Lyotard's and Baudrillard's explicit and implied critiques of the effects of so-called “postmodernity” on the applicability of the Marxist emancipatory narrative are evaluated. This paper concludes that the Marxist critique of modernist forms of hegemony still has validity but that we must now acknowledge that Marxism is a modernist, not a universal, theoretical practice. The significance of this for contemporary Marxist critique is further analyzed.