E 341 Lecture Notes - Gay Talese, Yan Can Cook, Miss Saigon
Document Summary
Focuses on play of socio-economic forces in a literary work as evidenced in the plot and the characters. Remember, basic idea of marxism: our consciousness is determined by the material conditions of our existence. Where we live, work, what we eat, what our economic situation is fundamentally determines consciousness. Also, their theorization of the interaction between base and superstructure could be used to understand how the two spheres (world of art/culture/diplomacy/law/religion and world of labor/production/market) influence and interact with each other. In the opera: there are fairly clear class identities with different levels of privilege and. There is the servant class which includes all the servants (pinkerton"s naval. Then there is a middling class of sorts (involved in buying and selling, users of consumer goods such as specific kinds of clothing, cosmetics etc. ) that is constituted of the geishas and goro. This class seems more fluid with movement possible upward or downward.
