E 341 Lecture Notes - Iliad, National Enquirer, Marxist Literary Criticism
Document Summary
Based on the ideas about social organization of two mid-19th century german thinkers. Karl marx and friedrich engels (communist manifesto, 1848) Structuralists/post structuralists: understand the world determined by the nature of language. Our consciousness too is structured by the nature of linguistic systems. Freud/psychoanalysis: inner psychic conflicts, unconscious, infantile experience shapes our consciousness. Marxism, on the other hand, is a materialist philosophy i. e. , 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. Marxism also like feminism has an agenda of social change. It seeks not just to understand the world around but to change it. If feminism often focuses on images of women and considers how gender determines literary creation, marxism focuses on how different classes are represented and how socio-economic conditions influence literary creation. After industrial revolution does not feel as if workers are doing own work not as personal.
