C:OMMODI'TY. In its most general sense, a commodity is anything that may be bought, sold, or bartered. In Marxist analyses of culture, the con- cept of the commodity takes on particular Importance, for it is the form that products assume when the productlon and reproductlon of the material conditions of a society are organized through exchange. As a product within a system of exchange, any commodity has two distinct properties. The first, identified by the eighteenth-century political econ- omist Adam Smlth, is use value. Thls refers to the commodity's ability to , satisfy some human want or desire. The second of these propertíes is dis- cussed by Marx and Is labeled simply value, though It is sometim~s referred to as BXCHANGE VALUE, to distlnguish it from USE VALOB. Tbis property is a commodity's capacity to command other commodities in exchange. I From these two properties of the commodlty Marx is able to move toward a labor theory of value. AlI comm,odities may be díseussed in terms of value: as use values, each commodity ls uníque and thus quall- tativeIy different. Whereas a Ioar of bread and a palr of socks mlght requlre the same amount of labor to be produced, they do not meet the same human needs, and 80 cannot be compared. On the other hand, because they both require labor to produce, they can be compared in terms of exchange value. According to Marx, when commoditles con- front each other in exchange, the!r value (the amount of labor requlred to produce each) becomes apparent as exchange value. , Marx refers to the labor that is expended ín commodity production as "soclallabor." The entity produced is not consumed by the laborer, but by another who obtains it through exchange. In a soclety based upon commodity productíon, subsistence and the means of production are provlded by others. Nevertheless, in such a society I?roduction appears privnte: the producer perceives the product of bis labor to exist inde~en- 'dentof soclety as a whole. Thus the cabinet maker percelves bis cabmets ":' ij~h,ri own products, even though he depended on a number of other . i/j;r(idiléi!tiito provide him Wi~~~~~4..~iidtools, and wiU ;~ha,~ge hls : i(~;l'~1~~~~ri)~~:;ii~~~:j~m~i~;l;íA~t:,~::;1~hwm;~1;~ .. W';- Marx, the complex interrelations that humans have to one ano er are ';<:' reduced to a relation between commodities and their exchangeability. This relatlonsbip Marx calIs FETISHISM, and while it ís not false=-the cabinetmaker's sbelves do have a relatlon to the woodcutter's lumber- . it conceals the human relation between producers. By utilizing this concept in an analysis of cultural commodities such as literary texts, paintings, musíc, etc., Marxist critics have pointed out that such products can a1soappear to float free of human determlnation I and take on value primarily ín relation ~o one anothe~. As a result, they 1I mask the social forces that inforJ;ll theír representations. One goal of I much Marxist criticism has been to expose the formal &;ices that a text I employs to effect this masking. Lacan, Iacques, Ecrits: A Selection, Trans.Alan Sherldan. New York:Norton, 1977. FETISHISM. Fetisbism is the endowment of an object or li body part with an unusual degree of power or erotic allure, as in the case of cultures that attribute maglcal powers to idols or human effigies. Use of the term often betrays a skeptical attltude toward such beliefs; thus, Karl Marx coined the term commodiey fetishism to express the way that capitalist emphasis on the abstract value of commodities concea1sthe underlying soci~ rela- tions of thelr producers (see COMMODITY). The most common use or the term, bowever, is in psychoanalysis, which concems itself with the sexual underpinnings of fetishistic behavlor. According to Freud, sexual fasci* nation with obJects like shoes or garter belts ís rooted in a compromise made by the male chlld upon discovering that the woman does not have a penis (see CASTRATION COMPLEX). Since this raises the intolerable pos- sibility that his own penis may be 105t, he partially refuses to accept what he has seen by turning some other obJect into a substitute for the miss- Ing oriJan (and simultanesouly developing a strong aversion to the female genitals). The Idea that fetisbism is a way of symbolica1Jycontrol- Ungan unacceptable truth has proven suggestive to some feminist critics, who have adopted psychoanalytic categories to deseribe the ways that men ~l1eW()1I1CiUI\r(mg~ the media of film and the visual arts (see MALB ;riJ,\iEiV'ii(J~/:Pi:J:;A/~~!liMi,)","., ~ , . f':~l o~ __ f)ESIRE. Under the influence ofthe Prench psychoanalyst Iacques Lacan "':,..:.,- and his followers, much contemporary theory, psychoanalytic and oth- erwlse, makes use of the concept of desire, which represents an attempt to understand human motivation ín a way that is free of bíologícal rcductívísm. 13ri~fly.Lacanians distinguish between need, which can be satiefied ,byJhçncqQisition of a specific object, and demand, which is t\ddl'('~wj(ltá iÚJJiih~l';iln(lsc<;ks reciprocity. The former is ultimately bio- IIIHit'lI\, wl\l·i·I;,H.idli:,lh'ití\,·.j~~,;;dl.ll'ivcd,.I):pm phcnomcnologicnl anel ,,11"/1('11,11111101;,:1 '.• (:~'1~11!,,·if.:ly'I\~lljj\'irlv.(jt~;~'1l1)()111),r 111('.~r 'sinlpl(:,rç~)n" ,~;l;pt/l, J f<l' i;.I10lbi:ú'tl ú,;,~~I'lúdllld;;:bnt; iildircàJd:tóW9(:\EI'I~l' I;~fi\;":;y 'C()ilÚí'Ul:tioll$iIHlIgdvc::ill thiScúdll.'ss scarch Ior a' SillislhêIOi:yf,BjCCt ín the world, a searchthat begins with the CASTRATION COMPLnX (see also OBJBT PBTIT A). Depending on the bent of the individual theorist, thís "ínexhaustíble" quality of desire is sornetimes celebrated and sometimes offered as an emblem of the restless impermanence of human existence. Moreover, it should be noted that, in the work of many writers, the con- cept does not retain the subtleties of the Lacanian position, but is used in a way that is roughly consistent with the romantic notion of à funda- mental human energy or longing,
C:OMMODI'TY. In its most general sense, a commodity is anything
thatmay be bought, sold, or bartered. In Marxist analyses of
culture, the con-cept of the commodity takes on particular
Importance, for it is the formthat products assume when the
productlon and reproductlon of thematerial conditions of a society
are organized through exchange. As aproduct within a system of
exchange, any commodity has two distinctproperties. The first,
identified by the eighteenth-century political econ-omist Adam
Smlth, is use value. Thls refers to the commodity's ability to
,satisfy some human want or desire. The second of these propertes
is dis-cussed by Marx and Is labeled simply value, though It is
sometim~sreferred to as BXCHANGE VALUE, to distlnguish it from USE
VALOB. Tbisproperty is a commodity's capacity to command other
commodities inexchange. I
From these two properties of the commodlty Marx is able to
movetoward a labor theory of value. AlI comm,odities may be
dseussed interms of value: as use values, each commodity ls unque
and thus quall-tativeIy different. Whereas a Ioar of bread and a
palr of socks mlghtrequlre the same amount of labor to be produced,
they do not meet thesame human needs, and 80 cannot be compared. On
the other hand,because they both require labor to produce, they can
be compared interms of exchange value. According to Marx, when
commoditles con-front each other in exchange, the!r value (the
amount of labor requlredto produce each) becomes apparent as
exchange value. ,
Marx refers to the labor that is expended n commodity production
as"soclallabor." The entity produced is not consumed by the
laborer, butby another who obtains it through exchange. In a
soclety based uponcommodity producton, subsistence and the means of
production areprovlded by others. Nevertheless, in such a society
I?roduction appearsprivnte: the producer perceives the product of
bis labor to exist inde~en-'dentof soclety as a whole. Thus the
cabinet maker percelves bis cabmets
":' ij~h,riown products, even though he depended on a number of
other .i/j;r(idili!tiito provide him Wi~~~~~4..~iidtools, and wiU
;~ha,~ge hls :
i(~;l'~1~~~~ri)~~:;ii~~~:j~m~i~;l;A~t:,~::;1~hwm;~1;~..W';-
Marx, the complex interrelations that humans have to one ano er
are';
