Literary Theory - Marx

Karl Marx

1.     Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844

a.     Private ownership is based on competition that promotes the accrual of capital.  The end result are:

                                                        i.     People that own property: the haves.

                                                      ii.     People who don’t own property: the have nots.

b.     Political decisions are influenced the property owners: the haves.

c.     The product the worker makes alienates him in several ways.

                                                        i.     The worker is unable to enjoy his work as it is not his.

                                                      ii.     The worker looses some of himself as he is producing to someone else’s standards rather than using the natural acts of creativity.

                                                     iii.     The worker is looses his identity as his relation to his work is diminished.

                                                     iv.     The worker is angry at the system as his work is ultimately owned by the property owner, at the workers expense of identity and sense worth.

d.     The worker looses a political sense of freedom and identifies his freedoms associated with his base (animal) functions.

2.     From The German Ideology.

a.     The intent is to provide objective and clear accounts of how social and political structures are connected to production.

                                                        i.     Needs to be evaluated as people are and do, not as ideology.

                                                      ii.     How one thinks is directly tied to their identity with material production.

                                                     iii.     The worker is affected by the property owner who conditions or controls their work.

                                                     iv.     Consciousness is constructed around the real events of someone’s life.

b.     The implication is those in power control those without by defining their work.  As the work is directly relates to how someone thinks and achieves consciousness, then the work has influence on how the worker thinks.

3.     From The Communist Manifesto.

a.     Communism is recognized as a political structure and it’s time for Communists to publish their views and agenda.

b.     The world consists of the opressors and the oppressed.

                                                        i.     History has always had classes.

1.     Modern capitalism is no more than a new class that still oppresses others.

2.     Capitalism is forming two simple classes.

a.     Those who have.

b.     Those who don’t.

3.     Modern capitalism is a product of history.

a.     With advancements in property ownership came advancements in politics.

c.     The Bourgeois class is dependent on re-inventing itself and its tools of production.

d.     The Bourgeois class is dependent on expanding markets and globalization.

                                                        i.     It manufactures new wants.

                                                      ii.     It has replaced family values with monetary values.

                                                     iii.     It forces other nations to be like itself.

                                                     iv.     It has fostered less developed countries to be more developed and industrialized.

                                                      v.     It has created large cities and shifted the population from the rural areas.

e.     The “Haves” have centralized production and population and has allowed the accrual of property to a few people.

4.     From Grundrisse.

a.     Certain forms of art can no longer be produced.

b.     Myth vanishes over time.

c.     Art is a product of its society.

d.     The character of a time is reflected in its children.

5.     From Capital, Volume 1.

a.     There is more to commodities than the object itself.

b.     Man creates commodities through labor.

c.     There are relationships between commodities, but not between the commodities and the labor that creates them.

d.     Commodities are valued based on their interest, or utility, to man.

                                                        i.     Use-value is derived from what the commodity can do for man.

                                                      ii.     Exchange value is derived from the market place and is disassociated from the labor that produced it.

1.     Men imply value onto things.

2.     With the exception of time for production, men do not imply the value of the labor that produced it.

3.     As such, the market place does reflect the value of the labor that produced it.

4.     The market value of a commodity is a reflection of the social needs and desires for the commodity.

e.     Chapter 10.

                                                        i.     The working day is 24 hours long and man is a slave to it.

1.     Capital usurps time for growth,

2.     Development,

3.     And health.

                                                      ii.     All Capital cares about is production.

1.     The more capital demands, the faster it uses up its labor resources.

                                                     iii.     Capital is reckless and uncaring with regard to the health or life of the worker.

Works Cited

Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. Capital, Volume 1. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.  Ed. Vincent B. Leitch et al.  2^nd ed. New York: W.W.Norton & Co., 2010.  662-663. Print.

---.  The Communist Manifesto. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.  Ed. Vincent B. Leitch et al.  2^nd ed. New York: W.W.Norton & Co., 2010.  647-655. Print.

---.  A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.  Ed. Vincent B. Leitch et al.  2^nd ed. New York: W.W.Norton & Co., 2010.  662-663. Print.

---. Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of.  The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.  Ed. Vincent B. Leitch et al.  2^nd ed. New York: W.W.Norton & Co., 2010.  647-655. Print.

---.  The German Ideology.  The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.  Ed. Vincent B. Leitch et al.  2^nd ed. New York: W.W.Norton & Co., 2010.  657-661. Print.

---.  Grundrisse. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.  Ed. Vincent B. Leitch et al.  2^nd ed. New York: W.W.Norton & Co., 2010.  661-662. Print.