Sean Scannell
Dr. Josna Rege
Methods of Literary Studies
Marxist Literary Theory
Marxist Literary Theory “Concerns itself with class differences, economic and otherwise, as well as the implication and complications of the capitalist system: “Marxism attempts to reveal the ways in which our socioeconomic system is the ultimate source of our experience” (Owl at Purdue)
Stemming from Marx’s ideology of the material dialectic, or economic determinism, Marx says that the driving forces of production have a deciding influence on the arts. As a result, Marxist literary criticism’s primary focus in a capitalist world is heavily involved in socioeconomic structure when it comes to analysis of a work: who wrote it (working class or bourgeoisie), what …show more content…
Barry presents this revitalization through a set of definitions of key concepts that outline his changes, which are below. Overdeterminism: An effect which arises from multiple causes acting together. Rather than the superstructure being reliant on the simple cause of the base in a one to one correspondence, it’s a complex system of various causes causing the effect. Relative autonomy: Althusser uses relative autonomy to describe the state in which art is affected by the interaction between the base and superstructure; in spite of the interconnected system, art is fairly independent from the economic forces driving society. Ideology: “Ideology is a system (processing its logic and proper rigor) of representations (images, myths, ideas or concepts according to the case) endowed with an existence and a historical role at the heart of a given society.” If Ideology is defined as a system of representations, then the culture of those representations (which includes literature) is not solely dependent on the base either.
While Althusser is essentially breaking down the cause-effect of the base-superstructure relationship, he is not dismissing the connection the two have in terms of how the affect each other, and is allowing art to be given a degree of freedom from the system laid out by Marx. He further breaks down the radical ideology of Marxism by making a distinction between the two definitons
Marxist Literary Theory
Marxist Literary Theory “Concerns itself with class differences, economic and otherwise, as well as the implication and complications of the capitalist system: “Marxism attempts to reveal the ways in which our socioeconomic system is the ultimate source of our experience” (Owl at Purdue)
Stemming from Marx’s ideology of the material dialectic, or economic determinism, Marx says that the driving forces of production have a deciding influence on the arts. As a result, Marxist literary criticism’s primary focus in a capitalist world is heavily involved in socioeconomic structure when it comes to analysis of a work: who wrote it (working class or bourgeoisie), what …show more content…
Barry presents this revitalization through a set of definitions of key concepts that outline his changes, which are below. Overdeterminism: An effect which arises from multiple causes acting together. Rather than the superstructure being reliant on the simple cause of the base in a one to one correspondence, it’s a complex system of various causes causing the effect. Relative autonomy: Althusser uses relative autonomy to describe the state in which art is affected by the interaction between the base and superstructure; in spite of the interconnected system, art is fairly independent from the economic forces driving society. Ideology: “Ideology is a system (processing its logic and proper rigor) of representations (images, myths, ideas or concepts according to the case) endowed with an existence and a historical role at the heart of a given society.” If Ideology is defined as a system of representations, then the culture of those representations (which includes literature) is not solely dependent on the base either.
While Althusser is essentially breaking down the cause-effect of the base-superstructure relationship, he is not dismissing the connection the two have in terms of how the affect each other, and is allowing art to be given a degree of freedom from the system laid out by Marx. He further breaks down the radical ideology of Marxism by making a distinction between the two definitons