Ali Alizadeh's Marx and Art

Book Launch at Arena Project Space on Oct 21.

The MSCP presents the launch of Ali Alizadeh’s Marx and Art @ Arena Space, Fitzroy, October 21 from 6.30pm. Arena Printing  (2 Kerr St) on Google Maps.

Marx and Art is a new take on Karl Marx's view of art and literature. Writer and poet Ali Alizadeh explores Marx’s thoughts on art, ideology and poetry and provides an account of his revolutionary view of why we make art and how we understand art’s value. By returning to Marx’s writings, from his juvenile poetry and earliest journalism to his final publications, Alizadeh proposes a theory which not only challenges many tenets of contemporary Marxist literary or cultural theory, but one which also presents us with a theory of art that defines, values and demonstrates artistic practice. By mapping Marx’s intellectual development from the ideals of a young Hegelian to the polemics of a seasoned internationalist communist he shows that Marx never lost sight of art as a key aspect of human activity.

Ali Alizadeh is a Melbourne-based writer and thinker. He's a Senior Lecturer in Literary Studies and Creative Writing at Monash University’s School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics. His books include collections of poems, Ashes in the Air and Eyes in Times of War; novels, The Last Days of Jeanne d’Arc, Transactions and The New Angel; and a work of literary non-fiction, Iran, My Grandfather. This is his first philosophical monograph. 

Ali will be in conversation with:

Dr Rachel Joy is a Melbourne-based visual artist and independent academic. Her paintings, print works, sculptural practice and writings comment on local and global issues regarding place, identity and history. Rachel has won public art commissions and international residencies and has collaborated with companies of including Opera Victoria and Snuff Puppets Theatre Company. Most recently her print works have been shown in New York, San Francisco, and Sophia in Bulgaria.

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Dr Joe Hughes is a Senior Lecturer in English and Theatre Studies at the University of Melbourne. He has written widely on contemporary European thought. His most recent book is Philosophy After Deleuze (Continuum: 2012); his current project is a history of the scenic form of the European novel. Research and teaching interests include the history of criticism, history of the novel, theories of media and theories of literature.