EPIC OR TRAGEDY? KARL MARX AND POETIC FORM
IN THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO
JASON BARKER, 
of British and American Language and Culture,
Kyung Hee University,
South Korea
BARKER, J.: Epic or Tragedy? Karl Marx and Poetic Form in The Communist Manifesto
FILOZOFIA 71, 2016, No. 4, pp. 316-327

http://www.klemens.sav.sk/fiusav/doc/filozofia/2016/4/316-327.pdf 

Although The Communist Manifesto of 1848 was clearly not intended as a work of
poetry, this article considers the merits of reading it according to the aesthetic criteria
of epic poetry and of tragedy respectively. Following a brief treatment of the role of
poetry in Karl Marx’s evolution as a philosopher and critic, the article then speculates that the identification of certain poetic themes in the text can aid our understanding of the Manifesto’s political meaning, particularly in light of the “dialectical Prometheanism” that played such a defining role in Marx’s intellectual and political universe.
Keywords: Dialectics − Epic − Odyssey − Prometheus − Prometheanism − Marx