Introduction to Literary Theories and Criticisms (Enla 422), 2011
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- Material circumstances
- Superstructure
- Individualism and collectivism
| Conspicuous consumption - "the obvious acquisition of things only for their sign value and/or exchange value".
Dialectical materialism - "the theory that history develops neither in a random fashion nor in a linear one but instead as struggle between contradictions that ultimately find resolution in a synthesis of the two sides. For example, class conflicts lead to new social systems". Material circumstances - "the economic conditions underlying the society. To understand social events, one must have a grasp of the material circumstances and the historical situation in which they occur" (92). Reflectionism - associated with Vulgar Marxism - "a theory that the superstructure of a society mirrors its economic base and, by extension, that a text reflects the society that produced it". Superstructure - "The social, political, and ideological systems and institutions--for example, the values, art, and legal processes of a society--that are generated by the base". Reification - another Marxist insight into human behavior that involves damaging effects of capitalism on human psychology and related to alienation. Reification describes the practice of equating human relationships in terms of relations among things. Alienation- according to David Forgasc, alienation is the process by which a worker sells his or her labor power to the capitalist for wages and becomes appendage of a machine (Ann Jefferson and David Robey, 1993:170). Religion-religion, which Marx called “the opiate of masses,” is an ideology that helps to keep the faithful poor satisfied with their lot in life, or at least tolerant of it, much as a tranquilizer might do. In this regard, the premise of Marxist analysis is not on the question of the existence of god, but in what human beings do in God’s name-the organized religion Individualism and collectivism According to Tyson (1999), individualism is an ideology that keeps the focus on “me” instead of on “us” thus working against class action and giving us the illusion that we make one own decisions and are not significantly influenced by ideology. Individualism hold’s that the individual is the primary unit of reality and the ultimate standard of value. This view does not deny that societies exist or that people benefit from living in them, but it sees society as a collection of individuals, not something over and above them. Collectivism holds that the group--the nation, the community, the proletariat, the race, etc… is the primary unit of reality and the ultimate standard of value. But ultimately, collectivism holds that one’s identity is determined by the groups one interest with that one’s identity is constituted essentially of relationships with others. Download 333 Kb. Share with your friends:
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