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Capitalism, a Horror Story

Gothic Marxism and the Dark Side of the Radical Imagination

Jon Greenaway author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Watkins Media Limited

Published:9th Jul '24

Should be back in stock very soon

Capitalism, a Horror Story cover

A horror-story history of capitalism and its relationship to the haunted and the gothic, and a manifesto of Gothic Marxism, which finds revolutionary hope in the nightmare of modernity. Capitalism is a horror story. In this book, pioneering film critic and cultural theorist Jon Greenaway dives into the dark side of the radical imagination. What does it mean to see horror in capitalism, and what can horror tell us about the state and nature of capitalism? The book offers a new analysis of Marxist theory and culture, drawing from Romantic anticapitalism from Andre Breton to Walter Benjamin as well as literature and film from the nineteenth century to the present. Moving across literature, film and philosophy, from Frankenstein and Dracula to modern horror like The Platform, Parasite and The VVitch, this book offers one of the first full-length analyses of Gothic Marxism. The book explains the "dark way of being red" drawing off the warm stream of Marxism from Ernst Bloch. From there, the book explores the socio-political function of the monstrous, the haunted nature of the digital world and the inescapable horror of contemporary capitalist politics. Most shockingly, this book argues that we can find hope in horror - a site of monstrous becoming, that opens the door to a Utopian future.

"Horror is the zeitgeist of the capitalist age, and the Gothic Marxism posited here not only explains the economic determinants of contemporary culture but offers a paradoxical light in the darkness. We may all be monsters now – but in monstrosity new kinds of selves can be imagined and better worlds brought forth."
"An intellectual tour de force, a political manifesto for our moment, and a gothic page turner."
"In our age of monsters, hope for the future lies in the ruthlessly critical encounter with the monstrous at all levels of culture, and Capitalism: A Horror Story is an exemplary study of such a critical theory and practice."
"This wonderful book uncovers the revolutionary complexities at the heart of some of our most famous pop-cultural monsters, allowing them to speak to us anew. We would be wise to listen.”
"Greenaway writes with the syncretic precision and utopian zest that have become his trademarks. If you prefer your political theory served with a side of guts and ghouls, this book is for you.”
"Capitalism: A Horror Story burns like a flame in the dark—inviting us to find warmth and solidarity with our monstrous comrades. If you’ve been feeling isolated or afraid, take up this book and find that the only thing hiding in the shadows is our hope for a better world that could yet be."
"Greenaway can see that the house we live in is haunted. He wants to forge a plan to leave—then burn it down together."
"A rigorous study in dark red… At once scholarly and radical in its approach, it serves as a guide for a new necropolitical world in which horror becomes not mere genre, but lived mass experience."
"Greenaway lays out a Gothic Marxism that refuses to flee from the horrors of the present or to fall into despair. For if capitalism creates a class of those who have been “monstered” which it disavows, marginalizes, and fears, all hope lies with the monsters."
"Lethally sharp and bitterly pointed, a deconstruction of the decay consuming the modern world at an ever-accelerated pace."

ISBN: 9781914420887

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 369g

300 pages