I couldn't really incorporate this into my real blog for this week so I figured I would post it separately just to make sure I understand Marxist theory. If anything in this is wrong or you can add to it let me know, I am just trying to apply it to something I know to better understand it.
In the Great Gatsby, which teaches us the dangers of greed, Tom and Daisy walk away from the whole situation without a scratch because they are old money. Myrtle and George Wilson both end up broken and dead because they are from the Valley of Ashes and don't have the money to shield them. And Gatsby ends up dead because he is new money and he was foolish enough to have an ideological dream (Love) instead of material ones like Tom and Daisy.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
"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:
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.
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)
(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.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Lou Reed invented Cool.
I am Ben Kelley a History and Literature major and this is my senior year. I will admit I am somewhat new to both blogging and theory which makes this first post somewhat daunting. I chose the blogger alias of Richard Grayson because I love comic books and it is Nightwing's secret identity. Part of my vision for this blog is to try and incorporate comic books whenever possible because I think it is a pretty underrated art form and looked down upon by the intelligentsia. As far as theory goes I did a little theory in my senior year high school English classes and I've also had a little taste of theory from Persuasive Strategies. I find that I usually read texts from a Marxist perspective (most of the time unintentionally) so I guess my vision for this blog is to use and expand my knowledge of Marxist theory as well as working out, in writing, some new theories I learn.
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