Short essay on the rise of Western Marxism

Almost all the important Marxist thinkers till the First World were involved in revolutionary practice in some way or the other. A large part of their theoretical production was therefore related to this reality. The failure of the revolution in advanced West European countries and its success in backward Russia posed new questions to Marxist theory.

The renewed consolidation of capitalism and isolation of revolutionary Soviet Union and the desperate struggle to save socialism in one country witnessed various adjustments in revolutionary theory and practice which the classical Marxism could not explain. Moreover, the chauvinistic role played by the Social Democratic parties in the West and the consequent disintegration of the Second International questioned the universality of proletarian solidarity. All these developments led to a schism between Marxist theory and revolutionary practice in the West.

Perry Anderson, in an important study (Considerations on Western Marxism, 1976), states that ‘It was in this altered universe that revolutionary theory completed the mutation which produced what can today retrospectively be called “Western Marxism'”. He has outlined the major characteristics of Western Marxism. According to him,

‘The first and most fundamental of its characteristics has been the structural divorce of this Marxism from political practice. The organic unity of theory and practice realized in the classical generation of Marxists before the First World War, who performed an inseparably politico-intellectual function within their respective parties in Eastern and Central Europe, was to be increasingly severed in the half-century from 1918 to 1968, in Western Europe.’

Even though some of these Western intellectuals had been members of and in important positions in the newly-formed Communist parties, their theories were formed in more or less isolated conditions. The three important Marxist intellectuals in the 1920s, George Lukas (1885- 1971), Karl Korsch (1886-1961) and Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) were major political leaders in the Communist parties of their respective countries. However, most of their works was written either in prison (in case of Gramsci) or in exile (in cases of Korsch and Lukacs).

This has its positive results as well. Now theory could be developed in relative immunity from everyday political contingencies. A renewed interest in philosophy was one of the outcomes. The crucial catalytic factor was belated publication of the most important early work of Vlarx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, also known as Paris Manuscripts of 1844, in 1932 in Moscow.

The Western Marxism became predominantly concerned with the aspects of superstructure. In this, ulture, particularly art and literature, became prime area of study, ukases devoted most of his intellectual energies to literary criticism, doorknob to music, Walter Benjamin to art and literature.

This change saw its first manifestation in Germany. The: stablishment of the Institute of Social Research at Frankfurt, more famously known as the Frankfurt School, in 1923 started the trend of icademicisation of Marxism. The most important thinkers attached: it over the period were Max Horkheimer (1895-1973), Herbert vlarcuse (1898-1979), Theodor Adorno (1903-1969) and Jurgen -labermas (b.1929).

The other important Marxist thinkers whose ideas lad great influence on production of knowledge were George Lukacs, notion Gramsci, Karl Korsch, Jean Paul Sartre, and Louis Althusser among these Gramsci had the greatest impact on the writing of history. His theory of ‘hegemony’ created altogether new conceptual oil in Marxist discourse. It sought to explain the continued ascendancy of the capitalist system through its network of cultural institutions such as newspapers, schools, churches and political) arties.