Panel: Marxist Literary Criticism in the Contemporary, BACLS Biennial Conference [featuring Andrew Rowcroft, Daniel Hartley, and Elinor Taylor].

2017 and 2018 mark several important anniversaries for the critique of capitalism and radial left thought. Marx’s Capital reached its 150th anniversary in September last year, the Communist Manifesto attains its 170th year in February 2018, and May 2018 marked Marx’s 200th birthday. 2016 commemorated the 100th year anniversary of the Russian Revolution and this year marks a full fifty years since the événements of May 1968.Such convergences offer a unique critical opportunity to discuss the development and demands of Marxist critique in the twenty-first century, while preparing it to take on fresh challenges, possibilities, and problems. This panel features three scholars working in Marxist critical theory and contemporary literature. Together, they explore the ways in which contemporary literary works formalise, thematise or conceptualise the central social and ecological challenges of the present: climate change, economic crisis, the rise of new political forms and subjects, and new modalities of racism. They seek to show that Marxist critical thought is not an obsolete remnant of the previous century, but a true contemporary of the historical present.