"Marx was skint, but he had sense... Engels lent him the necessary pence"

According to Peter Barry liberal humanism has ten tenets that shape their view on literature. Most, if not all, of these tenets are disagreed with by Marxist theory. I choose Barry’s second tenet of liberal humanism to contrast with some of the tenets from Marxist theory. The second tenet of liberal humanism is:

The literary text contains its own meaning within itself. It doesn’t require any elaborate process of placing it within a context, whether this be:
(a) Socio-political - the context of a particular ‘background’ or political situation, or
(b) Literary-historical- whereby the work could be seen as the product of the literary influences of other writers, or as shaped by the conventions of particular genres, or
(c) Autobiographical- that is, as determined by the personal details of the authors life and thought.

Of course, as scholars, most academics would assert the value of studying these contexts, but as critics their adherence to the approach which insists upon the primacy and self-sufficiency of the ‘words on the page commits them to the process which has been called ‘on sight close reading’ essentially this removes the text from all these contexts and presents it ‘unseen’ for unaided explication by the trained mind. (Barry 17)

This tenet is in obvious conflict with Marxist theory. In Marxist theory you reverse the their tiers of this tenet of liberal humanism. Engels actually preferred the opinions of the author to be as hidden as possible so one would have to look at the work with a socio-political, literary-historical, and autobiographical eye.

(a) socio-political- Marxist theorists do not see authors as independent from the work. In fact Marxists see authors as “constantly formed by their social contexts in ways which they themselves would usually not admit.” (Barry 158) This means that the reader should not stay “on site” like liberal humanism claims. The reader has to search for a meaning that the author may not have necessarily meant to put in the text.

(b) Literary Historical - Marxist reading is not just tied to the content of the novel but also the form. Barry uses Catherine Belsey’s theories to show that the form of realist novels is used as a way to discourage the questioning of reality because it leaves how we see reality intact. In the same way absurd texts like Kafka’s Metamorphosis are a “response to the contradictions and divisions inherent in late capitalist society” (159)

(c) Autobiographical - All of Marxist theory implies that autobiography is used in text, maybe not overtly or consciously but Marxist theory believes that an authors social class has a major influence on what is written.

As critics the liberal humanists put blinders on when they adhere to their ‘words on the page’ theory. This commits them to ignoring the benefit of ‘off sight analysis’ which, essentially, puts the text into a context where it can be “seen” and aided in explication by a trained mind.