Department of English

This course will focus on the works of Marx, with an eye to how those works, and selected subsequent commentary on those works, help us to think about globality. We will bring a philosophical and rhetorical attention to Marx’s writings in order to see how those writings might be appropriated in unorthodox ways to generate cultural criticism in a global frame. We will begin by familiarizing ourselves with Marx’s early writings, paying particular attention both to the hinge between idealism and materialism and to Marx’s method of interpretation. We will then closely consider Marx’s writings on the theory of value; global capitalism; and nationalism, colonialism, slavery, and imperialism.