Marxist Criticism
Marxist criticism places a literary work within the context of class and assumptions about class. A premise of Marxist criticism is that literature can be viewed as ideological, and that it can be analyzed in terms of a Base/Superstructure model.
A ==base== determines its superstructure. Human institutions and ideologies—including those relevant to a patriarchy—that produce art and literary texts comprise the ==superstructure==.
Marxist criticism thus emphasizes class, socioeconomic status, power relations among various segments of society, and the representation of those segments. Marxist literary criticism is valuable because it enables readers to see the role that class plays in the plot of a text.
Bressler notes that “Marxist theory has its roots in the nineteenth-century writings of Karl Heinrich Marx, though his ideas did not fully develop until the twentieth century” (183). Key figures in Marxist theory include Bertolt Brecht, Georg Lukács, and Louis Althusser. Although these figures have shaped the concepts and path of Marxist theory, Marxist literary criticism did not specifically develop from Marxism itself. One who approaches a literary text from a Marxist perspective may not necessarily support Marxist ideology. For example, a Marxist approach to Langston Hughes’s poem “Advertisement for the Waldorf-Astoria” might examine how the socioeconomic status of the speaker and other citizens of New York City affect the speaker’s perspective. The Waldorf Astoria opened during the midst of the Great Depression. Thus, the poem’s speaker uses sarcasm to declare, “Fine living . . . a la carte? / Come to the Waldorf-Astoria! / LISTEN HUNGRY ONES! / Look! See what Vanity Fair says about the / new Waldorf-Astoria” (lines 1-5). The speaker further expresses how class contributes to the conflict described in the poem by contrasting the targeted audience of the hotel with the citizens of its surrounding area: “So when you’ve no place else to go, homeless and hungry / ones, choose the Waldorf as a background for your rags” (lines 15-16). Hughes’s poem invites readers to consider how class restricts particular segments of society.
Foundational Questions of Marxist Criticism
- What classes, or socioeconomic statuses, are represented in the text?
- Are all the segments of society accounted for, or does the text exclude a particular class?
- Does class restrict or empower the characters in the text?
- How does the text depict a struggle between classes, or how does class contribute to the conflict of the text?
- How does the text depict the relationship between the individual and the state? Does the state view individuals as a means of production, or as ends in themselves?
Online Examples:Marxist Criticism and Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” by Jay Massiet The Working Class Beats: a Marxist analysis of Beat Writing and Culture from the Fifties to the Seventies by Paul Whiston, Sheffield University, United Kingdom
Perhaps there haven't been many ideologies in the history of civilisation that were as divisive as Marxism. A number of both military and ideological wars have been waged against this doctrine that provided the ideological framework for the political system known as communism. Have you ever wondered why this social and economic philosophy gained notoriety in history?
Other than its enormous social and political influence, Marxism has also had an impact on different aspects of culture, such as the study of literature and arts. The branch of literary theory and criticism inspired by Marxism came to be known as Marxist literary criticism. It examines how literature portrays materialism and class struggles. Here is a brief look at the class ideology of Marxist literary criticism, its methodology, analysis, and examples.
Key philosophers behind classical Marxism are the German philosophers ==Karl Marx== (1818–1883) and ==Friedrich Engels== (1820–1895). Their books Das Kapital (1867), The Communist Manifesto (1848) and The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845) laid the foundation for the theory and philosophy of Marxism.
The Marxist theory combines philosophy, sociology, and economic theory to assert that society is fundamentally created in relation to its economic structure.
In the Marxist theory of economics, social organisation and development are ultimately determined by what people do with their vocational tools, known as the 'forces of production', or simply 'the means of production'1.
It also divides society into two parts: base and superstructure.
Base
- refers to the modes of production, and
superstructure
- refers to everything else in society that develops in relation to the economic base.
The economic base in society generates and shapes social systems called the superstructure. The superstructure is made of different aspects of life, such as religion, politics, philosophy, art, science, and literature.
Ideology
- is a Marxist term that refers to dominant ideas that exist in a culture. Our culture is shaped by different kinds of ideologies. For example, religious ideologies, political ideologies, ideologies regarding art, culture, language and so on.
- Ideologies influence how people think about these aspects of life and culture and shape popular thinking and cultural norms. The concept of ideology is closely tied to the idea of false consciousness. False consciousness refers to the set of beliefs and convictions that prevent an individual from perceiving the truth about social and economic realities. For Marx, ideology is a feature of the superstructure generated by the economic base and works to justify the base.
- According to Engels, ideology is like an illusion, prompting or nudging people to believe certain things about themselves and the world around them. Ideologies also provide them with values that signify their class identification.
Bourgeoisie (or bourgeois): a member of the middle class with materialist and conventional values.
Proletariat: members of the working class.
Marxism literary criticism: class ideology
As we discussed, from the point of view of historical materialism, people tend to form their social connections around their tools or vocation. These are called the relations of production. The relations of production and the means of production together are called the modes of production.
For instance, workers in a factory add more value to the raw materials so that the end product is worth more than the raw material they started with. This excess in value, known as the surplus, is owned by the capitalist (one who owns the means of production). The factory owner gets the profit from selling the product, and the worker is alienated from the results of their labour.
In addition to being alienated from the profits of their labour, in the capitalist economic system, the worker is also alienated from themselves because they sell their time and labour, reducing them to a commodity. The Marxist idea of alienation is widely discussed with regard to literature, especially if you view the book as a commodity.
Marx believed that history is essentially the story of different sections, known as classes, of society and their struggles and conflicts.
Marxism literary criticism: analysis
Marxist literary theory and criticism analyse literature from a Marxist perspective. There are many ways of explaining the role of Marxism in literature and literary theory. In general, Marxist literary theory examines
- how literature is part of the superstructure and can never fully escape the influence of its social and economic contexts.
- how literature may sometimes, consciously or unconsciously, become a channel to articulate certain ideologies.
- how the economic mode of production, say capitalism in most societies today, determine, control, or influence the creation of a text, either in content or form.
- how literary works interact with the ideologies around them.
- the extent to which the social and economic background of the author informs the literary text.
- how literature reflects the world around in its portrayal of characters and their lives, with an emphasis on class.
Marxism literary criticism: examples
As a theory, Marxism emerged in the mid-nineteenth century and soon came to be reflected in contemporary literature.
ex:
- A genre of literature and art known as socialist **realism **was declared the official mode of composition in the Soviet Union in 1932. It presented idealised narratives of people who persevered against all odds, predicated on socialism and a classless society. Even though socialist realism followed the realist tradition of writers like Anton Checkov (1860–1904), Ivan Turgenev (1818–1883), and Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910), it lacked the critical outlook of 19th-century Russian realism and is criticised as a propagandist mode of art.
- Russian realism explored life in a direct manner, often through satire, humour, and a realistic depiction of life and the social environment. It flourished in the midst of ideological battles and tense social and political junctures.
Marxism and literature are connected in different ways. For example, we can do a Marxist analysis of a text that predates marxism.
Romeo and Juliet (1597) by William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
The social background behind the love story in Romeo and Juliet is more broadly developed than in any other Shakespeare play. Romeo and Juliet are caught in the crossfire of a hereditary family feud between the Montagues and Capulets that dates back to feudal times. It is noteworthy that both families belong to a bourgeois social class with long-standing wealth. Shakespeare also introduces elements in the plot that highlight the class associations and conflicts of the main characters.
The lovers' struggle symbolises the conflict between the rising bourgeois values against feudalism during the transition from the middle ages towards Renaissance. This struggle is also palpable in the language Shakespeare uses in the play.
(more examples sa link)
Marxism Literary Criticism - Key takeaways
- Marxism is a social, political, and economic theory that came to prominence in the second half of the nineteenth century.
- The ideas and philosophy of Marxism are based on the works of the German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
- The central idea of Marxism is that society is structured around the economic activity of a society.
- In any society, there is an economic base based on which other aspects of life (the superstructure) are generated.
- Marxist literary theory is a type of literary analysis that examines works of literature from a Marxist point of view.
Karl Marx, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, 1867
Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto, 1848
Marxist Literary approach
- based on socialist and dialect theories
- reflection of the social institutions
- focuses on how literary works