Cultural Studies commonly claims to be a radical discipline. This book thinks that's a bad assessment. Cultural theorists love to toy with Marx, but critical thinking seems to fall into obvious traps.

Cultural Studies commonly claims to be a radical discipline. This book thinks that's a bad assessment. Cultural theorists love to toy with Marx, but critical thinking seems to fall into obvious traps. After an introduction which explains why the 'Marxism' of the academy is unrecognisable and largely unrecognised in anti-capitalist struggles, Bad Marxism provides detailed analyses of Cultural Studies' cherished moves by holding fieldwork, archives, empires, hybrids and exchange up against the practical criticism of anti-capitalism. Engaging with the work of key thinkers: Jacques Derrida, James Clifford, Gayatri Spivak, Georges Bataille, Homi Bhabha, Michael Hardt and Toni Negri, Hutnyk concludes by advocating an open Marxism that is both pro-party and pro-critique, while being neither dogmatic, nor dull.

Introduction: Cultural Studies As Capitalism
Section 1. Clifford's Ethnographica
1. Clifford and Malinowski
2. Fort Ross Mystifications
Section 2. derrida@marx.archive
1. Fever
2. Specters
3. Struggles
Section 3. Tales from the Raj
1. On Empire
2. Difference and Opposition
3. The Chapatti Story
Section 4. Bataille's Wars
Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Conclusion: The Cultivation of Capital Studies
Notes
Index