Lecture on Sociological Criticism

Wednesday , 03-02-2021
Sociological Criticism takes into account the
influences and forces of the author’s time, place,
and society upon his or her work. • Sociological
Criticism is particularly concerned with the writer
s’ socioeconomic socioeconomic, educational
educational, and/or political political class
(Bohner and Grant 1332‐33).
Sociological Criticism looks at the ways in
which the author examines or represents
many class‐related ideas or concepts in his or
her work (Bohner and Grant 1333):
– education
– literacy
– race
– ethnicity
– gender
– money
– work
– industrialization
 Sociological Criticism is Divided into Two
Subfields:
• Feminist Criticism: Literature reflects the
conflicts between men and women in
society, and thus examines issues of gender
relations (Bohner and Grant 1333).
• Marxist Criticism: Literature reflects the
conflicts of economic power classes in
society, and thus examines issues of money
and power.
 Marxist Approach
• Karl Marx perceived human history to have
consisted of a series of struggles between
classes--between the oppressed and the
oppressing (“the haves” and “the have-nots”).
• Marx thought that materialism was the
ultimate driving force in history
 Marxist Approach
• Feudalism exploits workers to the point of
revolt
• This leads to bourgeois capitalism
• In bourgeois capitalism, the privileged
bourgeoisie rely on the working proletariat
• Workers are exploited to the point of revolt
 Marxist Approach
• The successful working class will then
establish a communist society
• In this ideal the labor, the means of
production, and the profits are shared by all
• This system is an attempt at complete social
and economic equality
• It’s a great theory but doesn’t work in reality
 Marxist Approach
• Marxist criticism examines the nature of
power structures within a novel.
• It asks questions like: Who has power? Who
lacks power? Who is exploited by whom and
why? How does power remain constant or
shift throughout a work of literature? What
makes certain characters powerful or
powerless?
 Marxist Approach
• It also examines commodities, possessions
that give power
• Typical commodities are things like land and
money but can also be things like social
position, knowledge, or even a person
• Marxist criticism can also examine what
commodities bring power and why within a
work of literature
 Contd:
• Karl Marx argued that the way people think
and behave in any society is determined by
basic economic factors. He believed those
groups of people who owned and controlled
major industries could exploit the rest.
 Contd
• Marxist critics examine literature for its refection of
how dominant elites exploit subordinate groups, how
people become “alienated” from each other, and
how middle-class/bourgeois values lead to the
control and suppression of the working class
• See literature’s value in promoting social and
economic revolution
• Such changes would include the overthrow of the
dominant capitalist ideology and the loss of power by
those with money and privilege
 Contd
• Concerned with understanding the role of
politics, money, and power in literary works, and
with redefining and reforming the way society
distributes its resources among the classes
• Marxist critics generally approach literary works
as products of their era, especially as influenced,
even determined by the economic and political
ideologies that prevail at the time of their
composition
 Contd:
• The literary work is a “product” in relation to
the actual economic and social conditions that
exist at either the time of the work’s
composition or the time and place of the
action it describes.
 Advantages
• Frequently evaluative and judges some literary
work better than others on an ideological
basis
• It can illuminate political and economic
dimensions of literature that other
approaches overlook
 Disadvantages
• May impose critic’s personal politics on the
work in question and then evaluating it
according to how closely it endorses that
ideology
• There is a tendency that can lead to reductive
judgment because an author may illustrate
the principles of class struggle more clearly
and will be judged superior because of this
 Strategies and questions
• Explore the way different groups of people are
represented in texts.
• Evaluate the level of social realism in the text and
how society is portrayed
• Consider how the text itself is a commodity that
reproduces certain social beliefs and practices.
• Analyze the social effect of the literary work
• Look at the effects of power drawn from
economic or social class
 Strategies and Questions:
• What social forces and institutions are represented in the
work?
• How are these forces portrayed? What is the author’s
attitude toward them?
• What political economic elements appear in the work?
• How important are they in determining or influencing
the lives of the characters?
• What economic issues appear in the course of the work?
• How important are economic facts in influencing the
motivation and behavior of the characters?
 Contd:
• To what extent are the lives of the characters
influenced or determined by social, political, and
economic forces?
• To what extent are the characters aware of these
forces?
• Best way to look at it – who has the
power/money?
• Who does not?
• What happens as a result?
 Application
• Who is in power within the novel?
• What commodities does that character possess
that allows him/her to have power?
• How does power shift or remain static
throughout the novel?
• The theory of Marxist was then reproduced and
modified by some experts, and they are said to
be literary critics after Marxism or Post-Marxism
 Post-Marxist Literary Critics:
• Michel Foucault
• Judith Buttler
• Gayatri Spivak
• Julia Kristeva
• Piere Bordeu
• Jacques Ranciere
• Etc…