Reification: Or the Anxiety of Late Capitalism

Reification is the process by which an intangible idea is transformed into an identifiable "thing". For example, it offers a materialist or physical explanation for a wide range of ideological phenomena from branding and national identity, to racial and sexual prejudice, to recent concepts like spin and globalization. Timothy Bewes opens up a new formulation of the theory, claiming that, in this age of late capitalism, reification itself is inseparable from the anxiety people feel towards it. Drawing upon work by Lukacs, Kierkegaard, Proust and Melville, among others, he outlines a theory that aims to close the gap between politics and truth, art and experience, and philosophy and real life.