@the nature of writing thank you for your explanation of marxist literary theory i am from english lirerature department in my university tomorrow i will learn this theory with my lecturer
Great video. Marx had great ideas on this, thus did Gramsci, and later Chomsky. Propaganda is one of my favorite topics, that I'm now actually attempting to write a book to help the layman see better through common propaganda linked to the modern war machine.
@@thenatureofwriting9222 thanks so much! Videos like this help properly develop the methods of analysis in which I am able to break down the concepts into a better understanding for everyone, including myself.
I have literary theory exam and this video helped me out I hope u can make more videos about those complicated theories and make them as easier as a piece of cake like this video Such as the post structuralism Formalism Post modernism
Thank you for such a clear explanation of Marxism. It would really help us if your images are focused better. Viewing this on an HD screen is tiring to the eyes because of the blurred images... next time please :)
Thanks for drawing this to my attention. I thought the videos were optimized for HD. Did you select "1080p HD" from the settings menu (in the bottom right of the video player)?
It's not true that Marx regarded literature as deliberate propaganda. Rather, he said the ideas of a societies rulers - including their self-justifying sophisms - _tend_ to become dominant. People gravitate towards thinking like their masters, and this obviously influences their writing. But (1) it's only a general tendency and (2) other things influence the beliefs of the people, including realities that the rulers deny.
Thanks for the clarification. It's certainly true that Marx and Engels warned people not to simplify their view of historical materialism, and that they acknowledged they themselves were sometimes guilty of this. Marx did not write a tremendous amount about literature specifically, and what he did have to say was often too simplistic. Later Marxists such as Raymond Williams and Fredric Jameson readily admitted that Marx had a tendency to turn literature into straightforward propaganda (deliberate or not). So I think you're right to remind us not to simplify matters, but your characterization of Marx's views on literature may dilute Marx's understanding of causation too much.
No. It is what it says. The writer tends to communicate through the general ruling ideology of their time because, as a participant of a given age and location, they tend to conceptualise things through this shared framework. Nothing about hierarchies or corruption.
Great video. After some research I've seen some words that may link with your video: economic determinism historical materialism Can you explain the role of reductionism as well especially in contrast to historicism
Thanks! Both those terms are useful, though I gather Marx himself did not necessarily use them. I'm not sure what to say about the last two terms. I suppose you could argue that Marxism is reductionist in its claim that the superstructure is primarily the result of economic conditions, and Engels did express some reservations about people going too far with that idea.
@@thenatureofwriting9222 true, Engels did say that the base and superstructure model could be misinterpreted as meaning that the base fully controls the super - which is obviously false and Marx did not use these terms but these terms are closely linked. However economic determinism for example has been criticised by some Marxist thinkers as a poor reading of Marxism. Thanks.
I have a question regarding this part where you said "' why do we give our consent? why do we take part in what you might call as an expression of dominant hegemony?" then why? is it because we are psychologically manipulated by the dominant hegemony to agree?
Very interesting since I missed the class about the Marxist critical theory. Would you please tell me what did you to do this video and the writing on a black background. I'd like to know about this in order to be able to use it with my students Thank you in advance
Seems to be a Hegelian influence on Marx's thought. And it seems as though Marx was relying a lot on confirmation bias to get history, his philosophy of history and Hegel's paradigm to all fit together. While I still think some of Marx's economic principles have a lot of merit, I tend to prefer the New England Transcendentalist's overall philosophy as contrasted with Hegel's philosophy. Those transcendentalists made an attempt at a form of communism called Brook Farm -- which I think goes to show there are many different potential forms and variants of the principle of communism and how those principles are applied to any attempt to realize a working communist system. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brook_Farm.
You're right that Hegel had an influence on Marx, though Hegel put more emphasis on ideas influencing history rather than the other way around. Another concept that Marx borrowed from Hegel is the notion of "alienation." Thanks for the feedback!
This video is sort of the journey from Classical Marxism to Neo-Marxism. Which is basically everybody after Marx focusing more on the cultural superstructure.
So in summary, literature is, according to Marx, the superstructure and the economic status of the authors is the base, which in turn influences their work and their views within it. Did i nail it or did I just fall flat ?
@@educatedhadhramis I’m not sure what you mean, although you are right in saying Marxism links to feminism (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxist_feminism), I was talking about en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freudo-Marxism
