Marxism 2: Literature, Society

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Marxism 2 Literature, Society Ideology

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Marxism Focuses

• Dialectic Materialism -- Marx and Vulgar Marxism
• Literature,Society Ideology Althusser as a
  focus
• Marxist Literary Critics Jameson and Eagleton
• Cultural Marxism (if time allows)

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Literature Society (1)

• Literature of Commitment Reflectionism --
• Related questions What are the functions of
  literature? Is good literature politically
  committed literature? Does literature have to
  reflect its society, or help promote a certain
  political cause?
• On the other hand, can literature be completely
• un-political?

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Literature Society (2)

• Ways of reflecting society indirectly
• not through content but through forms (e.g.
  fragmentary form as a way to reflect social
  fragmentation)
• incorporating different ideologies

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Ideology Defined

• rigid set of ideas e.g. somebody refrains from
  eating meat for practical rather than
  ideological reasons. --negative
• ruling ideology legitimating the power of the
  dominant group--negative
• sets of ideas to justify certain organized social
  actions --could be positive or negative
• sets of ideas to justify certain actions while
  masking their real nature. --negative

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Ideology Defined by Althusser

• Ideology is a Representation of the Imaginary
  Relationship of Individuals to their Real
  Conditions of Existence.
• Ideology has the function of constituting
  individual as subjects.
• Ideology is not any idea it should be a system
  of ideas (representation) produced by some
  institutions (state apparatuses ????)

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Ideologies Examples

• Which ideologies do the following statements
  support?
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• Clips from Marx the Greatest Thinker

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Literature - ideology - Economic Base

• reflecting or relatively autonomous
• reflect, embody, perform, transform, critique
• Over-determination

Social Levels
Multiple Ideologies
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Social Structure Base and Superstructure (3)

• Ideology the ruling ideas of the ruling class
  imposed on the other classes.

• Superstructure
• e.g. Literature of the middle class,
• of proletariat

Parallel, reflect
Base(as foundation, center) relations of
production, means of production
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Althussers idea of social formation de-centered

• Relative autonomy
• State Apparatuses (Repressive Ideological)

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Althussers idea of social formation de-centered

• Relative autonomy mediation (??)
  over-determination

Base Base Base Base Base
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Superstructure
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Ideology Literary Examples

• T. S. Eliot The Love Song of J. Alfred
  Prufrock.
• W. B. Yeats
• Jack Londons Chinago