All seminars are aimed primarily at graduate students undertaking or considering the Critical Theory Emphasis, but all are welcome.
Fall 2025 CTE Mini Seminar, Presenting
Paul North
Yale University
Maurice Natanson Professor of German
The Standpoint of Marx's Capital
When: November 18th-20th
Time: 4-6pm
Location: Humanities Gateway 1010
This is an in-person event - Please RSVP Here if you intend on attending the CTE Mini-Seminar.
*Please note that UCI students attending this Mini-Seminar for credit are required to attend all three seminar sessions. Sign-ins will be required each session.
The Standpoint of Marx's Capital
Professor Paul North
Yale University
The Standpoint of Marx’s Capital
There are many Marxes and many Capitals, although a tendency among interpreters is to fight over the true Marx and the true Capital. One Marx that has not gotten much attention thinks of capital as a special kind of place rather than a special logic. One Capital explores capital’s landscapes and landmarks, fences and passages, rather than its major categories. Alongside the division of labor, there is a division into places, which Marx designates throughout the project with the term “standpoint.” In this series of seminars, we will pursue a perspectival-hermeneutic reading of Capital, on the hypothesis that the nature of standpoints within the capital system, and the nature of the standpoint on the system that Marx constructs, is an indispensable part of his critical project. A standpoint approach is also farther from mere knowledge and closer to historical practices.
Bio
Paul North is Maurice Natanson Professor of German at Yale, where he teaches critical theory. His books include The Yield: Kafka’s Atheological Reformation (Stanford 2015) and Bizarre Privileged Items in the Universe: The Logic of Likeness (Zone Books 2022). He is also co-editor of the new English edition of Marx’s Capital (Volume 1, Princeton 2024; Volume 2, forthcoming 2028).
Please message criticaltheory@uci.edu for any questions.