Marxist Critical Lens

Principles of Marxism are seen in this piece of literature through the portrayal of the Bourgeoisie, the Proletariat and characters of wealth. A negative view of the affluent is demonstrated in the text by the elder

The soundbite criticisms of capitalism are legion, yet it’s harder to offer alternatives, aside from the vague notion of 'something else'. Despite the carnage of trying to socially engineer equality in the 20th century, nevertheless the myth persists that capitalist wealth creation is superfluous and money is readily available to a small number of elitists called a government under common ownership, who distribute, or simply print more paper. Ironically, the ones shouting the loudest against capitalism are often those dependent on the profits of capitalism to provide the welfare payments needed to keep them alive.

Marxist literary criticism as defined by Peter Barry approaches a literary text through terms introduced in Karl Marx’ and Friedrich Engels’ Communist economic theory. Their jointly written text titled The Communist Manifesto called for a society with “state ownership on industry… rather than private ownership”. The social theory later became known as Marxism. As stated in Barry’s text, “The aim of Marxism is to bring about a classless society, based on the common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange” (156). One of the theory’s main aspects looks to the “exploitation of one social class by another. The result leaves one class alienated.” Central to Marxism is a belief in its ability to change the material world, which it theorizes. According to Marxist theorists, only through conflicts between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, can the status quo positively change (157).

Different textual mediums have the effect of exploring various representations of political personalities and situations and their impact on individuals and society. This is apparent in Aldous Huxley’s satirical novel Brave New World (BNW) (1932) and Richard Attenborough’s film Gandhi (1982) where both composers use their mediums to showcase different perceptions of politics and people for a range of audiences. Huxley’s BNW creates social critique on how the growing trend of consumerism, totalitarianism and science may impinge on the lives of citizens. Gandhi recreates the events of a historical figure to represent the impact of colonisation on society. Both texts present control as well as freedom through commenting on political personalities,

on the nerve near the ear) was greater on the side of the head that the cell phone was held.[13]

Karl Marx (1818-1883) was one of the most influential thinkers and writers of modern times. Although it was only until after his death when his doctrine became world know and was titled Marxism. Marx is best known for his publication, The Communist Manifesto that he wrote with Engels; it became a very influential for future ideologies. A German political philosopher and revolutionary, Karl Marx was widely known for his radical concepts of society. This paper give an analysis of “The Manifesto” which is a series of writings to advocate Marx ‘s theory of struggles between classes. I will be writing on The Communist Manifesto, published in 1848, which lays down his theories on socialism and Communism.

Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West is a fictional representation of many problems faced by the world in the past and present. It follows the life of Elphaba, who later becomes the “Wicked Witch of the West”, a result from her life experiences as a rebel against the Wizard of Oz, her unfortunate appearance of green skin, and several other trials she’s faced. Maguire was born in Albany, New York and lost his mother in childbirth. His father was a writer, but was very ill at the time of Maguire’s birth, so he and his three older siblings had to stay with family and Maguire even spent time in an orphanage before moving back with his father and his new wife. His family

This final paper discusses prompt number three. These questions consist of methods of social analysis in the Marxist tradition, how Marxist thinkers after Marx envision the practice of properly analyzing societies and their conceptions of historical and/or dialectical materialism having to do with their visions of the social sciences and humanities. Also, it talks about how their differences of varieties of Marxist materialism make up a given society. Lastly, this paper discusses how historical and dialectical materialist approaches are argued for and justified through the authors and what criticisms they have towards methods in social and human sciences. Writers of focus in this paper besides Marx are Georg Lukacs, the German philosopher and Antonio Gramsci, the Italian neo-Marxist. These writers have different opinions of Marxism and different opinions in social sciences and humanities, but they also have some similarities. Their views will be discussed regarding the questions set forth in prompt three throughout the following paragraphs. First, the discussion topic of methods of social analysis in the Marxist traditions must be talked about.

The Marxist literary criticism states that “literature reflects class struggle and materialism.” Someone who reads texts through a Marxist lens tries to identify issues that relate to both money and power, and commonly asks questions about how they deal with the struggles for money and power, along with the roles they play in the work. These criticisms stem from the beliefs and perceptions of popular philosopher Karl Marx that human society consists of clashes and conflicts between the oppressed and oppressing; between the proletariats and the bourgeoisie (Delahoyde).

Through the theoretical approach of Marxism, The Beauty and The Beast (2017) is a Disney film that depicts the divide between class structures in a traditionally oriented society. The Marxist theory is used as a tool to analyze the film in order to have the ability to examine the core concepts of the theory and investigate the theme of the film in its entirety. The film depicts two class structures that consist of lower, peasant-like villagers and a middle-class structure. The film depicts various social hierarchy’s that attempts to challenge humanities perception of power through the theory of Marxism. This paper will describe how the theoretical approach of Marxism applies to the Disney film, The Beauty and the Beast (2017) through

According to Marxism, there is a struggle or conflict between individual rights and social rights. In many regards, Marxism places more emphasis on societal rights than it does on individual rights. In fact, some critics even state that Marxism ignores the rights of the individual altogether. As can be observed when Marxism is implemented under the umbrella of communism. However, Marxism takes into account the inequality and unfairness that exists in society. The inevitable truth is that contrasting groups in society will always conflict with one another and will be unable to agree on the way in which resources should be distributed. Furthermore, there is also a difference between genders, specifically in terms of the equity of how the roles

            Marxist literary criticism remains a very rational, pragmatic endeavor at its core. "If  ideology were merely some abstract set of notions...society would be very much easier to move and change than in practice it has ever been or is" (Williams 3). Though aware of  their own inability to comment from outside the bounds of hegemony, Marxist critics seem to express a tacit hope that by providing knowledge of hegemonic

Marx and Engels’ The Communist Manifesto states, “The first step in the revolution by the working class, is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class, to win the battle of democracy” (1888:32). Marx predicted that once proletariats had seized power, the state would abolish capitalism through collective ownership, taking economic control away from the free market and subsequently liberating society from alienation and oppression. This would give rise to a socialist society of equality, ultimately leading to communism. This essay discusses the strengths and limitations of democratic socialism in achieving Marxist socialism. In the UK democratic socialism has bought about

In an attempt to understand the role of Marxist historiography in the 21st Century one must first understand the fundamentals of Marx’s prepositions and their relation to Postmodernist thinking. Marxist historiography stems from class consciousness which concerns itself with the inequality and injustices associated with the presence of a hierarchical class system.* It also proposes in a dialectical light that human action and reaction comes out of materialist influences on the subject, which in turn shapes the material world. That being said, the relevance of this historical viewpoint cannot be understood without first getting a firm grasp of Hegel’s theory of alienation; particularly the concept of Subject vs Object and the ideal state of the human person being that of the “absolute spirit” where this dichotomy (Subject and Object) merges into one

We adhere to Marx’s doctrines, then, without making any attempt to diverge from them, to improve or correct them. The goal of these arguments is an interpretation, an exposition of Marx’s theory as Marx understood it. But this ‘orthodoxy’ does not in the least strive to preserve what Mr. von Struve calls the ‘aesthetic integrity’ of