522 isbn978-90-04-53684-5(hardback) isbn978-90-04-53685-2(e-book) Copyright2023byChristopherNealon.PublishedbyKoninklijkeBrillnv,Leiden,TheNetherlands. KoninklijkeBrillnvincorporatestheimprintsBrill,BrillNijhoff,BrillHotei,BrillSchöningh,BrillFink, Brillmentis,Vandenhoeck&Ruprecht,Böhlau,V&RunipressandWageningenAcademic. KoninklijkeBrillnvreservestherighttoprotectthispublicationagainstunauthorizeduse.Requestsfor re-useand/ortranslationsmustbeaddressedtoKoninklijkeBrillnvviabrill.comorcopyright.com. Thisbookisprintedonacid-freepaperandproducedinasustainablemanner. If theinfiniteisunknowable,wearepowerless.Forourconceptof theinfiniteisourconceptofourselvesandourpossibilities. gillianrose ∵ Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1 CampMessianism,ortheHopesofPoetryinLate-Late Capitalism 13 2 ThePoeticCase 35 3 ReadingonTheLeft 58 4 Affect,Performativity,andActuallyExistingPoetry 89 5 InfinityforMarxists 107 6 ThePrynneReflex 126 7 ThePriceofValue 145 8 TheAnti-humanistTone 158 9 Modernism,CriticalTheory,andtheDesireforObjecthood 174 10 LiteraryandEconomicValue(withJoshuaClover) 195 11 Abstraction,Intuition,Poetry 214 References 247 Index 260 Acknowledgments Iamgratefultotheeditorsofthejournalsandvolumesinwhichtheseessays firstappeared,andtoanonymousreviewerswhoreadthem.Theyareasfol- lows: ‘CampMessianism,OrTheHopesofPoetryinLate-LateCapitalism’:American Literature(2004)76(3):579–602 ‘ThePoeticCase’:CriticalInquiry(2007)33(4):865–86 ‘ReadingonTheLeft’:Representations(2009)108(1):22–50 ‘Affect,Performativity,andActuallyExistingPoetry’:TextualPractice(2011)25 (2):265–83 ‘InfinityforMarxists’:Mediations:JournaloftheMarxistLiteraryGroup(online, 2015):47–64 ‘ThePrynneReflex’:TheClaudiusApp(online,2013). ‘ThePriceofValue’:inRónánMcDonalded.,TheValuesofLiteraryStudies:Crit- icalInstitutions,ScholarlyAgendas(Cambridge:Cambridgeup,2015):91–104 ‘TheAntihumanistTone’:inAlexHouened.,AffectandLiterature(Cambridge: Cambridgeup,2020):267–83. ‘Modernism, CriticalTheory, Rhetoric’: in Stefanos Geroulanos, Peter Struck, andSophiaRosenfeld,eds.ACulturalHistoryofIdeas(Bloomsbury,2021) ‘LiteraryandEconomicValue’:OxfordResearchEncyclopediaofLiterature(on- line,2017) ‘Abstraction,Intuition,Poetry’:elh88.2(Summer2021):387–420. Ihavebenefittedovertheyearsfromthegenerosityofmoreinterlocutorsthan Icanrecall,butIwouldespeciallyliketothankmystudentsandcolleagues, present and former, at uc Berkeley and Johns Hopkins.Thanks to Sebastian Budgen,SteveEdwards,andDannyHaywardatBrillandtheHistoricalMater- ialism Book Series, for enabling me to pull these essays together in a single volume,andtoAlexLewisforhisexpertcopyeditingof thefinalmanuscript. Thanks,finally,tothemanyauthorsof hmvolumeswhoseworkhaschanged howIthinkandwriteaboutcapitalism.Iamhonouredtobeinyourcompany.