A contribution to marxist memory studies : the structural need of capital to forget violence and eternally remember debt

Kirn, Gal (author)

The text departs from Traverso’s hypothesis concerning the impossibility of Marxism and Memory Studies encountering each other, and juxtaposes it with a few theoretical areas in Marx that may be useful for contributing to Marxist Memory Studies. The dialectical relationship within capitalism between the structurally necessary forgetting of violence and the structural remembering of debt is described before the concept of the primitive accumulation of capital and Lazzarato’s (2013) crucial notion of indebted subjectivity is deployed. The moral and memorial aspects of debt have been often overlooked by Marxism, while the relationship of memory to debt and capital has been completely ignored by the majority of memory-studies scholars. In the conclusion, it is argued that this missing link provides fertile grounds for Marxist Memory Studies and for furthering debates, especially on the topics of reparation, restitution, and debt cancellation.

• Language: English
• Keywords: marksistične spominske študije, zadolžena subjektivnost, spominjanje dolga, odpis dolgov, odsotnost nasilja, Enzo Traverso, primitivna akumulacija spomina, spominska ekonomija
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.12.2025
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 75-97
• Numbering: Letn. 41, št. 108/109
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-176956
• UDC: 3
• ISSN on article: 0352-3608
• DOI: 10.51936/dr.41.108-109.75-97
• COBISS.SI-ID: 260676611
• Publication date in RUL: 16.12.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Družboslovne razprave
• Shortened title: Družbosl. razpr.
• Publisher: Slovensko sociološko društvo, Fakulteta za družbene vede
• ISSN: 0352-3608
• COBISS.SI-ID: 7530242

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Prispevek k marksističnim spominskim študijam

Abstract

Besedilo izhaja iz hipoteze Enza Traversa o nemogočem srečanju med marksizmom in študijami spomina ter v nasprotju s tem poda serijo teoretskih točk v Marxu, ki bi lahko bile koristne za marksistične študije spomina. Postavi začetne koordinate za mišljenje dialektičnega razmerja med strukturno nujno pozabo nasilja in strukturno nujnim spominjanjem dolga v kapitalizmu. Članek si pomaga tako s konceptom primitivne akumulacije kapitala kot z Lazzaratovim (2013) konceptom zadolženega subjekta. Moralni in spominski vidik dolga je marksizem pogosto spregledal, ravno tako kot so študije spomina vprašanja in razmerje spomina do dolga in kapitala pogosto ignorirale. Besedilo ugotavlja, da je prav ta odsotna povezava lahko plodno mesto za marksistične študije spomina, zlasti za nadaljnje prispevke k temi reparacije in odpisa dolga.

• Keywords: marxist memory studies, indebted subject, remembrance of debt, absence of violence, cancellation of debt, Enzo Traverso, primitive accumulation of memory, memory economy

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: J6-3144
• Name: Protesti, umetniške prakse in kultura spomina v post-jugoslovanskem kontekstu

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: J7-50215
• Name: Estetika in strategije spominjanja v popularni kulturi: murali, film in popularna glasba kot spominsko delo