ect of emancipation requiresaheavy dependence on literary models and aesthet-
ic modalities and involves extensive references to collective emotions. Marxist
theory affirmslabor as an essential part of being/becoming human (i.e., in
the notion ofhomo laborans)but also identifiesitasthe main cause of dehuman-
ization in the context of capitalist exploitation. The introduction ofhomo emotio-
nalisrepresents an attempt,located in the realms of critical reflection as well as
literaryfiction, to move beyond these contradictions and take full advantageof
their complementary qualities.
Later Marxist distinctionsinthe name of scientific socialism, historical ma-
terialism, and socialist humanism continuouslyreenact this underlyingtension
between humanist universalism and class struggle in the figure of the proletarian
as an instrument of conception, imagination, and agitation. These competing
functionsare broughttogether inahighlygendered rhetoric of class that serves
to reconcile the universal and the specific through the symbolic equation ofrev-
olution with masculinity.Togetherthe universalism of humanism, which as-
sumes the male position as the normative position, and the class analysis of
Marxism, which posits the workingclass as the universal one, establish the en-
ablingconditions under which the proletarian dream acquires its distinct mascu-
linist qualities. As illustrated by the Engels quotes above, the exploitation of the
workers is invariablydescribed asafeminizingexperience, against which the
processofradicalization promisesremasculinization.Based on an understand-
ing of labor that privileges wagelabor over thereproduction of labor power,
the resultantconflation of man, mankind, and human being,inturn, validates
themale position as the universal one. The proletariat is confirmed as the uni-
versalclass because it embodies human suffering and,through its revolt against
the inhumanconditions of the class system, puts an end to all inhuman condi-
tions. Communism, accordingtothis argument,must be understood asatheory
and praxisofhuman emancipation. In his impassioned responseto Hegel, Marx
is very clear on this point and deserves to be quoted at length:
Where, then, is thepositivepossibilityofaGerman emancipation?Answer:In the formula-
tion ofaclass withradical chains,aclass of civil society which is notaclass of civil society,
an estatewhich is the dissolution of all estates,aspherewhich hasauniversal character by
its universal sufferingand claims noparticularrightbecause noparticular wrongbutwrong
generallyis perpetuatedagainst it; which can invokenohistoricalbut onlyhumantitle;
which does not stand in anyone-sided antithesisto the consequences but in all-round an-
tithesisto the premises of the German state;asphere, finally, which cannot emancipate it-
self without emancipating itself from all other spheres of society and thereby emancipating
all other spheres of society,which, inaword, is thecomplete lossof man and hencecan winProletarian Dreams:FromMarx to Marxism 57