Marxism and Literary Criticism Class, Fall 2011

Marxism and Literary Criticism!!!!!

Time: Wednesdays, 10:30-noon (subject to change)
Location: TBA

This will be a discussion based course, focusing on Marxist theory in art and literature! This course is geared towards students with minimal to zero experience with Marxism, though open to everyone (that means you!); we will be focusing on basic concepts. The weekly readings will be around 15-30 pages. We will be reading such authors as Marx and Engels, Eagleton, Adorno, Zizek, Benjamin, etc. Besides the readings, each student will be expected to lead a discussion on an essay and to write a two to five page final paper. The goal of the course is to gain a strong foundation in Marxist literary criticism and hopefully see how it is relevant to today!
The class will examine 3 areas of Marxist Criticism:

1. Literature and history;
a. Base and superstructure / Materialist conception of history
b. Literature and Ideology
2. Form and content;
a. History and Form
b. Form and Ideology
a. Lukacs : Marxist Realism, Typicality, World-historical, totality.
b. Goldmann : Genetic Structuralism
c. Macherey : Decentered form
3. The author as producer;
a. Form and Production
b. Consciousness and Production

If time and interest permits we could delve into the idea of the writer and commitment, as well as go into more contemporary identity politics and Marxist issues.

I know that this may be a bit dense, so Julia is required to bake at least one pie a month to keep everyone in good spirits.

Come over red rover, Marx would!

Facilitator: Andrew Brooks