Burdwan The University of Genealogy and Burdwan definition: 3-6 Semester VI Scope and relevance: DSE –3 A: Literary 7-8 Theory Key Terms: 9-14 Section A 1. Marxism Literary Theory: 15-22 Genealogy and definition Scope and relevance in Interpretation: 23-26 textual reading Major Critics: 27-34 Major theorists Key terms : Class, Base and Superstructure, Dialectics, Interpellation A modern meta-narrative that has survived postmodern blow (incredulity) A philosophy inspired by the principle of equality of all people An ideology that questions the exploitative social structure and stresses the need and outlines the strategies for its destruction A positive philosophy that envisions the liberation of the proletariat and the emancipation of women from patriarchal straitjacket Not a ‘petrified doctrine,” but an “integrated world outlook” - Lenin It is a materialist, not idealist, philosophy that ideas are derived from the world of matter, not vice versa: ‘Life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life.’ The German Ideology (1846) It is based on the principle of economic determinism; that is, the final causes of all changes can be traced to ‘the economics of each epoch’ It is a philosophy of social transformation; that is, it is application oriented. Marx says: ‘Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it’ (Thesis on Feuerbach, 1845) It admits the importance of recognizing the social context in literary interpretation Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (1776): Although driven by self-interest , Govt. interference is not required in Capitalist production and trade, for man is capable of self-regulation (a rational action) Hegelian Dialectics: Thesis conflicting with Antithesis leading to Synthesis (A transcendental force, the Absolute, sets the wheels in motion) The materialism of Feuerbach which looks upon God as illusion and human being as passive recipient of impressions of outside world of objects Utopian Socialists (Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier, Robert Owen) who, inspired by the French Revolution, talked about a just egalitarian society. Socialism would be attained through persuasion (cooperation) without class-war & revolution Greed of the Capitalists is infinite. As in the present system one group (Class) appropriates all wealth, the system must be dismantled for the benefit of the majority Dialectical Change is not the expression of the will of any World Spirit, it is materially induced (accumulation of wealth, destitution and consequent social change through mass movement). Change is inevitable as the presence of two interacting opposite forces is a reality. Marx faulted Feuerbach’s materialism because he held that man can also react upon external conditions and change them: ‘it is men that change circumstances and that the educator himself needs educating’ Social justice is to be ensured by application of force, for those who are the beneficiary of the present system will try to protect it unto the last Inequality persists: Society yet to inscribe on its banners: ”From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” – Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme, (1875).. Why? Capitalist Economy is propelled by profiteering and ignores the question of distribution: “the costs and risks…of the industrial economy were (are) to be socialized, with eventual profits privatized ...”― Noam Chomsky, Failed States. Emancipation of women unachieved: ‘possible only when women are enabled to take part in production on a large, social, scale’ reducing their domestic load – Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884) Imperialist exploitation despite liberal humanist preaching: Liberal Humanism (that looks upon man divested of class status/ social origin) is not critical of imperialism which dehumanizes people Marxist theory can Explain the role culture and ideology play in society (Why created – to sensitize or to blindfold) Shed light on the process of interpellation in society Probe which values are enforced/ challenged in a text & why Enlighten us about the class dimension of values and ideas Cf. ‘We reject any morality based on extra-human and extra-class concepts’- Lenin, The Tasks of the Youth Leagues (1920) Sensitize minds to the process of commodification of (people/ nature) Help understand why economic implications are suppressed or peripheralized in some texts Make us recognize the potential of art in social transformation Promote critical resistant reading of literature Give us insight for explaining modus operandi and inter- relation of other exploitative structures (Gender/ Class/ Race) Class is a loaded term signifying position in social hierarchy determined by possession of wealth Exploitation creates class by polarizing the people (bourgeois/ proletariat), ownership (private property) sustains it ‘Classes have split the society … there will be love of all humanity when classes are eliminated’ – Mao Objective of class-struggle is economic emancipation of the exploited working class ‘Every class struggle is a political struggle’ (Communist Manifesto,1848), for it alters the power equation Challenge in class-war : How to transform the ‘working class from a class in itself to a class for itself’ ‘The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains’ (CM), so if they ‘unite’ , they will certainly win the war Marx (in Critique of Political Economy ,1859) notes that the totality of economic relations constitutes the base (‘the economic structure of society’), and all institutions of ideology (religion, culture etc.) stand upon it ‘It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness’ – Marx Example, God is imagined in agricultural society as a shepherd, in capitalist society as a king on golden throne But Base-SupStr relation is not mechanical & uni-causal . Greek art flourished when Greek economy was underdeveloped. Superstructure can also influence the Base (as clear from presence of Progressive art in feudal/ bourgeois society) ‘The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas’ (Marx , The German Ideology, 1845) Ideology supports & sustains the base; it legitimizes and naturalizes social reality It is a site of conflict of ideologies - between the old, the prevailing and the one that is rising - Raymond Williams But it is dominant ideology that decides how much of tradition (residual ideology) and new thoughts (emergent ideology) to be allowed in a cultural system Gramsci explains how cultural hegemony (a form of class-dominance) is secured through Consent (consensus built by exposure to homogenizing ideas) & Coercion (application of force) Althusser: Social institutions, collectively called ISA, ideologically condition human mind in favour of dominant ideology; RSA Police, army etc. work as its disciplinary (repressive) agents Term popular since use by Plekhanov in 1891 Truth is immutable (Plato), nothing is immutable (Marx) "With him (Hegel) it (dialectics) is standing on its head. It must be turned right side up again” -Marx. He purged it of idealism. Engels (Preface to Anti-Dühring): ‘The relation of Hegelian dialectics to rational dialectics is the same as that of the caloric theory to the mechanical theory of heat’ DM Sheds light on the process and inevitability of change, that is, the impossibility of securing any social system Contrariety is the secret of transformation and as Capitalism has inherent contradiction, it is destined to perish It follows the principle of Negation of the Negation (Seed destroys tree, tree destroys seed) ‘There is no ideology except by the subject and for the subject’ – Althusser He uses the term to describe how Ideology turns individuals into subjects Derived from Latin term interpellatus (meaning "to interrupt”) it has been used to describe the process of becoming subject in respect of an idea The idea which comes to us from an external source is internalized and absorbed so perfectly that it becomes mine. Ideas are culturally transmitted and unconsciously internalized; X’s ideas become Y’s ideas As we automatically respond whenever our name is called out (identity fused with a sound), so when we are interpellated, we become carriers of ideology When we are interpellated , we lose agency over our life Not to be interpellated is to be critical, to question the values available for imbibing Marxist literary theory exposes how one is interpellated and how this invisible control can be withstood by critical, resistant reading Surplus Value: unpaid part of labour; it is created by exploitation, by depriving the work force of the exact wage (i.e. the value of their labour) Commodity: Something that has been produced by labour and has Use Value as well as Exchange Value Alienation: Separation from the fruits of one’s labour; it depersonalizes the workforce Revolution: Radical, Qualitative Change of a system due to inherent tension (Cooling Quantitative change; Icing is Qualitative, a big leap from one state to another) Historical Materialism: History is the outcome of material conditions and causes. Marx maps its evolution from Primitive Communism through Feudalism and Capitalism) Communism Motto: Judge the quality of art not in terms of internal (aesthetic) criteria but its social role (i.e. by taking into account the social context) Issues: Art & its Place Art as Instrument (not mere Entertainment) Socialist Realism/ Critical Realism Question of Commitment/ Aesthetic Freedom Primacy of Content (not Form) Accessibility/ Intelligibility (Not Elitist but Populist Art) Marx on man as producer: While other creatures produce driven by physical need, ‘man produces even when he is free from physical need and only truly produces in freedom therefrom’ . ‘Man therefore also forms things in accordance with the laws of beauty’: Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 Art is a creation delinked from physical need Its place is on the Superstructure but it can exert influence upon the Base It is not useless in a society where basic physical needs (food etc.) are yet to be fulfilled, for it can be used as an instrument for social transformation. Nor is it useless in a classless society, for the ‘final aim’ is ‘heightening of human life’ (Alick West). Note two phrases of West: ‘culture is a weapon in the fight for socialism’, ‘socialism is a weapon in the fight for culture’ The beneficiaries of a system want to maintain status quo – they want art to be mere entertainment. Others want to use it as a weapon in class-war Literature to Lenin is a ‘cog’ in the wheel of socialist revolution Despite its location in the Superstructure, art can also subvert the ideology determined by the Base (Cf. Gorky voiced concerns about Tsarist misrule, Shakespeare about feudalism, Tagore about imperialism) How possible? ‘Man’s consciousness not only reflects the objective world but creates it’ (Lenin, ‘Conspectus of Hegel’s Science of Logic’) Creativity is ability to abstract (from society) and ability to enrich (represent in a newer form) When promoting a noble cause (challenging dominant ideology), art is ‘progressive’; it is ‘reactionary’ if an ‘escapist entertainment’ (idle time-pass, a passive un-critical consumption) Popular in Russia since the 1920’s, it replaced the Critical Realism of 19th century with a realism oriented towards socialist ideals Three stipulations: 1) Commitment (partinost), 2) Class-bias (klassovost), 3) Mass-accessibility of the artifact (narodnost) It is shallow, for it is formulaic (Character of the master always stigmatized, that of the worker always idealized) Engels disapproved City Girl and contrasted its realism with that of Balzac which is better despite explicit aristocrat-sympathy. Also recall his sarcastic comment on a tendenzroman (tendentious novel): ’Look at your heroine with her dialectical materialist eyes, and her economic determinist nose and her surplus value mouth. You take her in your arms and you kiss her. …I wouldn’t want to’ ‘The more the opinions of the author remain hidden, the better for the work of art’, Engels (Letter to Harkness, 1888) Lenin described slogan-stuffed work from proletkult mint (work without any vision) as ‘fatal’ Marxist theory supports unambiguous commitment of the artist to proletariat causes Commitment can be overt or covert (in a class-divided society, no one is a-political) But commitment not to betray liberal vision of life Marxism recognizes the value of aesthetic freedom required for creation of significant works of art But it also holds that this aesthetic freedom cannot be absolute In a capitalist society, absolute freedom is unattainable, it is but a ‘masked dependence on the money sack’. Hence Lenin throws a pertinent question at its advocates: ‘What freedom do you have from your bourgeois publishers …from your bourgeois public who demand from you pornography in picture??’ (‘The Party Organization and Party Literature’, 1905) Man being a social animal, no artist should have freedom to create what is detrimental to majority interest. The music of Nero’s fiddle sounds obscene when Rome burns So Marxism judges aesthetic freedom from the class point of view As Marxism expects art to promote a cause, in Marxist theory Content has ascendency over Form So message carries greater value than stylistic sophistication Even when real, ihuman experience un-processed by the creative imagination, is valueless Hence message minus aesthetic property is propaganda Mao Tse Tung therefore wants to combine the political and the aesthetic criteria in the evaluation of art: ‘Works of art, which lack artistic quality, have no force, however progressive they are politically. Therefore, we oppose both works of art with a wrong political viewpoint and the tendency towards the "poster and slogan style" which is correct in political viewpoint but lacking in artistic power.’ ("Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art“, 1942) Even progressive art, when it is a form of refined entertainment, appeals to a limited circle of connoisseurs, not to the masses But Marxism has professed non-elitist sympathy Hence it recognizes the point that the masses should have free access to works of art Popular Culture, therefore, holds a pride of place in Marxist literary theory But Marxist critics distinguish between popular art (say, folk art) created by the masses and art created in bourgeois art-workshops to drown the masses in ‘escapist entertainment’ But it also admits that the line is porous, for often such works can subvert mainstream culture On the issue of refined art of limited appeal, Mao votes for quality through quantity: ‘With us raising of standards is based on popularization, while popularization is guided by raising of standard’ Cf. “Art respects the masses, by confronting them as that which they could be, rather than conforming to them in their degraded state” - Adorno (Aesthetic Theory) Art is to be weapon without being propaganda Artist should have class-sympathy (preferably implicit) Artists to have freedom but this cannot be absolute Art to be realistic, but this realism is not unenlightened reflection but a ‘revelation’ of life Message (content) is central to Art but it loses value if unmarked by aesthetic refinement Art must be accessible to the masses, but refined form of art not to be discarded as elitist, for this also plays a role in up-grading mass-taste Wordsworth’s poem on ‘golden daffodils’: ‘I gazed—and gazed—but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought One aspect of Romanticism is ‘return to Nature’, unwillingness to engage with society which is the root of evils. But one cannot escape from society, for our consciousness is the result of our engagement with society. Mark how Wordsworth evaluates the impact of the scenery on his mind. It makes him ecstatic and to express his mood he uses the word ‘wealth’ in the sense of happiness. The metaphorical equation of happiness and wealth is due to the fact that Wordsworth inhabited a capitalist society. The poet in a Feudal society would probably write ‘harvest’ in the context. In Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff’s morbidity has a class origin. He has suffered discriminatory treatment in Wuthering Heights. He challenges his adversaries and sets out to destroy all associated with them. But he too has contracted bourgeois vices (the source of his wealth is unknown and he looks upon the young Linton and Hareton as his property). Besides, as his struggle is singlehanded and not inspired by any noble motive of altering the system responsible for social injustice, he fails to dismantle the structure he fights against. Anti-Semitism in The Merchant of Venice has a class character. Shylock represents Capitalist values , for he can relate to the world only through ducats, his Lord. So when his daughter elopes with bags of coins, in Shylock’s laments daughter and ducats interchange places: “My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter! Fled with a Christian! O my Christian ducats! Justice! the law! my ducats, and my daughter!” Antipathy to Shylock is also an expression of feudal skepticism about commodity fetishism of the emerging economic order. In a capitalist society, the so called values like culture, education have connection with wealth and riches. In The Importance of Being Earnest Lady Bracknell strongly objects to the marriage of Algernon and Cecily assuming that Cecily has no ‘fortune’. The moment she comes to know that Cecily has a fabulous inheritance (£130000), she changes her stand and is eager to marry Algernon to Cecily ignoring all other issues that stand in the way of the union. Also mark that in contemporary Capitalist system, ‘fortune’ which means luck has also come to signify riches / wealth). Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) Literature & Revolution (1924) He is critical of the craze to “be pals with socialism and with the Revolution”. He asserts that art can become ‘a strong ally of revolution’ only by remaining ‘faithful to itself.’
Georgi Plekhanov (1856-1918) Art and Social Life
(1912) The claim of aesthetic autonomy, in certain social phases, is a protest against the repressive theory of art. Aesthetic judgment requires both historical knowledge and social insight. In art, Form is as important as Content Theodor Adorno (1903-1969) Aesthetic Theory (posthumously published in 1970) Adorno is Key-figure of the Frankfurt School of Marxist thinkers. He critiques the question of aesthetic realism and argues that the representation of reality in art is oblique and hence "Art is the negative knowledge of the actual world."
Walter Benjamin (1892-1940): "The Work of Art in the Age
of Mechanical Reproduction" (1935) Benjamin gauges the impact of technology on art. Technology has freed art from the elite clutches and reaches it out to the masses. Mass production has plucked art from the glorified throne of time and place and removed its aura. The loss of halo is no decay but “only a concomitant of the secular productive forces of history…” Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956): “A Little Organum for the Theatre” (1949) German playwright cum theorist to whom art is a potential tool for fighting against bourgeois ideology. He was opposed to the idea of art as a source of idle entertainment. While Marxist theory always supports realism in art, Brecht argues that represented realism is an illusion. He therefore pleads for, and also uses, alienation effect (verfremdungseffekt) which creates illusionist realism only to shatter it when it is most intense so as to enable the audience to distance themselves from stage characters and think critically of the presented slice of life. It is effective in breaking down the transparent fourth wall separating the stage from the audience and redeeming the audience from a state of passive consumer to a state of active creator of meaning. So art for Brecht is not a reflection of but a reflection on reality. Georg Lukacs (1885-1971) History and Class Consciousness : Studies in Marxist Dialectics (1923) Lukacs examines the author-world interrelation: author bears the pressure of society and also acts upon it. He is famous for his theory of reification, literally meaning making material (what is abstract). This term sheds light on the capitalist process of de- personification of human beings on the one hand and subjectification of things or objects on the other. Consequently social relations change from ‘relations between persons to relations between things’. Man is robbed of his role as creator and mechanically performs the ready-made social role thrust upon him. Antonio Gramsci: (1891-1937) Prison Notebooks (written between 1929-1935) Commentator on the intricate nature of the Superstructure. He maintains that Cultural hegemony supports the base and operates through Consent and Coercion. Civil Society and Political Society, both operating at the level of Superstructure, play a part in it. He questions the application of aesthetic principles in determining the value of a work of art. Defining a work in terms of inner logic (aesthetic principle) is to ignore what it reflects, where it is rooted, for whom it is meant Louis Althusser (1918-1990): Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (1970) French Marxist theorist who, following the line of Gramsci, further elucidates the mode of operation of dominant ideology Ideology, described as ‘false consciousness’ by Engels, impedes historical perception and stands as a wall between man and history Due to the operation of ideology the Working class people are under the control of their masters not only at workplaces but even at home. Althusser shows how ideology is produced and how it functions through two State Apparatuses Ideological State Apparatuses are use persuasive mode to promote the dominant ideology. Family, school, place of worship are examples of ISAs. These wash our brain even in our private domain and make us subscribe to dominant ideology. Repressive State Apparatuses use disciplinary measures against non-conformists to secure dominant ideology. The police, the army, the legal machinery are some RSAs of a state. These operate in the public domain to silence dissenting voices. While ISAs are invisible and manipulative, RSAs are tangible and authoritative Christopher Caudwell (1907-1937) Illusion & Reality (1937) Pleads for changing the parameters of aesthetic evaluation. The value of art is not to be judged in terms of Beauty/ Universal Truth, but how successfully it embodies the working of historical forces. In Illusion & Reality he tries to trace major aesthetic developments to changes in the economic relation in the age in which these were produced Terry Eagleton (1943 - ) Marxism and Literary Criticism (1976); Criticism and Ideology (1976) Most influential among contemporary theorists, Eagleton raises certain basic questions like the relation between text and ideology. He thinks that art is held within ideology, can distance itself from it, for makes us to “feel” and “perceive” the ideology from which it springs. ‘Each element of a society’s Supstr…has its own tempo of development’ (M&LC )