Thinking Activity:Marxist Criticism

 Hello Monks...…..

I am Riddhi Bhatt from Department of English. Today I am going to discuss about Marxist Criticism. So let's start..

What Is MARXISM?

To understand ‘what is Marxist,’ it is essential that we know how other materialist philosophies eliminated the significance of having a logical explanation of things. Unlike these approaches, Marxist perspective does not only emphasize to understand the ideologies of the world but also focus on changing it.

In literary theory, a Marxist interpretation reads the text as an expression of contemporary class struggle. Literature is not simply a matter of personal expression or taste. It somehow relates to the social and political conditions of the time.

Marx called the economic conditions of life the base or infrastructure. The base includes everything from technology and raw materials to the social organization of the workplace. This economic base has a powerful effect on the superstructure, Marx’s term for society, culture, and the world of ideas

Marxism is a social, political, and economic philosophy named after Karl Marx. It examines the effect of capitalism on labor, productivity, and economic development and argues for a worker revolution to overturn capitalism in favor of communism. Marxism posits that the struggle between social classes—specifically between the bourgeoisie, or capitalists, and the proletariat, or workers—defines economic relations in a capitalist economy and will inevitably lead to revolutionary communism.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Marxism is a social, political, and economic theory originated by Karl Marx, which focuses on the struggle between capitalists and the working class.
• Marx wrote that the power relationships between capitalists and workers were inherently exploitative and would inevitably create class conflict.
• He believed that this conflict would ultimately lead to a revolution in which the working class would overthrow the capitalist class and seize control of the economy.

Class conflict and the demise of capitalism 

According to Marx, every society is divided among a number of social classes, whose members have more in common with one another than with members of other social classes. Marx’s class theory portrays capitalism as one step in the historical progression of economic systems that follow one another in a natural sequence. They are driven, he posited, by vast impersonal forces of history that play out through the behavior and conflict among social classes. 

Ultimately, the inherent inequalities and exploitative economic relations between these two classes will lead to a revolution in which the working class rebels against the bourgeoisie, seizes control of the means of production, and abolishes capitalism.

As a result of the revolution, Marx predicted that private ownership of the means of production would be replaced by collective ownership, first under socialism and then under communism. In the final stage of human development, social classes and class struggle would no longer exist.

Major figures in the field:

• Marx and Engels -The German Ideology,
• The Hungarian thinker Georg Lukács, 
• Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheime-. 
• Raymond Williams
• Terry Eagleton-A leading theorist of Marxist criticism in England
• Fredric Jameson- The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act (1981)

What Marxist critics do ?

 Marxism has a significant impact on the social institutions and analyzes how certain classes hegemonizes the working class and controls everything. The approach helped literary critics understand the cultural and ideological influence of the society a writer depicts in his writing.

Example :

Marxism in The Great Gatsby. Lets begin with Tom Buchanan, and other main consumers in the plot. Tom being the biggest consumer, is shown throughout his choices. This is mostly because he is so excessively wealthy he doesn't need to work and lives the high life with his very expensive purchases. In the text, stated just only on page six, "He'd brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest. It was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that." The textual evidence proves the possibilities of Tom's wealth. Along with Tom, there is Daisy Buchanan(Tom's wife) that is a consumer along with Tom through the marriage. However, the marriage isn't very great, but that's for another lens.

A few other main consumers in the plot are Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby. Now Nick is labeled as the least wealthiest between Gatsby and Tom, but he can still shuck out some cash to the economy when he can. He is financially stable enough to do so. He is shown as being less wealthy by his suprising observations of other people's wealth. Considering he's renting a house and has enough money to get by, he's less in the eyes of economy.

Jay Gatsby has a different background compared to the other two. Gatsby goes from poverty to rich. He doesn't start rich like Tom. He shows the changing class by coming out of the lower and into the higher class of society. Gatsby is the art of the American Dream. He's perfecting his life by gaining his fulfilled dreams of wealth. However, throughout the story it becomes clear Gatsby may have taken part in crimes to reach his wealth. Which if this is true, Gatsby is a cancer to society. He's taking from the local economy when he steals. However, his crimes are more of a conspiracy theory to me. Crimes or no crimes, he is still a contribution to society. Mainly being a consumer because just like Tom the story states Gatsby does enjoy the finer things in life and isn't afraid to self indulge. He'll contribute to the economy with this wealth of his.

The society in The Great Gatsby all reach for the same goal. This goal being to make it big! Some are born with it (Tom), some are the changing class (Gatsby, Jordan, Myrtle, etc.) and the ones that don't seem to make it (Nick, George Wilson, Gatsby's family). Even with their different endings they all pursue the American dream of making it big and enjoying life. The few I stated showed the most attributions throughout the story to make a great point in the Marxism Lens.