I've been reading a bunch into dialectics, and started "Dance of the Dialectic" by Bertell Ollman which i'm finding very interesting.
I want to write a few things, some articles that will generally be about historical research, analysis and critique of an event, or a text, or ideology. A lot of what i'm interested in gravitates around literary/media critique.
So are there still marxist, specifically dialectical methods, models or schools of thoughts that are still used? Modernised versions, evolutions (that don't fall into anti-communism, or some vague "post-marxism"), etc? Are there methods that bridge the gap like Marx's dialectic and can be used as much in science, in critique, in philosophy and in strategy and action?
Another thing I'm interested in: escaping the uselessless of media and literary critique. I don't just want to dissect a text and talk about what's inside or about the ideology, although that's a necessary step, but I want to see if that can be projected forward, to derive not only a critique but a positive method, a strategy for change. For example, a method that allows you to critique fiction writing and also gives you workable tactics for better writing, for revolutionary writing. Not simply pointing out the ideological content of something, but tactics for fighting it, for writing something better, for counter-acting. Feels like simply analysing and being critical isn't enough because it doesn't bring change, and can even bring a sense of powerlessness when all you're doing is in knowing rather than doing. In this example, how do we convert the analysis into something that motivates and guides new writing? I'm still unsure if this is really possible, it feels like media critique can only ever be subsumed into capital and can never really be used in revolutionary ways, but I'm wondering.
Sorry if some of this is rambly.
Hi there. I'll try to answer some of your questions but I'm not very good at writing like this.
It's important to remember that dialectical materialism and materialist dialectics are a synthesis and development of many ideas that have been present throughout history, science, and human thought more generally. All analysis of the world and human ideas reflect dialectics and materialism in some way or they reflect the opposite tendencies (metaphysics and idealism). The scientific method, for example, in which a scientist attempts to create an ideal model of a material process requires that that ideal model be tested against reality and adjusted accordingly. This is the exact same method that dialectical materialism prescribes to resolve incorrect human knowledge more generally. It's rare, however, to find dialectical thinking in use named explicitly at this point. Especially in the west. That could change, though.
While materialist dialectics may represent an abstract and general fact about reality the actual way it manifests in specific fields and the application of its method depends on the problems you're trying to solve. Marxists have generally been more concerned with its application to political economy for practical reasons of revolution and a revolution's survival. But there's good stuff out there if you look hard enough.
I haven't heard of an application of the dialectical method like that to writing. But I think it's a good idea and definitely worth pursuing! I hope this helps a bit.