马克思艺术生产经济理论

Marx’’s Economic Theory of the Production of Art

马克思是在《资本论》和《剩余价值理论》等经济学著作中阐述其艺术生产理论的,这意味着他更多的是从经济学而非哲学层面立论,其核心问题是艺术家能否成为为资本生产剩余价值的劳动力商品。资本主义生产本质上是剩余价值的生产,以资本购买并运用劳动力商品和生产资料的方式进行。马克思对视觉艺术(包括文学)和表演艺术做了细致的区分:前者如作家、画家的创作,至多为向形式上从属于资本过渡的状态;后者则可能以剧院老板雇佣演员演出为其创造剩余价值的方式出现,处于形式上从属于资本的状态。艺术生产之所以无法在实际上从属于资本,是因为它无法采用机器大生产和规模经济的方式进行。这一点表明,在某种意义上,马克思是鲍莫尔成本病理论的先驱。

Marx expounded his theory of the production of art primarily in economic works such as Das Kapital and Theories of Surplus Value,indicating that his arguments are rooted more in economics than in philosophy.The central question is whether artists can become labor commodities producing surplus value for capital.Marx’s discourse on the capitalist mode of production is concentrated in the distinction between two formulas“W-G-W”and“G-W-G”.The former represents commodity circulation,where“W-G”means the conversion of commodities into money,and“G-W”is the conversion of money back into commodities,selling in order to buy.The latter is the formula for the movement of capital,where“G-W”means the conversion of money into commodities,and“W-G”is the transformation of commodities back into money—buying in order to sell,with the increment being surplus value.The key to capital’s surplus value production lies in the commodities it purchases(G-W),which include both constant capital(e.g.,raw materials)that only transfers value,and variable capital that can generate added value.The products of labor purchased with variable capital not only cover wage costs but also yield surplus value.These comprise necessary labor and surplus labor,with the latter manifesting as absolute and relative surplus value production.Absolute surplus value production occurs when labor time exceeds the value represented by wages without changing the production mode.Relative surplus value production involves increasing surplus labor time by shortening necessary labor time through technological and organizational advances,such as large-scale machine production.Thus,the question of whether artists can become labor commodities producing surplus value for capital becomes a matter of how they can be absorbed by capital.In addressing this,Marx distinguished between visual arts(including literature)and performing arts.The former,such as writers’and painters’creations,cannot produce relative surplus value,at most representing a transitional state of formal subsumption under capital(e.g.,collaborative book writing).Performing artists mostly work non-profit,outside capital’s control.In a few cases,they may be employed by theater owners to create surplus value,thus formally subsumed under capital,but still fail to create relative surplus value by shortening necessary labor time.The production of art resists real subsumption under capital because it cannot employ large-scale machine production and economies of scale.In this respect,Marx’s economic theory of the production of art can be viewed as a precursor to Baumol’s cost disease theory in modern cultural economics.