Marxist+Theory



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**__Marx and Engels: The Tale of Two Beards__**
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels where mid-19th century German political theorist who formed the basis of Socialist thought. Unlike many literary theories, Marxist Theory stems from the broader social and economic ideologies developed in Marx and Engel’s //The Communist Manifesto// and Marx’s //Das Kapital//. Arguing that the means of production within a society (what they called “the base”) controls all of society's institutions and ideologies (what they called “the superstructure”), Marx and Engels contend that modern industrial society is composed of an oppressed working class - the proletariat - and their capitalist oppressors - the bourgeoisie. Marx and Engel’s maintain that history in on an inevitable course towards Communism or a “Worker’s Paradise”, brought about by revolution and the overthrow of the bourgeoisie by an enlightened, and socially “awakened”, proletariat.

Marx and Engels also stress how every facet of an individual’s life, including ideologies, are dominated by the Base and “false consciousness”; in other words, reality is constructed by the ruling class, and those subservient submit to this reality (in which there oppression is veiled and glorified).

**__A Bourgeois Whore: Georg Lukacs and vulgar Marxism__**
Hungarian Georg Lukacs borrowed the analysis of symbols and images present in Russian Formalism and applied it to texts in the attempt of revealing class conflict and to “expose the direct relationship between the economic base and the superstructure reflected in art.” Known as reflection theory or vulgar Marxism, Lukacs emphasized the negative effects of capitalism and maintains that art is a “reflection” of the base and a piece of the superstructure, making literature a tool to perpetuate class structure. Because of this, reflection theory analyzes an author’s Weltanschauung, or worldview, and social consciousness in order to demonstrate the text’s relationship with the base and superstructure, and to show that the text’s characters fall into their stereotyped historical and socioeconomic condition. Lukacs' main contribution to Marxism, as a literary theory, is in his assumption that a text demonstrates the alienation and fragmentation of a society through it's author's worldview.

**__The Frankfurt School's Formulation of Society's Fragmented Follies__**
A neo-Marxist German group composed of Western Socialist theorists, the Frankfurt School furthers Lukacs' connection between literature and the means of production. One Frankfurt school critic, Walter Benjamin, asserts that the market determines which texts are published and which are not. This premise allows that no text can be purely aesthetically connected to human consciousness, and that published texts reveal a bourgeois approved set of images, ideas, and desires. The aim of these theorists was to present how texts depicted the fragmentation of society.

Bertolt Brecht applies this premise to theater, essentially stated that the predetermined bourgeois rules and traditions of theater control dramatist and their expressions. He therefore advocates direct appeals to the audience ( a break from Aristotle's catharsis), forming drama into a tool in exposing bourgeois ideology and its overbearing presence in the arts.

**__Gramsci and Althusser: Hegemony and ISA's__**
Italian-born Antonio Gramsci disagrees with the one-way relationship Lukacs details between the base and the superstructure and instead presents a more complex view. Gramsci identifies the bourgeois means of maintaining dominance over the proletariat through what he calls hegemony, or the assumptions, values, and meanings that form reality for the majority of a population. Because it controls the base and the superstructure, the bourgeoisie is able to establish hegemony and "gain the spontaneous accolades of the working class." In other words, by presenting ideologies through art and other cultural outlets, the bourgeoisie create a reality in which the working class forget their own personal aspirations or desires and support those of the dominant class.

Gramsci's student Louis Althusser takes his mentor's assertions on hegemony and denies reflection theory in order to compose what is now called production theory. Through his works //For Marx// and //Reading "Capital"//, Althusser argues that the superstructure can influence the base, and that literature is important because it can do more than simply reflect bourgeois ideologies. Althusser presents Ideological State Apparatuses as the means by which hegemony is established, namely dominant social institutions. However, a dominant classes hegemony is never whole, and because of this conflicting hegemonies can inspire revolution and social change between oppressors and the oppressed. If the proletariat can create their own art from their own consciousness, then according to Althusser it can ultimately establish a hegemony that usurps that of the dominant class.

Bressler's Questions for Analysis of a Text utilizing Marxist theory:
 * 1) What class structures are established in the texts?
 * 2) Which characters or groups control the economic means of production?
 * 3) What class conflicts are exhibited?
 * 4) Which characters are oppressed, and to which social class do they belong?
 * 5) Which characters are the oppressors?
 * 6) What is the hegemony established in the text?
 * 7) What social conflicts are ignored?
 * 8) Who represents the status quo?
 * 9) Does the work suggest a solution to society’s class conflicts?
 * 10) What is the dominant ideology revealed in the text?
 * 11) Did the main character support or defy the dominant ideology?
 * 12) Is the narrator a member of the bourgeoisie or the proletariat?
 * 13) Whose story gets told? Whose story does not get told?
 * 14) When and where was the text published?
 * 15) Is the author’s stated intention for writing the work known or public?
 * 16) What were the economic issues surrounding the publication of the text?
 * 17) Who is the audience?
 * 18) Who is the ideal reader?


 * __ Marxist Theory __**

According to Terry Eagleton the task of Marxist criticism is “to show the text as it cannot know itself, to manifest those conditions of its making about which it is necessarily silent.”[1] Marxist theory seeks to apply the radical ways of thinking pioneered by Marx and others to literature. Unlike most other literary theories, Marxism did not originate as a means of studying a text, but was adopted for its usefulness. By uncovering the ideologies present in a text using Marxist analysis, the text can be examined in light of the society from which it was produced.


 * __ Principles __**

The evolution of Marxist literary theory began when the traditional historical approach was amended by Marx to include economic means of production. By combining these new ideas about how the world works with the pre-existing methodology, literary critics were able to apply Marxist theory to almost any text. Marxism differs in that it is not only an academic venture, but also a call to action for anyone who recognizes the oppression going on. Literature enters into the fray once it is realized that it too is a part of the hegemony engineered by the powers that be. Literature can be seen as a representation of both the base and of the superstructure. The working class ideals and sentiments are reflected in works of literature, and these allow the oppressed group to publicize their struggle. The superstructure seeks to control the literature for this reason, either by censoring works produced by the base or by creating new works to reflect their own ideology.


 * __ Key Terms __**


 * **__ base- __** the economic means of production and the relationships that result from this structure[2]
 * **__ superstructure- __** social, legal, political, and educational systems in society which embody ideologies[3]
 * **__ false consciousness- __** a creation of the bourgeoisie engineered to shape the perception of the working class in order to make them accept their oppression[4]
 * **__ reflection theory- __** also known as vulgar Marxism, this theory asserts that the economic means of production determine the rest of society; the superstructure mirrors the base[5]
 * **__ hegemony- __** the system of beliefs, values, and meanings to which most people in a given society subscribe[6]
 * **__ production theory- __** rejecting reflection theory, saying that literature is not restricted to the superstructure and that the nature of the relationship between the base and superstructure is far more complex[7]
 * **__ interpellation- __** also known as hailing the subject, a process in which the dominant hegemony forms the attitudes of society[8]
 * **__ fragmentation- __** fractured and fragmented nature of society caused by workers detachment from what they produce and from each other[9]


 * __ Methodology __**

Marxist literary analysis begins with the assumption that a text cannot exist in isolation, and in this way all literature is related to its foundations. By studying the text and its influences from a historical standpoint, it is possible to reveal the ideologies present in the text. Ideologies present in a text reflect on the author, and in turn on the society from which the author came. Marxist theory allows for an analysis of these complex relationships, showing how the text was created and how it interacts both with society and the reader. Marxist theory, like feminism, does not mean to be contained to academia. The end goal of using Marxist literary theory on a text is not only to uncover all the ideologies present, but also to condemn them and show their unhealthy effect on society. While other theories may be satisfied with speculating on societal matters, the crux of Marxist theory is to inspire active change.

[1] Bressler, Charles. Literary Criticism An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 5th ed. Longman, 2011. 180. Print [2] Bressler, Charles. Literary Criticism An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 5th ed. Longman, 2011. 167. Print [3] Bressler, Charles. Literary Criticism An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 5th ed. Longman, 2011. 167. Print [4] Bressler, Charles. Literary Criticism An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 5th ed. Longman, 2011. 168. Print [5] Bressler, Charles. Literary Criticism An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 5th ed. Longman, 2011. 171. Print [6] Bressler, Charles. Literary Criticism An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 5th ed. Longman, 2011. 172. Print [7] Bressler, Charles. Literary Criticism An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 5th ed. Longman, 2011. 173. Print [8] Bressler, Charles. Literary Criticism An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 5th ed. Longman, 2011. 173. Print [9] Bressler, Charles. Literary Criticism An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 5th ed. Longman, 2011. 178. Print

Works Cited

- Bressler, Charles. //Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice//. 5th ed. Longman, 2011. 127. Print