Based on the socialist and dialectical theories of Karl Marx, Marxist criticism views literary works as reflections of the social institutions out of which they are born. It originally consisted of three related ideas: a philosophical anthropology, a theory of history, and an economic and political program.There is also Marxism as it has been understood and practiced by the various socialist movements, particularly before 1914. Marxism and Literature. The audience is the passive consumer. As a result, a direct cause-effect relationship between literature and economics was assumed, with all writers seen as trapped within the intellectual limit of their class position. Not only this, Karl Marx was the first literary critic who represented Marxist’s school of thought. In this process, authors, readers and spectators become collaborators. If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. His debate with Bertolt Brecht on the whole questions of realism and expressionism discussed in detail the importance of form and the concept of form in Marxisi criticism. Take the case of the novels of Mulk Raj Anand which address the life of the untouchables, coolies and ordinary workers struggling for their rights and self esteem. In one sense, it was an argument against the increasing homogenization of cultural and political life in Soviet Union. Thus traces of this connection can be identified in various forms of cultural production. Marxism represents the philosophy of Karl Marx, a famous German Philosopher of nineteenth century. According to him, “each element of a society’s superstructure, art, law, politics, and religion has its own tempo of development, its own internal evolution, which is not reducible to a mere expression of the class struggle or the state of the economy.” Yet classical Marxists claim that in the last analysis the superstructure is determined by that mode of production. This confrontation, according to Marx, will finally result in replacing the system by socialism. Earlier under feudalism the workers engaged in cottage industries produced various items on their own, all activities related to the production happening at the same place under the supervision of the same people. In 20th century, literary criticism has witnessed influences from many schools of critical inquiries. Influence On Writers For example, the legal system reflects the interests of the dominant class in particular historical periods rather than the manifestation of divine reason. One of the members of this group, Mikhail Bakhtin remained in Soviet Union and continued his critical practice. Marxist literary theory based on Marxism is one of the most influential critical theories to analyse literature. Tags: Aijaz Ahmad, alienation effect", Antonio Gramsci, Balzac, Base and Superstructure, Bertolt Brecht, Christopher Caudwell, Cultural Materialism, Dialectical Materialism, Engels, Epic Theatre, Ernst Bloch, Frankfurt School, Fredric Jameson, Georg Lukacs, Gramsci, Gyorgy Lukacs, Hegel, hegemony, Herbert Marcuse, Ideological State Apparatuses, Ideology, Illusion and Reality, Jean-Paul Sartre, Karl Marx, Kenneth Burke, Klassovost, Louis Althusser, Marxism, Marxist Literary Group, Mikhail Bakhtin, Mulk Raj Anand, Narodnost, overdetermination, Paris Manuscripts, Partinost, Prague Linguistic Circle, Raymond Williams, Rene Wellek, Repressive State Apparatuses, Roman Jakobson, Russian Formalism, Socialist Realism, Structures of feeling, Subaltern, Terry Eagleton, The Country and the City, Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin. Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno and Herbert Marcuse were some of the important figures attached with this school. Bourgeois theatre is based on illusionism. He coined the critical method, Cultural Materialism which has four characteristics, Historical context, Theoretical method, Political /commitment and Textual analysis. Home › Literary Criticism › Marxism and Literary Theory, By Nasrullah Mambrol on April 12, 2016 • ( 27 ). 2. Introduction. Marxist literary criticism investigates literature’s role in the class struggle. His most important works include The Country and the City (1973), in which chapters about literature alternate with chapters on social history. They are values that are changing and being formed as we live and react to the material world around us. Marxism and Literary History Includes index. Roman Jakobson founded the Prague Linguistic Circle along with Rene Wellek and a few others. It is opposed to idealist philosophy which conceptualizes a spiritual world elsewhere that influences and controls the material world. A concise, but useful introduction to Marxist literary criticism. But under capitalism the workers lost control over their products they were engaged in the production of various parts and were alienated from their own work. Based on the theories of Karl Marx (and so influenced by philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel), this school concerns itself with class differences, economic and otherwise, as well as the implications and complications of the capitalist system: "Marxism attempts to reveal the ways in which our socioeconomic system is the ultimate source of our experience" (Tyson 277). Literature is the more specific use of language Williams concerns himself with. 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. Marxist literary criticism is a loose term describing literary criticism based on socialist and dialectic theories. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. For example, Balzac, a supporter of Bourbon dynasty, provides a penetrating account of the French society than all the historians. The term subaltern was originally used by Gramsci as a collective description for a variety of different and exploited groups who lack class consciousness. Classes have common interests. In 1969, Jameson co-founded the Marxist Literary Group with a number of his graduate students at the University of California. Virginia Woolf in A Room Of One's Own; women will break the cycle of The documentary Hip-hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes takes this approach, or emerging urban middle class keeping It is this struggle between opposing classes that result in social transformation. oppressed. One of the examples of this rigid Marxist literary criticism is Illusion and Reality by Christopher Caudwell. 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