Overview of Marxism

Overview of Marxism

• Marxism is integral to modern civilization, akin to Darwinism or Freudianism.
• Despite the collapse of communism and the Soviet Union, Marxism persists and influences various academic disciplines.
• Marxism offers a framework for understanding reality, asserting that society shapes consciousness and that social and economic conditions influence beliefs and values.
• It proposes a plan to transform the world into a classless society with equal access to wealth, opportunity, and education.
• Marxism provides answers to complex questions about life and challenges other ideologies, offering a positive view of human life and history.

Historical Development

• Marxism originated in the 19th century as a pragmatic view of history, offering the working classes an opportunity to change their world.
• Karl Heinrich Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) are central figures in Marxism.
• They articulated views on reality in "The German Ideology" (1845) and "The Communist Manifesto" (1848).
• Marx developed dialectical materialism, a core belief involving conflicting ideas leading to synthesis.
• Engels and Marx believed that consciousness is determined by life, not the other way around.

Core Marxist Concepts

• Economic means of production (the base) engenders and controls institutions and ideologies (the superstructure).
• Societies progress toward communism through phases like feudalism, capitalism, and socialism.
• Marx and Engels maintained that capitalists enslave the working class through economic policies.
• They believed the proletariat must revolt, seize property, and distribute wealth equally.
• History is determined by economic conditions, and social relationships emerge from the production of goods.
• The bourgeoisie controls society's ideology, imposing it on the working class, leading to "false consciousness".
• Marx advocated for government control of industries to protect people from the bourgeoisie's oppression.

Russia and Marxism

• Georgi K. Plekhanov's translation of "The Communist Manifesto" popularized Marxism in Russia.
• Russian Marxism emphasized the artist's role in society and called for political involvement.
• Communist Party leaders insisted that literature promote Party standards.
• Vladimir Ilyitch Lenin linked literature with the working-class movement.
• Leon Trotsky advocated for open dialogue and tolerance in literature.
• Joseph Stalin established strict control over literature through the Soviet Writers' Union.

Key Marxist Theorists

• Georg Lukács: Developed reflection theory, stating that texts directly reflect society's consciousness.
• Frankfurt School (Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer): Believed literature reveals alienation and fragmentation.
• Bertolt Brecht: Advocated for epic theater to expose bourgeois ideology.
• Antonio Gramsci: Introduced the concept of hegemony, where the bourgeoisie maintains dominance through shaping values and meanings.
• Louis Althusser: Rejected reflection theory, asserting that literature can influence the base.
• Pierre Macherey: Challenged traditional reading, emphasizing the gap between what readers say and what the work itself says.
• Raymond Williams: Developed Marxist ideology and theory in cultural studies, focusing on the relationship between ideology and culture.
• Fredric Jameson and Terry Eagleton: Dominated Marxist criticism, with Jameson developing dialectical criticism and Eagleton emphasizing literature as a product of history.

Basic Assumptions of Marxism

• Reality is material, not spiritual.
• Human existence and actions are tied to culture and society
• Nothing exists in isolation.
• Society is structured upon ongoing conflict between social classes.
• In capitalism, capitalists exploit the working classes, and the dominant social class uses the superstructure to control the working classes.

Methods of Marxist Criticism

• Analyze class structures, conflicts, and oppression in texts.
• Examine the economic means of production and control.
• Uncover the author's world and ideology through the narrative.
• Reveal the relationship between the text, history, and economic conditions.
• Expose and denounce antiproletariat ideologies to promote socialism.

Common Criticisms

• Marxist theory can be considered a quasi-religious worldview with a focus on materialism rather than spirituality.
• Some argue that it relies on a subjective understanding of reality and disregards personal freedom.
• Marxist economic theory can be considered too simplistic to address complex economic issues.