User:Boredom Ramsay07/Marxist literary criticism
Critiquing Literary work through Marxist lens[edit]
Examining The Marxist Criteria (Lead)[edit]
The viewpoint of Marxists toward literary works is that they are not ''works created according to a perpetual artistic standard, but as 'consequences' of economic and ideological factors that are specific to that time period" [1]. Critiquing literary work in the perspective of a Marxist involves asking these questions:
- What is the role of class in the said literary work?
- How do the protagonists/characters fight against oppression?
- Does the work advocate for Marxist values (whether implicitly or explicitly) or does the work oppose them?
- How is oppression discussed by the work; are impeding issues in society brushed aside or are they condemned elsewhere?
- Are there any proposed idealistic answers to the issues faced in the literary work?
Ultimately, the core foundation of Marxist critique is established on these questions since Marx once said that ''the writer may very well serve a movement of history as its mouthpiece, but he cannot of course create it''[2].
Application Of Criteria (body)[edit]
Critiquing Cat Pictures Please based on the previously mentioned criteria, one could point out that the literary work implies that the issue of materialism and greed has consumed society (impeding issues). That problem is embodied within the character of ''Bethany'' who ''ignores'' using the ''financial help'' offered to her by the ''AI'' protagonist to improve her financial wellbeing, rather she brushes aside that and uses the funds provided to her to feed into her shopping habit (consumed by materialistic tendencies and greed). [3] The ''AI'' protagonist in the story could be viewed as a Marxist revolutionary fighting against the capitalist system, by trying to help people like ''Bethany'' to face and overcome the problem of greed and materialistic tendencies that was brought upon by that system.
"Karl Marx's sociological explanation of social conflict is one of the most powerful explanations, he has put forward that the notion of a class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, is inevitable within a capitalist system [4]. The brewing social conflict amongst classes is well represented within Lu Xun's An Incident, where Xun describes his ''ill tempered'' experience within the capital ''Peking'' (modern day Beijing) during the winter of 1917; he begins by talking about how an old woman who is dressed in ''ragged clothing'' got caught in the shaft due to the strong winds ''fluttering'' her ''unbuttoned and tattered jacket''. Xun describes how he felt ''disgusted'' and in disbelief that the old woman who was laying on the ground was helped by the rickshaw man; he believed that the old woman was ''acting injured'' to gain sympathy and help from the rickshaw man. Towards the end of the incident, in an attempt to quench his feelings of shame and guilt, he gives the policeman a ''handful of coppers'' to be given to the rickshaw man as a form of ''reward'' for his Samaritan behavior [5]. Xun's attitude towards the old woman and the rickshaw man is representative of the classist bourgeois view towards the proletariat who are the ''old woman and the rickshaw man'' in this case; an apathetic and selfish attitude towards people in distress.
References[edit]
- ^ Abrams, "M. H. (Meyer Howard)" (November 18, 1998). A Glossary Of Literary Terms 7th Edition. Cengage Learning. pp. |149. ISBN 978-0155054523.
- ^ Marx, Engels, Karl, Friedrich (June 1, 1976). The collected works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. [ Progress Publishers]. ISBN 978-0717805068.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Naomi., Kritzer, (2020). Cat Pictures Please. Fairwood Press. ISBN 978-1-393-38802-9. OCLC 1251731426.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ 1932-, Rummel, Rudolph Joseph, politicoloog, (1975–1981). Understanding conflict and war. Sage publ. ISBN 0-470-15123-4. OCLC 781219038.
{{cite book}}:|last=has numeric name (help)CS1 maint: date format (link) CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "An Incident". www.marxists.org. Retrieved 2022-04-25.