MCLC: Global Flows of Das Kapital--cfp

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Gal Gvili <galgvili at gmail.com>
Subject: Global Flows of Das Kapital--cfp
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Dear Colleagues,

Please see below for a call for papers for a seminar that will be held at
the annual American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA) conference,
at New York University from March 20-23.

Global Flows of Das Kapital: Tracing the Translation and Circulation of
Marx’s Critique

The ad copy for the 1927 Japanese edition of Das Kapital reads: “The name
of Marx is that of a monster rampaging through the world…this book is both
a wellspring of mysterious power and a simple work which can be
understood, examined, and critiqued by anyone…its study moves and shakes
the world.” This panel seeks to explore and interrelate the material
histories and circumstances of the production, circulation, consumption,
and commodification of Marx’s Das Kapital as a book. It took decades for
Marx’s text to move across the world through hundreds if not thousands of
editions, translations, and publications. We are interested in the
particular ways, places, and moments in which this text has travelled and
been transformed across history, and the ways it continues to change in
the age and landscape of digital networked communications. In some parts
of the world, Das Kapital was a mass-produced best seller, in others a
clandestinely published pamphlet or a single copy to be smuggled and
shared; today, Marx’s writings are globally accessible in print and
online. How did processes such as translation, printing, publishing,
piracy, marketing, and copyrighting produce and transform readings of Marx
and affect social and intellectual movements around the world? The seminar
hopes to engage with the reproduction of Marx’s critique beyond a
Euro-American context and across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the
Middle East, as well as in online and digital realms. In doing so, we hope
to think together about a media-oriented history of the movement of
Marxian thought across international borders.

Please submit proposals directly at:
http://acla.org/acla2014/propose-a-paper/

or contact Nathan Shockey, nshockey at bard.edu, with questions.

The deadline for submissions is Nov. 15.