Marx and Singularity: From the Early Writings to the Grundrisse

"Marx and Singularity" by Luca Basso attempts to understand the development of Marx s thought, from the early writings to the "Grundrisse," as a search for individual realisation. Drawing upon the concept of singularity in contemporary French theory, and problematising its relation to Marx s vocabulary, this book challenges organicist interpretations of Marx s early work. The productivity of the notion of singularity is argued to be based on the fact that it allows us to highlight the element of individual realisation, stressing at the same time its distance from the modern conception of individuality. The correlate of singularity is the reciprocity, moving and unstable, between the individual and the collective, which occurs in class struggles.