Marx: Towards the Centre of Possibility

Description

Originally published in 1974, Kojin Karatani's Marx: Towards the Centre of Possibility has been among his most enduring and pioneering works in critical theory. Written at a time when the political sequences of the New Left had collapsed into crisis and violence, with widespread political exhaustion for the competing sectarian visions of Marxism from 1968, Karatani's Marx laid the groundwork for a new reading, unfamiliar to the existing Marxist discourse in Japan at the time. Karatani's Marx takes on insights from semiotics, deconstruction, and the reading of Marx as a literary thinker, treating Capital as an intervention in philosophy that could be read as itself a theory of signs. Marx is unique in this sense, not only because of its importance in post-'68 Japanese thought, but also because the heterodox reading of Marx that Karatani debuts in this text, centred on his theory of the value-form, will go on to form the basis of his globally influential work.

Kojin Karatani is an internationally renowned theorist and philosopher. Previously, he was a Professor at Hosei University in Tokyo, Kinki University in Osaka, and Columbia University.

Praise for Origins of Modern Japanese Literature: Karatani's ear for anecdotes makes the book more than a dry theoretical exercise. For the English edition, Brett de Bary and her team of co-translators add background information, and an entirely new essay by Karatani, 'The Extinction of Genre,' is included. This additional material makes the translation worth a look even for those who can read the original. -- Matt Treyvaud * Japan Times * In Praise of Transcritique: An immensely ambitious theoretical edifice in which new relations between Kant and Marx are established, as well as a new kind of synthesis between Marxism and anarchism. The book is timely from both practical and theoretical perspectives, and stands up well against a tradition of Marx exegesis that runs from Rosdolsky and Korsch to Althusser and Tony Smith. -- Fredric Jameson Praise for History and Repetition: [The essays] are not for beginners, but will intrigue, challenge, and inform students of modern Japanese intellectual history and cultural studies,.. Highly recommended. * Choice * Praise for History and Repetition: Karatani's intelligence is prodigious... His penetrating grasp of this world makes trenchant his concerns and makes them worthy of serious attention by all who think that modernity--as well as Japan's confrontation with and existence in it--deserves profound consideration. * Journal of Asian Studies * Praise for The Structure of World History: Kojin Karatani's last great work, Transcritique: On Kant and Marx, set off a chain of theoretical explosions, Slavoj Zizek's The Parallax View not least among them. This latest book returns to the Borromean knot of Capital-Nation-State from a rotated perspective; privileging modes of exchange over modes of production, it is a revolutionary rethinking of the historical emergence of that triadic structure and its various transformations. The 'Karatani-turn' will no doubt re-start serious debate about the form and future of capitalism. -- Joan Copjec, author of Imagine There's No Woman: Ethics and Sublimation Praise for The Structure of World History: Kojin Karatani is one of the most creative and important thinkers of the early twenty-first century. -- David Graeber, author of The Democracy Project: A History, a Crisis, a Movement Praise for The Structure of World History: Kojin Karatani's monumental and provocative synthesis testifies to a dramatic rebirth of universal history in recent times; but it does so by reuniting traditions-economics, politics, the social imaginary-which have proved increasingly sterile developed separately. His proposal involves a Borromean knot in which the three distinct areas of Capital, the Nation, and the State are both distinguished from each other and structurally recombined in their historical moments. His rereading of the Marxian modes of production (Marx's theory of universal history) in terms of modes of exchange is heretical and revisionist, but also profoundly critical of both the anarchism and the social democracy it would seem to express. His discussion of nation and world empire replaces any number of globalization debates within a transformative or revolutionary framework. His luminous study of Marx's own work and politics then casts a whole new light on Hegel and Kant; and indeed the history of philosophy is as much at stake here as the histories of nationalism or anticapitalist movements. Finally, Karatani's own practical and theoretical experience of the cooperative moment opens up political perspectives which will be politically suggestive and energizing at a moment when left politics seems universally out of breath." -- Fredric Jameson, author of Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism Praise for The Structure of World History: One of the strengths of this book . . . is that it offers a universal analysis of global systems that helps us better understand interactions between individuals and local communities, as much as between nations and trading blocks. In addition, although this book is certainly theoretical and paradigmatic, it is also rich with real world historical examples drawn from a wide range of periods and regions. This keeps it grounded in the actual processes of history in a way that Kant or Hegel were unable to do. -- Craig Benjamin * Left History * Praise for The Structure of World History: Well argued, and with a highly approachable translation by Michael Bourdaghs, this work is both an excellent entry point for those unfamiliar with Karatani's previous work, and an excellent continuation of the themes he has previously explored. By providing such an ambitious and innovative work, Karatani offers much to the fields of anthropology, sociology and historical study, as well as a starting point for theorists interested in the concept of mode D and the promises it contains. -- Wesley R. Bishop * Capital & Class * Praise for The Structure of World History: The Structure of World History is a must-read for anybody who is interested in a universal master narrative being in search not only for power of resistance against this system but also for possible ways 'to transcend the capitalist social formation from within' (p. 291). -- Steffi Richter * H-Asia, H-Net Reviews * In praise of The Structure of World History: In place of a singular conception of development, Karatani envisions a truly world-historical perspective. Moreover, his unique approach to world history demonstrates the value of establishing a more constructive dialogue between philosophy, anthropology, sociology, economics and historical studies. -- Yamoi Pham * Journal of World Systems Theory * In praise of Isonomia and the Origins of Philosophy: A work of historical importance, this book should be read by all who are interested in the innumerable conflicts that beset the contemporary world. Essential. -- J. A. Fischel * Choice * In praise of Isonomia and the Origins of Philosophy: In our anti-Eurocentrist era, attempts abound to 'decenter' European legacy, to demonstrate how European ideology borrowed from and simultaneously oppressed other traditions. Kojin Karatani does something very different: he decenters European legacy from within, shifting the accent from the classic Greek idealism (Plato, Aristotle) to its half-forgotten predecessors, the so-called Ionian materialists (Thales, Democritus), the first philosophers who were also the true founders of democratic egalitarianism. Karatani's book makes you see the entire history of philosophy in a new way; it deserves to become an instant classic. -- Slavoj Zizek