Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Giambattista Vico
- 3 Phenomenology
- 4 Hermeneutics
- 5 Marxism and language
- 6 Lev Vygotsky
- 7 Meanings and perspectives
- 8 Ludwig Wittgenstein
- 9 Gregory Bateson
- 10 Sociologies – Micro and Macro
- 11 Sources of the self
- 12 Michel Foucault and his challenges
- 13 Discourse analysis
- 14 Ken and Mary Gergen
- 15 Rom Harré
- 16 John Shotter
- 17 Concluding remarks
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - Marxism and language
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Giambattista Vico
- 3 Phenomenology
- 4 Hermeneutics
- 5 Marxism and language
- 6 Lev Vygotsky
- 7 Meanings and perspectives
- 8 Ludwig Wittgenstein
- 9 Gregory Bateson
- 10 Sociologies – Micro and Macro
- 11 Sources of the self
- 12 Michel Foucault and his challenges
- 13 Discourse analysis
- 14 Ken and Mary Gergen
- 15 Rom Harré
- 16 John Shotter
- 17 Concluding remarks
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The ‘mind’ is from the outset afflicted with the curse of being burdened with matter, which here makes its appearance in the form of agitated layers of air, sounds, in short, language. Language is as old as consciousness, language is practical, real consciousness that exists for other men as well, and only therefore does it exist for me; language, like consciousness, only arises from the need, the necessity, of intercourse with other men … Consciousness is, therefore, from the very beginning a social product.
(Marx and Engels, 1845b/1976: 43–4)Individual consciousness is not the architect of the ideological superstructure, but only a tenant lodging in the social edifice of ideological signs.
(Voloshinov, 1986: 39)The potentials of dialogue, and what follows from constraining such potentials, possibly got its most thorough treatment by Marxist idealists. This can initially seem odd to those who fast track from Marxist ideas to the repressive regimes of Stalin or Mao. But on closer examination one finds affinities between Marx's ideas and concerns and social constructionist ideas and practices. In particular, Marx was concerned with what people produced socially, and how they could become estranged from the products of their social interactions. Over-determined forms of language-use and restricted communications between people offer striking examples of Marx's concerns. In today's post-Soviet age any consideration of Marx seems dismissible, largely because of the failed cultural experiments where adaptations of his thinking were used.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Social ConstructionismSources and Stirrings in Theory and Practice, pp. 85 - 103Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010