THEORIES OF LITERARY CRITISM

-SOCIAL-

AIN
NAJIHAH
REBECCA

SOCIOLOGICAL CRITIC

Maintains that a literary work cannot

be separated from the social and
cultural context.
Literature is a reflection of a particular
society and its value.
Analyzes literature with the goal of
explaining how a text reveals
something about society.

WHO IS KARL MARX

Karl Heinrich Marx 5 May 1818

14 March 1883) was aGerman
philosopher, economist,sociologist,
historian,journalist, and
revolutionary socialist.

- Marx's theories about society, economics and

politicscollectively

known

asMarxismhold

that all societies progress through the dialectic

ofclass struggle.
- Heavily critical of the current socio-economic
form of society,capitalism, he called it the
"dictatorship of the bourgeoisie",

SOCIAL CRITISM (MARXISM)

Sees history as struggle between sosioeconomic classes

and literature is a product of economic forces of the period.
Literature

is a material product for consumption in a

particular society.

Eg : comics, western, romantic novels

-Literature celebrate the values of society its represents
Eg : bourgeois (middle-class)
for

Marx, is defined as a (social) relationship rather than a

position or rank in society

-Works of literature often mirror the

creators own place in society.

-Most scholars view the relationship
between literary texts and issues of
class struggle between the economic
centre of society and social
superstructure as a work of fiction.

WELTYS WORN PATH

Marxist critic would pay much attention

to Phoenixs impoverishment and argue
that middle-class degrades the working
class through economic means.
(the white refuses to help the black)

Fictional literature can have a

significant social impact.
"For example, the 1852 novel Uncle
Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe
furthered the antislavery movement in
the United States, and the 1885 novel
Ramona, by Helen Hunt Jackson,
brought about changes in laws
regarding Native Americans.

Animal Farm, written in 1944 by George

Orwell, is a book that tells the animal
fable of a farm in which the farm
animals revolt against their human
masters.
It is an example of social criticism in
literature in which Orwell satirized the
events in Russia after the Bolshevik
Revolution.

A Tale of Two Cities also typifies this

kind of literature.
Besides the central theme of love, is
another prevalent theme, that of a
revolution gone bad.
He shows us that, unfortunately,
human nature causes us to be vengeful
and, for some of us, overly ambitious.

Both these books are similar in that both

describe how, even with the best of
intentions, our ambitions get the best of us.
Both authors also demonstrate that violence
and the Machiavellian attitude of "the ends
justifying the means" are deplorable.
They also express their authors'
disenchantment with the state of evolution
of human nature.

THANK YOU