Marxism has two codes, economic and praxical, chosen by rhetorical need

Evidence

It now becomes clear in what way the Critique, as different as it is from the traditional Marxist descriptions, is nonetheless profoundly consistent with the model of society proposed by Marx in Das Kapital: it is simply the reverse of that model, and where for various reasons Marxism has on the whole preferred the second of its two possible codes, the economic one, Sartre has here chosen to restate the entire complex of reified relationships in terms of that first and basic reality of human action and human relations. … The notion of two codes also clarifies the question of basic or primary realities involved in each description; for this now becomes what I would like to call a question of rhetorical form and effect, and depends very much on the type of illusion a given description is called on to dispel. Thus the economic description clearly functions as a more basic “reality,” as a demystification, when we are dealing with a point of view still entangled in the illusions of the primacy of the individual consciousness and personality, of the autonomy of spiritual life with respect to the material. — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 579

Categorization

• DEFINE: Jameson introduces the ‘two codes’ doctrine: economic vs. praxis-based descriptions that are reverses of the same society-model.
• XREF: Directly connects to the reader’s Frankfurt lineage project — this two-code/mediational logic is inherited from Lukács’s History and Class Consciousness and resonates with Adorno’s own dialectical method. — connects to: Marxist theory requires holding both relative autonomy and economic determinacy at once — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 371; Marxism is not economic reductionism and requires attending to ideas in their own terms; Marxist analysis needs both material grounding and historical specificity to avoid twin errors (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Sartre’s Critique reworked Marxist economism into praxis-language for a new era of revolutionary ferment #exemplifies (0.80)
• Marxism must hold determination in the last instance without falling into absolute autonomy #corroborates (0.78)
• Marxist analysis needs both material grounding and historical specificity to avoid twin errors #expands (0.75)
• Marxist theory requires holding both relative autonomy and economic determinacy at once #qualifies (0.72) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 371
• Marxism is not economic reductionism and requires attending to ideas in their own terms #complicates (0.72)
• Marxist dialectic holds final and multiple determinations in mutual tension, not unity #qualifies (0.72) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 203