Dr. McGuire's further explanation of Marxist theory in class this week, as well as Dr. Craig's post helped make the theory clearer for me.
What I found to be interesting in Dr. Craig's piece was the idea of wage earners and stock owners. When wages are up the stocks will go down because it is seen as cut in profit. The idea that people are more worried about those who are making the money from the stocks instead of those who work to make the product was very interesting as well, since like Dr. Craig said, most of us our wage earners and not stock owners. The idea of the people solely becoming a part of production in order to get a profit is something that I believe will still see today, and will always see in a Capitalist society.
I also have changed my idea on Marxist literary theory because I realize it is more focused on the ideology of the text itself, instead of examining the author, since the author is not really a factor. The idea of oppositional voices in the text that help the critic learn more about the ideology of the text I found to be very interesting as well, since I previously thought it was about the author.
Overall, the post by Dr. Craig has helped my understanding of Marxism and hopefully other guest post will be just as helpful.
1 comment:
"The idea of oppositional voices in the text that help the critic learn more about the ideology of the text I found to be very interesting as well, since I previously thought it was about the author"
This is an interesting line of thinking to follow. What are these "oppositional voices" in the text. It is interesting to think about certain seemingly oppositional voices in a text, which appear to try to subvert the ideological framework by opposing it on the surface, but actually reinforce it.
This is like Dr. Craig's discussion of the Che Guevara T-shirts. Wearers of such shirts feel like they are rebelling against a capitalist system, when they are actively participating in it. In fact, they are arguably reinforcing it because the fact that these small moments of "rebellion" are allowed to occur disguises how pervasive capitalism is.
Thus, I think you're really onto something when you begin to think about, "oppositional voices in the text that help the critic learn more about the ideology of the text.." Do you think a thorough Marxist critic would examine oppositional voices just as carefully as those voices which blatantly proclaim ideology?
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