Date: 18 Dec 96 04:01:58 EST From: Chris Burford <100423.2040-AT-CompuServe.COM> Subject: M-I: No Advertisment: Historisch-Kritisches Woerterbuch des Marxismus I rather welcome if German contributors allow a few sparks to fly between them, provided if it seems to clarify the political differences. This is a rather complicated message to get across so I hope I am succeeding. Cooperation between English speaking marxists and German speaking marxists is already making valuable contributions to the Marx-Engels archives. In the difficult efforts to make these lists truly international this connection seems to me a particularly valuable one. a) German speakers have an advantage in being able to catch some of the intuitive meaning of the original texts, the better to understand the theoretical meaning. b) Marxism not only emerged out of the special conditions of Germany in the 19th century, but has had many important challenges of its relevance to advanced capitalist society in Germany. And these continue today. c) There is a sophisticated varied current marxist literature in the German language which is almost unknown to English speakers. It may take time to find the best internet connections, but when they come this will be a great resource. But one of the paradoxes I suspect is that to be able to use this list space fully, German contributors need to be able to argue and differentiate their positions, and I would like to encourage them to do so. Whether Gerwin's article was a review or an advertisement, my German is not good enough to determine. I thought I detected one pointer expressing surprise that a certain concept key to the feminist movement was not present in the dictionary. But it is not just a question of fluency in German, but for whom Gerwin wrote the original article. That publication will have its own code of etiquette about conflict. Indeed the whole of German marxist literature will have its own codes of handling conflict which are probably too subtle for outsiders to judge. At times when I have tried to read a German article, or a friend has translated one for me more precisely, I thought they looked interesting but had difficulty seeing how they were part of a continuing debate which I did not have time to know. What I would appreciate now is this. I deduce that the "Historical-Critical Dictionary of Marxism" has been written by the key figure behind the long- running journal Das Argument, published from Hamburg. This Dictionary therefore perhaps gives an insight into the centre of gravity of this marxist viewpoint. If Gerwin could write *for this list* a brief description of the general position of Das Argument, perhaps adding a few points where he thinks they are deficient, that would be most useful. This would then permit Hinrich or indeed any others to come in, and we as a list could begin to understand in a more differentiated way, the range of marxist debate in the German language. If it helps to bridge the language gap, without necessarily taking sides in what is probably a complex debate, I would be willing to help Gerwin polish the English, if he wants to send me a rough piece first. What I have difficulty doing is speed reading German text on my own and getting the nuances which are sometimes quite important in contesting different positions. Chris Burford London --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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