Learning Objectives

1 2 3
identify the main relate how analyze sample
subjects of literary literature is used to literary works using
works under mould society Marxist approach
Marxist Approach
 Karl Marx
(1818-1883)
was primarily a
theorist and
historian.
 After examining social
organization in a scientific way
(thereby creating a
methodology for social science:
political science), he perceived
human history to have
consisted of a series of
struggles between classes--
between the oppressed and the
oppressing.
 The literature that
emerged from this kind
of analysis focuses on
individuals in the grips
of a class struggle.
 It emphasizes persons
of the lower class and
their constant
oppression by the upper
class.
 The poor may try to
escape their situation
but ultimately fall back
under the ruthless
dominion of the
capitalist oppressor.
 In other words, this
criticism focuses more
on the social and
political elements of a
work than its aesthetic
(artistic and visual)
value.
 Key Terms for
Marxist Criticism
 Key Terms
Capitalism: the economic base which values private
ownership and profit for individuals
Laborers: employees, workers
Capitalist: employers, owners, major investors
Base: a society’s values embedded in economy,
property, material, and means of
production
 Key Terms
Superstructure: a society’s ideology, laws, politics, education,
which reflect the base

Reification: the way in which people are turned into

commodities useful in market exchange

Exploitation: the difference between the value of production

and what a worker is paid by the owner

Alienation: the results of capitalism on the worker; the

separation between the worker and others due
to exploitation on the job.
 Key Terms
Marginalization: placing lower classes and people of color
in the margins socially, economically, and
politically
Hegemony: cultural, economic, social, and political
dominance, or what reality is for the
majority of people within a given culture
Foundational
Questions
 Foundational Questions

Does the work support the

What role does class play in
economic and social status quo,
the literary work?
or does it advocate change?
How does the author
analyze class relations? Does the work serve as
propaganda for the status
What does the author say quo? If so, in what way does
about oppression? it attempt to serve as
Are class conflicts ignored propaganda?
or blamed?
How do characters
overcome oppression?
 Foundational Questions

Does the work propose some

How do the time period, social
form of utopian vision as a
background and culture in which
solution to the problems
the work was written affect the
encountered in the work?
portrayal of the political,
How has the author’s economic, and social forces?
ideologies and background
affected the way he views
the economy, politics or
society?