Marxism and Critical Theory

The syllabus includes key concepts of the philosophy of Marx and their application to new developments in contemporary critical theory.
Main topics:
- Marx, Engels and the end of German classical philosophy; critique of Hegel and the Hegelians; Marx's critique of political economy; Engels's critique of anthropology; history of Marxist movement; the role of Lenin, Lukacs, Gramsci, Althusser, etc.; possible applications to feminism.
- Critical theory, Adorno and Horkheimer; Marcuse's critique of Soviet Marxism and his critique of neofreudian revisionism; Reich and mass psychology of fascism; Žižek's analysis of pathological Narcissism and capitalism, etc.
- What is critique?; Kant and the role of his critiques; Foucault's critique of Kant; Foucault and Deleuze; Deleuze, Guattari and the importance of their critique of Marx and Freud; capitalism and schizophrenia; materialist psychiatry, schizoanalysis and micropolitics.
- Ideas and ideologies; the concept of ideology in Marx; Althusser, ideology and ideological state apparatuses; Althusser on Marx and Freud; Lacan's return to Freud; Balibar and philosophy of Marx; Žižek's concept of ideological phantasm.
- The role of feminism; Marx, Engels and material production; production of things and production of people; division of labour and gender; exchange of goods and exchange of women; critique of Lévi-Strauss in Beauvoir and Althusser; Beauvoir and her critique of historical materialism; the concept of the second sex; class struggle and the war between the sexes; body, power, gender; the role of Marxism in feminist movement; the role of later Althusser and his aleatory materialism.

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Bahovec, Eva D. (2023). Foucaultova kraljevska pot med filozofijo, zgodovino in psihoanalizo. Ljubljana: Znanstvena založba FF. COBISS.SI-ID - 142028035
Balibar, Etienne (2002). Marxova filozofija. Ljubljana: Krtina. COBISS.SI-ID - 118983168
Beauvoir, Simone de (2013). Drugi spol. 2. zv. Ljubljana: Krtina. COBISS.SI-ID - 267117568
Foucault, Michel (2004). Nadzorovanje in kaznovanje. Nastanek zapora. Ljubljana: Krtina. COBISS.SI-ID - 216378368
Marx, Karl in Friedrich Engels (1979). Izbrana dela v petih zvezkih. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba. COBISS.SI-ID - 11644929
Žižek, Slavoj (2010). Začeti od začetka: čitanka. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba. COBISS.SI-ID - 250350592