Unit 5: Commodification of the Medieval Period

Unit 5:Commodification of the Medieval Period Part I The Two Factors of a Commodity: Use-Value and Value from Marx, Capital

For today. . . • Presentation sign-up sheet • Housekeeping. . . • Discuss general revision issues • Discuss Marx, Chapter 1, Section 1: Commodity: Use-Value and Value • First half of Shrek

Housekeeping. . . • Papers will be handed back this Thursday, March 6th • The deadline for turning in the URL and the hard copy of your revisions has been extended to Thursday, March 13th. • The hard copy of your revised paper, as well as the original, will be due IN CLASS on March 13th. The URLs will be due by midnight.

Transcriptions Drop-In Hours. . . • Tuesday, 11:00-5:00 • Wednesday, 9:30-12:00 • Thursday, 2:00-5:00 • Friday, 10:00-12:30 • Julia’s drop-in hours for Tuesday, March 11th will be changed to the morning. • Also be advised that the Transcriptions Studio may be hosting various workshops that may take place during those days/hours

General Revision Issues. . . • ww=wrong word • sp=spelling • When quoting, remember to put the citation information before the period, but after the quotation marks. • Example: “In the original Greek, ‘lyric’ signified a song rendered to the accompaniment of a lyre” (Abrams147).

General Revision Issues Continued. . . • When there is a quote within a quote, use apostrophes to clarify that the word was in quotation marks in the source. • Criteria for revision grades. . . • In addition to submitting the URL for your websites to me by midnight, March 13th, I would also like you to submit both your original papers (with my comments) and a hard copy of your revisions to me IN CLASS on that day.

Guidelines for the Presentations: • Three to five minute presentation of your website • Navigate through the website and explain any unique features, including hotspots, images, additional pages, hyperlinks • Share with the class your thesis statement, as well as two or three particularly interesting points that support your thesis • Conclude by stating your thoughts about the preparation of the project in general

The Two Factors of a Commodity: Use-Value and Value • What is a commodity? • According to Marx, a commodity is “an object outside us, a thing that by its properties satisfies human wants of some sort or another.”

Two Factors of a Commodity Continued. . . • We can look at every commodity from two points of view: quality and quantity • Use value=“The utility of a thing” • The use value of an object exists only because the commodity itself exists • Use value is independent from the amount of labor that went into producing the object • “Use value becomes a reality only by use or consumption”

Two Factors of a Commodity Continued. . . • Exchange value=quantitative relation between two objects • If “x” amount of object A is equal in exchange value to “y” amount of object B, then both object A and object B are equal to a third thing, “which in itself is neither the one nor the other” • “there exists in equal quantities something common to both” • Exchange value is relative, and dependent on time and place

Two Factors of a Commodity Continued. . . • The exchange value of commodities has to be expressed in a common way, though by greater or lesser quantity • Exchange value is totally abstract (versus use value, which is material) • Exchange value is not inherent to the object

Two Factors of a Commodity Continued. . . • To summarize: • Use value Quality • Exchange value Quantity

Two Factors of a Commodity Continued. . . • Outside of use value, we can also compare commodities by thinking of them as products of labor • The abstraction of an object (thinking of an object in terms of exchange value, rather than use value), leads to an abstraction of the thing in terms of its materiality • We separate ourselves from its existence as something real, as well as from the labor that went into making it.

Two Factors of a Commodity Continued. . . • “exchange value is the only form in which the value of commodities can manifest itself or be expressed.” • “In general, the greater the productiveness of labour, the less is the labour time required for the production of an article, the less is the amount of labour crystallized in that article, and the less is its value; and vice versa, the less the productiveness of labour, the greater is the labour time required for the production of an article, and the greater is its value.”

Two Factors of a Commodity Continued. . . • “A thing can be a use value, without having value.” • Air • Soil • Water • Something has value only if it is useful.

But what does this mean for us? • How might Marx’s concepts apply to literature? • And more specifically, how does Marx’s concepts of use value and exchange value apply to our study of the medieval and of media?

Commodification of the medieval through media. . . • How does the medieval period become something that “satisfies human wants of some sort or another”? • Media takes an abstract historical concept and makes it concrete • Consider the way in which the medieval has been commodified: • Books • Games (Dungeons & Dragons) • Movies • Video Games

But what makes the medieval period so interesting?

Commodification of the medieval through media. . . • Shrek: • Cost approximately $70 million • Made approximately $500 million (though this could now be more) • How much labor went into producing this? • According to the trivia on the Shrek imdb.com page, “There are 36 unique locations in Shrek - more than any other computer-animated film at the time.” • “Computer animation production started on the project on 31 October 1996 and took more than four and a half years to complete.”

Marxist reading of Shrek. . . • We can also consider the way Marx’s views of labor influence our understanding of the characters within the movie • How is the aristocracy presented within the movie? • How is the working class presented?

For Thursday. . . • Read Chapter 1, Section 4–”The Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret thereof,” from Marx’s Capital. • Read Abrams’ entry for “Marxist Criticism” • The second half of Shrek • Extended due date for Moodle assignment: tonight, midnight • Remember that Moodle counts for 10% of your grade.

Unit 5: Commodification of the Medieval Period