Marx’s Rhetoric

Abstract Marx was a radical critic of capitalism and an advocate of its revolutionary overthrow and substitution by communism. An intellectual, polemicist, and propagandist, his political theory was expressed in a variety of rhetorical strategies aimed at illuminating the dynamics of class conflict beneath property relations and at exposing the inadequate and often partial opinions of his adversaries. Marx’s thought was later taken as the foundation of an all-encompassing outlook known as “Marxism,” which, paradoxically, diminished ideas and arguments as factors in political agitation. Yet a closer look at Marx’s rhetoric demonstrates his argumentative versatility across different genres and a distinctive attention to figurative language in illuminating power relations in capitalism.