1. Adapted from “Critical Theory Today” - Lois Tyson (1999)
Marxist Theory
Adapted from “Critical Theory Today” - Lois Tyson (1999)

2. What is a “critical theory?”
Critical theories are academic frameworks for understanding the world. As opposed to scientific theories, they emerge from the humanities and social sciences. Think of them as a set of glasses - when you “use” a theory, you put on those glasses to look at the world through the “lens” of that theory.
What is a “critical theory?”
And what does it mean to “use” that theory?

3. Some Well-Known Theories
Psychoanalytic
Reader-Response
Critical Race Theory
Deconstructivism
Post-colonial
Structuralism/Post-Structuralist
New Criticism
New Historicism
Cultural Criticism
Feminism
LGBT/Queer
Gender Studies
Postmodernism

4. What do theorists examine?
Popular culture
Literature
Film
Music
Art
History
Politics
Economics
Social trends
Television
Media
Journalism

5. Where does Marxism come from?
Karl Marx ( )
Born in Prussia to upper middle-class family
Studied at Bonn and Berlin universities, became interested in materialist conceptions of history
Exiled from Germany after radical writings in Rheinische Zeitung (Rheinish newspaper)
Lived in London and continued to write and theorize about the relationship between labor and capital
Most famous for The Communist Manifesto (1849) and Das Kapital ( )
Friedrich Engels ( )
Eldest son of wealthy and successful textile manufacturer
Stationed in Berlin, attended university lectures and published anonymously in Rhenische Zeitung
Assigned to Manchester as manager for family business
Published The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845) to expose the extremely low quality of life for factory workers
Met Marx in Paris (1844), began a lifelong partnership of labor writing and organizing

6. Why are some people rich and some people poor?

7. Analysis of complex social phenomena must focus on the economic realities that structure human societies
Getting and keeping economic power is the motive behind all social and political activities
Economic power therefore includes social and political power
If a theory does not prioritize the economic realities of human culture, then it misunderstands human culture
Marxism
Big Ideas

8. Conflicting Explanations
American Dream
Anyone can be successful if they want it bad enough and work hard enough - some people fail to do so
Parents teach - or fail to teach - their children how to have a good “work ethic” and how to get ahead in life
Even if you’re born into poverty, you can work your way from the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder to the top - it’s called social mobility
Too much government regulation interferes with the natural rhythms of supply-and-demand economics
A functioning economy needs bosses and employees, and everyone has the opportunity to make themselves a valuable employee through their education
Marxist Theory
Most people will never have access to the good life because the economic elite keeps them out
Culture conditions the poor to accept their fate and prevents them from uniting
Social mobility is a myth perpetuated by the elite class in order to guarantee a supply of cheap labor
Economic power guarantees the elite class overwhelming social and political power
The inherent inequity of capitalism means that the working and middle class will someday be compelled to overthrow the elite class to control production

9. Base and Superstructure