Appunti per una discussione a distanza. Ancora su critica e totalità

Abstract

This essay is divided in two parts: in the first one I examine the concept of Totality starting from Lukács’ point of view in History and Class Consciousness and compare it to the postmodernist critic of this concept, looking at the historical context of the so-called end of Ideologies and of the collapse of western communist parties. Among others Jameson’s work on Marxist dialectic, Mészáros’ new interpretation of class struggle and capitalist totalization and Finelli’s studies on abstraction provide the general frame of the discussion. In the second part some thesis on the relationships between critical thought (and generally speaking intellectual and cultural criticism) and Totality are presented considering the different structure and class composition in contemporary capitalism.