Wow! eBook
The Unconscious Spirit of Communism: Kōjin Karatani’s Reconstruction of Marx
Author(s): Nadir Lahiji (Author)
- Publisher: Brill
- Publication Date: April 8, 2026
- Edition: 1st
- Language: English
- Print length: 348 pages
- ISBN-10: 9004755888
- ISBN-13: 9789004755888
Book Description
This book is an attempt to introduce Kōjin Karatani and his work to a larger public, placing his reconstruction of Marx at its centre. An expository work that tries to bring out the singularity of Karatani’s systematic philosophical-theoretical reading of Marx, it particularly illuminates his vital reconstruction of Marx’s Capital.
Written with the aim not to contest but clarify, not to argue but to explain, The Unconscious Spirit of Communism seeks to praise Karatani and his unique intellectual project, which stands as corrective to a now more-than-a-century-old Marxism, as well as to the many Marxists, from Friedrich Engels on, who have distorted Marx’s thought―today no less than in the first decades of the twentieth century.
Written with the aim not to contest but clarify, not to argue but to explain, The Unconscious Spirit of Communism seeks to praise Karatani and his unique intellectual project, which stands as corrective to a now more-than-a-century-old Marxism, as well as to the many Marxists, from Friedrich Engels on, who have distorted Marx’s thought―today no less than in the first decades of the twentieth century.
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Nadir Lahiji holds a Ph.D. in architecture from The University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of most recent Kōjin Karatani’s Philosophy of Architecture (Routledge, 2024). His previous books include Architecture in the Age of Pornography: Reading Alain Badiou (Routledge, 2022); Architecture, Philosophy and Pedagogy of Cinema: From Benjamin to Badiou (Routledge, 2021); Architecture or Revolution: Emancipatory Critique After Marx (Routledge, 2021); An Architecture Manifesto: Critical Reason and Theories of a Failed Practice (Routledge, 2019), and Adventures with the Theory of the Baroque and French Philosophy (Bloomsbury, 2018 [2016]). He is the co-author of The Architecture of Phantasmagoria: Specters of the City (Routledge, 2016). His edited books include Can Architecture Be an Emancipatory Project: Dialogues on Architecture and the Left (Zero Books, 2016), The Missed Encounter of Radical Philosophy with Architecture (Bloomsbury, 2015 [2014]), Architecture Against the Post-Political: Essays in Reclaiming the Critical Project (Routledge, 2014), The Political Unconscious of Architecture: Re-opening Jameson’s Narrative (Ashgate, 2012 [2011]).
