MARXIST
Notes on Marxism
Founders and Background
Karl Marx (1818–1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820–1895) founded Marxism.
Marx, son of a lawyer, lived in poverty as a political exile in Britain.
Engels worked in his father’s textile firm in Manchester.
They met after Marx read an article by Engels.
Their economic theory was called Communism, advocating state ownership of industry
and transport.
The Communist Manifesto (1848) announced the arrival of Communism.
Core Beliefs of Marxism
Goal: A classless society with common ownership of production, distribution, and
exchange.
Materialist philosophy: Explains the world through observable facts rather than spiritual
beliefs.
Seeks change: Unlike other philosophies that interpret the world, Marxism aims to
transform it.
History as class struggle: Society progresses through conflicts between different social
classes.
Key Concepts
Exploitation in capitalism:
In industrial capitalism, workers face alienation, performing repetitive, fragmented
tasks.
Reification: Workers are treated as objects (e.g., "labour force"), reducing their
humanity.
Influences on Marxism:
Hegel’s dialectic: Progress through opposing ideas creating new situations.
French socialist ideas from the French Revolution.
Rejection of capitalist economic theory, which claims individual self-interest benefits
society.
Base and Superstructure Model:
Base: The economic system (production, distribution, exchange).
Superstructure: Culture, religion, law, and art—shaped by the base (economic
determinism).
Conclusion
Marxism is a revolutionary theory that critiques capitalism, advocating for a society where
economic power is collectively owned, eliminating class divisions and exploitation.
Notes on Marxist Literary Criticism
Marx and Engels' Views on Literature
No comprehensive literary theory was proposed by Marx and Engels.
They believed art has some independence from economic conditions, even if ultimately
shaped by them.
Engels (1888): Preferred literature where the author’s opinions were not overtly stated,
emphasizing the difference between art and propaganda.
Key Principles of Marxist Literary Criticism
A writer's social class and ideology influence their work.
Rejects the idea of autonomous genius; authors are shaped by their social contexts.
Even literary form can reflect political ideology.
Terry Eagleton: Language structure reflects a well-ordered political state.
Catherine Belsey: The Realist novel supports existing social structures by maintaining
conventional ways of seeing the world.
Modernist literature (e.g., Beckett, Kafka) reflects contradictions in late capitalism.
Limitations of Traditional Marxist Criticism
Focuses on broad historical forces rather than specific historical details.
Contrast with later approaches (e.g., Cultural Materialism, New Historicism)
These later methods closely analyze historical documents to reconstruct the mindset
of a particular period.
Conclusion
Marxist literary criticism examines literature through the lens of class struggle and ideology,
arguing that both content and form reflect social realities. While earlier Marxist criticism was
broad in its historical analysis, later approaches engaged more deeply with specific historical
contexts.
Notes on Marxist Literary Criticism in the Soviet Era
Shift in Marxist Literary Approach
Official Marxist literary criticism became more rigid than Marx and Engels’ original views.
1920s Soviet Union: Encouraged modernist experimentation in literature and arts.
1930s Soviet Union: Shifted to strict state controlover literature.
1934 Soviet Writers' Congress: Liberal views banned; Socialist Realism imposed.
Lenin's stance (1905): Literature must serve the Party’s goals.
Writers like Proust and Joyce were condemned as bourgeois decadence.
Two Streams of Marxist Criticism (George Steiner’s View)
1. Engelsian Marxism:
Supports artistic freedom and independence from direct political control.
2. Leninist Marxism:
Demands explicit political commitment in literature.
International Influence of 'Leninist' Marxist Criticism
In the 1930s, Leninist views shaped global Marxist criticism.
'Vulgar Marxism': Assumed a direct cause-effect link between literature and economic
conditions.
Writers seen as trapped by their social-class position.
Christopher Caudwell’s ‘Illusion and Reality’ (1930s, published 1946)
Extreme Marxist literary analysis:
Generalized arguments with little direct textual analysis.
Rigid class-based interpretations of literature.
Example:
Browning’s vocabulary = Middle-class evasion of real issues.
Tennyson’s romanticism and Browning’s medieval themes = Escape from class
contradictions.
Criticism of Soviet Marxist Literary Theory
Overly simplistic, reducing literature to political soundbites.
Lacked detailed literary analysis, focusing more on ideological arguments.
Conclusion
Marxist literary criticism under Soviet influence (1930s-1960s) became highly rigid, enforcing
Socialist Realism and demanding political commitment in literature. This differed from
Engels’ more flexible approach, leading to oversimplified, ideological readings of literature.
Notes on Marxist and Formalist Literary Criticism (1930s-1960s)
Engelsian Marxist Criticism in Exile
Flourished underground or in exile after the rise of Socialist Realism in the USSR.
Russian Formalists (1920s):
Not strictly Marxist but influential in later Marxist criticism.
Key figures: Victor Shklovsky, Boris Tomashevsky, Boris Eichenbaum.
Main ideas:
Close formal analysis of literature.
Defamiliarisation (Shklovsky): Literature makes the familiar world seem new,
encouraging fresh perception.
Story (fabula) vs. Plot (sjuzhet) (Tomashevsky):
Fabula: The chronological sequence of events.
Sjuzhet: The artistic presentation of events (e.g., reordering, repetition).
Literature does not simply mirror reality; it is a structured representation.
Influence of Russian Formalism
Inspired early structuralists (1950s-60s) due to their focus on language vs. reality and
literary structures.
Exiled scholars:
Roman Jakobson: Founded the Prague Linguistic Circle, later moved to the U.S. and
influenced New Criticism.
René Wellek: Continued Formalist ideas in America.
Frankfurt School of Marxist Aesthetics
Founded in 1923 at the University of Frankfurt.
Integrated Marxism, Freudian psychology, and Formalism.
Key thinkers:
Walter Benjamin: Explored culture and art under capitalism.
Herbert Marcuse: Influenced radical 1960s thought.
Theodor Adorno: Criticized mass culture and consumer society.
Bertolt Brecht and the Alienation Effect
Opposed Socialist Realism’s simplistic approach.
Alienation Effect:
Prevents audiences from becoming emotionally absorbed in drama.
Uses theatrical devices to remind viewers that they are watching a constructed
representation, not reality.
Example: In Galileo, a director figure remains visible, reading from the script.
Similar to defamiliarisation: Both highlight the boundary between art and life.
Conclusion
Russian Formalism and the Frankfurt School shaped alternative Marxist literary theories.
Defamiliarisation and alienation effects emphasized literature’s role in challenging
perceptions rather than just reflecting reality.
Exiled scholars like Jakobson and Wellek helped integrate these ideas into Western
literary criticism, influencing Structuralism and New Criticism.
Notes on Althusserian Marxist Criticism and Its Influence
Key Concepts Introduced by Louis Althusser
1. Overdeterminism:
Borrowed from Freud, it refers to effects arising from multiple causes, not just a single
economic factor.
Undermines the simplistic base-superstructure model.
2. Relative Autonomy:
Culture (including literature) is influenced by economics but has some independence
from it.
Challenges the rigid idea that art is just a direct product of economic forces.
3. Ideology:
Defined as a system of representations (images, myths, ideas) that plays a role in
shaping society.
Culture is a vehicle for maintaining the status quo by embedding values and
assumptions.
Economic forces influence ideology, but only in the "last instance" (Goldstein).
4. Decentring:
Rejects the idea that the economy is the central or sole determinant of society.
Society has multiple influences, and literature has a degree of independence.
5. State Power vs. State Control:
State Power: Maintained through repressive structures (e.g., courts, police, military).
State Control: Maintained through ideological structures (e.g., media, education,
religion, literature).
The state secures consent rather than coercion, making people think they are freely
choosing what is imposed on them.
Gramsci’s Concept of Hegemony
Rule vs. Hegemony:
Rule: Direct force and political control.
Hegemony: Indirect control through dominant meanings, values, and beliefs that
shape a worldview.
Hegemony operates through culture and ideology, making certain ideas seem "natural"
or "just the way things are."
Interpellation (Althusser's Key Idea)
The process by which individuals internalize ideology, believing they are free when they
are actually controlled.
Example: Capitalism makes people think they have choices (e.g., product options) when
in reality, choices are limited and controlled.
Similar to democracy: Political parties seem different, but once in power, they follow
similar policies.
Impact of Althusser on Marxist Criticism
Moved Marxist thought away from economic determinism toward a more complex
understanding of power and ideology.
Helped adapt Marxism to post-structuralist and postmodernist thought.
His ideas were revisionist but also controversial within Marxism (e.g., E. P. Thompson’s
critique in The Poverty of Theory).
Later Developments in Marxist Criticism
Terry Eagleton: Influenced by Althusser but also engaged with other critical movements.
Fredric Jameson:
Reconciled Marxism and psychoanalysis.
Literature often represses historical truth, but analysis can reveal its underlying
ideology (its "unconscious").
Key work: The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act (1981).
Postmodernism and Marxism:
Marxist critics engaged in complex interactions with post-structuralist and
postmodernist ideas.
Jameson and Eagleton critically examined capitalism’s influence on modernism and
postmodernism.
Key Readings
Jameson's essay: The Politics of Theory: Ideological Positions in the Postmodernism
Debate.
Eagleton's essay: Capitalism, Modernism, and Postmodernism (both in David Lodge's
Modern Criticism and Theory: A Reader).
Notes on Marxist Criticism in Elliot Krieger’s Analysis of Twelfth Night
Key Focus of the Essay
Challenges the dominant critical view that the play promotes balance and decorum
between self-indulgence (Orsino, Sir Toby) and puritanism (Malvolio).
Instead, Krieger highlights class distinctions and how social privilege dictates who can
indulge in pleasure.
Class Dynamics in the Play
1. Aristocracy and Self-Indulgence:
Orsino, Olivia, and Sir Toby create “secondary worlds”where they escape
responsibilities:
Sir Toby: Indulgence in alcohol and dependence on others.
Olivia: Retreat into mourning as a shield against obligations.
Orsino: Self-absorbed in love fantasies, treating reality as an extension of his
emotions.
Their indulgence is accepted because aristocracy allows it.
2. Malvolio and the Morality of Indulgence:
Malvolio aspires to join the aristocracy, but his ambition is punished, unlike the
indulgence of nobles.
Only privileged classes can indulge without consequence.
3. Servants and Social Mobility:
Viola (as Cesario): Moves between social classes, serving Orsino and being used by
others.
Maria vs. Malvolio:
Maria succeeds by marrying up (Sir Toby).
Malvolio fails because he blindly worships aristocracy and attributes success to
“fortune”, not personal merit.
Maria embodies bourgeois traits (independence, ambition), while Malvolio remains
tied to outdated feudal ideals.
Marxist Perspective on the Play
Main intervention: Introduces class struggle into the analysis of Twelfth Night, a
perspective often ignored.
Exposes the gulf between masters and servants and their differing mindsets.
Highlights aristocratic privilege and how social hierarchy is maintained through cultural
and ideological structures.
Key Marxist Themes in Krieger’s Essay
Power and privilege: Only aristocrats can indulge freely.
Social aspiration: Some servants (Maria) succeed in mobility, others (Malvolio) fail.
Ideology and “fortune”: Aristocracy rationalizes its privilege as natural or fated.
Class conflict: The play subtly reinforces existing social hierarchies rather than
challenging them.
