ABSTRACT
Thework ofKarlMarx, perhapsmore than thewritings of any other social theorist, illustrates the tropes and paradoxes of theorizing. Even though it might be argued that Marx’s thought is challenged only by that of Jesus
Christ and Sigmund Freud for the status of being the leading influence upon people’s liveswithin themodernworld, his is not a solitarymessage. It is certainly the case that there are far more Marxes available to us, through interpretation, than the one voice thatwemeet on the page. There are early and late Marx, humanist and scientific Marx, materialist and idealist Marx, structuralist, crude, Leninist Marx and so on. My point, in the context of a monograph on culture, is not to attempt to arrest this proliferation of versions, nor to point to the ‘true’ reading ofMarx. Rather I hope to demonstrate that although I shall, in this chapter, citeMarx as the prime source of thinking about culture in relation to materialism, this too is only one formulation (albeit a predominant one) and his work may equally well be seen as contributing to the debate over culture and social action, stratification or social structure.
