Did you know that Marxist thought has had a profound impact on music, culture, and social theory throughout the 20th and 21st centuries? What was state socialism and what kind of a 'death' did it have in Europe? What were the afterlives of Marxist thought across the globe? 

In this course, we shall acquaint ourselves with some of the fundamental principles of Marxism and examine how scholars and practitioners have applied these principles in their work over the past two centuries. We shall read key works by influential thinkers such as Theodor Adorno, Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Pierre Bourdieu, Raymond Williams, and Stuart Hall, as well as Angela McRobbie and Donna Haraway, whose writings are essential to understanding theoretical concepts of inequality, exploitation, alienation as well as emancipatory politics. We shall also broaden our perspective beyond the European context to explore how Marxism, art, culture, and music are theorised and practised in decolonial and postcolonial settings.