Then, Marxist Criticism

With its basis in the ideologies of Communism, the eponymously dubbed “Marxist Criticism” is a specific subset of historical criticism that views various forms of artistic achievement for a litany of reasons that have little or nothing to do with artistic merit or creative achievement. Marxist criticisms refuse to dispense any reverence for work released with the intent to merely entertain, and Marxists pay particular note to such pursuits most specifically in the world of literature. Marxists, like the man whose work as an economist founded the school of political thought and gave this brand of literary criticism a name, view literature in praise of its ability to symbolize the vast chasms that exist between the haves and the have-nots in the socioeconomic systems of the world.

Where many present day critics and bibliophiles might view the works of Donna Tartt, Don DeLillo, Joyce Carol Oates, or Jay McInerney as post-modern masterpieces of exemplary brilliance, Marxists would view these authors and their works as vessels of the Communist movement, beacons of honor to analyze and critique for their attention to the idea of economics as the foundation for everything else there is in the world. Although Marxists would undoubtedly praise the aforementioned writers for their ability to sell copy, it would be their characters and their ability to say so much between the lines of their text. Furthermore, Marxist criticism would care not about these men and women and their power of exposing a microscopic magnification of the harsh realities of modern life to the world in innovative and interesting words. Instead, Marxists would wonder what the writers plan to do about it with the subject matter once it has been exposed.