In the Afterword to the second German Edition of Capital, Marx divided his work on the project into two sides or phases: the search for the proper method and the search for the proper mode of presentation for the modern economic and social phenomena he analyzes. The recent publication by Princeton University Press of a new English translation of Capital Volume 1 offers an occasion to reflect upon the relationship between conceptual articulation, terminological specificity, rhetorical tropes, and systematic argument in Marx’s key work. How is our understanding of Marx’s analysis of value and his critique of political economy transformed when we return to the philological and stylistic questions raised by translation and textual criticism? Since Paul Reitter’s translation is based on the second German edition of Capital I, it also presents an opportunity to think through the stakes of how different presentations of Marx’s argument—including new or omitted passages, variations in the structure of chapters, and altered rhetorical or stylistic strategies—might change our understanding of its substance (and indeed, to work through the opposition of substance and accidents as it bears upon writing and conceptual production). 

More broadly—beyond questions raised by the new translation and edition in particular—this seminar welcomes papers focused on the agency of writing and of language in the determination of Marx’s system of concepts and his historical diagnosis. We want to ask how Marx’s multiple styles, ventriloquized voices, different narrative stances, and literary thinking relate to both sides of his project: the analysis of a system in systematic terms and the critique of that system through rhetorical resources.

For example, participants might address:
- how new approaches to the theory of value intersect with philological approaches to Marx’s work
- how rhetoric was central to the project of critique
- the import of literary sources and literary techniques in Marx’s presentation of his ideas
- how semantic and etymological questions raised by translation bear upon our understanding of Marx’s German vocabulary
- issues raised by the notes to the Princeton edition requiring reflection, critique, or revised approaches to Marx’s text
- general questions concerning the relation between rhetoric and historiography, philosophy, political theory, or political economy
- how the development of critical theory over the past several decades—especially focused on philological, rhetorical, and literary critical questions—might inform our reading of Capital