10.9 Marx and Engels — «Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei» (excerpts) — Epoché
What you will be able to do Read the key passages of the Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: the opening, the history of class struggles, the revolutionary role of the bourgeoisie, the situation of the workers, the abolition of private property, and the famous last lines. Analyse the rhetoric of a political pamphlet: anaphora, antithesis, metaphor, correlative clauses, a dialogue with the opponent, and the closing call. Distinguish the description of history from the political demand built on it, and read both critically. Read the spellings of 1848: Thatsache , Eigenthum , existiren , Waare . Sentences from this text, before the notes. Read the German aloud; all of them come back below. German English Ein Gespenst geht um in Europa – das Gespenst des Kommunismus. A spectre is haunting Europe, the spectre of communism. Sie hat nur neue Klassen, neue Bedingungen der Unterdrückung, neue Gestaltungen des Kampfes an die Stelle der alten gesetzt. It has only put new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones. An die Stelle der alten lokalen und nationalen Selbstgenügsamkeit und Abgeschlossenheit tritt ein allseitiger Verkehr, eine allseitige Abhängigkeit der Nationen von einander. In place of the old local and national self-sufficiency and seclusion comes intercourse in every direction, a universal interdependence of nations. die offene, unverschämte, direkte, dürre Ausbeutung gesetzt. put open, shameless, direct, naked exploitation. je mehr die moderne Industrie sich entwickelt, desto mehr wird die Arbeit der Männer durch die der Weiber und Kinder verdrängt. the more modern industry develops, the more the work of men is displaced by that of women and children. In demselben Maße, in dem die Widerwärtigkeit der Arbeit wächst, nimmt daher der Lohn ab. In the same measure as the repulsiveness of the work increases, the wage therefore decreases. Prerequisites : 10.8 — you need the analysis of arguments from 10.1 Argument and 10.2 Argument , and you have read another political pamphlet, Büchner 's Hessischer Landbote , in 7.54 Reading . About this text The Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei was written by Karl Marx (1818–1883) with Friedrich Engels (1820–1895) for the Communist League, a small society of mostly German workers and exiles. It was printed in London in February 1848, without the authors' names, only weeks before revolutions broke out across Europe. It had little effect in 1848, but later became one of the most widely read political texts in the world. Parties, movements and twentieth-century states that called themselves Marxist appealed to it; the history of those states, including mass repression, is part of how the text is read today. This lesson takes no position for or against the Manifest . It reads it as a piece of German prose and as an argument: how it describes history, what it concludes, and with what means it tries to persuade. The text is about 2,250 words from the preamble, chapter I, chapter II and the end of chapter IV, in the first edition as transcribed in German Wikisource. Omissions are marked […]. The plan Paragraphs Step Means 1–6 Preamble: all the powers of old Europe hunt the spectre of communism; it is time for the communists to state their views in a manifesto. metaphor, list of enemies, rhetorical question 8–12 Thesis: all history is the history of class struggles. Modern society has simplified them into two great classes, bourgeoisie and proletariat. a single-sentence paragraph, pairs of opposites 13–19 The rise of the bourgeoisie: from the first towns through world trade, manufacture and large-scale industry to political power. historical narrative 20–32 The revolutionary role of the bourgeoisie: it has destroyed feudal ties, revolutionised production, created the world market and enormous cities, and produced more than all earlier generations together. anaphora: Die Bourgeoisie hat … 34–39 The bourgeoisie has made the weapons that will kill it, and the men who will use them: the proletarians, who become appendages of the machine. metaphor, correlative clauses 41–48 Chapter II: communism abolishes not property in general but bourgeois property; the objection about earned property is answered. distinction, dialogue with the opponent 50–51 The end: the communists openly declare their aims and call on the workers of all countries to unite. antithesis, imperative Description and demand. Most of chapter I describes: it tells the history of the bourgeoisie, and many of its observations, on the world market, on the growth of cities, on the speed of technical change, are still quoted by historians and economists of every persuasion. The demand comes at the end: the violent overthrow of the existing social order. A careful reader asks at each step whether the conclusion follows from the description, and where prediction has turned out right or wrong. Worked example A close reading of paragraph 21, a model of the pamphlet's style. Die Bourgeoisie, wo sie zur Herrschaft gekommen, hat alle feudalen, patriarchalischen, idyllischen Verhältnisse zerstört. The subject comes first, as in the whole series of paragraphs beginning Die Bourgeoisie hat . This repetition at the start, die Anapher , makes the bourgeoisie the hero of the story. The three adjectives rise from a historical term, feudal , to a nostalgic one, idyllisch . kein anderes Band zwischen Mensch und Mensch übrig gelassen, als das nackte Interesse, als die gefühllose „baare Zahlung.“ The image of the band, das Band , contrasts the many-coloured ties of the past with one naked tie, cash payment. Sie hat die heiligen Schauer der frommen Schwärmerei … in dem eiskalten Wasser egoistischer Berechnung ertränkt. A metaphor of drowning: feelings are drowned in calculation. Warm and cold stand against each other. Sie hat, mit einem Wort, an die Stelle der mit religiösen und politischen Illusionen verhüllten Ausbeutung die offene, unver