Thread:Louis1963/@comment-29712793-20160919184849

Marxist Theory of Literature 

  

   The Marxist criticism is an eye on the social/ economic state of humans in a text, where they may appear on the class social structure ladder.    O’ Pioneer by Willa Cather talked about a pioneer family that braved the wilderness and came out “Upper-class.” In a criticism of the novel in the Marxist form; one might point out first the status of the family and continue with workers, economic state of the area, and the relation of all of these in gradient social pecking order. There may be better examples, but the idea is the same, criticism based on the economic status, political make-up, and real life situations of a working person depicted in the piece of literature.

 Marx and Engels had a lot to say and try to influence in the way people are seen and treated in the world economy, especially a focus on the Capitalist economy. The “Art,” does or does not reflect the world the actual working person lives in. In the N.A.T.C. page 649, “Marx and Engels emphasize that we must study real men and women and real process, not what has typically been said or thought by and about them.” In other words, focus on the way the character is portrayed and how real to the era they lived in. Does the portrayal mirror historical fact or does it display the accepted standard ideology instead.  