Most notable for his translation and introductions to the philosophy of Alain Badiou,Barker draws on an eclectic range of influences including neoplatonism,Lacanian psychoanalysis,and Marxism.[5] Writing in both the English and French languages,Barker has also contributed to debates in post-Marxism.[6]
In an article published in The Guardian in February 2012,Barker criticised the selective interpretation of Karl Marx's writings by economists such as Nouriel Roubini (who declared:"Karl Marx was right") when responding to the global recession. According to Barker,such interpretations water down the revolutionary aspects of Marx's ideas and focus unduly on their reformist tendencies.[8]
Writing in The New York Times on the occasion of the Marx bicentennial anniversary,Barker argued:"The key factor in Marx’s intellectual legacy in our present-day society is not 'philosophy' but 'critique,' or what he described in 1843 as 'the ruthless criticism of all that exists:ruthless both in the sense of not being afraid of the results it arrives at and in the sense of being just as little afraid of conflict with the powers that be'".[9]
Marx Returns
Barker is the author of the novel Marx Returns. The story focuses on the life of Karl Marx and his struggle to write his major work on political economy,Capital. PhilosopherRay Brassier described it as "[c]urious,funny,perplexing,and irreverent".[10] According to Nina Power,reviewing the work in the Los Angeles Review of Books,Marx Returns is "an imaginative,uplifting,and sometimes disturbing alternative history".[11]
British philosopher Simon Critchley has described Marx Reloaded as "a great introduction to Marx for a new generation"[15] while German political scientist Herfried Münkler has called it "the type of film that Marx himself would have approved of".[3]
"Justine & Jacquie and their adventures on the other side (an excerpt)" (with Justin Clemens) in Meanjin Winter 2023 (Melbourne University Press), ISSN0025-6293.[16]
Alain Badiou, Metapolitics, trans. and with an introduction by Jason Barker, London: Verso Books, 2005, ISBN9781844670352.
Articles
"The Topology of Revolution" in Communication and Cognition (Vol. 36, no. 1/2, 2003), ISSN0378-0880.
"Principles of Equality: on Alain Badiou's Manifesto for Philosophy, Deleuze: The Clamor of Being, and Ethics. An Essay on the Understanding of Evil" in Historical Materialism (No. 12.1, 2004), ISSN1465-4466.
"Topography and Structure" in Polygraph (no. 17, 2005), ISSN1533-9793.
"Nous, Les Sans-Marxisme" in Gilles Grelet (ed.), Théorie-rébellion: Un Ultimatum, Paris: L’Harmattan, 2005, ISBN2747592103.
"Nothing Personal: From the State to the Master" in Prelom (no. 8, 2006), ISSN1451-1304.
"De L'État au Maître: Badiou et le post-marxisme" in Bruno Besana et Oliver Feltham (eds.) Ecrits Autour de la Pensée d’Alain Badiou, Paris: L’Harmattan, 2006, ISBN9782296026858.
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