MARXIST LITERATURE

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  • Marxist
    • Marxism is a theory which focuses on the inequalities between social classes. It highlights the importance of the inequalities between those who have power (the oppressors) and those who do not (the oppressed)
    • Karl Marx, the founding father of Marxism, believed that the Western capitalist system was created in order to increase the wealth of the bourgeoisie.
    • Marxism questions whether a text supports the bourgeoisie or not
    • Marxist critics believe that literature reflects the author's own political and cultural values.
    • Marxist parties that were particularly prevalent in Western Europe have basically disappeared in recent years
    • Marxism emphasises how social circumstances can predetermine the majority of your life
    • marxist theorists believe that the way in which we view the world is largely determined by the contemporary economic structure.
    • Marxists believe that capitalism thrives on the exploitation of labourers- to the extent that they feel completely alienated that they no longer view themselves as human beings, just simply units of production.
    • Marxists argue that ones social class will constantly have an impact on their writing
    • They distinguish in literature between the 'overt' (explicit) and 'covert' (implicit) content of literature, and then relate the 'covert' and then relate these to Marxist social conflicts.
      • Additionally, Marxists relate the context of the work to the personal social status of the author.
    • Marxist critics are very clear about the political stance that they hold, and it must be seen in reference to the concept of class struggle
      • However, Marxist criticism is largely varied and still evolving
    • An explicit Marxist may dismiss literature as a middle-class luxury in which they complain about their middle-class issues
    • Traditional Marxist criticism consists of recreating history based on historical evidence and then assessing how accurate this representation is.
    • Marxist critics must also consider the function of the art form in society
      • Recent Marxist criticism has taken structuralism (method of analysis which focuses on elements of contrast) into account too.

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