The Marxist and humanist legacy of Henri Lefebvre
by Liam O'Ruairc
Henri
Lefebvre (1901-91) was an independent French Marxist theoretician. An original,
nonconformist thinker, Lefebvre was a prolific writer; in his lifetime, he
published more than 60 books and 300 articles! In spite of his importance, very
few studies have been devoted to Lefebvre's thought.
Lefebvre was the first to
make accessible to the general public key writings of Marx and Lenin that were
unknown outside Russia and Germany. Marx's early writings, such as the 1844
MANUSCRIPTS, were first published in Moscow in 1932. Lefebvre, with Norbert
Guterman, published the first foreign language translations in 1934.
In 1938 he was
responsible for the first foreign-language translation of Lenin's NOTEBOOKS ON
HEGEL AND THE DIALECTIC. Lefebvre also published the same year an anthology of
key extracts from Hegel's writings. Until then Hegel's philosophy was virtually
unknown in France (Wahl and Kojeve had just begun their Hegel seminar) and
Marxists ignored it.
Lefebvre wrote the first
major theoretical work to advance a new reconstruction of Marxism on the basis
of Marx's early work and Lenin's writings on Hegel and the dialectic:
DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM (1939), published the same year as Stalin's DIALECTICAL
AND HISTORICAL MATERIALISM. The contrast couldn't be greater.
His conceptual innovation
is to have shown the centrality within Marx's thought of the concepts of
"humanism," "alienation," "fetishism,"
"praxis," "total man." His originality is evident if one
compares his methodological understanding of Marx and Lenin on dialectical
materialism with the writings of Maurice Cornforth or, for a recent example,
John Rees' ALGEBRA OF REVOLUTION.
Two important works by
Lefebvre not discussed by Shields are MARXISM (1948) and his 1956 book on
Lenin. Alienation and the dialectic were the cornerstone of Lefebvre's reading
of Marx. The author notes that by extending alienation into the key concept in
an entire critique of modern life, Lefebvre oversimplified Marx's and Engels'
different uses of the concept. By extending the scope and meaning of
alienation, Lefebvre had somewhat misread Marx. However, it is debatable to say
that, for Marx, alienation was specific and restricted to the economic sphere.
It is unfortunate that
Shields doesn't discuss some of Lefebvre's contributions in more detail. In
1947, for example, Lefebvre wrote a book called FORMAL LOGIC AND DIALECTICAL
LOGIC, a brilliant systematic treatise written from the Marxist viewpoint. His
philosophic testament, RETURN OF THE DIALECTIC (1986), is also virtually unknown.
Lefebvre is also
significant for being perhaps THE first Marxist to recognize the importance of
Nietzsche. His 1939 defense of Nietzsche against appropriation by fascists and
vilification by Marxists is perhaps the best Marxist analysis of the thinker that
has been written. Shields is right to note that Lefebvre is "an exemplary
reader of theory as well as a radical producer of non-systematic theories but
key insights and methodologies. In so far as this is true his work remains
open-ended: a toolkit for progressive action now."
Lefebvre innovated by
extending Marxist analysis to the sphere of "everyday life" and
problems of urbanism--questions that had been ignored by the Left. He witnessed
after World War II the rapid modernization and urbanization of French life. His
critique of the "bureaucratic society of controlled consumption is
reminiscent of Marcuse, but suffers from a certain impressionism.
Lefebvre made a more
significant contribution by making the city an object for Marxist thought. For
Shields, Lefebvre's lasting contribution will be his 1974 book on THE
PRODUCTION OF SPACE, which redirected historical materialism towards a spatial
problematic. This is the best part of Shields' book. Lefebvre transcoded the
dialectic into spatial terms.
"What exactly is the
mode of social relationships?" he asked. "The study of space offers
an answer according to which the social relations of production have a social
existence to the extent that they have a spatial existence; they project
themselves into a space, becoming inscribed there, and in the process producing
that space itself. Failing this, these relations would remain in the realm of
'pure abstraction,' that is to say in the realm of representations and hence of
ideology: the realm of verbalism, verbiage and empty words."
From this Lefebvre
develops a rich theory of the development of different systems of spatiality in
different historical periods. His history of the different "modes of
production of space" completes Marx's analysis of modes of production in
urban, attitudinal and environmental terms. This is not just a theoretical
question. A communist revolution must not only change the relationship of the
proletariat to the means of production, but also create a new spatialization.
His theory provides a
bridge from Marxist thought to environmental politics. Lefebvre advocated
alternative and revolutionary restructurations of institutionalized discourses
of space and new modes of spatial praxis ("differential space"), such
as that by squatters or Third World slum dwellers, who fashion a spatial
presence and practice outside the prevailing norms of enforced capitalist
spatialization ("abstract space"). As a dialectician, Lefebvre
understood that space and time were two categories that couldn't be separated.
Before his death, he was working on a "rhythmanalysis" to link
different rhythms (cyclical, linear, etc.) with different modes of
spatiality.
The book doesn't
emphasize enough how Lefebvre's thought was always intimately connected to
political practice. Although for most of his life he was a university lecturer,
he was never an "academic Marxist." Lefebvre always sought to unite
thought and action. He was a member of the Communist Party of France from 1928
until he was expelled in 1957 for his heretical ideas. He later associated with
a variety of left-wing movements and causes.
His books are echoes of
all those struggles. One must read his books on urbanism and the city for
example, with the battles between local communities and the planners and
speculators regarding "redevelopment" and "slum clearance"
in mind. His studies on rural sociology are related to the struggles of
peasantry.
Lefebvre recognized the
importance of so-called new social movements, like anti-racism or the struggles
of oppressed nationalities like the Basques. Shields' book is to be welcomed
for defending the contemporary relevance of Henri Lefebvre's contributions.
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