The Communist Postscript by Boris Groys

Author:Boris Groys
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Verso Books
Published: 2014-09-29T16:00:00+00:00

It soon becomes clear why Stalin reacts so heatedly to the thesis that language has a superstructural character. The superstructure is not total. It is restricted to the extent that it differs from the base. If language belongs to the superstructure, then its operation is also restricted. But such a restriction does not please Stalin at all. And the reason for this is obvious: as everything economic in the Soviet Union was decided and controlled in language, then if language were isolated to the restricted sphere of the superstructure, then Stalin’s own claim to leadership would consequently be limited, and his power to command and organize the base of Soviet society would be curtailed. It is for this reason that Stalin asserts:

Language, on the contrary, is connected with man’s productive activity directly, and not only with man’s productive activity, but with all his other activities in all spheres of work, from production to the base and from the base to the superstructure … That is why the sphere of action of language, which embraces all spheres of man’s activity, is far broader and more varied than the sphere of action of the superstructure. More, it is practically unlimited.9

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