ABSTRACT
Alienation is a pervasive feature of modern life. It is one of the few theoretical terms from Marxism that has entered into ordinary language. Marx's discussion of alienation is most prominent and explicit in his early writings, particularly in the 1844 Manuscripts, where the influence of Hegel's philosophy is most evident. The 1844 Manuscripts first appeared in Moscow in 1932. The Soviet authorities treated them with suspicion as juvenilia written when Marx was still excessively under the spell of Hegel, and before he had developed his 'mature' economic theory and the historical materialist approach. The most extended account of alienation in Marx's early works occurs in the section of the 1844 Manuscripts devoted to 'estranged labour'. Marx identifies alienation in many areas of life, including religion, politics, and social and economic relations. Economic and social relations, too, take on an alienated form: a form which is independent and hostile.
