Shakespeare’s Influence on Karl Marx : The Shakespearean Roots of Marxism

Omtale

This volume presents a close reading of instances of Shakespearean quotations, allusions, imagery and rhetoric found in Karl Marxs collected works and letters, which provides evidence that Shakespeares writings exerted a formative influence on Marx and the development of his work. Through a methodology of intertextual and interlingual close-reading, this study provides evidence of the extent to which Shakespeare influenced Marx and to which Marxism has Shakespearean roots. As a child, Marx was home-schooled in Ludwig von Westphalens little academy, as it were, which was Shakespeare- and literary-focused. The group included von Westphalens daughter, who later became Marxs wife, Jenny. The influence of Shakespeare in Marxs writings shows up as early as his school essays and love letters. He modelled his early journalism partly on ideas and rhetoric found in Shakespeares plays. Each turn in the development of Marxs thoughtfrom Romantic to Left Hegelian and then to Communistis achieved in part through his use of literature, especially Shakespeare. Marxs mature texts on history, politics and economicsincluding the famous first volume of Das Kapitalare laden with Shakespearean allusions and quotations. Marx's engagement with Shakespeare resulted in the development of a framework of characters and imagery he used to stand for and anchor the different concepts in his political critique. Marxs prose style uses a conceit in which politics are depicted as performative. Later, the Marx familyMarx, Jenny and their childrenwas central in the late-19th-century revival of Shakespeare on the London stage, and in the growth of academic Shakespeare scholarship. Through providing evidence for a formative role of Shakespeare in the development of Marxism, the present study suggests a formative role for literature in the history of ideas.