Abstract
This chapter rewrites the general intellect in order to formulate a communist theory of writing. Such a theory is not concerned with the content of writing, but rather the character of the act of rewriting, one that is patient and occurs along a general line between intellect and stupidity, speech and silence, and knowledge and thought. This theory emerges from several rewritings of the general intellect. The chapter begins with Jean-François Lyotard’s theory of rewriting—which distinguishes between rewriting as remembering and rewriting as working through—and introduces the role of digital technologies in rewriting. I then turn to Virno’s rewriting of the general intellect, which expands the concept beyond determinate capabilities and knowledges, yet at the same time compresses it into a fundamental and linguistic truth that lacks an antagonism to capital. In the remainder of the chapter, I rewrite the general intellect again, returning it to its indeterminacy by positing a general and postdigital (squiggly) line between intellect and its other.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
This is just one place of many where Lyotard writes on technology, and it is not representative of his general take on it. Elsewhere, for example, he writes of the thoroughly postmodern opportunities for rewriting as working through opened up by technologies. For one example, see Lyotard (1996/2009: 40).
- 2.
Some Marxists might accuse me of lazily slipping here between production and non-production, but I am, after all, working this machine as a condition of my employment (and while the university I work for does not properly produce profit, the publisher I am producing for definitely does).
- 3.
For more on Virno’s conception of transindividuality and the relation between the singular and the common, see Read (2015).
- 4.
This is not a hypothetical concern, but a totally empirical one, and one that disabled activists and critical disability theorists continue to fight and struggle to address.
References
Althusser, L. (2006). Philosophy of the encounter: Later writings 1978–1987. London: Verso.
Griziotti, G. (2019). Neurocapitalism: Technological mediation and vanishing lines. Trans. J. F. McGlimsey. New York, NY: Minor Compositions.
Lewis, T. E. (2017). A Marxist education of the encounter: Althusser, interpellation, and the seminar. Rethinking Marxism, 29(2), 303–317. https://doi.org/10.1080/08935696.2017.1358498.
Lewis, T. E. (2019). Afterword: Studying the dross. In D. Backer (Ed.), Althusser for educators (pp. 78–80). Boston: Brill.
Lyotard, J.-F. (1988/1991). Rewriting modernity. In J.-F. Lyotard, The inhuman. Trans. G. Bennington & R. Bowlby. (pp. 24–35). Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Lyotard, J-F. (1993/1997). Postmodern fables. Trans. G. V. D. Abbeele. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Lyotard, J.-F. (1996/2009). Music and postmodernity. Trans. D. Bennett. New Formations, 66(Spring), 37–45.
Malott, C. S. (2019). The sublation of digital education. Postdigital Science and Education, 2(2), 365–379. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-019-00083-6.
Marx, K. (1867/1967). Capital: A critical analysis of capitalist production, volume 1. Trans. S. Moore & E. Aveling. New York, NY: International Publishers.
Marx, K. (1939/1993). Grundrisse: Foundations of the critique of political economy (rough draft). Trans. M. Nicolaus. New York, NY: Penguin Books.
Read, J. (2015). The politics of transindividuality. Leiden: Brill.
Spivak, C. G. (1988). Can the subaltern speak? In C. Nelson & L. Grossbert (Eds.), Marxism and the interpretation of culture (pp. 271–313). Basingstoke: Macmillan Education.
Srnicek, N. (2017). Platform capitalism. London: Polity.
Virno, P. (2003/2015). When the word becomes flesh: Language and human nature. Trans. G. Mecchia. South Pasadena: Semiotext(e).
Virno, P. (2004). A grammar of the multitude: For an analysis of contemporary forms of life. Trans. I. Bertoletti, J. Cascaito, & A. Casson. Los Angeles: Semiotext(e).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ford, D.R. (2020). A Communist Theory of Writing: Virno, Lyotard, and a Rewriting of the General Intellect. In: Peters, M.A., Besley, T., Jandrić, P., Zhu, X. (eds) Knowledge Socialism. East-West Dialogues in Educational Philosophy and Theory. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8126-3_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8126-3_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-8125-6
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-8126-3
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)