Dr Lea Ypi CON 3.19

This course is available on the MSc in European Studies: Ideas, Ideologies and Identities, MSc in European Studies: Ideas, Ideologies and Identities (LSE and Sciences Po) and MSc in Political Theory. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

The course is an advanced level course providing the opportunity to read canonical texts in the history of Marxism and engage with the more recent normative literature related to these texts. The course will cover key issues in the study of Marxism such as the materialist conception of history, the idea of class and class struggle, the role of the state, the analysis of exploitation, the defence of revolution, the role of the party, the analysis of imperialism. It will introduce to the thought of an author that is often referred to in a range of literatures and will provide the opportunity to read original texts and engage with scholarly controversies (both historical and normative) generated by these texts.

10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the MT.

There will be a reading week in week 6 of the MT for private study and assessment preparation.

One formative essay of around 2,500 words.

McLellan, D. (2000), Karl Marx: Selected Writings, Oxford, Oxford University Press; Cohen, G.A. (2000), Karl Marx’s Theory of History: A Defence, Oxford, Oxford University Press; Lichtheim, G. (1982), Marxism: A Historical and Critical Study, Columbia University Press; Rosen, M. (1996) On Voluntary Servitude: False Consciousness and the Theory of Ideology, Polity Press; John Roemer (ed.) (1986), Analytical Marxism, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Essay (100%, 4000 words).