“The Reality of Representation: Between Marx and Balzac” by Sandy Petrey: Summary and Critique

1. The Intertextual Connection Between Marx and Balzac

• Marx and Engels highly valued Balzac’s depiction of French society, with Engels stating that Comédie humaine taught him more than historians and economists of the time (Petrey, 1988, p. 448).
• Marx intended to write a study of Balzac, highlighting the deep connection between literature and socio-political analysis (p. 448).
• Petrey explores how Balzac’s Colonel Chabert and Marx’s The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte share a common vision of history and representation.

2. Challenging Economism: The Limits of Base-Superstructure Theory

• Traditional Marxist thought emphasizes economic determinism, where material conditions dictate ideological and political structures.
• Petrey argues that both Balzac and Marx reject a simplistic economic model, instead depicting ideology as an independent material force (p. 449).
• Both authors reveal that social reality is not merely a reflection of economic forces but is shaped by representation and ideology.

3. The Weight of Ideology: History as a Nightmare

• Both Balzac and Marx describe ideology as an oppressive weight on individuals and societies.
• In Colonel Chabert, Chabert experiences the weight of social and legal institutions pressing down on him “like a nightmare” (p. 450).
• Marx echoes this in The Eighteenth Brumaire, writing that “the tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living” (p. 450).
• This shared imagery suggests that history does not progress linearly but instead haunts the present, shaping and distorting political action.

4. Crisis of Representation: Identity and Politics in Flux

• In Colonel Chabert, Chabert’s physical existence is undeniable, but because society has declared him dead, his identity is erased (p. 452).
• Similarly, in The Eighteenth Brumaire, the class struggle exists but fails to manifest politically, leading to a political void (p. 457).
• Both texts highlight the failure of representation: economic and social realities do not always translate into political recognition.

5. The Rupture Between Sign and Reality

• Petrey examines how Marx and Balzac dismantle the idea that words and symbols reliably reflect reality.
• Marx describes Napoleon III’s supporters with a chaotic list of labels: “swindlers, mountebanks, pickpockets, tricksters” (p. 451), showing that political legitimacy is constructed rather than inherent.
• Similarly, in Colonel Chabert, Chabert’s name no longer signifies a living person, underscoring the fragility of identity in a world dictated by social conventions (p. 452).

6. The Paradox of Class Identity: When is a Class Not a Class?

• Marx asserts that the French peasantry in The Eighteenth Brumaire is both a class and not a class (p. 459).
• Lacking political representation, the peasants “must be represented” by Napoleon III, who claims to embody their interests even though he does not serve them (p. 459).
• This parallels Chabert’s dilemma—he exists, but society refuses to recognize him, mirroring the struggle of the dispossessed (p. 460).

7. Ideology as a Material Force: Social Reality is Constructed

• Petrey draws on Althusser’s theory that ideology interpellates individuals as subjects, meaning people do not exist outside of ideological structures (p. 465).
• In Colonel Chabert, Chabert is legally dead because ideology dictates it—even though he is alive, he is denied legal and social recognition.
• Similarly, in The Eighteenth Brumaire, Marx shows that ideology shapes political outcomes, as Napoleon III gains power by exploiting historical nostalgia (p. 464).

8. Political Theatricality: Power as Performance

• Marx describes Napoleon III’s rule as a theatrical performance rather than a genuine political movement (p. 467).
• His legitimacy is based not on economic or political reality but on his ability to manipulate signs, symbols, and historical myths (p. 467).
• Petrey links this to J. L. Austin’s concept of performative speech, where language does not merely describe reality but creates it (p. 464).
• This is mirrored in Colonel Chabert, where Chabert’s identity ceases to exist because legal and social discourse has erased him.

9. The Dialectic of Realism and Ideology

• Petrey argues that Balzac and Marx reject the idea that realism simply depicts material conditions.
• Instead, they show that social reality is constructed through ideology and discourse.
• Marx famously wrote that “the social revolution of the nineteenth century cannot draw its poetry from the past, but only from the future” (p. 468).
• This suggests that both revolutionary movements and reactionary regimes are constructed through historical narratives rather than purely economic conditions.

10. Literature and History as Interwoven Forms of Representation

• Petrey concludes that Balzac and Marx both challenge simplistic notions of reality and representation.
• Colonel Chabert and The Eighteenth Brumaire illustrate that ideology does not merely distort reality—it creates it (p. 468).
• Recognition and legitimacy are not inherent but socially constructed, determining who is acknowledged as a subject or class.
• Both texts demonstrate that history is not simply determined by economic forces but is actively shaped by ideological struggles and representations.

1. Marxist Literary Theory

• Challenges Economism:
  • Petrey critiques the idea that economic structures alone determine social and ideological forms, arguing that ideology has its own material force. “Colonel Chabert and The Eighteenth Brumaire undermine the armature of economism, the hierarchical superiority of material reality over ideological concepts” (p. 449).
• Ideology as Material Force:
  • Instead of viewing ideology as a mere reflection of economic conditions, Petrey shows that both Balzac and Marx depict ideology as actively shaping reality. “Because both texts represent ideology as a material reality in its own right, they make every hierarchy based on the opposition between matter and ideology untenable” (p. 450).
• Reevaluates Class Struggle:
  • The Eighteenth Brumaire suggests that class struggle is not always politically visible, undermining the traditional Marxist notion that economic conditions alone drive historical change. “The proletariat may be the subject-object of history, but the history analyzed in The Eighteenth Brumaire takes place with neither workers nor the ‘revolutionary interests of their class’ affecting it” (p. 457).
• Political Power as Performance:
  • Napoleon III’s legitimacy is derived not from material class struggle but from historical myth and representation. “Napoleon III consolidated his position by making other names change the world despite their ridiculous inability to describe it” (p. 456).

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2. Structuralism and Semiotics

• Crisis of Representation:
  • Petrey highlights how both Balzac and Marx depict the instability of representation, where signs (names, identities, political positions) fail to correspond to reality. “Colonel Chabert enacts the same dissociation of representation and reality, sign and referent, through continuous depiction of a living individual unsuccessfully seeking the name of a man declared dead” (p. 452).
• Language Constructs Reality:
  • The article aligns with Ferdinand de Saussure’s structuralism by showing that representation is arbitrary but powerful. “The peasantry’s class being and Chabert’s death are ideal instances of the reality produced by what Austin named performative speech” (p. 464).
• Names and Identity:
  • The case of Chabert losing his identity shows that language does not reflect reality but actively shapes it. “Chabert is therefore the most impertinent of challenges to the philosopheme of representation, a referent separated from its sign” (p. 453).

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3. Poststructuralism and Deconstruction

• Destabilization of Meaning:
  • Petrey engages in a deconstructive reading by showing that meaning in Marx and Balzac is always shifting. “Are we a class or are we a sack of potatoes? The French peasants might well ask Marx. In neither case is the answer definitive” (p. 459).
• Rejection of Fixed Reality:
  • Petrey suggests that neither Balzac nor Marx believes in a stable, fixed reality that can be simply represented. “What was ‘concrete’ has become ‘abstract.’ The referent prior to ideology is now the imaginary derivative of ideological production” (p. 466).

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4. Performative Theory (J.L. Austin, Judith Butler)

• Performativity in Politics:
  • The article suggests that Napoleon III’s legitimacy is established through performative speech rather than material reality. “The adventurer, who took the comedy as plain comedy, was bound to win” (p. 464).
• Social Construction of Identity:
  • Chabert is legally dead despite being alive, proving that identity is socially constructed through legal and ideological discourse. “Because Chabert is said, conceived, and narrated as dead, his real life-process ceases to be a matter of practical consequence” (p. 454).

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5. New Historicism

• Interplay Between Literature and History:
  • Petrey treats Colonel Chabert and The Eighteenth Brumaire as historical texts that both shape and are shaped by their socio-political contexts. “Balzac’s painful descriptions of Chabert’s physical deterioration do not reverse a hierarchy so much as undo the opposition on which it is based” (p. 455).
• Historical Representation as Fictional:
  • The Eighteenth Brumaire shows that history itself is constructed through representation. “Historical tradition gave rise to the belief of the French peasants in the miracle that a man named Napoleon would bring all their glory back to them” (p. 464).

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6. Postmodernism

• Reality as a Construct of Narrative:
  • The article suggests that reality is not objectively given but constructed through historical and ideological narratives. “Poetry from the future and dramatis personae from the past are equally false to the present and equally crucial to historical change” (p. 468).
• Blurring of Fact and Fiction:
  • Both Marx and Balzac depict political and social identities as theatrical performances rather than material truths. “Fictions are not that which Marxism must refuse but that which it must incorporate” (p. 468).

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Summary of Contributions

Sandy Petrey’s “The Reality of Representation: Between Marx and Balzac” makes significant contributions to Marxist Literary Theory, Structuralism, Poststructuralism, Performative Theory, New Historicism, and Postmodernism by showing:

• Representation is not a mere reflection of reality but an active force in shaping it.
• Ideology has material effects, challenging the base-superstructure model.
• Identity and history are performative acts rather than fixed entities.
• Both Marx and Balzac depict history as theatrical and constructed through discourse.