This presentation will discuss the history of Anglophone translations of Capital (Vol. 1) Karl Marx’s magnus opus, paying particular attention to the different circumstances that have shaped important translation decisions. It will also identify some of the major translation challenges the text poses and ask how the meaning of the Capital varies according to how we respond to those challenges.

Paul Reitter teaches in the German department at Ohio State University. He is the author, most recently, of Permanent Crisis: The Humanities in a Disenchanted Age (cowritten with Chad Wellmon). His articles and essays have appeared in venues ranging from Representations to The New York Review of Books.

This talk is hosted in collaboration with History of Consciousness and is co-sponsored by the UC’s Interdisciplinary Marxism Working Group (IMWG), the Marxist Institute for Research (MIR), UC Berkeley’s Department of German Languages and Literatures, UC Berkeley’s Townsend Center for the Humanities, UC Berkeley’s Department of English and Program in Critical Theory.

WINTER 2025 COLLOQUIUM SERIES

THE CENTER FOR CULTURAL STUDIES hosts a weekly Wednesday colloquium featuring work-in-progress by faculty & visitors. We are pleased to announce our Winter 2025 Series. Sessions begin promptly at 12:15 PM and end at 1:30 PM (PST) in Humanities Building 1, Room 210.

Staff assistance is provided by The Humanities Institute.