File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1996/96-12-19.094, message 60


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




 


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