Marxism
Related: alienation - culture conflict theory - culture industry - British Cultural Studies - cultural Marxism - false consciousness - commodity fetishism - economic exploitation - Frankfurt School - Freudo-Marxism - Birmingham School of Cultural Studies - left (politics) - Marxist film theory - working class
Primary literature: Theodor Adorno - Louis Althusser - Mikhail Bakhtin - Walter Benjamin - Terry Eagleton - Antonio Gramsci - Michael Hardt - Fredric Jameson - Karl Marx
Cultural Marxism: Eugène Sue's The Mysteries of Paris inspired Karl Marx's only text concerning literature. It was published as part of the polemical The Holy Family, or Critique of Critical Criticism (1845). Marx’s views of the book were not favourable - "it is to be noted incidentally that Eugène Sue motivates the career of the Countess just as stupidly as that of most of his characters". Marx's negative views of the Mysteries of Paris are a poignant example of cultural elitism, since the publication of the Mysteries helped create a climate which allowed the 1848 revolution to occur. [May 2006]
Definition
Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a nineteenth century philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary along with Friedrich Engels. Marx drew on Hegel's philosophy, the political economy of Adam Smith, Ricardian economics, and 19th century French socialism to develop a critique of society which he claimed was both scientific and revolutionary. This critique achieved its most systematic (if unfinished) expression in his masterpiece, 'Capital: A Critique of Political Economy' (Das Kapital). --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism [Oct 2004]
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