1. Marxism and Marxist Literary Criticism
Literature in English
ASL

2. Introduction
Any political practice or theory based on an interpretation of the works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Including Communist Parties and Communist states

3. Characteristics of Marxism
Attention to the material conditions of people's lives, and lived relations among people
People’s consciousness of the conditions of their lives reflects these material conditions and relations
“Social class" = differing relations to production (a particular position within such relations)

4. Characteristics of Marxism
Material conditions and social relations: historically malleable
View of history: class struggle (evolving conflict between classes with opposing interests) structures each historical period
A sympathy for the working class
The ultimate interests of workers best match those of humanity in general

5. Characteristics of Marxism
Workers' revolution: the means of achieving human emancipation and enlightenment
The actual mechanism through which such a revolution might occur and succeed

6. Main Ideas in Marxism Means of production:
A combination of the means of labor and the subject of labor used by workers to make products
Means of labor = machines, tools, equipment, infrastructure, and "all those things with the aid of which man acts upon the subject of labor, and transforms it"
Subject of labor = raw materials and materials directly taken from nature
Means of production produce nothing
Labor power is needed for production to take place.

7. Main Ideas in Marxism Base and superstructure:
Base: people with regard to “the social production of their existence” forms the economic basis
Superstructure: political + legal institutions + religious, philosophical, and other ideas
The base conditions the superstructure and the social consciousness
Reflexive: changes in one group often influence the other

8. Main Ideas in Marxism Class consciousness:
The self-awareness of a social class
Its capacity to act in its own rational interests

9. Main Ideas in Marxism Ideology:
Consciousness and perceptions within a society
Often controlled by the ruling class
Determined according to what is in the ruling class's best interests
Confuses the alienated groups
Creates false consciousness
Example: commodity fetishism (perceiving labor as capital ~ a degradation of human life)

10. Main Ideas in Marxism Exploitation:
Exploitation of an entire segment or class of society by another
An inherent feature and key element of capitalism and free markets
Profit gained by the capitalist = the value of the product made by the worker + the actual wage that the worker receives
Paying workers less than the full value of their labour
To enable the capitalist class to turn a profit

11. Class System in Marxism
Identity of a social class: derived from its relationship to the means of production
As opposed to the notion that class is determined by wealth alone

12. Class System in Marxism
The proletariat
Individuals who sell their labour power
The bourgeoisie
Owns the means of production"
Buys labour power from the proletariat (recompensed by a salary)
Exploits the proletariat

13. Class System in Marxism
The lumpenproletariat
Social scum: criminals, vagabonds, beggars
People with no stake in the economic system
Selling themselves to the highest bidder
The Landlords
Wealthy people owning pieces of land
Retaining their wealth and power
The Peasantry and Farmers
Disorganized
Incapable of carrying out change
Disappearing: most becoming proletariat but some becoming landowners

14. Marxist Literary Criticism
A loose term describing literary criticism informed by the philosophy or the politics of Marxism
Terry Eagleton (Marxism and Literary Criticism, 1976)
Not merely a 'sociology of literature', concerned with how novels get published and whether they mention the working class
Aim:
To explain the literary work more fully
A ensitive attention to its forms, styles and meanings
Grasping those forms, styles and meanings as the product of a particular history

15. Marxist Literary Criticism
Goals:
An assessment of the political "tendency" of a literary work (determining whether its social content or its literary form are "progressive“)
Applying lessons drawn from the realm of aesthetics to the realm of politics

16. Marxist Film Theory
Expressing ideas of Marxism through film in terms of film editing, such as montage
Employing radical choice of subject matter, as well as subversive parody, to heighten class consciousness and promote Marxist ideas

17. Marxist Film Theory Sergei Eisenstein:
Shunning narrative structure by eliminating the individual protagonist
Telling stories where the action is moved by the group
Story told through a clash of one image against the next (whether in composition, motion, or idea)
The audience is never lulled into believing that they are watching something that has not been worked over
Important works:
Can dialectics break bricks? (1973)

18. Thanks for your struggle of attention!