Marxism and African literary studies today

Marxism and Literary Criticism (chapters 1-2)

complex, more than Shakespeare because we know more about the lives of women—Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf included. Both the victimization and the anger experienced by women are real, and have real sources, everywhere in the environment, built into society, language, the structures of thought. They will go on being tapped and explored by poets, among others. We can neither deny them, nor will...

Consciousness and Literary Studies

At this present juncture in the history of literature, many critics fear the literary word has been devalued by the twin forces of electronic technology and critical theory. Even so, the field of literature is not without resources to revivify itself as the emergence of new holistic approaches to literature testify. The interdisciplinary influence of the sciences, for instance, opens a window f...

Comparative literary studies

In an increasingly globalised and globalising world, „culture‟ appears as „an important determinant of subjectivity‟ and, consequently, of creative expression (Beautell 2000). With this in mind, Tötösy de Zepetnek (1999) prompted researchers to merge the comparative study of literature with that of cultural studies, embracing what he designated the new „comparative cultural studies‟ approach. I...

Marxism and Method

Sociological Marxism

From the middle of the 19 century until the last decade of the 20, the Marxist tradition provided the most systematic body of ideas and social theory for radical critics of capitalism as an economic system and social order. Even those critics of capitalism who did not directly identify with Marxism relied heavily on Marxist ideas about class, exploitation, commodification, the state, ideology. ...