Problems of Marxist Historiography: The Case of The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte

Abstract

Why should we read Karl Marx today? This paper attempts to approach Marx in terms of a system of differences, a system that never allows a stable, final meaning because of its inherent radicalism and heterogeneity. Marx's figures of thought are notorious for their intermixture of different layers of arguments. The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte is one of the best examples that manifest Marx's complicated ways of thinking. In this particular text, he, on the one hand, proposes a line of theses which have been traditionally thought to be his prototype; for example, historical materialism, state apparatus, class struggle, and revolution. But on the other hand, he renders his propositions highly problematic through rhetorical maneuvers. It can be said that within this peculiar mode of writing, Marx's historical consciousness is textualized, and his relation to society is mapped. After all, we still read Marx today for his incredible virtuosity in practicing figures of thought, a virtuosity that startles us first by its eloquence, then by its possible ramifications.