This report analyzes André Breton’s particular brand of travel-writing that emerges from his four-month-long trip to Mexico in 1938 (“Memory of Mexico” from the Minotaure journal, a “Portrait of Frida Kahlo,” and the speech “Visit with Leon Trotsky”). I show how these writings, to a great extent, poeticize the Mexican landscape, rendering it as a “primitive,” innate expression of the surrealist spirit. I also question how surrealist ethnographic practices, as defined in James Clifford’s The Predicament of Culture, might feed into Breton’s poetic elaboration of his travels. In the last section, I examine Breton’s collaboration with Leon Trotsky, “Manifesto for an Independent Revolutionary Art.” Breton and Trotsky declare art to be entirely free from all social constraints imposed from above—it is an aggressive anti-Stalinist document. I discuss how Breton’s more poetic writings of the period—these travelogues I have mentioned—also constitute an attempt to put into practice this manifesto’s creed. As depicted in Breton’s writings, the Mexican landscape itself realizes a type of alternative Marxism—one not beholden to strict historical-materialist doctrine. / text

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It the revolutionary and humanist/ethical poles of Marxism are to be retained a crucial epistemological distinction must be made between the marxist analysis of History when it refers to class-based societies, and when it refers to the ideal of a communist collective. The normative core of Marxism is to be found, as a matter of logical necessity, in the notion of Communism, whether "primitive" or "mature", and this paradigm is the yardstick by which both class societies and "revolutionary" Marxism/Leninism are to be judged. Marxist aesthetics is privileged in that it is suggested that the literature of class-based, antagonistic societies often implies a classless ideal as a result of. unwittingly or otherwise, exposing the brutalities of exploitation and expropriation. Literature is thus ambivalently placed; as not only a tool of false consciousness and ruling class ideology, but also as an expression of the utopian core of Marxism. Such a position rests upon the jamesonian premise that Marxism is a metacommentary uniquely well-equipped to interpret History. The drama is deemed of especial value in that its tendency to focus on the Subject and the problem of subjectivity evokes the ideal of individual self-fulfilment; an ideal intrinsic to the Communist paradigm. Brecht's development of a Left theatrical practice in the context of an engagement with German politics of the 1920s and 30s and with marxist theory (particularly Lenin's), is examined in detail precisely because it best explicates and underpins this interpretation, not least because Brecht attempted to work through the marxist definitions of History in terms of a radical assault on bourgeois notions of subjectivity in the context, ultimately, of the alternative communist paradigm. There is, therefore, a vital link between the character of Brecht's radical experiments in the theatre and several problems central to marxist theory. This interaction reached a climax at the end of-Brecht's life; a climax which. while a failure in theatrical terms. makes the importance of Marxist Humanism particularly clear.

The thesis considers the politics and ideology of Belfast's Protestant working class (PKC). It is also conceived as a contribution to discussions concerning the nature and theory of 'ideology' within the Marxist tradition. Traditional Irish Marxism has been dismissive of the PWC reducing their politics to the protection of marginal privelege sustained by Britain's Imperialist presence. This thesis argues that such a perspective is inadequate. It is essential to move away from the concept of loyalist ideology as a systematised form of false consciousness, rather it is necessary to look at the ideology of Protestant workers at the level of day to day experiences and practices. Such collectively lived experiences give the-alternative sets of practices embodied in working class culture. It is therefore important to draw on the sociological tradition of the community study. To fully understand PWC images of society it is necessary to construct the relationship between, local ideologies and the theoretically developed ideologies, generated by national institutions. In order to do this the thesis looks at the social structure and politics of a particular PWC commmity in Belfast. The thesis then outlines by way of case study how the PWC have reacted to the contemporary political and social situation in Northern Ireland. The thesis draws on interviews with residents, political activists and paramilitary members. In particular it identifies the politics and ideology of those active in the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Ulster Defence Association (UDA). In overall terms it highlights the ideology by which Protestant workers make sense of, and give meaning to, their social and political worlds.

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This study analyses. four problem areas in Mao Zedong's philosophy of history. Firstly, it provides an analysis of the way in which Mao perceived causation operating in social and historical terms. Secondly, the problem of historical time and the future is examined; this involves an examination of the forms of historical periodization utilized by Mao, and his vision of the future of society. Thirdly, a brief analysis is provided of an important element of Mao's philosophy of science, the manner in which he approached the formulation of laws of society and history. Fourthly, an interpretation is offered of Mao's "Sinification of Marxism"; the way in which Mao could espouse a "universal" theory of history, and insist on its integration with Chinese national particularities without detracting from the universality of that theory. An attempt has also been made to determine the relationship between these different elements of Mao's philosophy of history. The study is based on and employs several methodological devices. The first of these is the utilization of an exegetical approach; consequently, the analysis offered limits itself to a close textual study and interpretation of the Mao documents. Secondly, the study has adopted a periodization which divides the development of Mao's thought into six periods, four of which are subjected to analysis: (1) The Yan'an period, 1936-45;, (2) the period of Civil War and Consolidation, 1946-54; (3) the post-Cooperativization period, 1955-64; and (4) the Cultural Revolution, 1965-69. The study concentrates on the Yan'an and post-Cooperativization periods. While these two methodological procedures guide and structure the study, the content of the study in turn serves as a test of their utility and validity.

To be meaningfully in solidarity with Indigenous liberation struggles, Marxism must bring Indigenous values of consensual intimacy, relational autonomy and responsibility to its centre, by (1) plucking out premises in ethical, political, ontological, epistemological and analytic registers that close off Marx and many contemporary Marxists from centring these values, and (2) bringing Indigenous resurgence values to the centre of Marxism to engage in normative and theoretical repair to enable a more decolonial praxis. I generate my understanding of Indigenous values through a close examination of Indigenous Resurgence Theory, guided by the ethical framework of the Two Row Wampum. With these in hand, I examine the aforementioned registers through immanent critique of the places in Marx's thought where he elaborates them, and suggest transformations that eventuate from incorporating Indigenous values. / Graduate