Professor A. E. Weinbaum
English 556/Spring 2026
Office hours: 3:30-4:30 on Tu/Th and by appointment
Office location: 408B
Email: alysw@uw.edu
This course examines the philosophy of history developed by Marx and Engels and considers its transformation across several foundational texts. It explores how key Marxist ideas about historical materialism and dialectics have been engaged by the so-called Black Radical Tradition, by feminists focused on the gendered, sexualized, and reproductive dynamics of capitalism, and by scholars who have sought to engage Marxism in and for cultural analysis. Notably, Marxism is characterized by intense ongoing debate about its own history (the history of revolution, counter-revolution, utopian aspiration and dystopian outcome) as well as by what Traverso calls “left-wing melancholia.” The course concludes with consideration of how ideas about the Marxist past play a role in Marxist thinking, and how Marxist theorists engage latent utopian and dystopian potentialities. Ideally, you’ll come away from the quarter with a solid understanding of several key texts by Marx and Engels, of subsequent Marxist takes on question of history and memory, and with ideas about the relevance of readings to your research questions and our shared future.
Required books and texts
The following books have been ordered and are currently available through the University Bookstore: Communist Manifesto (CM), German Ideology (GI), Capital, and Federici. Most other materials are posted on Canvas as pdfs (in “files”) or directly linked on the “syllabus”—a few are still in process. If you can purchase texts from which we are reading more than 50 pages (or two chapters) that would be good for the well-being of the book economy, but is not mandatory.
Supplementary readings
These are included to contextualize and/or deepen understanding of the assigned readings and to introduce additional perspectives. Often these are readings I consult when preparing to teach assigned materials. Supplementary readings are only required of the presenters, though everyone is welcome to engage them. On occasion, I may elect to make a supplementary reading into a required reading, or vice versa. If there is no supplementary reading for your presentation day, read more from the volume(s) from which shared materials are excerpted (all source texts are noted in the syllabus). NB: If supplementary readings are not on canvas, it is your responsibility to procure them from the library or elsewhere. Please plan ahead.
Pedagogical philosophy
Reading dense Marxist theory is challenging, especially when encountering texts and ideas for the first time. In my experience, a combination of clearly dedicated reading time and group discussion is needed to fully understand and assimilate ideas. For this reason, this seminar is designed to be reading heavy, intensively collaborative, and discussion based. I have designed the course based on the assumptions that all seminar participants have made a commitment to come to each seminar having completed and carefully prepared materials, that everyone will submit short writing assignments according to the set schedule and is willing to share written work and respond to that by colleagues. Writing about the “conversations” that emerge amongst readings and amongst seminar participants as they work through readings will further deepen and consolidate understanding. In sum this course is all about process, oral and written.
Course requirements
- Careful preparation for each seminar: completion of readings, careful preparation of reading notes, drafts of written questions and observations to share in seminar.
- Collaborative presentation: students will work together to generate one page of carefully elaborated questions for use in seminar. These are intended to cover all readings, treat their interconnection, jump start discussion, and point us towards key passages. To this end, questions must be drawn from analysis of a specific passages that presenters are prepared to situate and parse in seminar. This entails explaining how each passage fits within the reading and larger argument, and how the question emerges from the passage and text. Presenters are also responsible for briefly introducing text(s) covered (date, author information, relevant context), consulting supplementary readings (when available) or texts from which readings are excepted (when relevant), and explaining what they found useful in these. All presenters should play an equal role in preparation and presentation.
- Three short papers (5-6 double-spaced pages): Bring hard copies of your papers to class for distribution. One for me; others for colleagues providing written feedback. Short paper due dates:Paper #1 distributed in seminar on Tuesday April 21; Paper #2 distributed in seminar on Tuesday May 12th; Paper #3 distributed in seminar on Tuesday June 2nd. Or, if you prefer, weekly reader responses (1 single-spaced page; 9 responses in total): Bring two hard copies of responses to seminar each week. One for me; the other for a colleague to provide feedback.
- Written feedback on your colleagues’ papers is due within one week of paper distribution.
- Regular attendance: Missing more than one seminar meeting may impact your grade as each seminar is crucial to our shared process in this fast-moving course.
- Grades: Assuming you complete all assignments and turn writing in on time, you will receive a grade in the 3.8-4.0 range. Each missing or incomplete short paper or reader response will detract from your grade by one grade point. Each missed presentation will detract from your grade by one grade point. Final grades will be based on assessment of your sustained contribution to seminar, and the overall quality of written work and presentations.
NB: I will be reading all responses as we go; I am available during office hours throughout the quarter to discuss written work and presentations. Please use email to schedule an appointment.
All papers must accomplish the following...
- Summarize the main argument of the reading in a manner that organically leads to the question(s) you wish to raise. If you are writing a short paper, it should treat a cluster of at least three key texts and must engage each fully. If you are writing a response it may focus on a single text but can also work across texts as desired.
- Raise a question or a nested set of questions that emerge from the reading(s).
- Explore provisional answers to the question(s) raised or explain why the question(s) are important to raise and answer—in other words, explore what is at stake in your approach to the reading(s).
- Connect your discussion of the readings to seminar and the issues, ideas, debates and questions raised when possible.
NB: you may bring in supplementary readings but should not treat readings or materials not already on the syllabus.
Schedule of readings and presentations
Our schedule is subject to change; changes will be discussed in class. It is your responsibility to keep abreast of all changes.
Week 1
Tuesday, March 31: Introduction to the seminar; presentation and response paper sign-up
Thursday, April 2: Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto (read entire CM sections I-VI)
Supplementary readings: China Miéville, On the Communist Manifesto: A Spectre Haunting
Week 2
Tuesday, April 7: Finish discussion of CM including the appended prefaces, especially those written for the English (1888), German (1890), and Polish (1892) editions—you will find these after the main text in the Oxford edition.
Marx, “Preface to a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy” and “Theses on Feuerbach” [There are two existent versions of “Theses,” these are included in GI, pp. 569-574]
Nancy Fraser, “Omnivore: Why We Need to Expand Our Conception of Capitalism,” from Cannibal Capitalism
Presentation 1:
Thursday, April 9: Enzo Traverso, “The Locomotives of History,” from Revolution: An Intellectual History
Presentation 2:
Week 3
Tuesday, April 14: Marx and Engles, “The German Ideology: Volume 1: Critique of Modern German Philosophy According to Its Representatives” pp. 29-67 from GI
Thursday, April 16: Marx and Engles, “The German Ideology” pp. 68-103 from GI
Presentation 3:
Supplementary reading: Peter Worsley, Marx and Marxism
Week 4
Tuesday, April 21: Cedric Robinson, "Preface to 2000 edition," “Introduction” and “Chapter 1: Racial Capitalism: The Nonobjective Character of Capitalist Development,” from Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition
Robin D. G. Kelley, “What Did Robinson Mean by Racial Capitalism?” Boston Review
Presentation 4:
Thursday, April 23: Lisa Lowe, “Freedoms Yet to Come” from The Intimacies of Four Continents
Alys Eve Weinbaum, “Gendering the General Strike: W. E. B. Du Bois’s Black Reconstruction and Black Feminism’s ‘Propaganda of History’” in SAQ
Presentation 5:
Supplementary reading: W. E. B. Du Bois, Chapters I-IV, and “The Propaganda of History” from Black Reconstruction
Week 5
Tuesday, April 28: Marx, Capital, “Chapter 1: The Commodity” (focus on pp. 125-155, pp. 163-177)
Presentation 6:
Thursday, April 30: Marx, Capital, “Part Eight: So-Called Primitive Accumulation” (focus on chapters 26, 27, 32 and 33)
Presentation 7:
Supplementary reading: David Harvey, A Companion to Marx’s Capital
Week 6
Tuesday, May 5: Silvia Federici, Caliban and the Witch
Presentation 8:
Thursday, May 7: Complete Caliban and the Witch
Jennifer L. Morgan and Alys Eve Weinbaum, “Introduction: Reproductive Racial Capitalism,” co-edited special issue, History of the Present 2024.
Supplementary reading: Nancy Fraser, “Care Guzzler: Why Social Reproduction is a Major Site of Capitalist Crisis,” from Cannibal Capitalism
Week 7
Tuesday, May 12: Glen Sean Coulthard, “Introduction: Subjects of Empire,” and "Essentialism and the Gendered Politics of Aboriginal Self-Government," from Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition
Glen Sean Coulthard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, “Grounded Normativity/Place-Based Solidarity”
Supplementary Reading: Joanne Barker, “The Corporation and the Tribe,” from Colonial Racial Capitalism
Presentation 9:
Thursday, May 14: Walter Benjamin, “Theses on the Philosophy of History”
Week 8
Tuesday, May 19: Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”
Thursday, May 21: Fredric Jameson, “The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism,” from Postmodernism or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism
Presentation 10:
Week 9
Tuesday, May 26: Ernst Bloch, “Introduction” from The Principle of Hope
Jose Munoz, “Introduction: Feeling Utopia” and “Queerness as Horizon: Utopian Hermeneutics in the Face of Gay Pragmatism” from Cruising Utopia
Presentation 11:
Thursday, May 28: Enzo Traverso, “Introduction: Haunting Pasts Without Utopias” and “Marxism and Memory,” from Left-Wing Melancholia
Presentation 12:
Week 10
Tuesday, June 2: Fredric Jameson, “Introduction: Utopia Now,” and “Progress versus Utopia, or Can We Imagine the Future” from Archaeologies of the Future: This Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions
Thursday, June 4: Lou Cornum, “Seizing the Alterity of Futures: Toward a Philosophy of History across Afrofuturism and Indigenous Futurism”
Supplementary reading: Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?
Additional information
Religious accommodation
All requests for religious accommodation will be honored; no formal paperwork is required. However, I ask that you notify me of the dates you will are unable to join us by the end of week 1, and that we together work out a plan for any missed work.
Disability accommodation
Should you require accommodation, please come to me after class during the first week of quarter to discuss useful adjustments, and be sure to have disability services send me the official request.
Plagiarism defined
Plagiarism involves submitting written work (or orally presenting work) that includes words or ideas not your own without proper citation. The UW guidelines on plagiarism apply to all print materials and to all information gleaned from the media, websites, and generated by AI. The key to avoiding plagiarism is to show clearly where your own thinking ends and someone/something else’s begins.
Should you have consulted outside sources or used either print or online sources to spark ideas, formulations, or written text, you must specify where the ideas and information you have consulted or used was obtained. All citations must be in the form of footnotes and bibliography (you need to create a handout when presenting orally and properly attribute during your presentation). Please note that it is because the oral portion of this seminar is as important as the written portion that use of generative AI to assist in either or both is deemed a form of plagiarism.
Plagiarism policy for this course: This is intended to be an AI free course—as much as this is possible in our present moment. Any assignment (written or oral) that indicates to me your use of generative AI and/or that engages in other forms of plagiarism will automatically receive a zero grade.
More on plagiarism
https://www.washington.edu/cssc/for-students/academic-misconduct/
https://students.nursing.uw.edu/policies/student-policies/plagiarism/
https://tedfrick.sitehost.iu.edu/plagiarism/