Alienation and Fetishism in Marx's Work: Continuity or Rupture
Karl Marx, alienation, commodity fetishism, alienated labor, value theory, reification
The concept of alienation, in Marx's body of work, takes center stage in his 1844
manuscripts, published as “The Economical and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844”. In his later work, however, the concept appeared less and less, to the point of not even being an object of Marxism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. With the posthumous publication of these manuscripts, Marxism is divided into those who claim this text as the philosophical foundation of the mature works and those who see it as a text still marked by the “ideological” notions of youth. From this point, the notion of commodity fetishism, already present in the mature texts, becomes part of the discussion, insofar as it retains similarities with the concept of alienation of labor. A variety of theoretical positions have emerged on the meaning and possible relationship of these concepts to Marx's work as a whole. This paper will attempt to provide a general overview of this controversy to date, looking for affinities and distances between the different theorists. In general, there are three positions on Marx's work, based on the concepts of alienation and fetishism: that of rupture; that of continuity without change; that of continuity with change. Having outlined the general positions, we will then deal with their main lines of defense, based on the different interpretations of Marx's work, as well as the developments and limitations of each conception.