Subjects Archives: Literature

For many continental philosophers, the first two decades of the new millennium were a time of vibrant matter, hyperobjects, and a weird fixation with intestinal microbes. The late Bruno Latour saw this ‘new materialist’ doctrine–which decentred the human subject in favour of the world of ‘things’, believed to have agency of their own–as a useful resource in his career-long polemic against Marxism.

Socialists across the globe in countries such as India, Brazil, and the United States celebrate the Manifesto and all “Red Books” that shaped the world.

“Without the press, Fidel Castro would be no more than an outlaw… isolated and ineffective,” said Herbert Matthews, who, as a profound connoisseur of Cuban and Latin American affairs, suspected that behind the iron censorship ordered by Batista in Cuba, there was a well-kept secret that was waiting to be told.

Some of Ernest Mandel’s finest work on Marxist theory and revolutionary politics appeared in the form of short articles. “Hope and Marxism” collects eleven of Mandel’s most significant articles and provides an excellent introduction to his thought.

Written by Marxist philosopher George Novack (1905-1992) and published in 1975 by Pathfinder Press, “Pragmatism versus Marxism: An appraisal of John Dewey’s Philosophy” sought to explain the origins, emergence, class basis, and norms of pragmatism, which has been the predominant mode of thought in U.S. intellectual and political life.

As in Lenin’s time, the conclusion is that socialist revolution will end imperialist war, enabling workers to meet their own needs.

In exploring the notion of critical media literacy, the Marxist concepts of base and superstructure and Antonio Gramsci’s theory of cultural hegemony provide an essential framework for understanding the complex dynamics of media, power, and ideology.

Pasquinelli’s “Eye of the Master” provides a materialist analysis of AI and technology, which Kevin Crane finds to be an excellent antidote to all the nonsense and hype spouted about AI.

The theoretical position informing “Imperialism” extended Marxism in at least five major ways.

Last year, for the first time on roape.net, members of ROAPE’s Editorial Group offered some of our favourite radical reads from 2022, new and old, fiction and non-fiction.

As the 100th anniversary of Lenin’s death approaches, here are ten books to help renew the Leninist tradition for the crises ahead, compiled by Dominic Alexander.

During the past three years, the country has seen a dramatic increase in book bans at public and K-12 school libraries and in rightwing pro-censorship activism, usually targeting books that address race, gender identity, or sexuality.

A review of Robert Cherny’s “Harry Bridges Labor Radical, Labor Legend”, University of Illinois Press 2023.

Genet was one of the most original and combative writers of the 20th century.

China Miéville is the most important UK author of the early twenty-first century; his Bas Lag fantasy trilogy brought a new kind of socially-conscious weird fiction into the mainstream of British literature.

A new book exploring the theory, practice and history of socialist commune building in Venezuela.

On 3 October, the homes and offices of over one hundred journalists and researchers across India were raided by the Delhi Police, which is under the jurisdiction of the country’s Ministry of Home Affairs.

The philosophical community knows by now that philosopher Martin Heidegger was fiercely antisemitic and personally drew connections between his philosophy and his support for Nazi ideology.

The International Union of Left Publishers expresses solidarity with the Toko Buku Rakyat bookstore that suffered a raid by officers looking for “The Communist Manifesto”

A new book reveals that numerous atrocities that the United States had alleged to have been committed by its foes never happened to begin with.