Literary Theory - Week 5

Marxist Criticism

Focuses on the socio-economic structures underlying human societies.

Base (Marxist Criticism)

The economic foundation, the material conditions of society.

Superstructure (Marxist Criticism)

The overarching structure of society (e.g., law, politics, culture, etc.).

Ideology (Marxist Criticism)

A key component of the superstructure; legitimates the power of the ruling class.

Economic Determinism

The belief that culture is determined or shaped by the nature of the economic base.

Bourgeoisie

Those who control the means of production.

Proletariat

Those who work for the bourgeoisie.

Repressive Ideologies

Ideologies that naturalize and reinforce unequal power relations.

American Dream (Marxist Criticism)

An example of a repressive ideology which reinforces unequal power relations.

Culture Industry

Mass culture which indoctrinates the masses (Adorno & Horkheimer).

Overt Content

The manifest or surface content of a literary work.

Covert Content

The latent or hidden content of a literary work.

Class Struggle

A basic Marxist theme often related to the covert subject matter of literary works.

Interpellation

Accepting ideologies without being aware of them, while believing one is making one's own choice.

Ideological State Apparatuses

Institutions that propagate dominant ideologies.

The Communist Manifesto

Written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848

Karl Marx

Author of Das Kapital and The German Ideology

Terry Eagleton

Author of Marxism and Literary Criticism

Louis Althusser

Author of Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses

Theodor Adorno

Known for work on the Culture Industry

Friedrich Engels

Co-author of The Communist Manifesto

Patriotism

An example of a repressive ideology.

Religion

An example of a repressive ideology.

Consumerism

An example of a repressive ideology.

Great Expectations

A case study of hidden capitalist ideologies behind romantic love

Karl Marx

Co-author of The Communist Manifesto and a key figure in the development of Marxist theory, known for his political and economic writings.

Friedrich Engels

Collaborator with Karl Marx, co-authoring The Communist Manifesto and contributing to the development of Marxist theory.

Leon Trotsky

A Russian revolutionary and Marxist theorist, known for his work Literature and Revolution.

Sociology of Literature

A field that examines the means of literary production, distribution, and exchange in a society.

Historical Epoch

Each work of art bears the imprint of its historical epoch.

G.W.F. Hegel

A German idealist philosopher who had a profound influence on Marx’s aesthetic thought.

The German Ideology

A work by Marx and Engels that presents their materialist conception of history.

Base

The economic structure of society, including the forces and relations of production.

Georgy Plekhanov

A Russian Marxist critic who emphasized the importance of social relations in understanding art and literature.

Social Mentality

The dominant way of seeing the world, influenced by social relations and ideology.

King Lear

To understand it, you must understand the complex, indirect relations between the works and the ideological worlds they inhabit.

The Dunciad

To understand it, you must understand the complex, indirect relations between the works and the ideological worlds they inhabit.

Ulysses

To understand it, you must understand the complex, indirect relations between the works and the ideological worlds they inhabit.

Nostromo

A novel by Joseph Conrad that reflects the ideological pessimism prevalent in the Western bourgeois class.

Joseph Bloch

Recipient of a letter from Engels clarifying the materialist conception of history.

Materialist Conception of History

The determining element in history is ultimately the production and reproduction in real life.

Historical Struggles

Political, legal, and philosophical theories, religious ideas and their further development into systems of dogma also exercise their influence upon the course of the historical struggles and in many cases preponderate in determining their form.

Unequal Relationship

The unequal relationship of the development of material production to artistic production.

The Grundrisse

Marx's draft manuscripts of 1857, providing context for his views on Greek art.

Bertolt Brecht

Advocated for developing a historical sense to appreciate the differences between periods in theater.

Autonomy

Art has a very high degree of autonomy.

Louis Althusser

French Marxist theorist who argued that art has a particular relationship to ideology.

Pierre Macherey

Colleague of Althusser who distinguished between 'illusion' and 'fiction' in art.