CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2024
| Author | Lei, Letian |
|---|---|
| Title | The Subjectivity in Dilemma: Receptions of Marxist Humanism in 1980s China |
| Summary | The thesis explores the transnational entanglements of Marxist humanism that originated from the Khrushchev Thaw and developed into various forms in different Soviet-type contexts. On the historiographical dimension, the thesis employs an “entangled” historiographical approach to situate the long 1980s (1978-1992) Chinese Marxist humanism within a transnational framework, in order to reveal the ideological connotations of Marxist humanism. On the theoretical dimension, the thesis applies a pragmatics paradigm of “trichotomy of Marxism” (revolutionary, liberal, and conservative) to the Marxist discourses, and demonstrates the liberal nature of Marxist humanism and the two illiberal frontiers facing it. The thesis first illustrates the broader intellectual and political context of long 1980s China, i.e., New Enlightenment, within which positioning Chinese Marxist humanism and its related debates on Humanism and Alienation during the early 1980s and on Praxis Materialism during the late 1980s. Then, the thesis examines the Chinese receptions of Soviet and East-Central European Marxist humanist texts and contexts in which Eastern Bloc Marxist humanism evolved, whereby drawing a comparison between Chinese Marxist humanism and Eastern Bloc Marxist humanism, China’s long 1980s conditions and Soviet-type practices during the Cold War. The thesis concludes that Marxist humanism as an intellectual phenomenon in Soviet-type societies reflects a theoretical and practical dilemma of subjectivity, which lies at the heart of the Marxist theory of humanity and historical materialism. In the dual senses of theory and practice, the dilemma of subjectivity constitutes an almost insurmountable obstacle for Marxism to sublate or aufheben liberalism. |
| Supervisor | Trencsényi, Balázs; Ignatieff, Michael |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2024/lei_letian.pdf |
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