Is every Marxist literary critic a "communist political
revolutionary"
(447)? Explain.
What is the difference between traditional forms of criticism
and Marxist
criticism?
Explain: "That work is usually to enforce and reinforce
the prevailing
ideology, that is, the network of conventions, values, and
opinions to
which the majority of people uncritically subscribe" (447).
448:
Who is Karl Marx?
449:
What is the "base" or "infrastructure" of society (449)?
What is the "superstructure" (449)?
What is "homology" (449)?
Explain: "Consciousness, without which such things as
art cannot
be produced, is not the source of social forms and economic
conditions.
It is, rather, their most important product" (449).
What is "the dialectical synthesis of ideas out of thesis and
antithesis"
(449)?
What is "dialectical materialism" (449)?
452:
To what do "form" and "content" refer (452)?
What is the proper relationship between form and content,
according
to Lukács? Brecht? Adorno (453)? Jameson (456)?
453:
What is structuralism?
What is hegemony, according to Gramsci?
454:
Explain what it means to say that the function of ideology
"is to (re)produce
the existing relations of production in a given society"
(454)?
Other Discussion Questions: 446:
What is an anachronism?
448:
Explain the "grave consequences for the arts" that arise from
"the alienation
of the worker in industrialized, capitalist societies" (448).
450:
Explain: "Superstructure usually lags behind base (and
is therefore
usually more primitive)" (450).
Explain: "There is no necessary connection between
the quality
of a literary work and the quality of its author's politics"
(450).
451:
What is "socialist realism" (451)?
What, according to Bakhtin, are "'polyphonic' novels" (451)?
What is the "conflict between 'high' and 'low' culture"
(451)?
454:
Explain: "Although literature must be seen in relation
to ideology, it--like all social forms--has some degree of
autonomy" (454).
What are "lapses, omission, gaps" in a novel (454).
455:
What shortcomings did Raymond Williams find in Marxist
criticism?
What, according to Williams, is culture?
456:
What is "dialectical criticism" (456)?
What is "primitive communism" (456)?
Explain: "Only through ideological thought that knows
itself as
such can ideologies be seen through and eventually
transcended" (456).
Explain: "A literary work creates the illusion of
autonomy while
depending, in fact, on history for meaning" (456).
