Keywords
historical materialism, Jodi Dean, Capital’s Grave
Document Type
Book Review
Abstract
American Marxism political scholar Jodi Dean’s concept stands out from the numerous neofeudalism intellectual currents. In her early work, she proposed the concept of “communicative capitalism” as a more advanced form relative to traditional capitalism. However, in the development of her thought during the early 21st century, she demonstrated a trajectory from political critique to the critique of communicative political economy. Having become aware of the issue raised by McKenzie Wark in Capital is Dead concerning capitalism’s descent into an even more dire historical phase, Dean too perceives contemporary capitalism as potentially entering a state of decline, transitioning into a new feudalism. However, her definition of this neofeudalism is grounded in political interpretation, leading her to identify its characteristics as parcellated sovereignty, new lords and serfs, hinterlandization, and catastrophic anxiety. Examining Capital’s Grave through Marx’s historical materialism reveals that Dean’s conception of neofeudalism bears traces of political abstraction, lacks an analysis of contemporary capitalist exploitation and inequality grounded in concrete political-economic critique, and thus fails to grasp that the core of neofeudalism is not political in nature, but rather the historical result of transforming cloud fiefs into private property.
Recommended Citation
Lan, Jiang
(2025)
"Neofeudalism and Its Historical Unraveling. A Review of Jodi Dean’s Capital’s Grave: Neofeudalism and the New Class Struggle (Verso Books, 2025),"
Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis: Vol. 4:
Iss.
3, Article 10.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55533/2765-8414.1147
Available at:
https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/emancipations/vol4/iss3/10
Submitted
October 20, 2025
Published
December 31, 2025
