Western Marxism is a current of Marxist theory
arising from Western and Central Europe in
the aftermath of the 1917 October Revolution
in Russia and the ascent of Leninism.
The term denotes a loose collection of theorists
who advanced an interpretation of Marxism
distinct from that codified by the Soviet
Union.The Western Marxists placed more emphasis
on Marxism's philosophical and sociological
aspects, and its origins in the philosophy
of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (for which
reason it is sometimes called Hegelian Marxism)
and what they called "Young Marx" (i.e. the
more humanistic early works of Marx).
Although some early figures such as György
Lukács and Antonio Gramsci had been prominent
in political activities, Western Marxism became
primarily the reserve of the academia especially
after World War II.
Prominent figures included Walter Benjamin,
Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer.
Since the 1960s, the concept has been closely
associated with the New Left.
While many of the Western Marxists were adherents
of Marxist humanism, the term also encompasses
their critics in the form of the structural
Marxism of Louis Althusser.
== Terminology ==
The phrase "Western Marxism" was coined in
1953 by Maurice Merleau-Ponty.
While it is often contrasted with the Marxism
of the Soviet Union, Western Marxists have
been divided in their opinion of it and other
Marxist-Leninist states.
== History and distinctive elements ==
Although there have been many schools of Marxist
thought that are sharply distinguished from
Marxism–Leninism, such as Austromarxism
or the Left Communism of Antonie Pannekoek,
the theorists who downplay the primacy of
economic analysis are considered Western Marxists,
as they focus on areas such as culture, philosophy
and art.György Lukács's History and Class
Consciousness and Karl Korsch's Marxism and
Philosophy, published in 1923, are the works
that inaugurated Western Marxism.
In these books, Lukács and Korsch proffer
a Marxism that emphasises the Hegelian components
of Karl Marx's thought.
Marxism is not simply an improved theory of
political economy, nor is it a scientific
sociology, akin to the natural sciences.
Marxism is primarily a critique, a self-conscious
transformation of society.
Marxism does not make philosophy obsolete,
as vulgar Marxism believes; Marxism preserves
the truths of philosophy until their revolutionary
transformation into reality.While their work
was greeted with hostility by the Third International,
which saw Marxism as a universal science of
history and nature, this style of Marxism
would be taken up by Germany's Frankfurt School,
founded that same year.
The writings of Italian Communist Antonio
Gramsci, produced during this period but not
published until much later, are also classified
as belonging to Western Marxism.After World
War 2, a number of thinkers such as Lucien
Goldmann, Henri Lefebvre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty
and Jean-Paul Sartre would constitute a French
Western Marxism.Western Marxism often emphasises
the importance of the study of culture, class
consciousness and subjectivity for an adequate
Marxist understanding of society.
Western Marxists have thus tended to stress
Marx's theories of commodity fetishism, ideology
and alienation and have elaborated these with
new concepts such as false consciousness,
reification and cultural hegemony.Western
Marxism also focuses on the works of the Young
Marx, where his encounters with Hegel, the
Young Hegelians and Feuerbach reveal what
many Western Marxists see as the humanist
philosophical core of Marxism.
However, the Structural Marxism of Louis Althusser,
which attempts to purge Marxism of Hegelianism
and humanism, has also been said to belong
to Western Marxism.
== Political commitments ==
Western Marxists have held a wide variety
of political commitments: Lukács and Gramsci
were members of Soviet-aligned parties; Korsch,
Marcuse and Debord were highly critical of
Soviet communism and instead advocated council
communism; Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Althusser
and Lefebvre were, at different periods, supporters
of the Soviet-aligned Communist Party of France,
but all would later become disillusioned with
it; Bloch lived in and supported the Eastern
Bloc, but lost faith in Soviet Communism towards
the end of his life.
Maoism and Trotskyism also influenced Western
Marxism.
Nicos Poulantzas, a later Western Marxist,
was an advocate for Eurocommunism.
== List of Western Marxists ==
Louis Althusser
Walter Benjamin
Marshall Berman
Ernst Bloch
Bertolt Brecht
Cornelius Castoriadis
Lucio Colletti
Guy Debord
Galvano Della Volpe
Frankfurt School
Theodor Adorno
Erich Fromm
Max Horkheimer
Herbert Marcuse
Joseph Gabel
Lucien Goldmann
Antonio Gramsci
Jürgen Habermas
Franz Jakubowski
Fredric Jameson
Alexandre Kojève
Leszek Kołakowski
Karl Korsch
Karel Kosík
Henri Lefebvre
Georg Lukács
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Antonio Negri
Moishe Postone
Nicos Poulantzas
Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez
Jean-Paul Sartre
== See also ==
Analytical Marxism
Budapest School (Lukács)
Critical social theory
Cultural studies
Eurocommunism
Freudo-Marxism
Hegelian Marxism
Marxist humanism
New Left
Neo-Marxism
Praxis school
Situationist International
Postmodernism
== References ==
=== Footnotes ===
=== Bibliography ===
== External links ==
Douglas Kellner, "Western Marxism"
"Western And Heterodox Marxism"
