Page 136 - Cultural Studies Dictionary

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Marx, Karl (1818–1883) Karl Marx was a German philosopher, economist and
revolutionary of Jewish lineage whose work spawned Marxism as a stream of
thought. The key influences on his work were German philosophy, notably that of
Hegel, and English political economy, including the writings of Adam Smith. Marx
is most closely associated with an analysis of capitalism as a class-based system of
exploitation and the need to transcend it with an egalitarian socialist/communist
society. Marx argued in favour of a philosophy of historical materialism that could
grasp the historical specificity of human affairs in the context of the material
conditions of existence. Thus human consciousness and culture were to be
explained in the context of the primary influence of economic and class structures.
• Associated concepts Alienation, base and superstructure, capitalism, class,
commodification, cultural materialism, ideology, political economy.
• Tradition(s) Marxism.
• Reading Marx, K. (1954) Capital, Vols 1–3. London: Lawrence and Wishart.

Marxism Marxism can make a strong claim to being the most important theoretical
paradigm within cultural studies at the moment of its institutional foundation
though its pre-eminence has arguably been superseded by that of poststructuralism.
Cultural studies writers have had a long, ambiguous but productive relationship
with Marxism so that, while cultural studies is not a Marxist domain per se, it has
drawn succour from it while also subjecting it to critique. Indeed, many of the
leading figures associated with the ‘origins’ of cultural studies – Williams,
Thompson, Hall – all engaged with Marxism as an economic, social, cultural and
political theory of immense importance. Stuart Hall, perhaps the most significant
figure in contemporary cultural studies, still makes claims to be ‘a Marxist’ though
post-Marxism is perhaps a more prudent designation.
As its name implies, Marxism is a body of though derived from the work of Karl
Marx which dates from the mid-nineteenth century and stresses the determining
role of the material conditions of existence, the development and dynamics of
capitalism and the historical specificity of human affairs. The central place of class
conflict in Marxist theory and the promise of a classless society supply Marxism
with its claim to be an emancipatory philosophy of social equality. Marxism is,
above all, a form of historical materialism that stresses the changeable character of
social formations whose core features are located in the material conditions of
existence.
Marx argued that the first priority of human beings is the production of their
means of subsistence through labour power and the use of tools. Thus the means

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