Fictionalizing Marx, or Towards Non-Dialectics: Baudrillard and Laruelle

Abstract:This essay offers a comparative reading of the post-Marxian work of Jean Baudrillard and François Laruelle, arguing that both thinkers seek to establish a way forward for theory that remains faithful to the spirit of Marxism without reaffirming dialectics. In order to do so, both turn to the concept and strategy of "fiction." Their fictionalized Marxian theory intervenes in reality in the form of writing without reaffirming the dialectical presumption that the Real and concept can be exchanged. To fictionalize Marxism in non-dialectical terms repudiates the logic of exchange, enabling us to think against capital in non-capitalist terms.