Applying a Marxist Lens to Literature
What is Marxist Criticism?
Marxist criticism involves reading a text according to Marxist ideas and concepts, which revolve around the ways in a society is separated into different classes. When conducting a Marxist criticism, we're thinking about social structures, the ways in which power is distributed amongst those structures, and the means by which these structures are maintained.
At the heart of this mode of interpretation is the consideration of the following core conflict:
The ruling class (bourgeoisie) vs. The working class (proletariat)
These slides contain a broad overview of what Marxist Criticism does. They are good for students who want to remind themselves of some of this theory's key aspects. For a deeper understanding of what a Marxist critic does, explore the resources below.
PART ONE
This first part provides a basic overview of who Karl Marx was, the capitalist structures he criticized, and some seminal components to his theory.
PART TWO
This second part explores concepts developed by neomarxist thinkers like Althusser and Gramsci, who built upon Marx's original ideas and questioned why oppressive structures were able to maintain themselves.
Questions to Consider:
1. How does the text portray wealth inequality and in what ways does it critique or champion such inequality?
2. How does the text depict class division and in what ways does it critique or champion such division?
3. In what ways does the text critique economic structures?
4. Does the text reinforce or challenge class stereotypes? How?
5. How does the text present relationships between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, and what is the text trying to say about these relationships?
6. Does a character attain class consciousness? How and what happens as a result?
7. Using Marxist theory, what examples of alienation are in the text?
8. In what ways does the text depict methods of maintaining oppressive class structures?