MARXIST LITERARY CRITICISM

Marxist approach
● is a literary citicism based on socialist theories which point
out the series of struggles between classes the opressed and
the opressors.
● Marxist criticism attempts to show the relationship between
literature and the social mainly economic conditions under
which it was produced
Karl Marx
Karl Marx was a philospher, author, social theorist, and economist. He is
famous for his theories about capitalis, socialism, and communism.

● he was a prominent thinker who wrote on topics related to economic,

political economy, ans society
● he wrote many famous works, including The Communist Manifesto
and Capital (Das Kapital)
● Marx collaborated with long time friendnd social theorist Friedrich
Engels
● Marx is known for his revolutionary writings favoring socialismand a
communist revolution
Some terms you might encounter as you learn more about
Marxist literary criticism:
Bourgeois
– the owner of capital purchasing and exploiting labour power, using the surplus
value from employment of this labour power to accumulate o exapand their
capital.
Class struggles
– conflict betwwen different classes in a community resulting from different social
or economic positions and reflecting opposed interests.
Ideology
– it refers to dominant ideas that exist in a culture
Proletariat
– the people who proide labor
– defined as the social class having no significant ownership of the means of
production