Marxist Literary Theory

 

 

Marxist literary theory examines the role of power, money and class struggle in literature.  When analyzing a work of literature from a Marxist perspective you are interested in asking questions like:

 

Who has economic power?

Who doesn’t have economic power?

Who profits from the economy?

Who works to promote the economy?

Who wants power?

How are changes in the economic power structure brought about?

 

 

Marxism is based on the economic and cultural theory of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.  Marx and Engels believed that the economic organization of a society was the key determinant of change in society.  In the Communist Manifesto they lay out the basic elements of their theory.

 

“The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles.”

 

They define history as a series of class struggles where political power allows for one group to oppress another.  Each age, or epoch, of history is defined by a dialectical process between two groups which results in a new order:

 

Thesis vs. Antithesis  = Synthesis

 

Two opposing ideas represented by thesis and antithesis continue to come into conflict with each other until their conflict destroys both sides resulting in a completely new idea – synthesis. Marx and Engels used the terms bourgeoisie and proletariat to describe the two opposing classes that make up modern day capitalist society.

 

Bourgeoisie – This group is comprised of those who gained power due to the growth of industry and capitalism after the fall of the feudal system.  This group is driven solely by self interest and the accumulation of wealth without regard to the web of personal relations which defined feudalistic society.  As society progresses the bourgeoisie becomes a more and more centralized power.

 

Proletariat -   This group is the working class.  They are the men and women whose labor keeps the capitalist machine running.  As the bourgeoisie power becomes more centralized the proletariat expands. 

 

 

Marx and Engels criticized the Bourgeoisie for their role in demoralizing society:

 

The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an

end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations.  It has

pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to

his "natural superiors," and has left remaining no other nexus

between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous "cash

payment."  It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of

religious fervour, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine

sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation.  It

has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of

the numberless and feasible chartered freedoms, has set up that

single, unconscionable freedom--Free Trade.  In one word, for

exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, naked,

shameless, direct, brutal exploitation.

The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation

hitherto honoured and looked up to with reverent awe.  It has

converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the

man of science, into its paid wage labourers.

The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental

veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money

relation.  (Communist Manifesto Part 1)

 

 

At the same time they cite the Bourgeoisie as being authors of their own downfall:

 

The essential condition for the existence, and for the sway of

the bourgeois class, is the formation and augmentation of

capital; the condition for capital is wage-labour.  Wage-labour

rests exclusively on competition between the laborers.  The

advance of industry, whose involuntary promoter is the bourgeoisie,

replaces the isolation of the labourers, due to competition,

by their revolutionary combination, due to association.  The

development of Modern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its

feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and

appropriates products.  What the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces,

above all, is its own grave-diggers.  Its fall and the victory of

the proletariat are equally inevitable.  (Communist Manifesto Part 1)

As the Bourgeoisie continues to amass wealth they also amass a larger and more concentrated Proletariat.  At some point the capitalist society reaches a point at which the use of machines begins to outstrip the economic need for the Proletariat and as a result they are left with more and more unsavory jobs with less and less compensation for their toil.  As a result conflicts begin to occur in the form of union organizations and riots which mimic the greater class struggle.  The revolutionary moment comes when the Proletariat finally rises against the power of the Bourgeoisie and overcomes them. 

 

The utopian aspect of Marxism is that rather than the Proletariat taking the place of the oppressor, since they are a majority they will establish a communist society where all power is centralized under a single government and everyone works together in accordance with the needs of the community.  Exploitation amongst people and countries would be abolished and ideally money will lose its power and be replaced once more by a sense of personal honor.

 

National differences and antagonisms between peoples are daily

more and more vanishing, owing to the development of the

bourgeoisie, to freedom of commerce, to the world-market, to

uniformity in the mode of production and in the conditions of

life corresponding thereto.

The supremacy of the proletariat will cause them to vanish still

faster. United action, of the leading civilised countries at

least, is one of the first conditions for the emancipation of

the proletariat.

In proportion as the exploitation of one individual by another

is put an end to, the exploitation of one nation by another will

also be put an end to.  In proportion as the antagonism between

classes within the nation vanishes, the hostility of one nation

to another will come to an end.