Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning, and the New International ANNOTATION
This major new book from a renowned French philosopher represents his first important statement on Marx. Within the context of a critique of the new dogmatism and "new world order" that have proclaimed the death of Marxism, Derrida explores the seemingly haunted language used in Marx's The Manifesto of the Communist Party.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Specters of Marx is a major new book from the renowned French philosopher Jacques Derrida. It represents his first important statement on Marx and his definitive entry into social and political philosophy. ``Specter'' is the first noun one reads in The Manifesto of the Communist Party. But that's just the beginning. Once you start to notice them, there is no counting all the ghosts, spirits, specters and spooks that crowd Marx's text. If they are to count for something, however, one must question the spectropoetics that Marx allowed to invade his discourse. In Specters of Marx, Derrida undertakes this task within the context of a critique of the new dogmatism and ``new world order'' that have proclaimed the death of Marxism and of Marx.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
Linking Hamlet's ghost with the opening of the Communist Manifesto, the noted French philosopher (Aporias, LJ 2/15/94) meditates on the state and future of Marxism since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Developing two highly expanded lectures, Derrida notes that the current talk of the "new world order" and "the end of history" is the recurrence of a old debate, an attempt to exorcise the "spirit" represented by Marxism, just as Marx was concerned with the "ghosts" and "conjuring" of capitalism. Derrida argues that the deconstructive doctrine of "diffrance" and Marxism as an act posit many Marxisms. It is therefore the interpreter's duty to preserve the spirit of Marxism by pursuing the ghosts and laying bare the conjurings. This is Derrida's first major statement on Marx; an important book for academic collections.-T.L. Cooksey, Armstrong State Coll., Savannah, Ga.
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