marxism and culture Flashcards
what is marxism?
a macro, structural, conflict theory that focuses on the organisation of the system as a whole and how it shapes society.
what do marxists argue about change?
it is achieved rapidly through revolution rather than evolution.
they are positivists
what is the link between marxism and communism?
communism is the practice and marxism is the theory.
society is spilt into - bourgeoisie (own means of production) and proletariat (exploited)
what does Marx say about culture?
it has a social origin but not in classification systems but rather human labour.
he believed economic activity shaped human consciousness.
for Marx - culture originates from the work humans do beyond their survival needs as they start to develop self consciousness.
what is meant by alienation?
a condition of workers in a capitalist economy, resulting from a lack of identity with the products of their labour and a sense of being controlled or exploited.
what is the link between alienation and culture?
when humans live in freedom and are fulfilled problems arise when the human is restricted from the existence of private property :- some start to accumulate large amounts of private property at the expense of others and propertyless lose their freedom and are therefore alienated
produces a sense of estrangement (no longer own what they produce :- lost their humanity)
what is meant by the idea that culture is as a ruling class ideology?
in class stratified societies, culture can be seen as little more than ruling class ideology.
culture is simply an expression of the distorted view of the world advanced by dom class and use their econ power to shape societies culutre.
what did Marx and Engels 1846 say in their “The German Ideology”?
“the idea of the ruling class are, in every age, the ruling ideas; i.e. the class which is the dom material force in society is at the same time its dom intellectual force”
what do contemporary marxists say about this statement?
they use it to develop theories of institutions such as mass media. the w/c are seen as suffering from false class consciousness and their beliefs and culture will be shaped by ruling class.= ‘dom ideology thesis’
what does culture as a reflection of class differences mean?
classes have differences in culture because their conditions of material existence are different.
what does Stefan Morawski 1974 say?
“ideology will be the statement or symptomatic expression of a pattern of social class attitudes, interests or habits of thought”.
basically - w/c literature will be diff from m/c and same with the music.
what does Engels say about culture?
did accept that some aspects of culture could rise above the class origins revealing insights into society.
what does Engels say about the example of Goethe?
he raises the possibility that ppl can see through false class consciousness and produce work that shows an appreciation of the oppression and exploitation found in class based societies.
art + culture reflect the experiences of diff class groups, but can rise above this
what do Marx and Engels believe would eventually be the result?
there would be a revolution. class consciousness would develop in the w/c and they would see thru the distorted ideology.
capitalism would be replaced by communism and exploitation humans would be able to return to things that express their humanity
what does John Berger say about culture?
Berger argued that art reflects the political and economic system in which it was produced and that “the art of any period tends to serve the ideological interests of the ruling class”
