CRITICAL THEORY MID TEST A

Ariq Viryalyssa A.M Thalib

13020119140141

Week 2 : KEY CONCEPTS OF MARXISM: BASE & SUPERSTRUCTURE

BOURGEOISIE & PROLETARIAT
 Summary
Marxism is a social, political, and economic philosophy named after Karl
Marx. Karl Marx is a revolutionary, sociologist, historian, and economist. His and
Friedrich Engels’s writings form the basis of the body of thought and belief
known as Marxism. Marxism examines the effect of capitalism on labor,
productivity, and economic development and argues for a worker revolution to
overturn capitalism in favor of communism. Marxism posits that the struggle
between social classes—specifically between the bourgeoisie, or capitalists, and
the proletariat, or workers—defines economic relations in a capitalist economy
and will inevitably lead to revolutionary communism.

- Base & Superstructure

Base and superstructure are two linked theoretical concepts developed by

Marx. Base refers to the production forces, or the materials and resources, that
generate the goods society needs. Superstructure describes all other aspects of
society.

Marx defines the base as the social relations between men which create and
produce materials that are eventually put up for exchange. From the base comes a
superstructure in which laws, politics, religion and literature legitimize the power
of the social classes that are formed in the base. Base (primary economic
activities) & Superstructure (a unitary "area" within which all cultural and
ideological activities could be placed) are key terms in Marxist theory. Marx
reframed the relationship between base and superstructure as dialectical, meaning
that each influences the other. Hence, if the base changes so does the
superstructure; the reverse occurs as well.

- Bourgeoisie & Proletariat

In Marx's analysis, the capitalist class could not exist without the proletariat,
or vice-versa. The relationship between classes is a contradictory or antagonistic
relationship, one that has struggle, conflict, and contradictory interests associated
with it. For Marx, classes are defined and structured by the relations concerning
(i) work and labour and (ii) ownership or possession of property and the means of
production.

Bourgeoisie and Proletariat are the two main social classes Karl Marx
identified in his theory of Marxism. The membership in these two social groups
depends on the ownership of the means of production. Moreover, these two social
groups are interdependent; for the bourgeois, proletariats are a source of profit
while for proletariats, the bourgeois is a source of employment. The main
difference between bourgeoisie and proletariat is that bourgeoisie refers to the
capitalists who own the means of production and most of the wealth in the society
whereas proletariat refers to a class of workers who do not own means of
production and must sell their labour to survive. Furthermore, according to Karl
Marx, capitalism is based on the exploitation of proletariats by the bourgeoisie.

 Example

Literary example of the topic above is found in A. Gastev’s poem called

Whistles. It is a lyrical poetry which tells a story about a life of the Proletariat.

When the morning whistles resound over the workers’ suburbs, it is not at
all a summons to slavery. It is the song of the future.
There was a time when we worked in poor shops and started our work at
different hours of the morning.
And now, at eight in the morning, the whistles sound for a million men.
A million workers seize the hammers at the same moment.
Our first blows thunder in accord.
 What is it that the whistles sing?
It is the morning hymn to unity.
Week 3 : CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS, FALSE CONSCIOUSNESS,
DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM

 Summary
- Class Consciousness & False Consciousness

Class consciousness and false consciousness are two major concepts in the
Marxist theory of social class. These are basically two opposing concepts. Class
consciousness is awareness of one’s own social class and economic rank in the
context of a larger society, whereas false consciousness is a way of thinking that
prevents an individual from perceiving the true nature of their social or economic
situation. Class consciousness involves people who are well aware of their social
and economic situation in society, whereas false consciousness involves people
who do not realize their true social and economic situation in society. According
to Marxism, workers with class consciousness understand that they are being
exploited, while people with false consciousness hold values and beliefs that
benefit the ruling class, and do not understand that they are being exploited.

- Dialectical Materialism

Dialectical materialism is The Marxist theory that maintains the material basis
of a reality constantly changing in a dialectical process and the priority of matter
over mind. This term has been used by Marx to understand the contradiction
between the opposite tendencies found in the society because something new
always has to come. Dialectical Materialism is a way of understanding society,
history, and the world around us. Applied properly, it can explain just about
everything there is to do with humans, our civilizations, our cultures, our religion,
etc.

 Example
 Class consciousness example in real life is the “Blue Collar and White Collar”
terms. In the 20th century, there was a strong class distinction between blue collar
workers who did physical labor and white collar office workers who worked at a
desk. This served to divide the proletariat as most white collar workers depend on
their labor but viewed themselves as above the interest of the blue collar worker.
This distinction is fading as office workers are increasingly faced with poor
working conditions and low pay such that many blue collar workers have better
jobs.

Week 4 : ALIENATION & COMMODIFICATION

 Summary
- Alienation

Developed by Karl Marx, the Theory of Alienation or ‘Entfremdung’ posits

that capitalism has distorted the human relations that are not controlled by the
participants themselves. It is also called the process whereby the worker is made
to feel foreign to the products of his/her own labor. This, in turn, leads to
separation of things that belong to each other naturally, which then results in
antagonism in things that are in order. Within the capitalist mode of production,
the individual loses his control over his work. He loses his ability to think, to
determine his destiny, to define his relations with others and to own things of
value. Ultimately workers lose the liberty to think for themselves and to make
their own decisions since they have no control over their work. The worker is
alienated from his/her product precisely because s/he no longer owns that product,
which now belongs to the capitalist who has purchased the proletariat's labor-
power in exchange for exclusive ownership over the proletariat's products and all
profit accrued by the sale of those products.

- Commodification

Commodification means the transformation of relationships, formerly

untainted by commerce, into commercial relationships, relationships of exchange,
of buying and selling. Capitalism is a social system where industry, trade and
means of production are largely owned and managed by private owners, and they
operate for a profit. It is estimated to have dominated the world for approximately
500 years. However, in the last decades a new concept has started to thrive in
business environment, that being commodification. Given the fact that today
businesses are mostly run in capitalistic societies, commodification is one of great
importance to them, as they can take advantage of “commodifying” any service or
good, own it and sell it for a profit. Consequently, one of the most outstanding
characteristics of commodification, is that it takes into account the commercial
dimension, which allows privatization. Conversely, the term commodification has
also attracted much criticism, as it raises the question whether there is any right
left that the society can make use of, without paying a price for it. But eventually,
in conclusion, commodification brings advantages in the business environment,
and provides opportunities for developing new products and services which meet
the increasing demands of the customers for their changing needs and wishes.
However, in order to create a balance between society and market ethics must be
considered in order to ensure a long-lasting exchange of values.

 Example

Alienation in literature could be found in Hugo’s book with title Les

Miserables. Les Miserables was born in a capitalism era of the industrial
revolution and revolution in French. It is the nature of this literary work which
contains the social struggle within society. The characters from lower class status
in this novel depicted that the characters is suffered from the alienation of ; 1)
man’s alienation from his labour, 2) man’s alienation from the Production, 3)
man’s alienation from his Social Environment, and 4) man’s alienation from
himself.

Week 5 : LUKACS’ REIFICATION & CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS

 Summary
 Georg (György) Lukács (1885–1971) was a literary theorist and philosopher
who is widely viewed as one of the founders of “Western Marxism”. Lukács is
best known for his pre-World War II writings in literary theory, aesthetic theory
and Marxist philosophy. Lukács laid out a wide-ranging critique of the
phenomenon of “reification” in capitalism and formulated a vision of Marxism as
a self-conscious transformation of society.
- Reification
In Lukacs' scheme, reification is thus a specific condition of alienation
characterizing the effect of the commodity structure upon the consciousness of the
'proletariat'. Lukacs defines reification as a process in which "a relationship
between persons receives the character of thingness and in this manner a 'ghostly
objectness' which eliminates all traces of human interrelationships." Human
beings turn into reified objects due to rational and impersonal process. Reification
is the worst form of alienation and it affects the 'proletariat' quite devastatingly,
claims Lukacs. It effects "a split in personality" (Verdoppelung der
Persönlichkeit) whereby the 'proletarian' perceives himself partly as a human
being with a personality, partly as "an object of commodity exchange." If one
becomes only partly a human being, a human being only in one's inwardness, this
is basic to what Lukacs calls reification; man remains trapped in the duality of the
subject and the object which duality is internalized.
- Class Consciousness
Lukacs believed that it is consciousness that determines history. This
consciousness, however, is the consciousness of one who has overcome
objectification, the consciousness of a Marxist. The reifying character of
'capitalism' is penetrated through the self-consciousness of a commodity which -
while human- is most dehumanized, namely the 'proletariat'. The self-
consciousness of the 'proletariat', says Lukacs, is "the self-consciousness of a
commodity”. This consciousness, endowing its bearers with the qualities of
choseness, has little or nothing to do with the thoughts of the laboring people.
This "class consciousness" as Lukacs sees it consists in the identity of subject and
object, theory and practice, freedom and necessity.
 Example

Reification is a complex idea for when you treat something immaterial — like
happiness, fear, or evil — as a material thing. This can be a way of making
something concrete and easier to understand, like how a wedding ring is the
reification of a couple's love.