The following is the syllabus I’ve developed for the Marx and Marxist Theory course I’ll be teaching this semester.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The goal of this course is to explore the meaning of Marxism/Marxist theory and what it can teach us about power, politics, and justice, past and present.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
By the end of the course, students will be able to do the following:
· Explain to others a general understanding of Marxist theory, and its main concepts, such as exploitation, class struggle, dictatorship of the proletariat, etc.
· Understand how Marxism intersects with racial liberation and gender/sexuality justice.
· Begin to formulate a set of Marxist politics that would be applicable in contemporary politics.
REQUIRED TEXTS:
The Marx-Engels Reader (Second Edition) edited by Robert C. Tucker
https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393090406
Feminism For The 99%: A Manifesto by Cinzia Arruzza, Tithi Bhattacharya, and Nancy Fraser
https://www.versobooks.com/books/2924-feminism-for-the-99
Red Star Over The Third World by Vijay Prashad
https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745339665/red-star-over-the-third-world/
All other readings will be available through Sakai or embedded as links into the syllabi.
GRADING:
Grading will be determined by the following:
Blog/journal entries, which must be posted on Canvas once every week, will be 25% of the overall grade. Each entry is due each week by Sunday.
Attendance will be 20% with the ability for students to miss one class without penalty.
There will be three papers that in total will account for the remaining 55% of the overall grade.
Two of these papers will be mini essays, with the first accounting for 10%, and the second 15%. The third will be the final paper, at 30% of the semester’s total grade.
COURSE OUTLINE AND READING ASSIGNMENTS
*SUBJECT TO CHANGE*
Week 1: Introduction
Jan. 23:
An introduction to the course.
Discussion of Marx’s life and relevance from the following:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/16/karl-marx-ideas-resonate-today
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1914/granat/ch01.htm
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1883/death/burial.htm
Assigned reading:
“The Communist Manifesto” (pages 469-500 in the Robert Tucker book)
Week 2: The Communist Manifesto
Jan. 30:
Discussion of “The Communist Manifesto”
Assigned reading for next class:
“Wage, Labour & Capital” by Marx and Engels
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/
Essays by Hadas Their
https://jacobin.com/2020/09/capitalism-marxism-economics-hadas-thier-book-excerpt
https://jacobin.com/2020/09/working-class-peoples-guide-capitalism-marxist-economics
Assigned reading:
Read “Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism” by Vladimir Lenin
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/imperialism.pdf
Week 3: Lenin
Feb. 6: Discussion of Lenin’s “Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism”
Assigned reading: Read pages 21-58, 85-91, 103-121 in Red Star Over The Third World
Week 4: Soviet Revolution and its Global Influence
Feb. 13: Discussion of chapters in Red Star Over The Third World
Assigned reading:
Read Reform or Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg
https://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1900/reform-revolution/index.htm
Week 5: Luxemburg and Revolution
Feb. 20: Discussion of Rosa Luxemburg’s work
Assigned reading:
Read “Feminism For The 99%: A Manifesto” by Cinzia Arruzza, Tithi Bhattacharya and Nancy Fraser
Week 6: Socialist Feminism
Feb. 27: Discussion of “Feminism For The 99%”
Assigned reading:
Claudia Jones
https://www.newframe.com/from-the-archive-an-end-to-the-neglect-of-the-problems-of-the-negro-woman/
https://viewpointmag.com/2015/02/21/we-seek-full-equality-for-women/
Jodi Dean and Charisse Burden-Stelly
https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/before-hotlaborsummer/
Charisse Burden-Stelly
https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/charisse-burden-stelly-tk/
Interview of Jodi Dean and Charisse Burden-Stelly
Speech by W.E.B. Du Bois on “Socialism and the Negro”
Week 7: Race, Class and U.S. Politics
March 6: Discussion of Claudia Jones, and works by Jodi Dean and Charisse Burden-Stelly
Assigned reading:
Read Chapter 11 “In the era of anti-fascism”, Chapter 14 “The Influence of Marxism 1845-83” and Chapter 15 “Marxism in Recession 1983-2000” in Eric Hobsbawm’s How To Change The World: Reflections on Marx and Marxism (pdf will be emailed to everyone)
SPRING BREAK
Week 8: Marxism’s Historical Trajectory
March 20: Discussion of chapters in Hobsbawm
Assigned reading:
Mao
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-1/mswv1_16.htm
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-1/mswv1_17.htm
Amilcar Cabral
https://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/cabral/1961/gcvpc.htm
https://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/cabral/1968/tds.htm
Fidel Castro
https://www.marxists.org/history/cuba/archive/castro/1961/05/01.htm
https://www.marxists.org/history/cuba/archive/castro/2003/05/01.htm
Thomas Sankara
https://www.marxists.org/archive/sankara/1987/july/29.htm
https://www.marxists.org/archive/sankara/1986/february/05.htm
Week 9: Revolution in the Third World
March 27:
Discussion of works by Castro, Mao, Cabral and Sankara
Assigned reading:
Jodi Dean:
Angela Davis:
Nancy Fraser:
Week 10: Marxism in the 21st Century
April 3
Discussion of interviews of Dean, Davis and Fraser
Assigned reading:
Hadas Thier
Grace Blakeley
Yanis Varoufakis
Week 11: The New Economy & Marxist Theory
April 10
Discussion of Thier, Blakeley and Varoufakis
Assigned reading:
Gramsci and Hegemony
Unions now
Privatization is War on Our Freedom
Week 12: The New Economy Pt. II
April 17
Discussion of union and labor, privatization, and relevance of hegemony
Assigned reading:
Racial capitalism
Elite capture
Racial capitalism and settler colonialism
Week 13: Marxism and Identity Politics
April 24:
Discussion about race, capitalism, and contemporary politics
This is so cool! Man, reminding me that I should have looked up the Marx and Engels reader a long time ago.