English 6073 / 7073
The Critical Legacy of Marxism
Wednesday 5:30 – 8:15 / HSS 3.02.06
Professor Mark Bayer Office: MB 2.452
Hours: Wed. 2-5
Phone:458-6885 English Dept. Mailboxes: MB 2.316
Marx, in many ways, is like Shakespeare: without ever having encountered a word of the plays or an accurate substantive account of what Marxism is, or might mean to its practitioners (or to its opponents), people tend to have some kind of conception of what it is about. In this class, we will attempt to analyze Marx’s legacy, especially in the humanities and for literature students, in a critical way that will provide an overview of the multiple strands of Marxist theory and criticism, assess their relative merits, explore how they might be applied to representative literary texts, and debate its legacy in contemporary literary studies.
Marx is famous for saying that “philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it,” suggesting to many that Marxism is primarily a political orientation or a substantive ideology designed to effect radical change in various historical situations. Yet Marx is equally famous for the claim that he was not a Marxist, that he didn’t always approve of the “practical” uses to which his theories were directed
during his lifetime. Indeed, Marxism in its most productive forms and in its application to literary theory today has little to do with a substantive programme of reform or endorsement of any particular critical regime but in a mode of critique and as a set of theoretical postulates that can be applied to literature in alarmingly diverse ways. This course, then, will offer (in solid Marxist fashion) an historical overview of Marxist theory both historically and in the current scholarly climate. In order to do this, I want to spend the first part of the semester looking at various primary texts, both the writings of Marx himself and his antecedents. Finally, we will pay close attention to the way Marxism in a variety of forms has made a profound impact on literary studies, shaping the way we approach the study of literature today, and contributed to the development of other popular approaches to literature, from postcolonialism and feminism, to gender and various historical methodologies.
Required Texts: (available at the campus bookstore):
Tucker, ed. The Marx / Engels Reader.
A number of readings available on Blackboard
Course Requirements: Your final grade will be based on a presentation (15%), participation (15%), a short paper (6-8 pages) (20%), and on a final term paper of 18-20 pages (50%). The final paper must be typed according to the style set forth in the MLA Handbook. You must also provide a one page prospectus for your paper about a month before it is due outlining the thesis you wish to argue as well as a very briefly annotated bibliography of primary and secondary works to be consulted.
Attendance: This course assumes an interactive approach in its structure, which builds upon previous classes, and in its presentation, which requires engaged participation from all members of the class. Your presence is essential to the success of his course, and therefore to your success in it. Valid excuses for missing class include documented medical reasons, authorized university activities, and established religious holidays (see “Class Attendance Policies,” UTSA Handbook of Operating Procedures, http://www.utsa.edu/hop/chapter5/5-9.cfm). You must contact me about any such absences in advance, other than in extreme circumstances. You are responsible for making up any classwork missed, and must make up assignments within a reasonable time in consultation with me.
A Note on Papers: I want you to write two papers (one short, due halfway through the semester; the other longer, due at the end of the term). The final paper can be on a topic of your choice relevant to the course. For the first paper, I want you to offer a Marxist reading (or at least an outline of one) of a particular literary text. As you will soon see, a Marxist critique can take numerous different forms, so strive for a sophisticated and multi-layered analysis rather than a “vulgar” or simplistic one. In this regard, I want you to avoid polemic. There may well be a political agenda underscoring your interpretation, but you want to concentrate on analysis and on effectively deploying Marxist concepts to understand issues in the text.
Because the term paper is expected to be original and a research intensive, exercise, I encourage you to come see me about your topic and ideas well before the deadline. These papers are expected to be analytic, to have a coherent and narrow thesis derived from a more general topic (note the important differences between the two), and to offer a close reading of a particular issue. The key to a good paper is to have a good argument. I’ve found two things to be especially useful for students in constructing solid critical arguments: first, try to formulate your thesis as a question. If you have a good, interesting question that seems like it will take about twenty pages (or more) to answer, you’ll probably end up writing a good paper. Second, to help you construct a good argument, think of your task as similar to that of a lawyer: your client is your thesis for which you need to construct a coherent, analytical argument and marshal evidence (from the text and potentially other sources) in order to defend. Remember, as in any scholarly argument, it’s always best to obey the “law of hermeneutic responsibility,” that is to put your opponent’s arguments in the best possible light before you comment on them. In short, it’s okay to challenge someone’s claims, but not caricature them.
Presentations: Like papers, I think that presentations are an important part of any seminar: they allow you to focus on a narrower topic, provide a different authoritative voice (besides mine!), and help build confidence in discussing the material and making your own contribution to scholarly debates. But I don’t want you to simply summarize the material. For your presentation, I want you discuss if (or how) the readings for that particular day are relevant in today’s society and in contemporary literary study. These are complex questions to answer, and in some cases the answer is no, so try to take a broad approach to the topic. And most importantly, try to use your presentation to generate questions for discussion. These questions are vitally important because they offer a useful bridge between your presentation and the larger issues we will discuss in class.
A Note on Plagiarism: The University of Texas at San Antonio defines “scholastic dishonesty” as including but not limited to, “cheating on a test or other class work, plagiarism (the appropriation of another's work in one’s own written work offered for credit), and collusion (the unauthorized collaboration with another person in preparing course work offered for credit). Should a student be accused of scholastic dishonesty, the faculty member may initiate disciplinary proceedings” that could result in failure of the class or even expulsion from the university. The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers provides a detailed discussion of “Forms of Plagiarism” and “Other Issues,” including the impropriety of submitting the same paper to more than one instructor or in more than one class by the same instructor. If you have doubts as to what constitutes plagiarism, ask me. I am very good at catching cases of plagiarism, so don’t do it!
The Tomás Rivera Center for Student Success: The Tomás Rivera Center offers a variety of programs to meet students' individual learning assistance needs. The Tutoring Center provides tutoring for selected core curriculum courses. Academic Coaches are available for personal appointments. Information-packed Study Skills Workshops teach advanced techniques for studying, such as new ways to prepare for tests and how to remember information more effectively. All services are free to UTSA Students. They are located in UC 1.01.02.
Disability Services: Support services, including registration assistance and equipment, are available to students with documented disabilities through the Office of Disabled Student Services (DSS), MS 2.03.19. Students are encouraged to contact that office at 458-4157 prior to starting classes to make arrangements, though they can contact the office at any time.
***COURSE SCHEDULE***
Wednesday, 12 January - Introduction: What is Marxism?
Wednesday, 19 January – Beginnings: The Enlightenment and Reactions to It
READ: Renee Descartes, From Meditations on First Philosophy
David Hume, from A Treatise of Human Nature
Immanuel Kant, from Critique of Pure Reason
From Critique of Judgement
Wednesday, 26 January – Hegel
READ: from Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit
Charles Taylor, “Hegel’s Philosophy of Mind”
Wednesday, 2 February – Early Marx
READ: Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 (pp.66-125)
The German Ideology, Part I (pp. 146-203)
Wednesday, 9 February - Late Marx: Das Kapital
READ: Marx, from Capital, Vol. 1 (pp.294-438)
Wednesday, 16 February – Revolutionaries!
READ: Lenin, “What is to be Done?”
“Where to Begin?”
from Two Tactics in the Democratic Revolution
Mao Tse-Tung, selections
Wednesday, 23 February – Marxist Humanism
READ: Jean-Paul Sartre, from Being and Nothingness
E.P. Thompson, from The Making of the English Working Class
Wednesday, 2 March – Marxism and International Organization: Dependency Theory
(with Walter Mignolo, Wannamaker Professor of Literature, Duke University)
READ: David N. Balaam and Michael Veseth, “Marx, Lenin, and the Structuralist Perspective.”
Alvin Y. So, “The New Dependency Studies” and “World System Studies at the Global
Level.”
Walter Mignolo, “The Enduring Enchantment”
Wednesday, 9 March – Ideology I (Humanism)
READ: Antonio Gramsci, from Prison Notebooks
Georg Lukacs, from History and Class Consciousness
***First Paper Due***
Wednesday, 23 March – Ideology II (Structuralism)
READ: Roland Barthes, from Mythologies
Louis Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses”
George Hartley, From The Abyss of Representation
Wednesday, 30 March – The Frankfurt School and Its Legacy
READ: Walter Benjamin, from Illuminations
Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, from Dialectic of Enlightenment
Jurgen Habermas, form Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action
Wednesday, 6 April - Marxist Aeshetics: Marxist Poetics and Literary Criticism?
READ: Bertolt Brecht, “What Is Epic Theatre?”
Steve McCaffery, “Writing as a General Economy”
Terry Eagleton, from The Ideology of the Aesthetic
Robert Kaufman, “Everybody Hates Kant”
Wednesday, 13 April – Gender and Sexuality
READ: Simone de Bouvoir, from The Second Sex
Catherine MacKinnon, from Towards a Feminist Theory of the State
Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, from Materialist Feminisms
Wednesday, 20 April – Late Marxism
READ: Raymond Williams, from Marxism and Literature
Frederic Jameson, from The Political Unconscious
Wednesday, 27 April: ReIntroduction: What Is Marxism Today?
READ: Ralph Miliband, from Socialism for a Skeptical Age
Robert Kaufman, “Lyric Commodity Critique”
Wrap-up and discussion of Final Papers
Monday, 2 May – Final Papers Due