Marxism Through Literature: Exploring the Hierarchy of Social Convention

We are responding this week to Chris Craig’s post on Marxism. His primary thesis essentially deconstructs the formally acclaimed entitlement of literature itself. Craig points to literature as an ideology. This ideology is not only defined by the “ruling class,” but is also held to esteem by all other classes, thus creating the cycle of hegemony.

The ruling class in America consistently contributes and attempts to hold the working class in its current position. One of the more effective ways it does this, as defined by Craig, is to actually allow for the working class members to purchase their own small portion of rebellion. Items like Che Guevara t-shirts are being manufactured in bulk and marketed for distribution to the blissfully unaware consumer. These consumers truly feel as though they are contributing to the deconstruction of Capitalism. Too bad they are doing it with their wallets; irony at its finest.

In regards to sporting events, working class individuals become the inherent subject of professional sports marketing. Marketing as in money. If you have ever been to a sporting event, nothing is cheap; from the food to the tickets. The working class approach to this subject is that in purchasing a ticket to their beloved Red Sox game, they are in fact allowing themselves to purchase part of the team, thus the team becomes their own. When in reality, their money is never returned and only serves to contribute to the one million plus salaries that grants itself to almost everyone involved in said sport.

The ruling class itself also intends to promote the idea that “all the boats rise in the rising tide.” It allows them to believe that the economic system has their best interests at heart, thus interpellating their personal goals and profits into corporate goals and corporate profits. Capitalistic gain allows the working class to believe that through revenue they will succeed as well.

As the working class continues their hegemony, they participate in groupthink. It is an economically defined culture, such as literature, theatre, film, fashion, art, music, etc. In regards to literature, the same can be said. Craig argues that “…literature written under capitalism necessarily contains capitalistic ideology and promotes priorities of the ruling class, whether direct or indirect, regardless of the author’s intent.”

Literature is brought into meaning through the construct of the ruling class and its capitalist mentality. The master works of literature (Hawthorne, Shakespeare, Emerson, Bronte) “reduce to silence” the oppositional commentary within the text itself. That is to say, the views other than those dominantly expressed through the author’s text are necessarily the views of the working class.

The values and social construction scattered throughout a literary text, only serve to validate and rationalize the values and social constructions of the ruling class. Literature is written by and for the privileged and the social elite. The working class willingly accepts this assertion of dominance in attempts to relate its own cultural and socioeconomic perceptions to the cultural norms of the ruling class. This is their hegemony.

To even consider a text as literature is to define it in terms of the ruling class. It is through these interpellations [ruling class-working class] that the ruling class is able to maintain their position directly above the working class, who, unfortunately have contributed DIRECTLY to this assertion.