Reading Group series: Consciousness, Totality, Theory & Praxis

4-6pm
Friday 9 October, 23 October, 6 November & 20 November
WE606, 27 St Paul St, AUT

Over four fortnightly sessions, this reading group series will explore concepts of reification, totality, class consciousness, mystification, consciousness raising, and deployment. We are interested in how these themes resonate with alternative economies and politics in the Moana-Pacific region, and how we might form a position in our contemporary situation. This series is being run by Albert L. Refiti, Paul Janman, and James Mathews.

The primary text will be György Lukács’ History and Class Consciousness: Studies in Marxist Dialectics, with additional supplementary readings. We will spend an hour each meeting discussing the primary text, and an hour on the supplementary reading for each session. Aim to read one or both.

Please email us to rsvp so that we can supply the texts, and/or indicate if you’d like to be included in the dedicated reading group mailing list going forward.

Friday 9 October: The Phenomenon of Reification‍

György Lukács, History and Class Consciousness: Studies in Marxist Dialectics (p. 83-110)

Fredric Jameson, ‘History and Class Consciousness as an Unfinished Project’ in Valences of the Dialectic

Friday 23 October: The Antinomies of Bourgeois Thought

György Lukács, History and Class Consciousness: Studies in Marxist Dialectics (p. 110-149)

Martin Jay, ‘György Lukács and the Origins of the Western Marxist Paradigm’ in Marxism and Totality

Friday 6 November: The Standpoint of the Proletariat (part one)

György Lukács, History and Class Consciousness: Studies in Marxist Dialectics (p. 149-)

Mark Fisher, ‘Lecture Three: From Class Consciousness to Group Consciousness’ in Postcapitalist Desire: The Final Lectures

Friday 20 November: The Standpoint of the Proletariat (part two)

György Lukács, History and Class Consciousness: Studies in Marxist Dialectics (p. t.b.c.)

Fredric Jameson, ‘Cognitive Mapping’ in Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture