Political Reading

Marxist Literary Theory and

Transnational Feminism:
Literature, Theory and Practice

Angel Iskandar 20170600003 aka “Dialectical Materialism,”

Maria Sisilia 20170600022 “Historical Materialism,”
Verencia Mercy 20170600011
“Sociological Criticism”
 In 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote
The Communist Manifesto. They were
concerned about workers’ rights, conditions
of the working classes, and freedoms for
underprivileged people groups. Marxism was
essentially a way to view and analyze
world conditions and historical developments.
Eventually, their ideas
spread across Europe,
grew into the fervor that fed many
revolutions, and were adapted by Lenin
and Stalin. Today in the “Western” world,
Marxism mostly survives in academia as a
protest against Capitalist excess.
http://webspace.webring.com/people/xm/mlause/Hist609/Hist609images/friedrich_engels.jpg
In American colleges and universities, Marxism has evolved into an even more
influential LITERARY theory than an actual political system. Some of the most
important theorists have included:
• Leon Trotsky
• György Lukács
• Bertolt Brecht
• Walter Benjamin
• Terry Eagleton
• Herbert Marcuse
• Theodor Adorno
• Louis Althusser
• Frederic Jameson
• Jürgen Habermas
 MAIN IDEAS
-History is a cycle of struggles between the bourgeoisie
and the proletariat
-Workers are alienated from their labor and from
themselves
-Workers are alienated from their labor and from
themselves
-Writers and writings are shaped by economic context
- Literature can be a political tool
Some Questions Marxist Literary Critics Ask:
1. Who benefits if the work or effort is
accepted/successful/believed, etc. ?
2. What is the social class of the author?
3. Which class does the work claim to represent ?
4. What values does it reinforce ?
5. What values does it subvert?
6. Is there a conflict between the values the work champions
and those it portrays ?
7. What social classes do the characters represent?
8. How do characters from different classes interact or conflict?
 ONE MAIN QUESTION:
How was this text
“written” by its
material conditions
[economics, work,
society, class,
politics]?
How to “do” a Marxist reading:
1. Look for examples of oppression, bad working conditions,
class struggles, etc.
2. Search for the “covert” meaning underneath the “overt,”
which is about class struggle, historical stages, economic
conditions, etc.
3. Relate the context of a work to the social-class status of the
author.
4. Relate the literary work to the social conditions of its time
period.
5. Explain an entire genre in terms of its social period.
6. Show how literature is shaped by political, economic, labor,
and class conditions.
 [Potentially]
Positive Aspects of
Marxist Criticism
It has real-world applications
It makes connections with work,
politics, money, etc.
It is concerned about the conditions of
oppressed people
[Potentially]
Negative Aspects of
Marxist Criticism
It is really easy to fake
It always gets entangled with politics
It quickly moves away from the text into (only)
context
It readily makes value judgments on literature
 1. How would you define feminism?

2. What are the differences between first and second wave feminism?
Introduction to Transnational Feminisms: key
concepts and debates

• ‘First wave’ Feminism was

principally concerned with
women’s material disadvantages
compared to men, they were
focused on social, political and
economic reform.
‘Second wave’
• ‘Second wave’ feminism
focused on the politics
of reproduction,
women’s ‘experience’,
sexual ‘difference’ and
‘sexuality’, both as a
form of oppression and
something to celebrate.
What is the difficulty with Anglo-American and European
feminist literary theory?

How might first and second wave feminism differ from

Third World feminist criticism?
Third World feminist criticism focuses on three major
issues:

1. The politics of universalism

2. On current controls and misrepresentations
3. On the homogeneity of the canon
Q : Why might the term feminist be refused by
some women?
Features of Third World Feminist Criticism:
1. Focus on place and displacement
2. The creation of a positive model of ‘Otherness’
3. The reading of history as if history is a language
4. The focus on myth, allegory and the use of un-
translated words, footnotes or addresses to a
reader
5. The refusal to create a hierarchy of texts
 How can we avoid creating monolithic images of
women? Like “veiled women, the powerful mother,
the chaste virgin, the obedient wife”?
What are the dangers of a universal sisterhood?
How does Transnational Feminism differ from Global
Feminism?
• The term “global feminism” favours a universalized western
model of women’s liberation that celebrates individuality and
modernity.
• The term “transnational” implies “across borders”,
“transnational” recognizes inequalities arising out of women’s
differences that frame these border crossings. Transnational
feminism is committed to activism that encourages dialogue for
change. Transnational feminism avoids universalizing women in
its rejection of a universal sisterhood, this movement also rejects
a universal notion of patriarchy that affects all women the same.
Q : How can we avoid rearticulating stereotypes?
Recasting Women
• Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid “ Recasting Women: An
Introduction,” in Recasting Women assert “If Feminism is to be
different, it must acknowledge the ideological and problematic
significance of its own past. Instead of creating yet another
grand tradition or a cumulative history of emancipation,
neither of which can deal with our present problems, we need
to be attentive to how the past enters differently into the
consciousness of other historical periods and is further
subdivided by a host of other factors including gender, caste,
and class.” (18)
Mountain Moving Day
by Yosano Akiko
 
“The mountain moving day is coming
I say so yet others doubt it…
All sleeping women now awake and move
All sleeping women now awake and move.”

What are the similarities between this poem and

Transnational Feminism?
Q : How would you define Transnational Feminism in your own words?
Patriarchy

• Have you or someone you know experienced

patriarchy?
• What forms of patriarchy have you experienced?
• Do you consider yourself a feminist?
• What is your opinion of the differences between
global feminism and transnational feminism?