On Marxist Theory of Love

Article

Abstract

[In Russian]

 The article explores the role and the status of the concept of
Love in classical Marxist theory vis-a-vis feminist discourses of
love and intimacy. At first sight it may seem that Marxism (being
primarily a socio-economic theory) has nothing to do with love,
however, this particular ‘indifference’ has its own historical and
political reasons. The author argues that Marxist project of gender
emancipation and its approach to the issues of marriage, family
and sexual relationship has resulted from the appropriation of
some discourses of love and/or deliberate denial of other topoi,
which had been of crucial importance for the European culture
(starting from the ancient philosophies of love and proceeding
to the mythologies of courtly and romantic love). Marxism excepted
‘love’ from the domain of private life and intimacy and assigned
to it political meaning, having brought together the issues
of sexuality, (private) property and the social order, which would
be based on the principles of justice and equality. This conceptual
framework was inherited my K. Marx and F. Engels from French
utopian socialists and was further elaborated by Soviet Marxists
in the context of revolutionary praxis of the Soviet 1920s. The author
demonstrates that ‘love’ has no place in Marxist theory in a
sense that it denies the value of non-reproductive love (all together with
subjectivity and individual autonomy which can be seen as cornerstones
of feminist theory), for the latter compromises the politico-economic
project of the transformation of the social structure under socialism.
However, the idea of the emancipation of love from the repressive order
of capitalism and the analysis of correlations between love and commodity
exchange has paved the way to the ‘political critique of sexuality,
desire and love’ (E. Illouz).