Marx and Engels

How did Marx and Engels view literature?

They regarded literature as insignificant.

What is the sociology of literature?

The sociology of literature concerns itself chiefly with means of literacy production; how books are published, the social composition of authors and their audiences, levels of literacy, and the social determinants of ‘taste’. It also examines literary texts for sociological relevance. It’s a degutted version of Marxist criticism for western consumption.

What did Matisse believe about all art?

All art bares the imprint of its historical epoch, but that great art is that in which this imprint is most deeply marked.

What is 'original' about Marxist literary criticism?

The originality of Marxist criticism lies not in its historical approach to literature, but in its revolutionary understanding of history itself.

Why is art part of the superstructure?

It is part of a society’s ideology – an element in that complex structure of social perception which ensures that the situation in which one social class has power over the others is either seen by most members of society as ‘natural’ or not seen at all.

What, according to interpretations of Conrad's work was the crisis facing the Western bourgeois class?

Individual psychology is a social product. Transformation into art of an ideological permission rife - a sense of history as futile and cyclical of individuals as impenetrable and solitary of human values as relativistic and irrational creates crisis in ideology of bourgeois class.

Which four elements make up the levels of 'unity' which Marxist criticism focuses on?

Text, ideology, social relations, productive forces.

In his letter Joseph Bloc, what did Engels want to deny about the base and superstructure?

He wants to deny that the base and superstructure are directly linked – he nor Marx has ever said this, or that if you’re born economically wealthy then you’re opinion is most valid. It’s what you do with your brains and knowledge which is key, other influences such as politics and religion are considered of higher importance.

Why does Marx believe we enjoy classical Greek literature?

Provides us with a nostalgic lapse back into childhood. The Greeks were able to produce major art BECAUSE of the undeveloped state of their society, not in spite of.