hey comrades, I am going to write my dissertation on Marx and Marxism and I'd appreciate some input from fellow Marxists on what topics could be interesting to write about
hey comrades, I am going to write my dissertation on Marx and Marxism and I'd appreciate some input from fellow Marxists on what topics could be interesting to write about
What is your field of study? That might change quite a bit the answers. However depending on what you want to do I found Marx's technique interesting.
I also found interesting what kind of media the library of London had when Marx worked there, therefore which fundus of sources he used.
Furthermore I am quite intrigued about timelines of when Marx was where and who else was there during that time (mostly interested in that till 1850, even more so his years of study in Berlin, and maybe around the time 'the Capital' was published).
Then I am also interested in the texts that were produced by groups who had Marx as member.
Besides that I am quite fond of anthropological Marxist value terms e.g. David Graeber, etc.
I am intrigued in how Marxism is taught in China.
My field is political science
What is your favorite subfield in political science? Do you like to write/learn about domestic political structures and institutions, international comparative policy analysis, political philosophy, or international relations? From there I can help you whittle down a topic
political philosophy, up until now my main focus of study has been political theory, Ive already written essays on Marx and have a good understanding of his philosphy
Okay cool, so an interesting way to apply political philosophy in a big 40 page paper is to compare governments on the basis of their foundational philosophy. For the United States, you have Montesquieu and Locke, for socialist countries, you have Marx and Engles.
Comparing what Montesquieu/Locke and what Marx/Engles thought about 3 to 5 different things (individualism vs collectivism, free markets vs planned economies, republics vs bottom up democracy) and applying that to how the countries operate can yield a lot of content and great analysis.
Another approach could be evaluating the evolution of marxist thought throughout the 20th century, focusing thought leaders like Lenin, Mao, and Fanon and exploring the effects of their ideas through the revolutions they inspired or led.
thanks comrade
I actually think it'd be more interesting to plot the change in what those foundations are considered to be over time. For example the political theorists in the US in the first few decades of the 20th century completely rewrote what they considered foundational, like Locke is relatively minor till that period. Check out American political development like Gunnell's archeology of American liberalism or aziz Rana's the two faces of American freedom. That is if one wanted to write about Locke and such.