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NEW FROM ROUTLEDGE 2026

'Capital' as Literature: Marx Against Himself



’CAPITAL’ AS LITERATURE: MARX AGAINST HIMSELF


Studies of Marx, particularly of his masterwork Capital (1867), are as a rule tutelary—they attempt to explain him. Even literary readers of Marx, from Raymond Williams to Fredric Jameson, seek to secure Marxist tenets by means of Marxian style. ‘Capital’ as Literature: Marx Against Himself departs from this tradition by reading Capital as literary in its own right rather than as political economy with style as its filigree rather than its focus. Here, Marx emerges in a different light. If literature is writing that calls whatever is settled into question, then Marx's writing is literature, not because of its revolutionary program, but because Marx's rhetoric, particularly its key trope of chiasmus, undoes the coherence of the notions it propounds, especially in Capital. Marx's chiasmatic style turns Capital into a mise en abyme and Marx's enterprise into an example of what it describes rather than its foil or antidote: the structure of capital itself. Capital, like capital, is a self-begetting production machine whose fungibility as a form is one and the same with the money economy it unravels. ‘Capital’ as Literature: Marx Against Himself shows how this irony unfolds and what the implications are for epistemology, cultural studies, and literary criticism.




ALSO FROM ROUTLEDGE 2022

Criticism After Theory from Shakespeare to Virginia Woolf



CRITICISM AFTER THEORY FROM SHAKESPEARE TO VIRIGINIA WOOLF

The argument of this book is a simple one: that criticism after theory is a single movement of thought defined by synthesis and continuity rather than by conflict and change. The most influential figures in criticism since Saussure—Bakhtin, Derrida, and Foucault—are wholly consistent with Saussure's foundational Course in General Linguistics (1916) no matter the traditions of complaint that have followed in Saussure's wake from Bakhtin forward. These complaints vitiate—despite themselves and often hilariously so—the misconceptions that have made cottage industries out of quarrels with Saussurean semiology that are based on notions of Saussure that are incorrect. The materialist criticism dominant today is actually dependent upon on the legacy of a presumably formalist structuralism rather than a step beyond it. New Historicism, postcolonialism, gender studies, environmental criticism, archive studies, even shared and surface reading are, like deconstruction, the by-products of Saussure's structuralism, not its foils. Saussure's sign is sensory and concrete. Language and materiality are not distinct but one and the same—history, society, the psychological subject, even the environment are systems of signs, material archives read and reread by futures that produce the past after the fact. Without Saussure, contemporary criticism would have no identifiable or effective source. The book begins with chapters on Saussure and Derrida, Bakhtin and Shakespeare, and Freud and Foucault followed by chapters on Victorian and American fiction, D.H. Lawrence and modern poetry, Virginia Woolf and Melanie Klein, and the historicist tropology of psychoanalysis. It concludes with a coda in life writing on the author's epileptic disability.




Portuguese translation of THE MYTH OF POPULAR CULTURE (Blackwell Manifestos, 2010) now available from Tinta Negra (Rio de Janeiro, 2015)



OS MITOS DA CULTURA POP: DE DANTE A DYLAN

O renomado crítico cultural americano Perry Meisel detona as noções convencionais sobre a divisão entre “alta” e “baixa” cultura.

O autor transita pela provocante teoria de que a cultura pop experimentou ritmos dialéticos. A hábil análise que o livro apresenta de três tradições culturais duradouras – o romance norte-americano, Hollywood, e o rock inglês e americano – nos leva a um ciclo histórico da cultura pop que tem Dante como ponto de partida e revisita ícones como Wahrol, Melville, Hemingway, Twain, Eisenstein, Benjamin, Scorsese e Sinatra.




THE MYTH OF POPULAR CULTURE: FROM DANTE TO DYLAN

The Myth of Popular Culture discusses the dialectic of "highbrow" and "lowbrow" in popular culture through an examination of literature, film, and popular music. With topics ranging from John Keats to John Ford, the book responds to Adorno's theory that popular culture is not dialectical by showing that it is.

Available as eBooks

COURSE IN GENERAL LINGUISTICS. Trans. Wade Baskin. Co-ed. with Haun Saussy. By Ferdinand de Saussure (Columbia University Press, 2011)

THE MYTH OF POPULAR CULTURE: FROM DANTE TO DYLAN
(Blackwell Manifestos, 2010)

THE LITERARY FREUD (Routledge, 2007)

THE COWBOY AND THE DANDY: CROSSING OVER FROM ROMANTICISM TO ROCK AND ROLL (Oxford University Press, 1998)

FREUD: A COLLECTION OF CRITICAL ESSAYS (Prentice-Hall, 1981)




8/16/10

Village Voice 'Pazz & Jop Product Report' 1976 - 1977


"Each critic votes for between zero and 10 'yea' records per month and awards each one 10 (masterpiece), 8, 7 (recommended purchase), 5 (borderline), 3, 2, or 1 (shades of listenable) votes."

Perry Meisel's votes:

October 18, 1976:

The Beatles: 'Rock n' Roll music' (Capitol) 10; 'Kenny Burrell/John Coltrane' (Prestige) 10; George Benson: 'Breezin' ' (Warner Bros.) 8; Gene Ammons: 'The Gene Ammons Story: The 78 Era ' (Prestige) 8; Boz Scaggs: 'Silk Degrees' (Columbia) 8; Wardell Gray: 'Central Avenue' (Prestige) 8; Steve Miller: 'Fly Like an Eagle' (Capitol) 7; The Crusaders: 'Chain Reaction' (ABC/Blue Thumb) 3; 'L.A. Express': (Caribou) 2; Lee Ritenour: 'First Course' (Epic) 1.

November 22, 1976:

YEA: Johnny Griffin and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis: 'The Toughest Tenors' 7; 'Stuff' 5; Bryan Ferry: 'Let's Stick Together' 5; Sonny Fortune: 'Waves of Dreams' 5; Eric Clapton: 'No Reason to Cry' 5; Steely Dan: 'The Royal Scam' 5; Jim Hall: Commitment 3; Ted Nugent: 'Free-for-All' 2; Sir Doug - The Texas Tornadoes; 'Texas Rock for Country Rollers' 2; Orleans: 'Walking and Dreaming' 1.
NAY: John Lucien: 'Premonition' -3.

December 20, 1976:

YEA: Dave Mason: 'Certified Live' 7; J.J. Cale: 'Troubadour' 7; Graham Parker & the Rumour: 'Heat Treatment' 5; 'Billy Preston' 5; Frank Zappa: 'Zoot Allures' 3; Kinky Friedman: 'Lasso from El Paso' 2; George Harrison: 'Thirty-Three & 1/3' 2; Elvin Bishop: 'Hometown Boy Makes Good!' 2.
NAY: 'The Best of the Pointer Sisters' - 3; Phoebe Snow: 'It Looks Like Snow' -1.

January 13, 1977:

YEA: 'The Lester Bangs Story, Volume 1' 10; Al Green: 'Have a Good Time' 8; George Benson: 'Benson Burner' 8; 'Wings over America' 5; Joni Mitchell: 'Hejira' 5; Joe Henderson: 'Black Narcissus' 3.

February 28, 1977:

YEA: Average White Band: 'Person to Person' 7; Andrew Gold: 'What's Wrong with This Picture?' 5; Rahsaan Roland Kirk: 'Kirkatron' 5; Santana: 'Festival' 5; The Eagles: 'Hotel California' 3; Steve Hillage: 'L' 3; Milton Nascimento: 'Milton' 2; Emmylou Harris: 'Luxury Liner' 1.
NAY: Queen: 'A Day at the Races' -2.

March 21, 1977:

YEA: 'Phil Spector's Greatest Hits' 10; Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band: 'Night Moves' 7; Ted Curson & Company: 'Jubilant Power' (Inner City) 7; Son Seals: 'Midnight Son' (Alligator) 7; Booker T & the M.G.s: 'Universal Language' 5; James Talley: 'Blackjack Choir' 5; 'Mel Lewis and Friends' 3; John Handy: 'Carnival' 2; Pousette-Dart Band: 'Amnesia' 1.

May 16, 1977:

YEA: 'The Yardbirds Greatest Hits' 8; Miles Davis: 'Water Babies' 7; Garland Jeffreys: 'Ghost Writer' 5; Kate & Anna McGarrigle: 'Dancer with Bruised Knees' 5; Roger McGuinn: 'Thunderbyrd' 5; Nils Lofgren: 'I Came to Dance' 3; Fleetwood Mac: 'Rumours' 3; Art Farmer: 'Crawl Space' 1.

June 6, 1977:

YEA: Dexter Gordon: 'Homecoming' (Columbia) 7; Bryan Ferry: 'In Your Mind' (Atlantic) 7; Jack Bruce: 'How's Tricks?' (RSO) 5; Herbie Hancock: 'V.S.O.P.' (Columbia) 5; The Beach Boys Love You' (Brother/Reprise) 5; Dave Mason: 'Let it Flow' (Columbia) 3; David Newman: 'Front Money' (Warner Bros.) 3; The Band: 'Islands' (Capitol) 3; Van Morrison: 'A Period of Transition' (Warner Bros.) 3; Asleep at the Wheel: 'The Wheel' (Capitol) 3; Bonnie Raitt: 'Sweet Forgivness' (Warner Bros.) 3.
NAY: Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes: 'This Time It's For Real' (Epic) -1.

July 4, 1977:

YEA: 'The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl' (Capitol) 10; The Beatles: 'Live at the Star Club' (Bellaphon) 10; Ornette Coleman: 'Dancing in Your Head' (Horizon) 5; Denny Laine: 'Holly Days' (Capitol) 5; Aretha Franklin: 'Sweet Passion' (Atlantic) 3; The Steve Miller Band: 'Book of Dreams' (Capitol) 3; 'Here at Last . . . Bee Gees . . . Live!' 3; Gary Bartz: 'Music is My Sanctuary' (Capitol) 2; Neil Sedaka: 'A Song' (Elektra) 1.

August 1, 1977:

YEA: 'Funk. Last of the Great Earl Hooker' (Antilles) 7; Ornette Coleman: 'Dancing in Your Head' (Horizon) 7; Roger McGuinn: 'Thunderbyrd' (Columbia) 5; 'Mink DeVille' (Capitol) 5; 'Steve Winwood' (Island) 3; Peter Tosh: 'Equal Rights' (Columbia) 3; David Sanborn Band: 'Promise Me the Moon' (Warner Bros.) 2; Glen Campbell: 'Southern Nights' (Capitol) 1.

September 5, 1977:

YEA: Joe Tax: 'Bumps & Bruises' (Epic) 7; Carole King: 'Simple Things' (Avatar) 7; The Meters: 'New Directions' (Warner Bros.) 7; Average White Band & Ben E. King: 'Benny and Us' (Atlantic) 5; Gells: 'Monkey Island' (Atlantic) 3; Coryell/Mouzon: 'Back Together Again' (Atlantic) 2.
NAY: Lee Ritenour: 'Captain Fingers' (Epic) -1.

October 3, 1977

YEA: 'Crawler' (Epic) 3; 'Topaz' (Columbia) 2; Target: 'Captured' (A&M) 2; Cheap Trick: 'In Color' (Epic) 2; Piper: 'Can't Wait' (A&M) 2; Rush: 'A Farewell to Kings' (Mercury) 1; Brush Arbor: 'Straight' (Monument) 1.

November 7, 1977

YEA: 'George Thorogood and the Destroyers' (Rounder) 7; Graham Parker and the Rumour: 'Stick to Me' (Mercury) 7; Jackie Lomax: Did You Ever Have That Feeling?' (Capitol) 5; Esther Phillips: 'You've Come a Long Way, Baby' (Mercury) 5; Rolling Stones: 'Love You Live' (Rolling Stones) 5; 'Talking Heads 77' (Sire) 5; 'Nona Hendryx' (Epic) 3; 'Libby Titus' (Columbia) 3; Freddie Hubbard: 'Bundle of Joy' (Columbia) 2.

December 5, 1977:

YEA: Charlie Parker and the All-Stars: 'Summit Meeting at Birdland' (Columbia) 10; Miles Davis and Tadd Dameron Quintet: 'The Paris Festival Internation' (Columbia) 10; Charlie Parker Quintet: 'One Night in Birdland' (Columbia) 8; Dexter Gordon: 'Sophisticated Giant' (Columbia) 7; Boz Scaggs: 'Down Two Then Left' (Columbia) 5; Robert Jr. Lockwood: 'Does 12' (Trix) 5; Merle Haggard: 'A Working Man Can't Get Nowhere Today' (Capitol) 5; James Talley: 'Ain't It Somethin'' (Capitol) 5; The Bar-Kays: 'Flying High on Your Love' (Mercury) 3.

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