The Marxist Approach

1. The Marxist Approach Francesco C. Nate F. Kyle Z.

2. Definition of the Marxist Approach • “A "Marxist reader" shares many of the same assumptions and questions that all "ideological readers" ask except that a Marxist is keenly interested in the role of economic systems and their role in legitimizing specific kinds social hierarchies. A Marxist wants to simultaneously critique representations complicit with oppressive economic systems while recovering, reformulating, and celebrating texts that address the interests and needs of disenfranchised groups, especially the working class” (Marxism).

3. Basic Background • “Marxism began with Karl Marx, the nineteenth-century German philosopher best known for Das Kapital (1867; Capital), the seminal work of the communist movement. Marx was also the first Marxist literary critic, writing critical essays in the 1830s on such writers as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and William Shakespeare” (M. Ray 1).

4. Pros • Allows readers to connect with the time of the literary piece and understand the social classes at the time. • Historical views are being expressed through social classes

5. Cons • Comes with a certain bias where the power is abused by the upper class. • Unless the piece is truly political, the Marxist approach will no offer any help

6. Criticism applied to Poem Marxist criticism for the poem “Identity Card” By MahmoudDarwish Mr. Darwish expresses his feelings as one of many. He exclaims, “My identity card is number 50,000”. He is talking about how out every other Muslim, he is just a number. Even though he has a unique family and story, he is just one more number in a low social class. In the second stanza, he talks about how he pulls the necessities to feed his children from doing labor. He also references how he is thought of as lower in the social ranks. He is explaining how in his country he is just another citizen. He has no voice or say in anything within his country, so he does so through his poetry. He also tells of how his life was essentially set in stone because of his family history and background. Darwish tells of his modest family history and how it affects his own thought processes. “My father.. descends from the family of the plow” explains that his father comes from a history of farmers and hard workers. He says how he was taught “the pride of the sun” before being taught how to read, this means that him and his family are very traditional and respective of land and culture. The author of the poem is outraged at the higher class for stealing his profits and ruining his land. The only thing they left was rocks and he is furious at the thought of them taking even that. The higher class in this time period, the adavantage goes to the Israeli’s and not to the palestiniansreceive no respect at all as the lower class and receives abuse. The author is not a mean man, the lower class doesn’t deserve the harshness of the State. But if they keep pushing around the enraged lower class there will be hell to pay.

7. Works Cited • Ray, Supyria M. "Definition of Marxist Criticism." Bedfordsmartin.com. VituaLit, 1998. Web. 27 Apr. 2012. <http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/virtualit/poetry/critical_define/cri t_marx.html>. • "Marxism." Social Class. 2004. Web. 27 Apr. 2012. <http://myhome.coloradomesa.edu/~blaga/Theory/Class.html>. And We Like to Party