Download Social (Marxist) Criticism

Social (Marxist) Literary Criticism
Karl Marx (1818-1883) was primarily a theorist and historian. After examining social
organization in a scientific way, he perceived human history to have consisted of a series
of struggles between classes, between the oppressed and the oppressing. Marx thought
that historical materialism was the ultimate driving force - a notion involving the
distribution of resources, gain, production, and wealth.
Marxist theory gives us a meaningful way to understand history and current events with a
focus on the economic systems that structure societies. For Marxism, getting and
keeping economic power is the motive behind all social and political activities, including
education, philosophy, religion, government, the arts, science, technology, the media and
so on. Economic power always includes social and political power, which is why many
Marxists today refer to socioeconomic class, rather than economic class, when discussing
class structure. In Marxist theory all human events have economic and social causes.
Therefore a Marxist analysis of human events focuses on relationships among
socioeconomic classes, both within a society and among societies. Differences in
socioeconomic class divide people in ways that are much more significant than do
differences in race, religion, ethnicity, and gender. Simply put, the battle is between the
“haves” and the “have nots”, between the “bourgeoisie” – those who control the world’s
natural, economic, and human resources – and the “proletariat” – the majority of the
global population who live in substandard conditions and who perform the manual labor,
the mining, the factory work, that fills the pockets of the rich. His theory, although it
developed in the 1800’s, is still used today to explain inequalities and social behaviour.
Marxism and Literature
Marxism, when used to analyze literature, examines how class produces/influences the
way people/families operate or how self-worth is dictated to be earned by economic
success (think the American Dream). Literature is a product of the socioeconomic
conditions of the time and place it was written, whether or not the author intended it to
be. Literature gives the readers the window into that time period, and a reflection of how
the class system, or the class system the characters belong to, impacts on the characters.
According to Marxist literary theory, literature reflects those social institutions out of
which it emerges. Literature reflects class struggle and materialism, how wealth, or the
lack thereof, defines characters.
The Marxist critic simply is a careful reader who keeps in mind the following questions:
 What role does class play in the work; what is the author’s analysis or class
relations?
 How do characters overcome oppression? What types of oppression do they
encounter and why?
 In what ways does the work serve as propaganda for the status quo; or does it try
to undermine or change it?
 What does the work say about oppression; or social conflicts?
 How does economics impact on the characters?
 How does politics (of the time of the text) impact on the characters?
 How do class values impact on characters?
 Does the work reflect (intentionally or not) the socioeconomic conditions of the
time it was written, and what do these overall conditions reveal about the history
of class struggle?
 Does the work reinforce (intentionally or not) capitalist, imperialist, or other
classist values?