From Traces of Communism to Islets of Communism: Revisiting Althusser’s Metaphors

Authors

  • Panagiotis Sotiris Hellenic Open University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3986/fv.41.1.04

Keywords:

communism, Louis Althusser, Marxism, philosophy of the encounter, Jacques Derrida, Étienne Balibar

Abstract

Promises of communism, traces of communism, outlines of communism, islets of communism: Althusser’s metaphors for communism emerging at the margins of existing social forms point towards important open questions for any rethinking of a strategy for communism: Is communism just a political project or a political design for a post-capitalist society or is the projection, elaboration, and expansion of social forms already appearing within contemporary capitalist society as a result of collective struggles, resistances, and experimentations that bring out the collective ingenuity of the subaltern classes and groups? Can a political project for radical social transformation simply be a generalisation of the dynamics emerging within contemporary social dynamics? How can we think the political and organisational labour needed to turn these elements into new social forms? The aim of this paper is to attempt to revisit and rethink the tensions of Althusser’s thinking of communism emerging at the margins or interstices of capitalist society.

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References

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Published

2020-12-31

How to Cite

Sotiris, P. . (2020). From Traces of Communism to Islets of Communism: Revisiting Althusser’s Metaphors. Filozofski Vestnik, 41(1). https://doi.org/10.3986/fv.41.1.04

Issue

Vol. 41 No. 1 (2020): Reading Althusser; Philosophy and Its Artistic Other; Politics and Mathematics; The Real and Semblance in Philosophy and Psychoanalysis

Section

Reading Althusser

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