Pierre Macherey

Although sometimes simply remembered for his literary take on Althusserian Marxism, Pierre Macherey is perhaps better understood as a significant figure in the early development of poststructuralism. Born in France in1938, Macherey received his maîtrise from the École Normale Supérieur in 1961. The focus of the project – which was supervised by Georges Canguilhem – was the philosophy and politics of Spinoza, a thinker whose work Macherey has returned to on numerous subsequent occasions. In 1962-3 Macherey began to take an active part in a seminar organized by the Marxist philosopher, Louis Althusser, and this association would eventually lead to Macherey contributing to Lire le capital [Reading Capital], (Alth