Magical Marxism
Subtitle: subversive politics and the imagination
By: Andy Merrifield
Series: Marxism and culture
Publisher: Pluto Press; Distributed in the United States of America exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2011
Place of publication: London; New York; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 220
ISBN-13: 9780745330600; 9780745330594
Subjects: Communism; Communism and society
Description: Following his hugely popular book, The Wisdom of Donkeys, Andy Merrifield breathes new life into the Marxist tradition. Magical Marxism demands something more of traditional Marxism -- something more interesting and liberating. It asks that we imagine a Marxism that moves beyond debates about class, the role of the state and the dictatorship of the proletariat. In escaping the formalist straitjacket of orthodox Marxist critique, Merrifield argues for a reconsideration of Marxism and its potential, applying previously unexplored approaches to Marxist thinking that will reveal vital new modes of political activism and debate. This book will provoke and inspire in equal measure. It gives us a Marxism for the 21st century, which offers dramatic new possibilities for political engagement.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Table of contents: title: The circulation of revolt : real and fictitious Marxism; title: Living an illusion : beyond the reality of realism; title: Subscribing to the imaginary party : notes on a politics of neo-communism; title: Spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling : activism and immateriality; title: Militant optimism and the great escape from capitalism; title: Macondo of the mind : imagination seizes power; title: Butterflies, owls, and little gold fishes : conjuring up revolutionary magic.