From Critique to Politics
From Critique to Politics
Review: Kiss Viktor (2018) Ideológia, kritika, posztmarxizmus: a baloldal új korszaka felé [Ideology, Critique, Post-Marxism: Toward the New Era of the Left]
Political scientist and post-Marxist thinker, Viktor Kiss's book is the first comprehensive study in Hungarian to assess the intellectual background and the political-theoretical consequences of the post-Marxist discourse. Kiss's work develops guidelines for the reception of post-Marxism in Hungarian critical social and political theory in accordance with his earlier contributions in ideology theory. The main thread, around which the discussion of relevant issues and authors are woven, is post-Marxism's novel ideology-critical sensitivity, confronted with an all-pervasive critical ideology, that speaks in the name of a superior reality, elevating it above politics. Critical ideology that, according to Kiss, is the general mode of politicization of the progressive thought, rejects everyday representations and imageries as being false consciousness, instead of embracing them as encapsulations of vital new political logics. These logics are alternative approaches toward social reality, that identify and criticize the ultimate obstacles to freedom from domination. This post-Marxist turn urged by the author is challenging the existing conditions of post-modern global capitalism, and contributes to the reflection on the new politics of the Left.