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Performing Marx: Contemporary Negotiations of a Living Tradition (S U N Y Series in Political PDF

226 Pages·2006·0.7 MB·English
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bbrraaddleleyy j .j .m maaccddoonnaaldld ing perform contemporary negotiations of a living tradition m marx Performing Marx SUNY series in Political Theory Contemporary Issues Philip Green, editor P E R F O R M I N G M A R X Contemporary Negotiations of a Living Tradition BRADLEY J. MACDONALD S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y O F N E W Y O R K P R E S S Published by State University of New York Press Albany © 2006 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, address State University of New York Press 194 Washington Avenue, Suite 305, Albany, NY 12210-2384 Production, Laurie Searl Marketing, Michael Campochiaro Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Macdonald, Bradley J. Performing Marx : contemporary negotiations of a living tradition / Bradley J. Macdonald. p. cm. — (SUNY series in political theory. Contemporary issues) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7914-6665-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Socialism—Philosophy. 2. Communism—Philosophy. 3. Marx, Karl, 1818–1883. I. Title. II. Series. HX73.M315 2006 320.53'15—dc22 2005008566 ISBN-13: 978-0-7914-6665-0 (hardcover : alk. paper) 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction Genealogies of Performance 1 One Marx and Living Traditions 13 Two Marx and Desire 31 Three Ecologizing Marx? William Morris and a Genealogy of Ecosocialism 47 Four Marx and a Politics of Everyday Life: Revisiting Situationist Theory 67 Five Finding Marx Through Foucault 91 Six (Re)Marx on the Political: Antonio Negri, Antagonism, and the Politics of the Multitude 113 Conclusion Globalizing Marx? Radical Politics in the Twenty-first Century 139 Notes 165 Index 199 v Acknowledgments AS WITH ALL WORKS that have developed over a number of years, the ideas and arguments that would become Performing Marx began in fits and starts, originally articulated in articles, essays, and papers delivered to different audi- ences and published in different forums. This means, of course, that there are many individuals who have been part of this intellectual process and who have been extremely instrumental in helping me bring this manuscript to publication. First, I want to thank Michael Rinella at SUNY Press for being quick to see the worth of this book and getting the comments of two anony- mous reviewers to me in seemingly record fashion. This, I think, speaks to the incredible efficiency—and deserved reputation—of their editorial process. Along the way of formulating my ideas and arguments, I was helped immensely by discussions and dialogues with the following individuals, many of whom read and commented on aspects of this manuscript: Clyde Barrow, Terrell Carver, William Chaloupka, William Connolly, Zillah Eisenstein, Manfred Enssle, Keith Foskin, Kevin Foskin, Eugene Holland, Timothy Luke, Peter McLaren, William Niemi, Dan O’Connor, Manfred Steger, Paul Trem- bath, and Jim Wiltgen. As we have learned in different ways from the thought of Marx and Niet- zsche, intellectual work is never the result of a disembodied intellectual exis- tence; it can only flourish in a rich soil of affective and social support. In this respect, I want to thank Susanne for continuing to provide such a fertile ground, a provision that has meant many hours of my absence in the life of a relationship. I am grateful for kind permission from copyright holders to republish the following in revised and/or partial form: chapter 1, “Marxism as a Living Tra- dition: Some Metatheoretical Issues,” Strategies: Journal of Theory, Culture, and Politics, Volume 12, Number 2, 1999, pp. 203–217 (see http://tandf.co.uk/jour- nals); chapter 2, “Marx and the Figure of Desire,” Rethinking Marxism, Volume 11, Number 4, 1999, pp. 21–37 (see http://tandf.co.uk/journals); chapter 3, vii viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS “Eco/Theory at the Millenium,” Strategies: Journal of Theory, Culture, and Pol- itics, Volume 13, Number 1, pp. 5–8, and, “William Morris and the Vision of Ecosocialism,” Contemporary Justice Review, Volume 7, Number 3, 2004, pp. 287–303 (see http://tandf.co.uk/journals); chapter 4, “From the Spectacle to Unitary Urbanism: Reassessing Situationist Theory,” Rethinking Marxism, Vol- ume 8, Number 2, 1995, pp. 89–111 (see http://tandf.co.uk/journals); chapter 5, “Marx, Foucault, Genealogy,” Polity, Volume XXXIV, Number 3, Spring 2002, pp. 259–284; and, chapter 6, “Thinking Through Marx: An Introduc- tion to the Political Theory of Antonio Negri,” Strategies: Journal of Theory, Culture, and Politics, Volume 16, Number 2, 2003, pp. 85–95 (see http://tandf. co.uk/journals). INTRODUCTION Genealogies of Performance Performance will be to the twentieth and twenty-first centuries what discipline was to the eighteenth and nineteenth: an onto-historical formation of power and knowledge. —Jon McKenzie IN A THEORETICAL tour de force, Jon McKenzie argues in Perform or Else (2001) that our current world is increasingly defined by performance.1 In this discussion, McKenzie focuses on the interrelated and multi-layered perfor- mance discourses that have increasingly infiltrated our lives in organiza- tional, technological, and socio-cultural ways. For McKenzie, at least, such a recognition of our transformed social and cultural conditions is important (that is, a transformation from “discipline” to the mutational, post-Fordist logic of “performance” as a contemporary discourse of domination and con- trol), for it allows us to perceive the limitations of our previous conceptual- izations and look toward new pathways of struggle that tweak and contest our current normative horizons, modes of resistance he argues are best captured by the neologism “perfumance.”2 The latter represent the always already counter-performances inscribed within the normative matrixes of our perfor- mance regimes. While performances demand adherence, such a demand is always undermined by the contingency of their enactment. In a sense, though not raised by McKenzie, such an “onto-historical” discussion could not be more relevant to our understanding of Karl Marx’s theory in the twenty-first century: in what way can Marx’s ideas “perform” and/or “perfume” in our cur- rent context? Thus, in what ways have Marx’s ideas been a part of the nor- mative horizon of performances in our world? Importantly, how do Marx’s ideas and concepts represent, if at all, lines of flight, destratifying molecular struggles, a conceptual “perfumance” in the way that McKenzie indicates? 1

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