THEORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

TYAS SANDHY S.

120810040

MARXIST CRITICISM

Marxist Criticism is a theory which is commonly related by people to the

communism. Marxism used in the communist countries, such as USSR or Soviets Union
(now called as Russia), China, North Korea, and Cuba. This theory was developed by a
German philosopher named Karl Marx, and he developed this theory along with his friend, a
German sociologist named Friedrich Engels. Marxism also related to the social-economy
classes, especially the higher and lower class. The class itself was formed when the Industrial
Revolution happened in England. The invention of the steam machine by James Watt forced
people (who were previously lived in the country) to move to the city (which was the place
for many industries). This ‘transmigration’ made a different class, between the owner and the
worker. Marx criticized this happening by developing a theory called Marxist.

Basic Form of Marxism

If we talk about Marxism, we will automatically talking about economy and the
society (social condition). Economy is the base form of our life. Tyson (1999:50) stated that
for Maxism, getting and keeping economic power is the motive behind all social and political
activities. Economic is the base upon which the superstructure of social/political/ideological
realities is built.

From the Marxist’s point of view, the differences in the socioeconomic class divide
people more significant than just divide them into religion, race, ethnicity, and gender. The
socioeconomic class is divided into the “haves” and the “have-nots”, or in other we can say
bourgeoisie and proletariat. The Bourgeoise are those who control the world’s natural,
economic, and human resources. They seem like the leaders of the society. They have
everything needed in order to rule the society itself. They are superior to the people who are
in the lower class. Proletariat is the majority of the society and population who live in
substandard conditions and who have always performed the manual labor, like the mining,
factory work, the railroad building, and so on (Tyson 1999:50). The proletariat, although
they have a large number in ‘members’, always under the rule of the bourgeoise and they
cannot do anything because economically, they have no enough money or wealth. The
bourgeoise have the money and capital, so they can rule those large number of people,
because money is their weapon.

The Role of Ideology

What is ‘ideology’? According to the Marxism’s perspective, an ideology is a belief

system, a product of cultural conditioning (Tyson 1999:52).

One ideology that being the critics of Marxist is about the “American Dream”. Many
people see that Americans are wealthy and live in the prosperity, so they will see that
Americans are the perfect society. Actually, American life is not that perfect. The middle
class in America is blinded by their belief in the American Dream, which tell them that
financial success is the product of initiative and hard work. Therefore, is some people are
poor, they will considered as the shiftless and lazy people, though the reality doesn’t say so
(Tyson 1999:54). It is such kind of an ideology that the rich people must be hard workers
while the poor people must be lazy people, because it is a belief system among the
Americans. They believe that kind of ‘prejudice’, and it is a product of their own cultural
conditioning.

Karl Marx criticized the concept of Religion. He stated that the religion couldn’t
overcome the economic problem in the society and also stated that religion is an ideology that
helps to keep the faithful poor satisfied with their lot in life. The bible has been used
successfully to justify and promote the enslavement of Africans in America and the
subordination of women, gay men, and lesbians (Tyson 1999:56).

Another ideology is Consumerism, or shop-‘till-you-drop-ism. It is another concept in

the American Dream. Consumerism is and ideology that says I’m only good as I buy (Tyson
1999:56). It is like an ideology that force people to buy anything, in order to be respected by
other people. They will not consider or think, whether the things that they buy are useful or
not. They buy something because they want to be respected by other people. They will buy
and buy everything, so that people will consider him or her as a high class people.
The Commodity

For Marxism, a commodity’s value lies in what it can do (or commonly known as the
use value), which it can be traded (the exchange value), and in the social status it confers to
the owners (sign-exchange value) (Tyson 1999:58). For example, I have a new cell phone. If
I use it for calling, texting, and browsing, it means that my cell phone has a use value. If I sell
it to another people, it has a exchange value, but if I just buy it to impress other people it has
a sign-exchange value. Many people nowadays buy something that has a sign-exchange
value. They buy something just to impress other people that they have enough money to buy
something elegant, expensive, and sophisticated. They will not consider or think about the
use value anymore. An object becomes a commodity, only when it has exchange value or
sign-exchange value (Tyson 1999:58).

We can take an example from the “Confessions of a Shopaholic” film. In that film,
the main character, Rebecca, always buy something (clothes, to be exact) branded in order to
make other people impress with her. She doesn’t think whether she needs those things or not,
she’s only think that she has to buy those branded clothes so that people will recognize her as
a wealthy people. She only buys those things because they have the sign-exchange value, so
they can form the new social status to the owner. Another similar example is from the Shania
Twain’s song titled “Ka-Ching!”. In this song, there are lines ‘to earn as much as they can
possibly, then turn around and spend it foolishly. We’ve created us a credit card mess; we
spend the money that we don’t posses’. From these lines, we can see that people nowadays
are blinded by the social status. They will buy anything that can boost their social status,
though they actually don’t need those things and they don’t have much money. As long as
they can buy branded things, they will ‘safe’ in the higher social class.

Capitalism vs. Marxism

As we know that capitalism and Marxism are opposing against each other. They like
the ‘perfect enemy’ for each other. Both of them have the different ideology and perception.
In capitalism, those who have much money will get anything that they want, including be in
the top position in the politics while people who don’t have much money will remain poor
and cannot do anything in the social life. They will not have an opportunity to become a boss
or other high position. In the capitalism’s perspective, money is everything. Without money,
you are nothing. That’s why, capitalism always force people to get the profits as much as they
can get. It is different with Marxist, which defends the equality in economic condition. The
basic principle in the capitalism is about individualism, people can own a resource (for
example a factory) by himself or herself. However, the Marxism tells the opposite. For
Maxism, anything (which is related to the society) is owned by the government, an individual
cannot own anything public. That’s why, Marxism also known as Socialism because
Marxism cares about the society and the social life.

We can see from the history, when Soviets Union and United States were opposing
each other and they were involved in the Cold War. If we look at their ideology, we will find
the cause of the problem. Soviets Union had the Socialist ideology while United States had
the Capitalism ideology, and as we know that capitalism and socialism will always opposing
against each other. Because of their ideologies which were opposing to each other, so Soviets
Union and United States were opposing to each other too.

Marxism and Literature

A Marxist reading (in the text) would focus on the ways in which the psychological
problems are produced by the material realities (Tyson 1999:61). For example in “The
Confessions of a Shopaholic” film, we can see that the character’s psychological problem
(always want to buy things which are actually useless for her) is formed by the ideology in
the American dream. If you don’t have anything branded, you are nothing.

For Marxism, literature like all cultural manifestation, it is a product of the

socioeconomic and ideological condition in which it was written, whether or not the author
intended it so. The fact that literature reflects the real material or historical conditions creates
two possibilities of interest to Marxist critics (Tyson 1999:63):

1. The literary work might tend to reinforce in the reader the ideologies it embodies

2. It might invite the reader to criticize the ideologies it represents.

WORK CITED

Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory Second Edition. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
2002.

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today. USA. 1999.