Theatre and Marxism(s)

This talk tells the history of Marxism through an unusual lens: the theatre. Both Marxism and theatre have long served as crucibles of social critique and resistance to capitalism, often working in tandem toward these shared ends.
 
A frequent theatregoer and a failed playwright himself, Marx famously infused his writings with allusions to dramatists like Shakespeare and Goethe. Yet theatre was more than just a rhetorical flourish for Marx; it provided a model of capitalist production that informed his critique of economic domination. Theatre has since remained crucial to Marxism’s dynamism—functioning as a space for debate, a laboratory for experimentation, and a tool of struggle. Just as theatre has shaped Marxist thought, Marxism has, in turn, influenced theatre, guiding the political commitments and aesthetic practices of revolutionary artists.
 
“Theatre and Marxism(s)” profiles how figures such as Antonio Gramsci, Berta Lask, and Ernst Toller were radicalized through the theatre, and why militant theorists including C.L.R. James, Sylvia Wynter, and Ghassan Kanafani turned to drama as a vehicle for political thought. To recount the history of Marxism through theatre is, above all, to reveal Marxism for what it has always been: a multifaceted, living critique of economic domination—one that adapts to local conditions but always speaks an incontrovertible truth.

All welcome. No booking required.

The Marxism in Culture seminar series was conceived in 2002 to provide a forum for those committed to the continuing relevance of Marxism for cultural analysis. Both "Marxism" and "culture" are conceived here in a broad sense.  We understand Marxism as an ongoing self-critical tradition, and correspondingly the critique of Marxism's own history and premises is part of the agenda. "Culture" is intended to comprehend not only the traditional fine arts, but also aspects of popular culture such as film, popular music, and fashion.  From this perspective, conventional distinctions between the avant-garde and the popular, the elite and the mass, the critical and the commercial are very much open for scrutiny.  All historical inquiry is theoretically grounded, self-consciously or not, and theoretical work in the Marxist tradition demands empirical verification.