GOLDSTEIN_f1_i-x

of all others, and sinks Satan to the deepest point of Hell, where he gnaws
on the sinners whose deeds bear the greatest verisimilitude to his own: Brutus,
Cassius, and Judas.
Capitalreproduces this narrative structure. It replicates the descent into
materiality, from the abstractions of the value-forms to the “blood and dirt”
of primitive accumulation (1976:926). Each stage of this descent is dependent
upon the stage that comes after it, giving Capitalthe form of an excavation.
The major divisions, moreover, are distinguished by logics reminiscent of
incontinence, violence, fraud, and treason that constitute the architecture of
Dante’s Hell.^15

Dante’s Inferno Marx’s Capital[& Contribution]

Hell’s gate Preface [1859 Preface]

Circles of Incontinence Pt. 1: Commodities & Money [Contribution]

The gates of Dis Pt. 2: The Transformation of

Money into Capital

Circles of Pt. 3: The Pt. 4: The

Violence Production of Production of

Absolute Relative

Circle of Fraud Surplus Value Surplus Value

(Malebolge)

Pts. 5 & 6: Summing up & Wages

Circle of Treason

(Cocytus) Pt. 7: The Accumulation of Capital

Pt. 8: The So-Called Original

Encounter with Lucifer Accumulation

Exit from Hell Ch. 33: The Modern Theory of Colonization

I do not know whether this isomorphism was intentional, but as Marx himself
maintained vis-à-vis Hegel’s accommodations to the Prussian state, what mat-
ters is not the “exoteric consciousness” of the writer, but the inner movement

The Origin of Political Economy and the Descent of Marx • 45

(^15) Marx even reworked the chapter divisions of Capitalin such a way that they
mimic those of the Inferno. Beginning with the French edition, and carrying over into
the English edition, Capitalis divided into a preface and 33 chapters. The Infernohas
34 cantos, the first of which is a preface to the whole Comedy.