Gothic Marxism

Flashcards on Gothic Marxism and Commodity Culture.

Gothic Marxism

Marxism that is appropriate for an age with an interest in the magical, focusing on the dark and pessimistic aspects of modernity and capitalism.revolutionary Romanticism; nostalgic sadness for what has been lost to capitalism:

Disenchantment

The ridding of the world of mystery, often associated with science and rational explanations.

Romantic

A reaction to modernity, seeking to re-enchant the world and often expressing nostalgia for the past.

Commodity fetishism

The perception of social relations involved in production appearing as relations between things, rather than between people.

Commodity as Religion

Commodities have taken on the job of organized religion, eliciting ritual devotion and serving as a form of mass entertainment.

Angel of History (Benjamin)

Sees history as devastation, with consumer culture leaving ruins and hollow promises.

•             The ruins of consumer culture are witness to its hollow promises

•             Materialist pessimism – a new Dark Age → inevitable mental-health crises: alienation, meaningless

Colonization of Night

The process of illuminating the night, contrasting with the medieval fear of darkness and leading to extended working hours and surveillance.

Night Life Lighting

Enchanting lighting used for festivity, seduction, and display, contrasting with the disenchanting effects of street lighting.

•             16^th C: householders required to display candles in windows

•             1667: state installed 2700 street candles; later expanded and upgraded to oil lanterns

•             Light became police’s largest expense → emergence of surveillance society

Arcades (Benjamin)

Enclosed arcades and passages in Paris that became a focus of nightlife, displaying commodities as religious icons and promising the good life.

Paris Morgue

Facilities for identifying unknown bodies that displayed corpses to huge crowds, promoted by mass media and travel guides.

o   Facility for identifying unknown bodies

o   Displayed corpses to huge crowds

o   Promoted by mass media, travel guides

o   Place of theatrical voyeurism

Department Stores

Large-scale arcades designed as safe spaces for the pleasure of middle-class women, described as 'brothels of modern commerce'.

Eg Galeries Lafayette, Paris:

•             Glorifying trivial commodities

Great Exhibition, 1851

An exhibition in 1851 displaying 100,000 commodities from various nations, showcasing the finest wares.

Kleptomania

A disease/moral panic of the late 19th century, characterized by an irresistible impulse to steal items, often seen as a form of possession especially among middle-class women.

1840s: gas lamps began to replace oil lamps

•             Paralleled by spread of gas home lighting

•             But resisted: Poe: “harsh and unsteady light offends”

•             Initially entered homes through the servants’ quarters

•             Needed softening by lampshades

•             Story repeated with arrival of electric lighting