For a More Pedagogical Differentiation Between Identity and Subjectivity

• In Event: Marxism, Race, and Capital in the 21st Century

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to offer a Marxist intervention in the ongoing stasis around multiculturalism and identity in the field of critical pedagogy. I build on both my own work in Marxian approaches to pedagogy (Author, 2013a, 2013b, 2016, 2017) as well as Freire (2000; 2006) and Ebert and Zavarzadeh (2007) to argue for a conception of proletarian subjectivity. This subjectivity can be juxtaposed with identity: class is not a form of identity; it is a material production. Class is an objective reality that cuts across cultural groups and is thus a source for a shared solidarity capable of eclipsing the paralysis of what Freire (2000) called “sectarianism.”

Author

• Zachary A. Casey, Rhodes College