Conjuring hope out of leftist melancholy

Thinking through recent scholarship on neoliberalism and the legacy of socialism

Bibliographic Data

ID13120027
AuthorsViren Murthy (0000-0001-6011-9319, University of Wisconsin–Madison, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume21
Issue2
Pages231-253
Publication date2018-05-08
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Labor and Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2471-4607 • E-ISSN: 2667-3657
PublisherBrill (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1111/wusa.12328
OpenAlexW2801899274
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited17

This essay examines the work of Enzo Traverso, Johanna Bockman and Wang Hui while asking about the legacy of socialism in the current neoliberal moment. Traverso's Leftist Melancholia traces how leftists went from being melancholic about the future to giving up on the socialist project. Bockman's Markets Against Socialism attempts to infuse hope into our present by uncovering the concealed history of the role of markets in actually existing socialism and in the formation of neo-liberalism. She contends that neo-liberalism effaced any trace of such a history, which could point the way beyond capitalism. Wang Hui brings a different perspective by theorizing from the global south and from China in particular. He consequently highlights the problems of imperialism and class in twentieth century socialist history. As I articulate the arguments of these three books, I draw on recent Marxist theorists, such as Moishe Postone and Jacques Bidet to construct a theory of capitalism that can make sense of the problems and possibilities associated with our global capitalist present. In short, I argue that theories of socialism must highlight the potential of class and anti-imperialist struggles by placing them within the larger vortex of capitalist and state dynamics

Capitalism · Class conflict · Communism · Left-wing politics · Liberalism · Marxist philosophy · Neoliberalism (international relations · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Scholarship · Socialism · Sociology · State socialism · Elite Sociology and Global Capitalism · Law · Political Economy and Marxism · Political theory and Gramsci

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