Chapter 2
Proletarian Dreams:FromMarxtoMarxism
In directcontrast to German philosophy, which descends from heaventoearth, hereweas-
cend from earthto heaven. That isto say, we do not set out from whatmen say, imagine,
conceive,nor frommen as narrated, thoughtof, imagined, conceived, in order to arrive at
men in the flesh. [...]Life is not determined by consciousness,but consciousness by life.Karl Marx andFriedrich Engels,“The German Ideology”In the introduction, the term“proletarian”has been defined as part ofastrategy
of politicalradicalization thatgave the workingclass historical agency.Ithas
also been likened toanumber of identifications–mostlyrelated to class, but
alsoto community and humanity–grounded in the socialist and communist
lifeworlds but notreducibleto them. Most significant for this context,“proletar-
ian”has been described as an imaginary construct brought to life through sym-
bolic politics and sustained through emotional and aesthetic practices.InMarx-
ist theory,the proletariat enters the world historical stageasanagent of
historical necessitybut not of inevitability.Itremains inseparable fromahistory
and theory of class struggles thattranslates the critique of class society into class
consciousness and identifies the social conditions strategies conducive for revo-
lution. The political demands made in the name of the proletariat eventuallyde-
velopedinto an elaborate theory alternativel yknown as scientific socialism or
historical materialism.Yetasthis chapter argues, the concept of emotional com-
munity remained an integralpart of the theorizing of the proletarian dream.
In the famous Marx quoteabove, German idealist philosophyfunctions as
the influential model against which Marxism establishes its critical method
andradical potential.¹Unlikethe bourgeois scholars presented in chapter 1,
the socialist politicians, writers, and thinkers quoted on the pages thatfollow
firmlybelieved that“life is not determined by consciousness,but consciousness
by life.”However,this does not mean that their“corresponding forms of con-
sciousness”did not continuouslyexceedand confound these determinations.
Similarly,although Marxist theory and socialist praxis provided clear instruc-
tions for“the ascent from earth to heaven,”the proletarian dream, nonetheless,
retained manyofthe qualities associated dismissively with this religious image
of heaven. In recognition of these contradictions, the reconstruction of the larger
discursive field demarcated by the proletarian dream in this chapter will focus
Karl Marx andFriedrich Engels,“The German Ideology,”MECW5: 36–37.