Freedman,+Carl.+Marxist+Theory,+Radical+Pedagogy,+and+the+Reification+of+Thought

Freedman distinguishes two positions within the academic literary left--the Marxist Theorist and the Radical Pedagogue. He sets up Frederick Jameson and Richard Ohmann's work as exemplar texts for each position, respectively. After signficant summaries, Freedman suggests that Jameson fails to acknowledge the material realities of what it means to theorize as an academic (which Ohmann's work does), and that Ohmann's work fails to adequately take the development and rigor of Marxist thought into account (which Jameson's does). He suggests that while these two positions allow the academic literary left to be aware of itself as a subsumed class (theory) and part of a mixed class (radical pedagogy), we still need an awareness of our role as a laboring (?) class. This awareness comes through unionizing, self-organizizing, and alliances with other workers (such as custodians and secretarial staff).