Unexpected Marxist Images

Summary

The Unexpected Marxist Image or UMI (pronounced oomee) is a phenomenon in which images of leaders that followers of Marx associate with the movement (i.e. Che Guevara, Jesus, and Marx himself) spontaneously appear in seemingly impossible places or circumstances. Among a small group of Marxists, such images are thought to have cosmic significance, popping up during periods of potential upheaval by the proletariat or during other moments of possibility for the advancement of the revolutionary Marxist agenda.

Latin America, where Marxism holds tremendous influence, is the site of many of the documented sightings of Marx himself . Che Guevara, whose image is ubiquitous in Latin America is also a subject of reported UMIs . In North America, the most heavily reported of these sightings are also religious, with Jesus or the virgin Mary . However, in Latin America, where quasi-Marxist liberation theology has tremendous sway over the population, Marxists have been apt to see these religious images as parcel of lesser reported, but frequent nonetheless, sightings of Marxist images.

Slavoj Zizek, a prominent modern Leninist, has commented on the dialectic possibilities of Unexpected Marxist Images to Latin American Marxist artists and performers, prompting their integration into red bodies of work in Latin America .

References

1. Joao, Oscar Picardo. "Educación y Realidad: Introduccion a la filosofia del Appendizaje." Coordinacion Educativa y Cultural Centroamerica. 2002.

2. Firpo, Noberto. La Nacion. De íconos somos. October 18, 2008.

3. Park, Mary Jane. St Petersburg Times. "An image of Jesus: All that in a bag of chips." June 8, 2005

Feijoo, Cecilia y Gastón Guitérrez. "Una crítica a la interpretación de Zizek sobre Lenin: Zizek y su Lenin posmoderno." Instituto Del Pensamiento Socialista Karl Marx. Accessed October 18th, 2008.
http://www.ips.org.ar/article.php3?id_article=26

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu