Practical Application Of Marxist ideas in Literature

-Urvi Sharma

"As far as I am concerned, to me belong neither the merit of discovering the existence of
classes in modern society, not the merit of the discovery of their mutual struggle ... My
contribution consists merely in proving that 1. The existence of classes is connected only with
a certain historical phases of development of production, 2. That Class Struggle leads
necessarily to the dictatorship of the proletariat and that the dictatorship itself is only a
transitional stage leading to the abolition of classes and to classless society"
The preceding words were written by Karl Heinrich Marx who apart from being a prodigious
and revolutionary social scientist propagating his principles of Communism through 1845
Thesis on Feuerbach, 1845 German Ideology, 1848 Communist Manifest, 1865 Das Kapital
was also the first Marxist literary critic who wrote critical essays in the 1830s on such writers
as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and William Shakespeare. The mainline answer to a Marxist
critic dealing with characters in literary works lies in the doctrine of socialist realism which
sees literature as social analysis, art as social reality and the artist as the social enlightener.
The task therefore of Marxist critic is to identify dialectical relationships and social
transformation of ascribing significance to readers. According to Marx, the writer translates
social facts into literary ones and the critics task is to decode them back in reality.
According to George Lucas, a Hungarian Marxist, reality is expressed by historical
individuality in characters rather than individual psychology. A good Marxist critic is careful
to concern him with form at the expense of social realities whereby he views literary work
not as repository for hidden meaning but to reflect, propagate and even challenge the existing
social order in it.
As Sigmund Freud puts it Marx argues that economic motives are only ones that determine
behaviour of human beings in society. Marx treated politics as illusion and distortion of
reality, religion as opiate of masses and only economic structure as reality behind the veil
of society. The first announcement of the non-traditional way of seeing things appeared in
The German Ideology in 1845 where Karl Marx introduced the concept of dialectical
materialism, arguing that the ruling class owning means of production form base that controls
a society's institutions and beliefs through the superstructure consisting of its ubiquitous
organs of law, politics, philosophy, religion, art and literature. This leads to the development
of three kinds of alienation in the working class, where worker is alienated from what he
produces, from himself and from other workers creating a feeling of helplessness. In Jungle, a
1906 novel by Upton Sinclair, we see workers working indifferently and heedlessly thus
becoming instruments in the hands of powerful capitalists and in 1984 by George Orwell, we
witness a similar totalitarian regime in which individual emotions are persecuted. For Marx,
this possibility to give up ownership of one's own -- one's capacity to transform the world -is tantamount to being alienated from one's own nature; it is a spiritual loss. It was in
University of Berlin during his student days that Karl Marx came in touch with young
Hegelians which subsequently shaped his conceptions and philosophical ideas related to selfvalidating essence of humanity, Eurocentrism and the belief that synthesis of truth emerges

from a comparison of thesis and anti-thesis. As he states in a famous passage from The
Communist Manifesto, "Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The
proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains; Karl Marx contended that history is
progressing towards the inevitable triumph of communism which was the idea derived from
Hegelian dialectic that history is progress in consciousness of freedom.
It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but on the contrary their
social existence that determines their consciousness. Marx further proclaimed that
Consciousness from very beginning is a social product where people are conditioned in a
certain way to accept the dominant hegemonies and prevailing ideas of bourgeoisie as the
objective facts. This false consciousness is promoted by the dominant class of society to
justify their power. Many Marxist critics carried forward this idea and studied it in detail.
George Lukas believed that detailed analysis of symbols, images, literary devices in a literary
text would expose the class conflict and relationship between base and superstructure
whereas Antonio Gramsci in his Reflection theory exposed how capitalism control not just
through military repression or political and economic coercion but through carefully crafted
complex series of messages through superstructure. French Marxist, Louis Althusser drew on
the ideas of psychoanalytic theorist Jacques Lacan postulating a Perspective Theory
discussing the relationship between ideology and hegemony, the pervasive system of
assumptions and values that shapes the perception of reality for people in a given culture
through the process of Interpellation. However Louis Althusser believed that counter
hegemonies can emerge if the people write their own literature, create their own music and
paint their own art. Althussers followers included Pierre Macherey, who in A Theory of
Literary Production (1966) developed Althussers concept of the relationship between
literature and ideology; Terry Eagleton, who proposes an elaborate theory about how history
enters texts, which in turn may alter history; and Frederic Jameson, who has argued that form
is but the working out of content "in the realm of the superstructure".
Marx rightly put it in a famous quote: The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the
ruling ideas. Marx identified five major epochs: a. Primitive communism - characteristic of
early human history where people held everything in common. b. The Ancient epoch (slave
society) - societies based upon slavery where the means of production was owned and
controlled by an aristocratic elite. c. Feudal society - where land was the most important
means of production. This was owned / controlled by an aristocratic class, the majority of
people belonging to a peasant class (who had few, if any, political rights). D. Capitalist
Society e. Communist Society. He emphasizes that the idea of social life is based upon the
conflict of interest whereby change comes through the competition among the social
classes as they pursue what they see to be their collective interests in society. He exposed
the political and economical contradictions inherent in a capitalist setup to the proletariat who
have nothing in their hands.
New higher relations of production never appear before material conditions of their
existence have matured in the womb of old society wrote Marx in Critique of political
economy. Human history is an inevitable march toward the perfect economic arrangement. As
history advances, the failures of preceding system would lead to the adoption of new one. As
capitalism was the result of massive contradiction between feudal lords and serfs of
feudalism which led to French Revolution(1790) and between guild masters and journey men
in pre-capitalistic society. Similarly the contradiction of capitalistic society that has passed its

sell date will lead to its eventual downfall, as in Paris Commune of 1891 thereby leading to
the adoption of new ideals of communism according to Marx. He believed that the proletariat
revolution will end the class struggle, exploitative organized religion and manipulative
bourgeoisie morality whereby the whole prehistory of humanity will end and truly human
history will begin.
The revolution anticipated by Marx and Engels did not occur in their century, let alone in
their lifetime. When it did occur, in 1917, it did so in a place unimagined by either theorist:
Russia, a country long ruled by despotic Czars but also enlightened by the works of powerful
novelists and playwrights including Anton Chekhov, Alexander Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, and
Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Russia produced revolutionaries like Vladimir Lenin, who shared not
only Marx's interest in literature but also his belief in its ultimate importance. Lenin believed
that three basic components of Marxism are Materialist philosophy, critique of political
economy and socialist politics. Trotsky, Lenin's comrade in Russian Revolution, took a strong
interest in literary matters as well, publishing Literature and Revolution (1924), in which he
elucidated the complex way in which art informs and alters our understanding of the world
declaring that such terms as proletariat literature and proletariat culture are dangerous
because they erroneously compress the culture of future into narrow limits of present day. It
is still viewed as a classic of Marxist literary criticism. Of those critics active in the Soviet
Union after the expulsion of Trotsky and the triumph of Stalin, two stand out: Mikhail
Bakhtin who viewed language written in a society in flux especially literary textsin
terms of an official, legitimate discourses and dialogues, as well as one infiltrated by
challenging comments and George Lukcs appreciated pre revolutionary realistic novels that
broadly reflected upon characters representing human types of the author's place and time.
George Lukacs was readily criticized by Theodor Adorno for his dogmatic rejection of nonrealistic modern literature and for his elevation of content over form and Bertolt Brecht (who
himself in his anti-war drama elaborated Verfremdung effect caused by war by placing the
baffling words in mouth of one of his most phenomenal character Mother Courage Your
rage has calmed down already. It was a short one and youd need a long one) criticized
Lukcs for his attempt to enshrine realism at the expense not only of the other "isms", also of
poetry and drama. However systematic oppression of its citizens into submission and
obedience eventually saw a backlash against the ruling regime of Stalin in U.S.S.R. that
culminated into people voting their Communist government out of existence in
1991. However TONY BENN, British Labor politician remarked The Marxist analysis has
got nothing to do with what happened in Stalin's Russia: it's like blaming Jesus Christ for the
Inquisition in Spain.
Marxist theorists often examine literary texts with a critical eye toward their various
economic, ideological and social contexts, suggestions, and assertions, focusing their
interpretations on considering how literary texts depict class oppression and strife and social
inequality, how literary texts participate in or resist mass media and other forms of popular,
capitalistic culture, further taking an interest in how an authors own class, political positions,
and other ideological positions serve to influence his or her writings i.e. Welltanschauung
and finally considering the ideologies presented within the text as well as the economic and
social conditions under which particular texts are composed, published, publicized, sold, and
consumed by the public.

A Marxist theorist while analyzing Shakespeare immortal Hamlet might argue that
Claudius killed his brother King Hamlet in order to gain political, social, and economic
power, and hence might be viewed as a figure who is corrupted by his desire for social and
political power. A Marxist critic might take a particular interest in the manner in which
Hamlet subverts Claudiuss rule by engaging in acts of subterfuge, manipulation, and
revolution in order to overcome his oppressive rule over him. A critic may also argue that
Hamlets actions serve to demonstrate a way by which an oppressive ideological regime can
be countered and overcome. Hamlet himself steps outside of the standards, rules, and norms
established and encouraged by the ruling class that he was once a part of in order to resist its
oppressive ideology. Such a critical viewpoint might serve to argue that Hamlet is at least
partly about Hamlets own sudden separation from his primordial ruling class and realization
of the ideological faults of the political structure he is or was a part of. Also, a Marxist
theorist might take interest in the fact that Shakespearewho, himself, was born to a
commoner and was himself very much a member of what we would today call the working
class or middle classis issuing an attack or critique of the oppressive and morally
corrupt ideology of the ruling classes throughout Hamlet.
The division of the bourgeoisie and proletariat in the society depicted in short story of "The
Diamond Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant is firmly established and maintained. Loisel's
husband is a "lowly clerk," and although she has a wealthy friend from her convent days
from whom she borrows a diamond necklace, she has none of the embellishments that would
fit her to attend a reception to which her husband has (with some manipulation) managed to
be invited. Because of the debts owed to the bourgeoisie, incurred because of the loss of the
borrowed diamond necklace owned by Loisel's well-to-do friend, they sink lower and lower
in the social scale, losing what little hold they once had on social position or physical
comfort. In the end, Loisel has become old and unkempt, unrecognizable to her friend.
The economic base in The Diamond Necklace" is significant to all that is depicted in the
story. She is destroyed not by spiritual failure but by an economic system that has created a
superstructure that will not allow her a better life. She is trapped by material circumstances,
and the final revelation about the false jewels deepens her sense of alienation and
powerlessness.
Lucien Goldmann, a Romanian critic living in Paris, combined structuralist principles with
Marxs base superstructure model in order to show how economics determines the mental
structures of social groups, which are reflected in literary texts. Walter Benjamin praised new
art forms ushered in by the age of mechanical reproduction also made enduring and
influential contributions by blending aesthetic theory and Western Marxism. Today, what is
known as New Marxist Criticism is quite popular among a number of critical theorists.
Contemporary Marxist theoretical approaches, to some measure, part ways with formal and
traditional modes of strict Marxist theory and consider how Marxism (and Marxist theory
itself) functions in terms of other modes of literary theory. A number of literary theorists,
despite aligning themselves with forms of literary theory other than Marxism, often make
active use of the principles of Marxism in their theoretical work, particularly practitioners of
such decidedly socially and politically minded forms of theory as new historicism, queer
theory, feminist theory, and psychoanalytic theory.
By the time of his death in 1884, Marx left a movement with thousands of followers in
most European countries known as the Social Democratic Party, which was a vigorous

and growing factor in French and German politics. The influence of Karl Marx (1818-1884)
has been prodigious. The historian Walter Laquer joked that There are or rather were,
more Marxists in the world than Christians. However Marx made the basic error of
assuming that conditions he observed during the economically troubled decade of the 1840s
would not, could not be altered in any fundamental way without a revolution. In 1867, for
example the year that Marx published the first volume of Capital, the British Parliament
extended the right to vote to the British working class. Also for the over-concentration on
economic relationships, Marx was accused of being "economically determinist" overexaggerating the importance of economic relationships in face of all other relationships
(family, education, friendship, religious and so forth). Much Marxism - both old and modern has tended to ignore the role and position of women in society. Women tend to be
marginalized to the periphery of much Marxist theorising, possibly because of the focus upon
work relationships. Radical feminists, for example, argue that the roots of male - female
conflict are not simply economic (to do with social class) but patriarchal. Jakob Burckhardt
called Marx a terrible simplifier. Marxist approach is therefore often criticized for the
subjective interpretation of individual characters which might be different to their objective
class positions. For instance In Jane Eyre, John Reed belonging to upper class mocks her for
being from lower class by telling her she has no right to live with gentlemans children like
us whereas in Thornfield, Mr Rochester another upper class man redefines Janes class
status by defining her as his equal. Many forms of Neo-Marxism have been criticised as
being little more than a "left-wing" variety of Functionalism ("Left Functionalism" as Jock
Young has termed it). In place of society existing for "the benefit of all", Young argues that
many Marxists simply substitute the idea that society exists for "benefit of a ruling class".
Capitalism, as an economic and political system, has proven to be more durable and flexible
than Marx maintained. Critics like Sir Karl Popper have claimed that Marxism is unscientific
in its methodology classifying it thereby as faith instead of an ideal theory. If he did not
foresee the course of political reform, neither did he foresee the consumerist society;
he assumed that capitalists would behave in rapacious ways at all times and in all situations.
In Marxism there is no accounting for an industrialist like Henry Ford, who granted his
workers the unheard of wage of $5.00 per day, because, If I dont pay them enough to buy
my cars, who is going to buy them?
However he still remains the prophet of proletarian revolution on the pedestal after whom
generation of scholars have churned out thousand of books and articles subjecting him to hair
splitting analysis for his prodigious and world changing philosophies. Friedrich Engels in
1884 wrote Just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature, so Marx
discovered the law of development of human history to understand not only process of
historical change but also as the key for predicting future. Applying Marxist approach to a
modern twenty first century world, we see contemporary response to the class/racial
oppression and social inequality which is more or less reminiscence of what Karl Marx talked
about two centuries ago, for instance, in the form India Against Corruption campaign against
the corrupt system in 2011. Communist ideologies of Marx on the other hand forms the basis
of technological innovation and advancement in a healthy profitable way and scientific basis
of human emancipation. To sum it up, it will not be wrong to conclude that Communism in
the words of Karl Heinrich Marx is definitely the riddle of history solved.

Bibliography
1. Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels
2. Marxism and Literature- Raymond Williams
3. A dictionary of Marxist thought- Laurence Harris
4. MARXIST THEORIES OF CLASS AND CLASS STRUGGLE. F. MBENGO
5. Internet