Marxist Theory
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 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:
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.
Click the image to the left to access the article that we read as a class that explains the core tenants of Marxism via an interview between a journalist and a professor of literary studies.
Click the image to see some examples of Marxist literary criticism in action. Measure your own work against the models on this page to ensure that you are correctly applying this type of criticism.
Click the image to access further resources to help you understand Marxist criticism. On this page, you can find examples of Marxist criticism, explainer videos and further reading.