Abstract

This essay reads The Civil War in France, Karl Marx’s account of the 1871 Paris Commune, as an example of revolutionary epideictic rhetoric that takes debt as a central unifying trope. Marx deploys the rhetoric of debt as a synecdoche to unify diverse French and international political constituencies around the political project of the Paris Commune. Simultaneously, in the wake of the Commune’s destruction, the trope of debt allows Marx to signal the political potential of the Commune outside its immediate context, inviting thinkers and activists after Marx’s time to invest in the Commune’s project in new and creative ways. I argue that this reading of The Civil War in France contributes to conversations about revolutionary community within Marxian rhetorical studies, as well as furthering discussions of the links between epideictic rhetoric and social change.

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
2018-08-08
DOI
10.1080/02773945.2017.1377844
CompPile
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export

Citation context

Cited by in this index (3)

  1. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  2. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  3. Rhetoric Society Quarterly

References (56) · 6 in this index

  1. Trans. George A. Kennedy
  2. Rhetoric and Marxism
  3. Trans. Steve Corcoran, Bruno Bosteels, and Ray Brassier
  4. 10.1215/9780822394716
     ↗
  5. 10.1080/10570314.2011.588902
     ↗
Show all 56 →
  1. Philosophy & Rhetoric
  2. 10.1080/00335630.2014.989895
     ↗
  3. A History of the International, Vol. 1: 1864–1914
  4. Silva Rhetoricae
  5. Thiers, 1797-1877: A Political Life
  6. Queer Migration Politics: Activist Rhetoric and Coalitional Possibilities
  7. Paris Babylon: The Story of the Paris Commune
  8. 10.1080/00335630209384381
     ↗
  9. We are the Union: Democratic Unionism and Dissent at Boeing. Champaign-Urbana: U of Illinois P
  10. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  11. 10.1353/par.2006.0005
     ↗
  12. 10.1080/01463378509369608
     ↗
  13. 10.1080/10417940600846078
     ↗
  14. 10.2307/j.ctt5vkfx1
     ↗
  15. The Bonds of Debt: Borrowing Against the Common Good
  16. 10.1080/00335630.2015.999985
     ↗
  17. Communication Ethics: Between Cosmopolitanism and Provinciality
  18. Insurgent Identities: Class, Community and Protest in Paris from 1848 to the Commune
  19. New
  20. 10.1353/par.2006.0008
     ↗
  21. Rhetoric and Capitalism: Rhetorical Agency as Communicative Labor
    Philosophy and Rhetoric  ↗
  22. Declaration. New York: Argo-Navis
  23. Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution
  24. The Fall of Paris: The Siege and the Commune, 1870–71
  25. 10.1515/9781400884506
     ↗
  26. 10.1080/15358593.2016.1215627
     ↗
  27. 10.1080/00335637609383326
     ↗
  28. Governing By Debt. Trans. Joshua David Jordan
  29. The Making of the Indebted Man: An Essay on the Neoliberal Condition. Trans. Joshua David…
  30. Lacan in Public: Psychoanalysis and the Science of Rhetoric
     ↗
  31. The Civil War in France. Political Writings, Vol. 3: The First International and After
  32. The Letters of Karl Marx
  33. Philosophy & Rhetoric
  34. Soapbox Rebellion: The Hobo Orator Union and the Free Speech Fights of the Industrial Wor…
  35. Rhetoric, Materiality and Politics
  36. Philosophy & Rhetoric
  37. 10.1080/07491409.2017.1285839
     ↗
  38. Marx Beyond Marx: Lessons on the Grundrisse. Trans. Harry Cleaver, Michael Ryan, and Maur…
  39. Reclaiming Queer: Activist and Academic Rhetorics of Resistance
  40. 10.1080/10570310802635013
     ↗
  41. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  42. Communal Luxury: The Political Imaginary of the Paris Commune
  43. The Emergence of Social Space: Rimbaud and the Paris Commune
  44. 10.2307/378414
     ↗
  45. Lifestyle Drugs and the Neoliberal Family
  46. The War Against Paris, 1871
  47. Advances in the History of Rhetoric
  48. Champaign-Urbana
  49. Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding: Moving from Violence to Sustainable Peace
  50. 10.1080/10510978409368190
     ↗
  51. Introduction.” The European Right: A Historical Profile