Marxism

Marxist – theory that help you explain the social issue occurring our everyday life

Marxist literary Criticism – is it the same as Marxist in global studies?

Yes, it not so diff

Marxist in Literature is based on the philosophy of Karl Max, a German philosopher and economist.

He said that, “Whoever controlled the means of production in a society controlled the society”

That means if you are the one in charge of the economic sectors of that society u have everything in ur hand, u can turn the society upside down, u can make it under your control, u can make the people living in the society work for u without making them realizing that they are working for u. That is Marxism.

Karl Max view Literature as a reflection of culture or society.

Every story written or everything happened in the story is based on reality, the social reality.

To him, literature is a culturalist for revolution.

In the old day, writers/people use literature as a mean to encourage people/ readers to stand up and fight against the society they live in.

How they do that?

They discuss some kind of social issue within the story making people see that this is rotten issue that needs t be solve.

For example, a short story written by Victor Hugo, “A Fight with a Canon”.

In the story, the authors talk about a group of soldiers trying to fight to control a canon that lost control on the ship and end up shooting the people on the ship.

What is the implication on that?

The story was written in the late 18^th century and the writer wanted the people, The French People, to stand up and fight against the French government that try to oppressed the poor people, the minority and so on. The “canon” represents the powerful people, the French government. And that “soldier” is the powerless people within the society. 

And that is the purpose of literature if u look at it from a Maxist’s point of view

What is the focus of Marxism in literature?

How can we use it to analyze and interpret the stories?

Marxism focus on the social and political aspects of literature

It concerns with

-          Socio-economic system: Class division: whether there is a class division in the story, is there any rich and poor people, do they live peace fully tgt, is there any class struggle, how are the poor treated within the society that is embedded in the story, why those poor people exploited by the rich or the powerful

o   For ex, in real life, the handicapped ppl, the poor ppl  may not have any power at all and then we have kind ppl who raise fund saying that they will help the poor, but it turned out that the fund did not reached to the hand of the poor at all. Lets just say if it reaches, probably only 10% of the fund. This is an example on how the poor and powerless is exploited by the rich and powerful ppl.

-          Materialism:

o   Are the characters in the story encouraged/ motivated to spend more money on buying expensive things to make themselves look cool, rich, in order to be accepted by the society.

o   Why some ppl chooses to buy iPhone 15 while having 14 in their hand. You only live once so spend it. This is an ex of how the capitalist or the rich encourage ppl to spend more money on buying materialistic things to make them fit or to make themselves look rich in the society

-          Ideological Values (Patriotism):

o  
Ideological value in literature refers to the ways in which literature can be used to promote or challenge certain ideas or beliefs. Literature can be a powerful tool for social change, as it can help to raise awareness of important issues and inspire people to take action.

o   Are the people is the story taught or encouraged to love their country

o   For ex, patriotism, throughout the story, lets just say, u are khmer, u should learn khmer, u should not learn other language. If you do so, you submit to those language and culture, to those superiority of those language. Are they taught like this or are they taught “is okay to do so, its globalization era, u should be open” smth like that

-          Social Value (Literature, morals, politics)

o   What things do ppl in the story or society are encouraged to value. Is it money, health, happiness ? or smth else

o   and how do they encourage those people. Through literature? Through moral? Through social media? Through politics? News ? or smth else

So all of these, when we use Marxism to analyze or interpret literatures, social issue happening in literature, we will consider all these aspect.

All these can be summarize into 5 questions

1. Who are the powerful ppl in the text/story? Who are the powerless?
   is like who are the rich and who the poor?
   

2. How do the powerful have the power? Why are the powerless without power?
   how they become wealthy, and why the poor still poor
   

3. Is there class conflict and struggle?
   are there any problem between the poor and the rich, do they live peacefully tgt
   

4. Are the poor oppressed and exploited? How? News? Media? Religion? Literature?
   
   

5. What does society value? Are possessions acquired for their usefulness or their social value.?
   We buy smth bcz its useful cz we need it or bcz of the influence of society ,

So rmb, when u interpret your story, try to analyze the social issue happening in the story, rmb these overall aspect and these questions in mind when u use Marxist literary criticism.

“Owners of capital will stimulate working class to buy more and more of expensive goods, houses, and technology, pushing them to take more and more expensive credits, until their debt becomes unbearable…” – Karl Max

Quote half of what he said