Font Size: a A A

From The Stand To The Method: On Western Marxist Literary Ideological Theory And Criticism

Posted on:2004-08-29Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:X L QiuFull Text:PDF
GTID:1115360095957352Subject:Literature and art
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
This dissertation concerning the research on western Marxist literary ideological theory and criticism originated from a reflection on the predicament of Chinese Marxist literary theory. The article contains two chapters. The first chapter, which is divided into two sections, is a research on views of western Marxism on aspects of ideological nature of literature and its ideological function. The reason to differentiate the ideological nature of literature and its ideological function is that the intrinsic function of literature as one form of ideology is different from its function that serves the needs of specific purpose (fundamentally speaking, political purpose). Based on this consideration, this text probes into the ideological nature of literature and its ideological function separately. The first section, " Various Views on Ideological Nature of Literature" , focuses on how we can define literature as one form of ideology. In this section, the relevant views of Lukacs, Bakhtin, Althusser, Mecherey and Eagleton have been reviewed. And the second section, "Various Views on Ideological Function of Literature", concerns how to make use of literature through its literary nature. The relevant views of Benjamin, Marcuse and Sartre have been studied.The secon chapter is a research on the methods and practices of western Marxist literary ideological criticism. The author of the article holds that Marx actually sketched out a blueprint for literary ideological criticism when he defined art as one form of ideology from the point of view that the material production dominates the whole social and cultural life. Traditional Marxist criticism interpretedinterpreted this blueprint as the principium that economic base determines the superstructure, but vulgar materialism discredited it because of their mechanical understanding. Whereas in this sense, western Marxist more punctilious interpretation from the part to the whole helps us to get a deeper dialectical understanding of the principium. It does not mean that individual western Marxist critics have brought forth a whole set of method of ideological criticism unless we count them as a whole. It can be illustrated in the following line: text (content and form, especially form)-(writer's)weltanschauung -class or group conciousness -cultural revolution, upon which the text discusses some representative methods and practices of western Marxist literary ideological criticism. And the work will be done in three respects: The first section is about Weltanschauung criticism of some critics who established their method through the connections between text and writer's weltanschanuung. Lukacs, Sartre, and Bakhtin as a researcher of Dostoevsky will be highlighted in this section. The class or group conciousness criticism of some critics who founded their method in relations between text and class or group conciousness is put in the second section. In this section, Bakthin (as a researcher of Rabeleis), Adorno, Goldmann, and Eagleton are in the view. The last section refers to the theory called "political unconciousness". This section is trying to explore those critics who developed their method by nexus between text and mode of production as ultimate perspective. At present, Jameson may be the only critic who can be disscussed in this field.Finally, this article summarizes the above-mentioned western Marxist literary ideological theory and criticism on the basis of integration of ethic enthusiasm and the desire for knowledge.
Keywords/Search Tags:Western Marxism, Literary Ideology, Theory and Criticism, Research
PDF Full Text Request
Related items