Marxist Criticism

Marxist theory or Marxist criticism is one of the theories that can be used in literary criticism. This theory is based on the ideologies of Karl Marx, a German philosopher who criticized the inherent injustice in the European class/capitalist system of economics operating in the 19^th Century.  Marx viewed history as a series of struggles between classes, in other words, the oppressed and the oppressors.

I. Marxism:

Marxism is a social, political, and economic philosophy named after Karl Marx. It examines the effect of Capitalism on labour, productivity, and economic development and argues for a worker revolution to overturn Capitalism in favour of Communism. Marxism posits that the struggle between social classes—specifically between the bourgeoisie, or capitalists, and the proletariat, or workers—defines economic relations in a Capitalist economy and will inevitably lead to revolutionary Communism.

Marxism is both a social and political theory, which encompasses Marxist class conflict theory and Marxian economics. Marxism was first publicly formulated in 1848 in the pamphlet The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, which lays out the theory of class struggle and revolution. Marxian economics focuses on the criticisms of capitalism, which Karl Marx wrote about in his book Das Kapital, published in 1867.

II. Karl Marx's Theories:

1- Biography:

Karl Marx was a German philosopher during the 19th century. He worked primarily in the realm of political philosophy and was a famous advocate for Communism. He cowrote The Communist Manifesto and was the author of Das Kapital, which together formed the basis of Marxism.

He was one of nine children. When he got older, he married his childhood sweetheart, Jenny von Westphalen. The two had seven children together, four of whom died before reaching adolescence. Because of Marx’s anti-capital core beliefs, his family was impoverished for much of their lives.

Karl Marx died on March 14, 1883, when he was 64, after succumbing to a bout of bronchitis. Not owning any land when he died, he was buried in London’s Highgate Cemetery. Originally, his headstone was nondescript, but in 1954 the Communist Party of Great Britain etched the stone with “Workers of all lands unite,” the last line of The Communist Manifesto.

2- Class conflict and the demise of Capitalism:

The following are elements of Marx’s theories of how class conflict would play out in a Capitalist system:

• Capitalist society is made up of two classes: the bourgeoisie, or business owners, who control the means of production, and the proletariat, or workers, whose labor transforms raw commodities into valuable economic goods.

• Ordinary laborers, who do not own the means of production, such as factories, buildings, and materials, have little power in the capitalist economic system. Workers are also readily replaceable in periods of high unemployment, further devaluing their perceived worth.

• To maximize profits, business owners have an incentive to get the most work out of their laborers while paying them the lowest possible wages. This creates an unfair imbalance between owners and laborers, whose work the owners exploit for their own gain.

• Because workers have little personal stake in the process of production, Marx believed they would become alienated from it, as well as from their own humanity, and turn resentful toward business owners.

• The bourgeoisie also employ social institutions, including government, media, academia, organized religion, and banking and financial systems, as tools and weapons against the proletariat with the goal of maintaining their position of power and privilege.

• Ultimately, the inherent inequalities and exploitative economic relations between these two classes will lead to a revolution in which the working class rebels against the bourgeoisie, takes control of the means of production, and abolishes capitalism.

As a result of the revolution, Marx predicted that private ownership of the means of production would be replaced by collective ownership, first under Socialism and then under Communism. In the final stage of human development, social classes and class struggle would no longer exist.

3- Marx's Base/Superstructure Model:

Base and superstructure are two linked theoretical concepts developed by Karl Marx. Base refers to the production forces, or the materials and resources, that generate the goods society needs. Superstructure describes all other aspects of society.

Society's superstructure includes the culture, ideology, norms, and identities that people inhabit. In addition, it refers to the social institutions, political structure, and the state—or society's governing apparatus. Marx argued that the superstructure grows out of the base and reflects the ruling class' interests. As such, the superstructure justifies how the base operates and defends the power of the elite.

Neither the base nor the superstructure is naturally occurring or static. They are both social creations, or the accumulation of constantly evolving social interactions between people.

4- Understanding History Through Materialism:

Karl Marx believed that the shift to a Capitalist mode of production had sweeping implications for the social structure. He asserted that it reconfigured the superstructure in drastic ways and instead posed a “materialist” way of understanding history. Known as “historical materialism,” this idea posits that what we produce in order to live determines all else in society. Building on this concept, Marx posed a new way of thinking about the relationship between thought and lived reality.

Importantly, Marx argued that this is not a neutral relationship, as a great deal depends on the way the superstructure emerges from the base. The place where norms, values, beliefs, and ideology reside, the superstructure legitimizes the base. It creates the conditions in which the relations of production seem fair and natural, though they may actually be unjust and designed to benefit the ruling class only.

Marx argued that religious ideology that urges people to obey authority and work hard for salvation is one way the superstructure justifies the base, as it generates an acceptance of one’s conditions as they are. After Marx, philosopher Antonio Gramsci elaborated on the role education plays in training people to obediently serve in their designated roles in the workforce. As Marx did, Gramsci wrote about how the state, or political apparatus, functions to protect the elite's interests. For example, the federal government has bailed out private banks that have collapsed.

Thus, Marxism is a materialist philosophy which tried to interpret the world based on the concrete, natural world around us and the society we live in. It is opposed to idealist philosophy which conceptualizes a spiritual world elsewhere that influences and controls the material world.

5- Communism vs. Socialism vs. Capitalism:

Marx and Engels' ideas laid the groundwork for the theory and practice of Communism, which advocates for a classless system in which all property and wealth are communally (rather than privately) owned. Although the former Soviet Union, China, and Cuba (among other nations) have had nominally communist governments, there’s never actually been a purely Communist state that has completely eliminated personal property, money, and class systems.

Socialism predates Communism by several decades. Its early adherents called for a more egalitarian distribution of wealth, solidarity among workers, better working conditions, and common ownership of land and manufacturing equipment. Socialism is based on the idea of public ownership of the means of production, but individuals may still own property. Rather than arising out of a class revolution, Socialist reform takes place within the existing social and political structures, whether they're democratic, technocratic, oligarchic, or totalitarian.

Both Communism and Socialism oppose Capitalism, an economic system characterized by private ownership and a system of laws that protect the right to own or transfer private property. In a capitalist economy, private individuals and enterprises own the means of production and the right to profit from them. Communism and Socialism aim to right the wrongs of capitalism’s free-market system. These include worker exploitation and inequities between rich and poor.

III. Marxism in Literature:

1- Definition:

In Marxist literary criticism, literary works are viewed as a reflection of the social institutions from which they originate. In fact, the work itself is considered as a social institution that has a specific ideological function based on the ideology and the background of the writer.

According to Terry Eagleton, a leading British literary theorist, Marxist criticism is concerned with how novels get published and whether they mention the working class”. It also pays sensitive attention to form, style, and meanings.

The basic goal of this literary criticism is to assess the political tendency of a literary work and determine whether its social content or literary forms are progressive. Marxist criticism pays special attention to the division of class, class struggle, oppression, and political background of the story. In other words, this criticism focuses more on the social and political elements of a work than its aesthetic (artistic and visual) value.

To sum up, the Marxist theory is more concerned with social and political elements of a work than its aesthetic value. It can be applied to literature by analyzing the social, economic and political elements such as class division, class struggle, and oppression.

2- The Marxist Literary Theory:

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.

The main features of the Marxist theory of literature are that literature, like all forms of culture, is governed by specific historical conditions, and that literature, as a cultural product, is ultimately related to the economic base of society.

The work itself is considered as a social institution that has a specific ideological function based on the ideology and the background of the writer.

A Marxist analysis of a text will explore the ways in which the ruling influencers of society can be said to oppress the lower class in some shape or form, while acting with their own interests. This includes the act of commodification and exploitation of the labour of the working class.

It is through the theories of class struggle, politics, and economics that Marxist literary criticism emerged. The thought behind Marxist criticism is that works of literature are mere products of history that can be analyzed by looking at the social and material conditions in which they were constructed.

3- Essential questions for a Marxist literary analysis:

As explained above, class, oppression, power, economy and politics are some of the main elements that should be considered in a Marxist literary criticism. Asking the following questions and analyzing the information that is found from answering these questions will help you to apply the Marxist theory to literature:

• What role does class play in the literary work?

• How does the author analyze class relations?

• What does the author say about oppression?

• Are class conflicts ignored or blamed?

• How do characters overcome oppression?

• Does the work support the economic and social status quo, or does it advocate change?

• Does the work serve as propaganda for the status quo? If so, in what way does it attempt to serve as propaganda?

• Does the work propose some form of utopian vision as a solution to the problems encountered in the work?

• How has the author’s ideologies and background affect the way he views the economy, politics or society?

• How do the time period, social background and culture in which the work was written affect the portrayal of the political, economic, and social forces?

Conclusion:

Although Marx inspired multitudes of followers, many of his predictions have not come to pass. Marx believed that increasing competition would not produce better goods for consumers; instead, it would lead to bankruptcy among Capitalists and the rise of monopolies as fewer and fewer were left to control production. Bankrupt former Capitalists would join the proletariat, eventually creating an army of the unemployed. In addition, the market economy, which by its nature is unplanned, would experience huge supply-and-demand problems and cause severe depressions.

Yet over the years, Capitalism has not collapsed as a result of fierce competition. Although markets have changed over time, they haven’t led to a preponderance of monopolies. Wages have risen and profits have not declined, although economic inequality has increased in many Capitalist societies. And though there have been recessions and depressions, they are not thought to be an inherent feature of free markets. Indeed, a society without competition, money, and private property has never materialized, and the history of the 20th century suggests it is likely an unworkable concept.