The Ghost is Back, Again

Karl Marx and the Golem Narrative

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2404599
AutoresG Yair (0000-0003-3376-1132, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel,, autor de correspondencia), Michaela Soyer (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel,, autor de correspondencia)
Año2008
Volumen8
Número3
Páginas323-343
Fecha de publicación2008-08-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Classical Sociology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1468-795X • E-ISSN: 1741-2897
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1468795x08092382
OpenAlexW1995798189
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas3
Referencias citadas16

This paper proposes to re-read Marx's oeuvre through the cultural narrative of the Golem. It suggests that this narrative reappeared in the writings of Karl Marx throughout his career. There are three typical parts in this narrative: (a) the will of men to be empowered; (b) the use of a non-human material instrument to garner this power; culminating in (c) the instrument developing an autonomous spirit, which fatefully makes it turn against its master, leading to personal alienation and social destruction. This paper shows that the three-part composition of the Golem reappears in Marx's writings while focusing on four major topics: the dialectical analysis of history; the historical development of capitalism and its expected eventual demise; the theory of alienation; and his conception of the fetishism of machines, money, and commodities

Aesthetics · Alienation · Art · Capitalism · Demise · Dialectic · Epistemology · Fetishism · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Anthropology · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism