Books published by Canut Publishers

The post-Marxian philosophy boasts of its historical transcendence over the basic framework of Marxism, which is not different from the post-modern Marxism in terms of historical ontology: they are built on the transcendence of the modern by the post-modern. The post-Marxian philosophers believe that the foundation of social history, on which Marxism is built, will be inevitably reduced to the residue of history. An entirely new social civilization is supposed to come up with a heterogeneous reality for this radical criticism. Therefore, most of the post-Marxian thinkers criticize Marx from a certain perspective while constructing their own critical platform, for example, Baudrillard, with his Mirror of Production and For a Critique of Political Economy of Sign published in the 1970s. As a student of Lefebvre, Baudrillard is also influenced by Roland Barthes and Guy Debord In Society of Spectacle, Debord rewrites the beginning of Marx''s Capital, in which "an immense accumulation of spectacle" replaces Marx''s "immense accumulation of commodities." From the Society of Spectacle to The Consumer Society, the commodity exchange of Marx is turned into the exchange of signs. The mirror of production on which Marx relies is broken while the fantasy of post-modern media becomes the real ruler in today''s capitalist society. In addition, Baudrillard declares the death of modernity and industry (the mode of material production), which also accounts for his refutations of Marxism. The latest events include Mark Poster''s replacement of Marx''s mode of production with his mode of information and Zizek''s adoption of the Lacanian symptoms in place of Marx''s material relations. In general, the post-Marxian philosophy attempts to stride beyond the old Marxist domain, which is a significant heterogeneity in theory.This book is the second volume of the two volume book written by Zhang Yibing; the first volume includes classical Western Marxism texts, and this second includes what he calls "post-Marxian" texts. Born in 1956, he belongs to the second generation of scholars studying "Western Marxism" philosophy in the Mainland China. His first article was published in 1982 and in the second half of 80''ies, he started his books. Zhang Yibing, has chosen a brand new method for China -textual studies- which was very rarely applied. With his sharp critical reflections, and deep background investigation on how those thinkers have developed their ideas, he is one of the outstanding names in that generation. His influential books include, Back to Marx: The Philosophical Discourse in the Context of Economics; Back to Lenin---A Post-textological Reading on Philosophical Notes; The Impossible Truth of Being: Imago of Lacanian Philosophy; Symptom Reading and Ideology: A Textological Reading of Althusser; The Subjective Dimension of Marxian Historical Dialectics ;Atonal Dialectical Imagination: The Textual Reading of Adorno''s Negative Dialectics; and Against Baudrillard- Deconstruction of a Post-modern Academic Mythos.

Capitalism research has been a constant research subject of critical thought in the world. Marxists and left activists are the irreplaceable actors for that critic. And, generally Marx''s Capital has been the basis of all debates and controversies. And we cannot ignore those several arguments holding the view that Marx''s capital and capitalism and class analysis have proved invalid throughout the contemporary history. Another view holds that capitalism and capitalist society is faced by a disastrous regress to barbarism. As capital and capitalism develops forward these debates will never end , but revival and creative progress of Marxist tenets on the issue based on the recent facts of the era has long called Marxists on this task. Due to several historical reasons and internal problems several basic tenets of Marxist capitalism and capital analysis was damaged remarkably. We have chosen this book from Chinese scholars who have paid a valuable effort to revive those tenets together with a comprehensive analysis on contemporary developments. Our title seems too radical, we agree that capitalism has not entered into a brand new stage recently; though it has gained many new features with corporate capital and internationalization. We simply preferred to re-underline the state monopoly capitalism already long on the stage but shadowed by ideology or new facts. As capitalism and capital was developed in the womb of the old society, socialism and social capital is dialectically developed in capitalism every hour and every day; this is the realistic basis of all the practice to deepen and accelerate this process. This is another way of saying socialism opposes private capitalist property and capitalism but is inherently combined and related with them in several patterns dialectically in the process of opposition. This is one of the main aspects in this book inherited and revived creatively from Marx''s work.Originally, one of the aims of this scholarly book was to offer further research material for higher education in political or social economics in Mainland China. Their counterparts living in the same world can also find abundant material and different aspects in this book and especially on the globalism process.This work was finally compiled by the Deng Xiaoping Theory and "Three Represents" Thought Research Center in China. The task of this research book was to find a proper method for "understanding the historical process of capitalist development". A research team mainly composed of instructors engaged in teaching and researchers studying on modern capitalist economy for many years and also some doctors have contributed to the main effort for this book . A draft was produced on the basis of earnest discussions held for more than several times, and we have solicited opinions of the leaders of the Deng Xiaoping Theory and "Three Represents" Thought Research Center as well as the China Renmin University Press throughout the process of writing. We have then made further revisions on the manuscripts collecting valuable opinions raised by the experts. The work presented to the reader now is accomplished by relevant scholars through joint efforts.