In this latest episode of What The Theory?, I hope to provide an introduction to Marxism, culture and Marxist Literary Criticism and Theory. We're going to begin with the economic theories of Marx and Engels, particularly their base and superstructure approach to analysing societal structures. We'll then continue by looking at how these have informed a Marxist approach to literary theory but also how we can transpose these ideas into a wider Marxist cultural theory.

Having looked heavily at some precise, fundamental ideas such as Semiotics and Phenomenology as well as some very large concepts such as Modernism and Postmodernism in recent videos, this is the first video in a number of What the Theory videos in which I'm keen to look in between these at approaches to culture, criticism and theory which are far more tangible and useable for the analysis of cultural texts.

Further Reading

Marxism and Literature by Raymond Williams
US: https://amzn.to/2Xw2Mjv
UK: https://amzn.to/2Ue9BEo

Marxism and Literary Criticism by Terry Eagleton
US: https://amzn.to/2EoGPdt
UK: https://amzn.to/2NDRHbB

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Thanks for watching!

Twitter: @Tom_Nicholas
Website: www.tomnicholas.com