“The Scandal of Marxism” by Roland Barthes, 1993 (French); 2015 (English)
Roland Barthes is the well-known author of 'Mythologies' – a series of essays about cultural issues from a Leftist point of view. I remember reading them years ago and his commentary on the theater of American wrestling stuck out like an amazing thumb. Who even looks at the rigged comedy and drama of wrestling with a penetrating eye?! This work is a series of book reviews, questionnaires and commentaries defending Marxism and attacking the Right and liberals on issues like revolution, religion, Algeria and DeGaulle. He also looks at Left / socialist art, China and the concept of 'violence.' The later analyses become more 'objective,' almost absent a left point of view.
Barthes writes in an elegant, subtle and theoretical way without using crude Leftist bludgeoning to make his points. The articles date between 1950 and 1978 in various non-CP Left French journals like Combate!, L'Observateur, Les Lettres Nouvelle and Arguments, then moves to more mainstream publications. As time goes on his writing becomes more abstract, less political and more indolent, paralleling the conservatism that swept France in the 1970s. The later contributions seem lost in apolitical word meanings - his intellectualism continued while his leftism weakened. So the title of the collection is actually partly wrong. It is almost embarrassing.
The Left
Algeria was France's second Vietnam, with De Gaulle finally granting Algeria independence in 1962 after a long struggle. When peace was at hand, the war led to an attempted 1961 coup by French ultra-right military types in league with the CIA against De Gaulle. This followed another attempted military coup in 1958 by the same forces. Their slogan was “Algeria is France.” Barthes was adamantly against the occupation of Algeria, unlike the 'agnostic' position of the PCF – Parti Communiste Francais.
In France the category of 'the intellectual' has always been one outside the realm of ordinary education. Barthes was part of this post-war coterie, along with Sartre, existentialists, situationists, post-modernists, structuralists, 'cultural' Marxists, socialists and nouvelle philosophie.
Here are some useful observations, in quotes or summation, amongst the rest:
The formal conservative analyses of revolution are “merely changes of regime” in which “actual men are absent.”
In accusations by liberal skeptics that Marxism is a 'church' he contrasts 'Muscovite dogmatism' based on state power with Marxism as an analytical method that works for those out of power - a strange 'church' indeed.
Barthes writes approvingly about two expositions on racism: one a UNESCO statement that shows “the inanity of racial prejudice” - the other, by Daniel Guerin, exposing racism in the U.S. that “was developed and (is) maintained to justify the exploitation of coloured people's labour.”
Barthes endorses the explanations of Tran Duc Thao contrasting phenomenology with Marxism, as the latter posits that “consciousness develops on the basis of matter” and that “humanity's various ideologies each have a precise economic basis.” Phenomenology (reality subjectively experienced) is subsumed within dialectical materialism.
On Marxism as a 'religion,' Barthes continues: “...those common forms (linking the two) might be said to be hierarchy, dogmatism and infallibility.” This method of superficial analogy “divest(s) (them) of their causes, history and particular content, (and) are reduced to signs they may have in common.”
Left-wing literature: Is a “gathering of all the writers who profess a left-wing politics” and is “...the production of left-wing writers.” He includes Sartre and Aragon in his list of left writers. His meaning seems to be dissidents and non-conformists of most types.
Left-wing literature: “In the last instance it is always a description and a deep analysis of a given historical situation.” Proust is included here. This is part of his opposition to both Stalinist Zhdanovism and a-historical fantasies.
Barthes praises a book on Brazilian culture that combines the contributions of Africans, Portuguese and the indigenous “...in all aspects – historical, economic, religious, ethnic, sexual, culinary, moral, etc.”
Barthes refuses to label himself, as it is obvious by reading someone what their politics are. It is not a “simple declaration of faith.”
Anti-Semitism: “Right and Left are confused notions. They each can be led, for tactical reasons, to exchange positions.” Anti-Semitism has always been a right-wing ideology in France and elsewhere, so: “it is anti-Semitism that makes the Right, not the Right that makes anti-Semitism.”
Barthes makes fun of the wife of the butcher of Algeria, General Massu, who advocates teaching 'home knitting' to Algerian women in place of independence. Somewhat like Hillary Clinton's 'micro-credit' programs for poor women living under imperialism.
“Moral Guidance” for young women is the subject of one essay in which Barthes points out that, while recognizing women might work, what is recommended by the conservatives is to be a 'house-maid' or domestic worker where her 'skills' can be put to best use.
“Algeria is French” is a manifestation of ultra-conservative grammar.
The ascension of De Gaulle after the attempted 1958 military coup over Algeria was a victory of “paternalism - not fascism.”
On film criticism: “The left-wing public is apparently not calling in any sense for the development of a socialist culture ...” “Temporal freedom and political responsibility … should be the watchwords of a socialist culture.”
In North Africa: Barthes notes that the hippies in this poor town (in Morocco perhaps) are no longer transgressive as they are in a wealthy country because they almost parody poverty.
Anti-intellectualism in France is a product of late Romanticism.
Barthes went to China in 1974 in the midst of the Cultural Revolution and had almost nothing to say. He does mention 'wall posters!' He comments on a generic 'violence' without mentioning self-defense anywhere. He makes nice comments about 'minority literature.' At the end of this collection his intellect becomes bland. Trés triste!
Prior blog reviews on this subject, use blog search box, upper left, to investigate our 17 year archive, using these terms: “Diaries of an Unfinished Revolution,” “May Made Me,” “The French Communist Party versus the Students,” “Surrealism – Inside the Magnetic Fields,” “Subculture – the Meaning of Style.”
The Cultural Marxist
January 17, 2024
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