Agenda

Karl Marx’s "Capital" is not merely a complex panorama of ‘critique of political economy’ (as the subtitle states) that draws on economic, philosophical and historical categories. It is also structured through sophisticated rhetorical techniques and textual devices that can be analysed using the tools of literary criticism. Among these is undoubtedly the use of quotation. Marx quotes from literary texts (Sophocles, Dante, Shakespeare, Goethe) as well as from works of economic theory, parliamentary proceedings or reports by factory inspectors. One of the most interesting devices Marx employs to organise this mosaic of quotations is to transform them into declamations and bring them onto the stage as if in a courtroom or on a political platform, creating a complex and layered polyphony.