LITS3303 2008 - 2009

MODULE ONE: MARXISM

Don't forget that articles not in one of the anthologies or online may be found in the course folder in the library.
 

WEEK  ONE: INTRODUCTION
(Week of September 1)
 

REQUIRED READINGS

• Introductory Matters
• What is Literary Theory?
• What is Theory?

• G. W. F. Hegel
  • The Philosophy of History (trans. J. Sibree) [1805-1837]:
    • Introduction¹
  • The Phenomenology of Spirit [1807]:
    • "The Master / Slave Dialectic" (pp. 630-636 in Leitch)

• 01A Hegel's Philosophy of History
• 01B Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit
• 01C Hegel Overview

RECOMMENDED READINGS

• Singer, Peter.  Hegel.  Oxford: OUP, 1983.²

PHILWEB RESOURCES

• Nineteenth Century Thought: Romanticism (German Idealism): Hegel

WEEK TWO: KARL MARX
(Week of September 8)
 

• Karl Marx The German Ideology [1845-46] (pp. 625-626 in Adams; pp. 767-769 in Leitch)

• 02 Marx Overview

• Karl Marx Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy [1858-59] (pp. 625-627 in Adams; pp. 774-776 in Leitch)

• McLellan, David.   Karl Marx: his Life and Thought.  New York: Harper & Row, 1973.³

• Marxism
• Marx

WEEK THREE: HEGELIAN MARXISM
(Week of September 15)
 

• Georg Lukács "What is Orthodox Marxism?" [1919] (pp. 1-26 in his History and Class Consciousness)⁴

• 03A Lukacs "Class Consciousness" (TBA)

• Antonio Gramsci "The Formation of the Intellectuals" [1929-1935] (pp. 1135-1143 in Leitch)

• 03B Gramsci "The Formation of the Intellectuals"

• Kearney, Richard "Georg Lukács" (pp. 136-150 in his Modern Movements in European Philosophy)
• Kearney, Richard "Antonio Gramsci" (pp. 169-189 in Modern Movements in European Philosophy)

• Lukács
• Gramsci

WEEK FOUR: MARXIST LITERARY THEORY
(Week of September 22)
 

• Georg Lukacs "Art and Objective Truth" [1954] (pp. 791-807 in Adams and Searle)

• 04A Lukacs "Art and Objective Truth"

• Lucien Goldmann "The Genetic Structuralist Method in the History of Literature" [1963] (pp. 156-171 in Towards a Sociology of the Novel)
• Raymond Williams "Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory" [1973] (pp. 31-49 in his Problems in Materialism and Culture)

• 04B Goldmann "The Genetic Structuralist Method in the History of Literature"
• 04C Williams "Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory"

• Kearney, Richard "Georg Lukács" (pp. 136-150 in his Modern Movements in European Philosophy)
• Williams, Raymond.  "Literature and Sociology: in Memory of Lucien Goldmann."  Problems in Materialism and Culture.  London: Verso, 1980.  11-30.
• Eagleton, Terry.  "Criticism and Politics: the Work of Raymond Williams."  New Left Review 95 (1976): 3-23.

• Goldmann
• Williams

WEEK  FIVE: MARXIST POST-COLONIAL THEORY
(Week of September 29)
 

• Ngugi wa Thiong'o "Literature and Society: the Politics of the Canon" [1973] (pp. 3-27 in his Writers in Politics)
• Chidi Amuta The Theory of African Literature [1989]: "A Dialectical Theory of African Literature: Categories and Springboards"

• 05A Ngugi wa Thiong'o "Literature and Society: the Politics of the Canon"
• 05B Amuta "A Dialectical Theory of African Literature: Categories and Springboards"

• C. L. R. James "The Artist in the Caribbean" [1959] (pp. 183-190 in his The Future in the Present)
• George Lamming "Politics and Culture" [1980] (pp. 77-83 in his Essays, Addresses and Interviews, ed. Andaiye and Richard Drayton, et al.)

• 05C James "The Artist in the Caribbean"
• 05D Lamming "Politics and Culture"

• Robinson, Cedric.  Black Marxism: the Making of the Black Radical Tradition.  London: Zed Books, 1983.  Rpt. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1999.

• Post-colonial Theory: Marxist Post-colonial Theory:
  • James
  • Lamming
  • Ngugi
  • Amuta

FOOTNOTES
 

1. This article is an extract from Sibree's translation of The Philosophy of History.  There are several available translations which you may read.  Please visit my PhilWeb Hegel page for other translations (e.g. see Reason in History).

2. Singer's introduction to Hegel is a useful, brief summary of Hegel's key ideas.  See my PhilWeb Hegel page for a variety of other useful secondary sources, some of which may be found in the Main Library.

3. McLellan is an authority on Marx who has written many books on this subject.  This is one of his best-known studies and well worth reading for an understanding of Marx.  See my PhilWeb Marx page for a variety of other useful secondary sources, some of which may be found in the Main Library.

4. Note that I have substituted the shorter and slightly easier essay, "What is Orthodox Marxism?", for the longer, more complex one originally listed here, "Class Consciousness."  In the former, Lukacs broaches all the issues which he develops further in the remaining essays collected in History and Class Consciousness.