marxism and marxist literary criticism

Marxism and Marxist Literary Criticism A Lens of Social Class & Social Power... the proletariat who operate the means of production and are controlled by the bourgeoisie... Class Confli

Marxism and Marxist

Literary Criticism

A Lens of Social Class & Social Power

 What do you consider to be a social

class ? How do you define it? What is it based on? What do you think leads

people to become members of a particular social class? Can a person change his or her social class? If so, how? Is one social class more powerful or weaker than

another? Explain your responses in a

complete paragraph

 Any political practice or theory based on

an interpretation of the works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

 Including Communist Parties and

Communist states

cultural criticism, Marxist literary criticism

exemplifies what the French philosopher Paul

Ricouer terms a “hermeneutics of suspicion.”

writes, the task of Marxist literary criticism “is to show the text as it cannot know itself, to

manifest those conditions of its making

(inscribed in its very letter) about which it is

necessarily silent.”

 The Marxist approach to

literature is based on the

philosophy of Karl Marx, a

German philosopher and

economist His major

argument was that whoever

controlled the means of

production (the factories) in

a society controlled the

society.

 Marx noted a disparity in the economic and political power enjoyed by the factory

owners and not allowed to

the factory laborers.

 He believed that the means

of production (i.e., the

basis of power in society)

should be placed in the

hands of those who

actually operated them He

wrote that economic and

political revolutions around

the world would eventually

place power in the hands of

the masses, the laborers.

Reading from a Marxist Perspective

 To read a work from a Marxist

perspective, one must understand

that Marxism asserts that literature

is a reflection of culture, and that

culture can be influenced by

literature.

 Marxists believe literature can

instigate revolution.

4 Main Areas of Study

Economic Power

 A society is shaped by its forces of

production Those who own the means of production dictate what type of society it is.

 The two main classes of society are:

1 the bourgeoisie (who control the means

of production and wealth) and

2 the proletariat (who operate the means of production and are controlled by the

bourgeoisie).

Economic Power

 Since the bourgeoisie own the means of

production—and, therefore, control the

money— they can manipulate politics,

government, education, art, and media.

 Capitalism is flawed in that it creates

commodification (a desire for possessions, not for their innate usefulness, but for

their social value) Display of material

objects is the most common way of

showing off one’s wealth.

Economic Power

 Commodification is one way the

bourgeoisie keep the proletariat

oppressed Whenever the proletariat manages to acquire some sort of

status symbol, the bourgeoisie

concocts a new one; thus, the

proletariat continues to struggle,

never able to “catch up.”

 The quality of a person’s life is not destroyed

by spiritual failure but by material failure.

Class Conflict

 A Capitalist society will inevitably

experience conflict between its social classes.

 The owners and the workers will have different ideas about the division of the wealth generated, and the owners will ultimately make the decision.

 This constant conflict, or dialectical

materialism, is what instigates change.

Class Conflict

 Marx called on the proletariat to reject the social structure of the bourgeoisie, the rules that would keep them subservient forever, and form their

own values Such a course would be the only way

to escape the oppression, for the proletariat

could never defeat the bourgeoisie on its own

terms For the workers to win, they must

establish new terms.

Class Conflict

 The bourgeoisie present their political, economic, and social structures as the only reasonable ones The proletariat, indoctrinated from birth to have pride in their station, are prevented from

wanting to overthrow their oppressors

(ironically, the smaller and actually less-powerful group).

 The only real social division is class Divisions of race, ethnicity, gender, and religion are artificial, devised by the bourgeoisie to distract the

proletariat from realizing their unity and

rebelling against their oppressors.

Art, Literature, & Ideologies

• Art and literature are among the vehicles by

which the bourgeoisie impose their value system

on the proletariat The arts can make the current system seem attractive and logical, thus lulling the workers into an acceptance of it.

• Works of art and literature are enjoyable, so the audience is unaware of being manipulated.

Art, Literature, & Ideologies

• The bourgeoisie control most artistic output

because, whether through patronage or

sponsorship, they are the entity that funds the arts and entertainment Since the bourgeoisie

materially support the writers and the painters— owning the means of production as well as

serving as primary consumers—the artist must

be careful not to offend bourgeois values.

Anything offensive or challenging to the

bourgeoisie will simply not be published or sold.

• Any artist who wishes to criticize the bourgeoisie must do so in a subtle way (satire, irony, etc.).

Characteristics of Marxism

 Attention to the material conditions of

people's lives, and lived relations among people

 People’s consciousness of the conditions

of their lives reflects these material

conditions and relations

 “Social class" = differing relations to

production (a particular position within such relations)

interests) structures each historical period

 A sympathy for the working class

 The ultimate interests of workers best

match those of humanity in general

Characteristics of Marxism

 Workers' revolution: the means of

achieving human emancipation and

enlightenment

 The actual mechanism through which

such a revolution might occur and succeed

Main Ideas in Marxism

of labor used by workers to make products

 Means of labor = machines, tools, equipment,

infrastructure, and "all those things with the aid of which man acts upon the subject of labor, and

transforms it"

 Subject of labor = raw materials and materials

directly taken from nature

Main Ideas in Marxism

 Base and superstructure:

production of their existence” forms the

economic basis

religious, philosophical, and other ideas

the social consciousness

influence the other

Recurrent Terms in Marxism

Superstructure, according to Marx and Engels, emerges from this base and consists of law, politics, philosophy, religion, art

The shared beliefs and values held in an

unqestioning manner by a culture It governs what the culture deems to be normative and valuable

Recurrent Terms in Marxism

Hegemony

 Coined by the Italian theorist Antonio

Gramsci, this “refers to the pervasive

system of assumptions, meanings, and

values—the web of ideologies, in other

words, that shapes the way things look, what they mean, and therefore what

reality is for the majority of people within

a given culture.”

Recurrent Terms in Marxism

Reification

are turned into commodities useful in market

exchange

obsession with tragedy (e.g the deaths of Jon Benet Ramsay, Princess Diana, JFK Jr., the

murders at Columbine High School in Colorado and Newtown Connecticut) make commodities out of grieving people The media expresses

sympathy but economically thrives on these

events through ratings boosts

water in the aquarium breathed by the fish,

ideology is virtually invisible Its invisibility gives

it greater power

beliefs and values held in an unquestioning

manner by a culture—exerts a powerful

influence upon a culture

most aware of the ways in which an ideology

supports the dominant class in the society

False Consciousness

 Those who enjoy the fruits of belonging to

a dominant group of the society barely

generally are filled with what Marx called

“false consciousness.”

 Since it is not in their interest to notice the ways in which an economic structure

marginalizes others, they tend to buy into

an ideology that supports that structure

Main Ideas in Marxism

 Class consciousness:

Main Ideas in Marxism

 Ideology:

society

class's best interests

labor as capital ~ a degradation of human

Main Ideas in Marxism

 Exploitation:

by another

and free markets

product made by the worker + the actual wage that the worker receives

Class System in Marxism

 Identity of a social class: derived from its relationship to the means of production

 As opposed to the notion that class is

determined by wealth alone

Class System in Marxism

 The proletariat

 The bourgeoisie

(recompensed by a salary)

Class System in Marxism

landowners

Marxist Literary Criticism

informed by the philosophy or the politics of

Marxism

1976)

how novels get published and whether they mention the working class

a particular history

Marxist Literary Criticism

 Goals:

literary work (determining whether its social content or its literary form are "progressive“)

aesthetics to the realm of politics

Marxist Film Theory

 Expressing ideas of Marxism through film

in terms of film editing, such as montage

 Employing radical choice of subject

matter, as well as subversive parody, to

heighten class consciousness and promote Marxist ideas

Marxist Film Theory

next (whether in composition, motion, or idea)

are watching something that has not been worked over

 Can dialectics break bricks? (1973)

Thanks for your struggle

of attention!