Marxist Literary Marxist Literary TheoryTheory

aka “Dialectical Materialism,” “Historical Materialism,”

“Sociological Criticism”

A text is written by its [material] context

In 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote The Communist Manifesto. They were concerned about workers’ rights, conditionsof the working classes, and freedoms for underprivileged people groups. Marxism wasessentially a way to view and analyzeworld conditions and historical developments.

Eventually, their ideas spread across Europe,

revolutions, and were adapted by Lenin and Stalin. Today in the “Western”

world, Marxism mostly survives in academia as a protest against Capitalist excess.

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MAIN IDEAS

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- History is a cycle of struggles between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat

MAIN IDEAS

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- Workers are alienated from their labor and from themselves

MAIN IDEAS

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- All cultural products can be analyzed as if they were works of literature

MAIN IDEAS

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- Writers and writings are shaped by economic context

MAIN IDEAS

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- Literature can be a political tool

Some Questions Marxist Literary Critics Ask: Who benefits if the work or effort is

accepted/successful/believed, etc.?What is the social class of the author?Which class does the work claim to represent?What values does it reinforce?What values does it subvert?Is there a conflict between the values

the work champions and those it portrays?What social classes do the characters represent?How do characters from different classes

interact or conflict?

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ONE MAIN QUESTION:

How was this text “written” by its material conditions [economics, work, society, class, politics]?

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http://kaututang-dila.blogspot.com/2009_12_01_archive.html

How to “do” a Marxist reading: 1. Look for examples of oppression, bad working conditions, class struggles, etc. 2. Search for the “covert” meaning underneath the “overt,” which is about class struggle, historical stages, economic conditions, etc.3. Relate the context of a work to the social-class status of the author. 4. Relate the literary work to the social conditions of its time period. 5. Explain an entire genre in terms of its social period. 6. Show how literature is shaped by political, economic, labor, and class conditions.

[Potentially] Positive Aspects of

Marxist CriticismIt has real-world applicationsIt makes connections with work, politics, money, etc.It is concerned about the conditions of oppressed people

[Potentially] Negative Aspects of Marxist Criticism

It is really easy to fakeIt always gets entangled with politicsIt quickly moves away from the text into (only) contextIt readily makes value judgments on literature

THE CONTEXT WRITES THE

TEXT

THE CONTEXT WRITES THE

TEXT

SourcesBarry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An

Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. 2nd edition. NY: Manchester UP, 2002. Print.

Brizee , Allen, and J. Case Tompkins. “Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism.” Copyright ©1995-2011 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. Web. 13 Sept. 2011.

Sim, Stuart and Borin van Loon. Introducing Critical Theory: A Graphic Guide . Totem Books, 2005. Print.