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The philosopher Jules Gleeson reads and discusses

Marx and Engels’ manuscripts on The German Ideology and Monique Wittig’s The Category of Sex

Monday, December 9, 2024

Columbia University, New York

The German Ideology represents, famously, the exact point of rupture, according to Louis Althusser, between the early, philosophical, ideological Marx and the mature, scientific, economic works. It is the precise location of what Althusser called the “epistemological break in Marx’s intellectual development” because it is there, Althusser argued, that Marx self-consciously shed his philosophical skin (but still in a philosophical way).

The manuscripts known today as The German Ideology, written in 1845-46 and first published in full in 1932, have been the source of myriad interpretations—and controversies—as a result of their fragmentary nature and of the editorial choices of those who have published different versions of the manuscripts. The manuscripts have also given rise to important debates over the materialist conception of history, the dawn of revolution and communism, and divergent theories of ideology.

Most recently, The German Ideology has been a key reference point for new writings in the field of Transgender Marxism. And so, to help us read, discuss, and actualize The German Ideology in conversation with Monique Wittig’s 1982 article “The Category of Sex,” we are privileged to welcome to Marx 5/13 the brilliant critical theorist Jules Gleeson, who most recently co-edited with Elle O’Rourke the collection titled Transgender Marxism (London: Pluto Press, 2021).

Jules Gleeson is an author, historian, and comedian who has published essays in outlets including Viewpoint Magazine, Invert Journal, the Boston Review, and VICE, and has performed internationally at a wide range of communist and queer cultural events.

Welcome to Marx 5/13!

 

 

 

We will also have a keynote lecture on Marx and Wittig on ideology in the Spring 2025 by Guillaume Rouleau.

Guillaume Rouleau, a doctoral student at the EHESS, is completing a brilliant dissertation on the notion of ideology in French political philosophy since 1945. In the dissertation, Rouleau traces the notion of ideology back to The German Ideology and forward through several key stages in French philosophical discourse, beginning with Raymond Aron, continuing through Louis Althusser, and leading to materialist feminists of the 1970s and 80s, highlighting the work of Monique Wittig.

Rouleau proposed that we pair Marx and Engels’ The German Ideology (1845-46) with Wittig’s article “The Category of Sex” (1982). Rouleau will be lecturing about Wittig’s use of the concept of ideology in a keynote lecture for Marx 13/13 in the Spring.

 

Primary text: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The German Ideology, (1845-46)

Commentary: Monique Wittig, The Category of Sex (1982)

Additional Reading: Jules Gleeson and Elle O’Rourke, eds., Transgender Marxism (2021)

Philosopher: Jules Gleeson

Date: Monday, December 9, 2024

In-person location: Jerome Greene Annex, Columbia University, New York, 10027

Time: 6:00 PM New York time (EDT, UTC/GMT -5)

Readings: On-line here

Language: English