Marxism
Karl Marx
(Father of communism)
Born in Germany
Coomunist, Economist, Philosopher, Overall smart guy
Wrote several book on communism
The communist manifesto
Capital
Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844
The poverty of philosophy
Critique of the Political Economy
Wage, Labor and Capital
Had few philosophies (also known as reasons to hate capitalism
Capitalism cares not for the workers and the labor class
Capitalism is a model where only capitalists get ricj, while workers remain poor
Modern work is alienated due to specialization of labour
click to edit
Capitalism causes humans to be nothing more than one factor of production and can be fired easily.
Literary theory
All texts are linked to their era's economic conditions
Economics influences everything else
Basic Infrastructure VS Super structure
Basic Infrastructure:
Economic aspect
tools
organization of labor
technological change
how society works
Superstructure:
All other social and non-economic aspects of life such as politics, law, art, literature, education etc
always affected by basic infrastructure
"It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness.”
-- Karl Marx
A society's superstructure is influenced and limited by its basic infrastructure;
Sheep Example
Change starts or evolves from the base, however it then influences or changes superstructure.
Hence literature reflects changes in economic condition
Literature is propaganda: ruling class writes about stuff and use it to persuade working class
Marxist criticism of literature cannot only take into
consideration a work's language, devices, diction, phrases, structure etc, it considers socio-economic background that influenced creators to write this work