Specters Of Postmodernism: Derrida, Marx, And Leftist Politics

In 1994 Jacques Derrida published his long-awaited text on Marx. In the work, Derrida praises what he calls the "spirit of Marx and Marxism," identifying what he claims to be Marx's legacy of "putting back on the drawing board questions of life and spirit" (SM, 54). Derrida further identifies with what he sees as the important goal within the Marxian project, "emancipation" (SM, 75). Derrida agrees with many contemporary Marxists that the emergence of an American Empire dominated by liberalism in both the market and in politics is "threatened and threatening" at the end of the Twentieth Century (SM, 52). In order to understand the present condition, Derrida asserts that Marx is essential for the analysis of issues such as foreign debt, the plight of poor countries, protectionism, and the epidemic of overproduction (SM, 63). Yet Derrida is not a Marxist. In Specters of Marx Derrida again makes it clear that his project, deconstruction, has some affinities With the Marxist project, but "deconstruction is neither Marxist or Non-Marxist" (SM, 75). This declaration is nothing new, as Derrida's Marxist critics are quick to point out.