POESÍA INGLESA DE LOS SIGLOS XI Y XX

LORENA RAMOS

 

MARXIST CRITICISM

 

In order to explain Marxist Criticism, it is necessary some background on Karl Marx, the nineteenth-century German philosopher who introduced Marxism and who was also the first Marxist literary critic, writing critical essays in the 1s on writers such as Goethe and Shakespeare. We also will need some basic concepts of the political and economic theories by Karl Marx to understand Marxist Criticism. (bedfordstmartins)

 

The way in which the working class (proletariat) and ruling class (bourgeoisie) interact affects our economy. The understood guide for an economy is its mode of production. Our economic system and the beliefs that create it are what Marx referred to as base. The base supports and determines the superstructure which consists of law, politics, philosophy, religion, art. All these elements create the shared beliefs and values of a determined population, in other words, a common ideology is the fruit of it.  For Marxists, ideology is determined by economics which means, ideology depends on the social class that individuals belong. (wsu, bedforstmartins, Lawrence)

 

Literature, as a cultural production, is a form of ideology, and a powerful “gun” used by the ruling English class during the eighteenth century, both to express and transmit the dominant value systems to the lower classes. Therefore literature is very powerful as it can express the dominant values but it can also rebel against them and cause changes in ideology. In fact, “many critics of literature believe that literature is a major stimulus towards the evolution of societal opinions and attitudes” (northern). As literature is superstructure, literature affects the way the proletariat and the bourgeoisie interact. Literature can either support the current base and ideologies or inspire change.(wsu, northern)

 

Along with psychoanalytical, feminist and cultural criticism; Marxist literary criticism exemplifies what the French philosopher Paul Ricouer terms a “hermeneutics of suspicion. ".(assumption) These are the approaches that concern themselves not with what the texts says but what it hides. What Marxist literary critics do with texts is to explore whether they express the dominant ideology or on the contrary, they introduce a change. In other words, they investigate the ways in which the texts express ideological oppression of a dominant economic class over subordinate classes.

 

Marxist literary critics and theorists are interested in asking a range of questions about how literature functions as a site for ideology, as part of the superstructure. First, they want to examine how the economic base of any culture (and particularly of capitalist cultures) influences or determines the form and/or content of literature, both in general terms and in specific works of literature. They also want to look at how literature functions in relation to other aspects of the superstructure, particularly other articulations of ideology. They want to know if the text reflects or resists the dominant ideology or both. They are concerned about what role does class play in the work; what is the author’s analysis of class relations. Marxist literary critics are interested in what ways the literary work serves as propaganda for the status quo or, on the contrary if it tries to undermine it. Finally it is also important to take into account if the literary work proposes some form of utopian vision as a solution to the current political or social situation. (colorado, wsu, assumption)

Let's take as examples the poems "England in 1819" and" To the men of England" by Shelley (poems which I analysed in a previous essay). In these two poems Shelley demonstrates his support for the English working class. In the first poem “England in 1819”, Shelley hardly criticises the oppressive power, that is to say, the bourgeoisie and the monarchy. Shelley talks about the injustice upon the proletariat, however in the end the poet seems to have many hopes for the working classes as he thinks someday the situation will change. In the second poem, Shelley directly addresses the men of England, the masses. Shelley encourages the masses to take action, even using arms, only in their defence though, as the rewards of their hard work are being stolen by the rich. Both poems reflect and resist the dominant ideology as they describe the current social situation, "England in 1819" describes the monarchy attitude towards the proletariat in a very depictive way. “To the men of England" mainly promotes a revolution from part of the proletariat to change the current political and social situation. Therefore, Shelley is contributing with his poetry (superstructure) to change ideology of society which can change the bases, the mode of production and the superstructure itself.

 

Marxist literary criticism often shares with feminist criticism a desire to challenge the power structures in contemporary society. For feminist, the issue is a marginalized gender; for Marxist, the issue is not gender but economic power, leading to political power. Marxist literary criticism can also be viewed as a type of cultural criticism, in that it seeks to analyse a discourse that makes up one of the discourses that determine a text’s historical meaning. (Assumption)

 

Marxist literary criticism may be thought of as a reaction to many of the rigid theories of the New Critics. Unlike the New Critics, who saw the text as a self-contained whole, Marxists generally focus upon the unresolved tensions within works of literature. Similarly, although Marxist criticism has both influenced and been influenced by structuralist criticism and post- structuralist criticism, it greatly differs from them in its refusal to separate literature and language from society. Marxist criticism is materialist, so it has more in common with theories that focus upon how literature functions within social, political, and economic structures, than it does with theories that focus only upon the text. Marxist criticism has had an enormous influence on feminism, new historicism, and most recently, cultural studies .As a system that looks for causes beneath the surface of society, Marxist criticism has much in common with psychoanalytic criticism. In fact, it is possible to make a rough comparison between the Marxist model of base and superstructure and the Freudian model of unconscious and conscious. (Lawrence)

 

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Academic year 2005/2006

a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
©Lorena Ramos Jiménez
Universitat de València Press
loraji@alumni.uv.es