Philosophy & Rhetoric Feb 2020

The Body as a Site of Material-Symbolic Struggle: Toward a Marxist New Materialism

Catherine Chaput University of Nevada, Reno

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay explores how a physiological notion of affect, one predicated on the transsubstantial circulation of micro-materiality, provides useful connectivity among old and new materialisms. First, it explores nascent theories of energetic matter in Marxism as potential sites for new materialist extensions. Second, it proposes affect as a theoretical shorthand for the circulating flows of matter central to the physiological production, orientation, and materialization of bodily capacities, including the ability to reinvent political economic habituation from the perspective of difference. Third, it illustrates the contributions of a Marxist new materialism through a brief discussion of contemporary race politics.

Journal
Philosophy & Rhetoric
Published
2020-02-21
DOI
10.5325/philrhet.53.1.0089
Open Access
Closed
Topics
race and writing affect and writing

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (5)

  1. Daniel et al. (2025)
    Complicating Marx’s Role in Rhetorical Studies
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  2. Carter (2025)
    Rhetorical Misattunement: Alienation, Hegemony, and Infrastructure in Drug War …
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  3. Simonson (2023)
    Postconstructivisms and the Promise of Peircean Rhetoric
    Philosophy & Rhetoric
  4. Kalin et al. (2022)
    Rhetoric, Methodology, and a Question of Onto-Epistemological Access
    Philosophy & Rhetoric
  5. Yang (2021)
    Phantastic, Impressive Rhetoric
    Philosophy & Rhetoric

Cites in this index (3)

  1. Biesecker (2017)
    From General History to Philosophy: Black Lives Matter, Late Neoliberal Molecul…
    Philosophy & Rhetoric
  2. Doxtader (2017)
    <i>Zōon Logon Ekhon</i>: (Dis)possessing an Echo of Barbarism
    Philosophy & Rhetoric
  3. Stormer et al. (2017)
    Thinking Ecologically About Rhetoric's Ontology: Capacity, Vulnerability, and R…
    Philosophy & Rhetoric
Also cites 5 works outside this index ↓
  1. Chen, Mel. 2012. Animacies: Biopolitics, Racial Mattering, and Queer Affect. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
     ↗
  2. Coole, Diana, and Samantha Frost. 2010. New Materialisms: Ontology, Agency, and Politics. Durham, NC: Duke Un…
     ↗
  3. Davis, Diane. 2010. Inessential Solidarity: Rhetoric and Foreigner Relations. Pittsburgh: University of Pitts…
     ↗
  4. Happe, Kelly. 2018. “Epigenetics and the Biocitizen: Body Temporality and Political Agency in the Postgenomic…
     ↗
  5. Hawhee, Debra. 2017. Rhetoric in Tooth and Claw: Animals, Language, Sensation. Chicago: University of Chicago…
     ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 7 View in citation network →

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