Western Marxism

by José Guilherme Merquior

Chama-se marxismo ocidental à corrente dos intelectuais de esquerda que expressaram reservas em relação ao socialismo autoritário e que concentraram a aplicação dos conceitos marxistas na análise dos temas da cultura, muito mais que na dos problemas econômicos. Expondo com detalhes as suas fontes – em Hegel e Marx –, os seus fundamentos – em Lukács e Gramsci – e as suas implicações – em Benjamin, Adorno, Horkheimer, Sartre, Althusser, Marcuse, Habermas, entre outros –, José Guilherme Merquior sustenta que a crítica cultural empreendida por tais pensadores foi, com variações de grau, abstrata e generalizante. "O Marxismo Ocidental" foi elogiado por John Gray, eleito “livro do ano” no Financial Times e editado em espanhol por Octavio Paz. Esta reedição inclui uma extensa galeria de fac-símiles de reportagens, cartas e manuscritos relacionados à obra.“Livrinho brilhante, envolvido de rigor acadêmico e rebentando em deliciosas digressões, (...) um ensaio de história intelectual conduzido como um extenso exercício de ironia.” – John Gray, The Times Literary Supplement“Uma consideração refinada, desapaixonada e absolutamente devastadora do ‘comunismo cultural’ no Ocidente.” – George Watson, ao eleger a obra seu “book of the year” (“livro do ano”) no Financial Times.

Genres: Politics, Philosophy

Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marxist Kulturkritik

Our author (JG Merquior), throughout this book, argues that Western Marxism (WM) is little more than a marxisant Kulturkritik. I should note that he does except Habermas, stating that,
"if one grants that, as a whole, WM prior to him [i.e., Habermas], in so far as it pronounced on substantive history, partook in the bleak anathema cast by the Kulturkritik upon modern civilization, it would be no exaggeration to say that in WM a surplus-meaning was extracted from Marxism by the luminaries of a humanist clerisy at war with modernity."
For all our (and, yes, mine too) love for WM, it really is hard to argue the point... Jettisoning (for the most part) the possibility of revolution, all that was left was the criticism. And we ended up here in late modernity with left and right-wing pessimism playing piggy-in-the-middle with the oh-so-satisfied bourgeoisie.
Oh youth! Those were my formative years, reading old right / libertarian screeds alongside WM critiques of the modern world.
Unfortunately, none of them ever guessed how bad things would actually turn out... Even the few who really thought a new barbarism was on the horizon never anticipated anything like the (so-called) Islamic State, - where torture and rape are considered talking points!
Now, this attack on WM as hand-wringing culture critique certainly isn't unique to our author. For instance, Lukács, himself an erstwhile founder of WM, writes,
"A considerable part of the leading German intelligentsia, including Adorno, have taken up residence in the Grand Hotel Abyss which I described in connection with my critique of Schopenhauer as 'a beautiful hotel, equipped with every comfort, on the edge of an abyss, of nothingness, of absurdity. And the daily contemplation of the abyss between excellent meals or artistic entertainments, can only heighten the enjoyment of the subtle comforts offered.' (Lukács, "The Theory of the Novel" - I think.)"
Merquoir died too young. He has given us very smart critiques of WM, Structuralism / Post-Structuralism and Foucault. I often wonder what his mature position would have been. He writes very well and also has a wonderful sense of humor. You will often find yourself laughing. He is almost always a very enjoyable read.
Although I do think, regarding this book, that the long quote in the second paragraph above is more applicable to the mandarins of the Frankfurt School (Adorno, Benjamin, Horkheimer and [in some moods] Marcuse) than it is to Lukács, Gramsci and even Sartre. The latter three always thought that meaningful progressive historical change was still possible; I really don't see that in the great Frankfurters at all...

On the despair of the Frankfurters regarding modern culture and thought I recommend,
Dialectic of Enlightenment, Adorno and Horkheimer
One Dimensional Man, Marcuse
Eclipse of Reason, Horkheimer

A book recently published, "Towards a New Manifesto", which are the notes of conversations between Horkheimer and Adorno can be mentioned too. They date from the cold war, 1956. The notes are very terse. If you are not familiar with these thinkers and their school, I recommend starting your studies somewhere else.

[Tomislav · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short critical overview of Western Marxism. Merquior explains it as the Marxism of the superstructure, a leftist cultural critique, idealistic, irrational, romantic rejection of science, bourgeois culture and industrial society. First third of the book is a lengthy introduction to Hegel, Young Hegelians and Marx. Next chapter explains Lukács’ and Bloch’s additions to Marxism; they restored some of Marx’s early humanist, romantic ideas to the movement which was dominated by unphilosophical, economic and scientific tendencies. Gramsci is also mentioned although he differs from the rest as he was not oriented on cultural critique, nor did he reject methods of science and industrial production. However, he was important because he moved past materialistic dogmatism and had a liberating effect on other leftist philosophers.

Third chapter starts with early Frankfurt school, Adorno and Benjamin. They turned from activism to contemplative theory, losing their faith in working class while reinterpreting Enlightenment, science, technology and economic development as forces of oppression rather than promised liberation. As upper-class intellectuals disgusted with modern society, they reached pessimistic conclusions about the future and treated the masses and popular culture with contempt. Merquior briefly mentions and dismisses Sartre’s Marxist existentialism as having very low analytical value and being a moral attitude rather than a program for social revolution. He gives a similar dismissive conclusion about Althusser although he concedes that his search for scientific Marxism was a natural reaction against the humanist Left which was excessively focused on young Marx and endless moralistic talk about alienation. Like Kołakowski in his Main Currents of Marxism he reserves his most sardonic, disparaging comments for Marcuse. With Habermas, who wanted to move away from pessimistic Kulturkritik and return to a more meaningful social analysis, critical theory lost most of its radicalism.

Merquior concludes that Western Marxism was unsuccessful as it ended up either in pessimism or vague reformism. Marxism fell from its pretensions at comprehensive philosophy and historical analysis to the level of limited cultural criticism without much serious contribution to social science. It is a very short book, but it succeeds at making a meaningful point, although it often jumps too fast from one topic to another. Introduction about Hegel and Marx is unnecessary long considering that the book itself is not an introduction to Western Marxism but a critique which assumes that the reader has some basic knowledge of the subject. Despite some flaws it is quite informative and worth reading.

[Anderson Paz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente obra do intelectual Merquior. A partir de uma perspectiva crítica, o autor analisa as premissas gerais do marxismo histórico e o compara com o pensamento dos principais autores do marxismo ocidental (mais conhecido como marxismo cultural), notadamente do século XX, concluindo que "o marxismo ocidental foi apenas um episódio na longa história de uma velha patologia do pensamento ocidental cujo nome é, e continua a ser, irracionalismo".

[Carlos Mundi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ótimo ensaio para mapear o terreno da recepção do marxismo no século XX.