Marxism and Marxist Literary Criticism A Lens of Social Class & Social Power Journal:  What you consider to be a social class? How you define it? What is it based on? What you think leads people to become members of a particular social class? Can a person change his or her social class? If so, how? Is one social class more powerful or weaker than another? Explain your responses in a complete paragraph Introduction  Any political practice or theory based on an interpretation of the works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels  Including Communist Parties and Communist states Marxism    Along with psychoanalytical, feminist, and cultural criticism, Marxist literary criticism exemplifies what the French philosopher Paul Ricouer terms a “hermeneutics of suspicion.” These are approaches that concern themselves not with what the text says but what it hides As Terry Eagleton, a leading Marxist critic, writes, the task of Marxist literary criticism “is to show the text as it cannot know itself, to manifest those conditions of its making (inscribed in its very letter) about which it is necessarily silent.” Marxism   The Marxist approach to literature is based on the philosophy of Karl Marx, a German philosopher and economist His major argument was that whoever controlled the means of production (the factories) in a society controlled the society Marx noted a disparity in the economic and political power enjoyed by the factory owners and not allowed to the factory laborers Marxism  He believed that the means of production (i.e., the basis of power in society) should be placed in the hands of those who actually operated them He wrote that economic and political revolutions around the world would eventually place power in the hands of the masses, the laborers Reading from a Marxist Perspective   To read a work from a Marxist perspective, one must understand that Marxism asserts that literature is a reflection of culture, and that culture can be influenced by literature Marxists believe literature can instigate revolution Main Areas of Study Economic Power Materialism vs Spirituality Class Conflict Art, Literature, & Ideologies Economic Power   A society is shaped by its forces of production Those who own the means of production dictate what type of society it is The two main classes of society are: the bourgeoisie (who control the means of production and wealth) and the proletariat (who operate the means of production and are controlled by the bourgeoisie) Recurrent Terms in Marxism Hegemony  Coined by the Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci, this “refers to the pervasive system of assumptions, meanings, and values—the web of ideologies, in other words, that shapes the way things look, what they mean, and therefore what reality is for the majority of people within a given culture.” Recurrent Terms in Marxism Reification  Often used to describe the way in which people are turned into commodities useful in market exchange  For example, some would argue that the media’s obsession with tragedy (e.g the deaths of Jon Benet Ramsay, Princess Diana, JFK Jr., the murders at Columbine High School in Colorado and Newtown Connecticut) make commodities out of grieving people The media expresses sympathy but economically thrives on these events through ratings boosts Ideology    By its very nature, ideology is silent Like the water in the aquarium breathed by the fish, ideology is virtually invisible Its invisibility gives it greater power Ideology—defined in general as the shared beliefs and values held in an unquestioning manner by a culture—exerts a powerful influence upon a culture Those who are marginalized in the culture are most aware of the ways in which an ideology supports the dominant class in the society False Consciousness   Those who enjoy the fruits of belonging to a dominant group of the society barely generally are filled with what Marx called “false consciousness.” Since it is not in their interest to notice the ways in which an economic structure marginalizes others, they tend to buy into an ideology that supports that structure Main Ideas in Marxism  Class consciousness:  The self-awareness of a social class  Its capacity to act in its own rational interests Main Ideas in Marxism  Ideology:       Consciousness and perceptions within a society Often controlled by the ruling class Determined according to what is in the ruling class's best interests Confuses the alienated groups Creates false consciousness Example: commodity fetishism (perceiving labor as capital ~ a degradation of human life) Main Ideas in Marxism  Exploitation:      Exploitation of an entire segment or class of society by another An inherent feature and key element of capitalism and free markets Profit gained by the capitalist = the value of the product made by the worker + the actual wage that the worker receives Paying workers less than the full value of their labour To enable the capitalist class to turn a profit Class System in Marxism  Identity of a social class: derived from its relationship to the means of production  As opposed to the notion that class is determined by wealth alone Class System in Marxism  The proletariat   Individuals who sell their labour power The bourgeoisie Owns the means of production"  Buys labour power from the proletariat (recompensed by a salary)  Exploits the proletariat  Class System in Marxism  The lumpenproletariat     The Landlords    Wealthy people owning pieces of land Retaining their wealth and power The Peasantry and Farmers     Social scum: criminals, vagabonds, beggars People with no stake in the economic system Selling themselves to the highest bidder Disorganized Incapable of carrying out change Disappearing: most becoming proletariat but some becoming landowners http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=eMZRYMlv9tU Marxist Literary Criticism   A loose term describing literary criticism informed by the philosophy or the politics of Marxism Terry Eagleton (Marxism and Literary Criticism, 1976)   Not merely a 'sociology of literature', concerned with how novels get published and whether they mention the working class Aim:    To explain the literary work more fully A ensitive attention to its forms, styles and meanings Grasping those forms, styles and meanings as the product of a particular history Marxist Literary Criticism  Goals:  An assessment of the political "tendency" of a literary work (determining whether its social content or its literary form are "progressive“)  Applying lessons drawn from the realm of aesthetics to the realm of politics Marxist Film Theory  Expressing ideas of Marxism through film in terms of film editing, such as montage  Employing radical choice of subject matter, as well as subversive parody, to heighten class consciousness and promote Marxist ideas Marxist Film Theory   Sergei Eisenstein:  Shunning narrative structure by eliminating the individual protagonist  Telling stories where the action is moved by the group  Story told through a clash of one image against the next (whether in composition, motion, or idea)  The audience is never lulled into believing that they are watching something that has not been worked over Important works:  Can dialectics break bricks? (1973)  http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=6lEz5rye_U4 Thanks for your struggle of attention! [...]... http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=eMZRYMlv9tU Marxist Literary Criticism   A loose term describing literary criticism informed by the philosophy or the politics of Marxism Terry Eagleton (Marxism and Literary Criticism, 1976)   Not merely a 'sociology of literature', concerned with how novels get published and whether they mention the working class Aim:    To explain the literary work more fully A ensitive... philosophical, and other ideas The base conditions the superstructure and the social consciousness Reflexive: changes in one group often influence the other Recurrent Terms in Marxism    Base vs Superstructure Base in Marxism refers to economic base Superstructure, according to Marx and Engels, emerges from this base and consists of law, politics, philosophy, religion, art Ideology The shared beliefs and values... To explain the literary work more fully A ensitive attention to its forms, styles and meanings Grasping those forms, styles and meanings as the product of a particular history Marxist Literary Criticism  Goals:  An assessment of the political "tendency" of a literary work (determining whether its social content or its literary form are "progressive“)  Applying lessons drawn from the realm of aesthetics... Characteristics of Marxism   Workers' revolution: the means of achieving human emancipation and enlightenment The actual mechanism through which such a revolution might occur and succeed Main Ideas in Marxism  Means of production:      A combination of the means of labor and the subject of labor used by workers to make products Means of labor = machines, tools, equipment, infrastructure, and "all those... in Marxism  The lumpenproletariat     The Landlords    Wealthy people owning pieces of land Retaining their wealth and power The Peasantry and Farmers     Social scum: criminals, vagabonds, beggars People with no stake in the economic system Selling themselves to the highest bidder Disorganized Incapable of carrying out change Disappearing: most becoming proletariat but some becoming landowners... deems to be normative and valuable Recurrent Terms in Marxism Hegemony  Coined by the Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci, this “refers to the pervasive system of assumptions, meanings, and values—the web of ideologies, in other words, that shapes the way things look, what they mean, and therefore what reality is for the majority of people within a given culture.” Recurrent Terms in Marxism Reification... Characteristics of Marxism    Attention to the material conditions of people's lives, and lived relations among people People’s consciousness of the conditions of their lives reflects these material conditions and relations “Social class" = differing relations to production (a particular position within such relations) Characteristics of Marxism     Material conditions and social relations:... infrastructure, and "all those things with the aid of which man acts upon the subject of labor, and transforms it" Subject of labor = raw materials and materials directly taken from nature Means of production produce nothing Labor power is needed for production to take place Main Ideas in Marxism  Base and superstructure:     Base: people with regard to “the social production of their existence”... the proletariat from realizing their unity and rebelling against their oppressors Art, Literature, & Ideologies • Art and literature are among the vehicles by which the bourgeoisie impose their value system on the proletariat The arts can make the current system seem attractive and logical, thus lulling the workers into an acceptance of it • Works of art and literature are enjoyable, so the audience... bourgeoisie present their political, economic, and social structures as the only reasonable ones The proletariat, indoctrinated from birth to have pride in their station, are prevented from wanting to overthrow their oppressors (ironically, the smaller and actually less-powerful group) The only real social division is class Divisions of race, ethnicity, gender, and religion are artificial, devised by the