How did Marx and Engels view literature?
Marx and Engels viewed literature as insignificant.
What is the sociology of literature?The sociology of literature is the production and distribution on literature in a society, and the social composition of the authors and audiences.
What did Matisse believe about all art?That all art shows some form of history or historic event.
What is 'original' about Marxist literary criticism?Its revolutionary understanding of history.
Why is art part of the superstructure?
Because it shows the way people perceived society and the way they felt about it.
What, according to interpretations of Conrad's work was the crisis facing the Western bourgeois class?Conrad's work marked the ideological pessimism facing the western bourgeois class.
Which four elements make up the levels of 'unity' which Marxist criticism focuses on?Text, ideology, social relations & productive forces.
In his letter Joseph Bloc, what did Engels want to deny about the base and superstructure?He denies that there is any one mechanical correspondence between the base and superstructure because elements from each influence each other.
Why does Marx believe we enjoy classical Greek literature?
Liking Greek art is a nostalgic lapse back into childhood.
Monday, 23 November 2015
Tuesday, 17 November 2015
The Large Cool Store
The Large
Cool Store
How does Larkin explore ideas of inequality between social
classes?
The Large Cool Store was written by Philip Larkin in 1961.
This poem presents the lives of the working class and the inequalities that
they faced from society. This poem emphasises the way the proletariats
tried to convince themselves and the people around them that they were
wealthier than they really were. However their true social class is evident
throughout the poem.
The first way that the poem presents the working class is
through the language used to describe the store. It says ‘selling cheap clothes
set out in simple sizes plainly’. The first thing this quote shows is that the proletariats
could only afford to buy ‘cheap clothes’ as they could not afford anything
else. This suggests that the society was unfair and because they are lower
class they are restricted by the limits the upper class, the bourgeoisie, have
set for them. The rest of the language in the quote ‘simple’ and ‘plainly’
could also be used to portray the lives of the working class. These words could
show the way that way the lower class people lived was very plain and simple as
they didn’t have access to the nicer and more extravagant things in life, and that
every day was the same.
Larkin then uses the clothes to reflect the lifestyle of the proletariats.
He describes the clothes as ‘browns and greys, maroons and navy’. These colours
are symbolic and represent their dull and boring lives. These
colours also suggest the work setting which could imply that they would have
worn these clothes for work too. This contrast to the bourgeoisie who would
have had a variety of different clothes to wear many would have been very smart
and expensive. Alternatively these colours are used to symbolize their
environment as many of the proletariats lived in poor and dirty areas. This is supported in the next two lines when he
says ‘leave at dawn low terraced houses…for factory, yard and site’. This line
shows poor houses and the work that they had to do to afford the cheap clothes.
Another way that the poem shows the inequality between the
lower class and the upper class is when the poem says ‘the weekday world of those who leave at dawn’. This quote shows that
the proletariats lived in a completely separate world and are alienated from
the bourgeoisie. It shows that they the different classes don’t mix together. This
is because they lived in a capitalist society and the bourgeoisie believed that
they were much better than the lower class and for that reason didn’t have
anything to do with them, besides employing them. As weekdays are the days for
work it also suggests that the life of the proletariats evolved around working.
This poem also presents a false consciousness from the proletariats
as they believe that if they buy clothes that appear to be wealthier than they
really are will make them richer than they are and therefore accepted by the
upper class. This is shown in the poem when he says ‘unreal wishes’, which
shows that although this is what they want and believe will happen it will not.
This is because the money from the clothes that they buy to appear wealthier
goes to the bourgeoisie making them richer. This increases the gap between the bourgeoisie
and the proletariats. It also keeps the support of the base and superstructure going.
The proletariats’ buying certain clothes to seem wealthier
additionally leads to alienation not just from the bourgeoisie but also from themselves
as they try to become someone else. Andrew Motion, a Marxist critic, agreed
with this idea saying ‘the argument is whether the shoppers are deluding themselves
when they buy something or are they going beyond the limits which society sets
the’. Andrew Motion also suggests that they bought the clothes to rebel against
their society.
To conclude this poem was written by Larkin to show the
inequalities and alienation that the proletariats suffered from because of the
bourgeoisie. It also presents the false consciousness believed by the proletariats,
about them buying commodities to appear wealthier than they were.
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