Marxism essay
Karl Marx (1818 – 1883) is a German philosopher, sociologist, economist, political journalist and social activist. His work has shaped the philosophy of dialectical and historical materialism; he formed the theory of surplus value in economics, and the theory of class struggle in politics. These areas became the basis of the communist and socialist movements and ideologies, which was called “Marxism” (Comninel, 2000).
The great German scientist Karl Marx has left a deep mark in all social sciences, but first of all he was an economist, because the main object of his research was the political economy. Even today many people think of Marx’s as of the greatest economist of all times and they are looking for an answer in his theory on the question of how the economic life of society should be organized, so there was not poor, disadvantaged people, flagrant inequality, injustice and corruption.
The principal difference between Marx’s economic theory and his predecessors is primarily in the fact that the capitalist system is seen by it with the class position of the proletariat. Marx concluded that this system is not a “perpetual,” “natural,” “responsible to nature of man.” On contrary, he believed that sooner or later capitalism will be replaced by revolutionary means, a different social system in which there is no place for private property, exploitation, inequality and poverty of the masses. Moreover, Marx deduced his rejection of capitalism not from moral indignation, anger and protest, which were undoubtedly caused by a capitalist society. He argued that capitalism would perish because of its inherent objective contradictions that cannot be resolved without changing the overall economic and social structure.
In the framework of Marxist political economy a theory of surplus value was created. The concept of surplus value based on valuation, as materialized labor, which suggests that the value of the goods does not depend on supply and demand but is determined by the amount of invested labor.
Marx also advanced the theory of class struggle. Class struggle is the struggle between social classes, whose interests are inconsistent or contradictory. Class struggle is the main content and the driving force of history of all antagonistic class societies.
Creating a theory of class struggle has made it possible to generalize the infinite variety of individuals’ activities and bring them to the actions of large groups of people differing in their position in the system of social production – classes. Development of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels’ theory of class struggle was of decisive importance for the scientific justification of socialism and the transition paths for it. The logical conclusion from this theory is the need to recognize dictatorship of the proletariat as an instrument of its class struggle and the social transformation of society.
Dialectical materialism is the direction in philosophy, which focuses on the relation of being and thinking and the most general laws of being and thinking. According to the basic provisions of the Marxist philosophy, dialectical materialism asserts the ontological primacy of matter with respect to consciousness and the continuous development of matter in time. Marx’s historical materialism views society as a system, caused by the level of development of productive forces. Actually, society social structure is a combination of base and superstructure.
In addition to theories which Marx created in economics he made a great impact on the English literature of the 20th century. In fact this influence was even more significant and deeper than Darwin and Copernicus has influenced the life and literature in their own times. He was mainly a social philosopher. His first work was connected with learning the Hegelian dialectic which he carried out at the University in Berlin and Bonn. Later, in 1848, he published The Communist Manifesto together with Frederick Engels. This work was the reason why he got the name of the “father of Communism” (Fraser, 2003). It became the revolutionary masterpiece and influenced the whole world.
There was not the place for soul, spiritual things or religion in Marx’s philosophy. According to his opinion the former was like the opium for people which maintain people in material world. His work at the Hegelian dialectic was used by him in order to create materialistic explanation of social structures. His theory of the class struggle is the essential point. This struggle takes place because of the desire to have the control under the means of production. Marx criticized laissez-faire policy which he thought was a mean for capitalists to take advantage from the working class without any obstacles. He supported Communism which means the leading role of workers under the individuals in order to establish wealth for everyone. He rejected the possibility to a king or parliament to rule the country efficiently and thought that working class could do it much better. His views were the inspiration for Russian and, later, Chinese Revolutions which were the most significant in the world together with smaller in scale but not less important for societies (Thorpe, 2009).
There were four ways of Marx’s influence on English literature which included bigger attention to poor exploited proletariat. Even writers who did not follow Marx’s ideas tried to represent this social class in their literature. There were many works of literature which mostly described life and different situation in which working masses were involved. Marx also uses English literature in order to spread out his communistic propaganda. He also condemned traditional forms and techniques which were used in literature at those times considering them to be bourgeois. Marx’s theories gave the basement for statism on contrary to the idea of individual’s freedom and contrasted materialism to spiritualism what found its reflection in literature of that period (Potts, 2009).
Marx’s impact on English poetry of the 20th century was significant. Following his example such famous poets of 30s years as Stephen Spender, Cecil Day-Lewis, W.H. Auden, and Louis MacNeice use their works as a means to spread out their communistic propaganda (Ramirez, 2009). They contributed to class struggle supporting their fight against the bourgeoisie. Marx’s theory of classes struggle found its reflection in dramas presented in theatres at those times. Show, Arden, Edgar and Hares are just some dramatists among those you brought communism propaganda via their works to the theatre scene. Novels with Marxian ideas were less popular in England than dramas but there were books which showed and told about life of poor, exploited people who had to stay unfairness and prejudice. George Gissing and George Moore were such novelists who paid their attention to these aspects which were firstly discussed by Marx in his works.
Marxian thoughts, views and theories were also reflected and impacted the literary criticism all over the world. Walter Benjamin, Lukacs, Gramsci, Fredric Jameson, and Macherey were critics from the Marxian school which was very simple if even not to say limited. It was related with structuralism, psychoanalytic theories and even reconstruction in such way creating new approaches and the whole system. Raymond Williams and Terry Eagleton are worthy to be named as the most famous Marxian critics of the 20th century.
