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Marxist criticism reads literature through the lens of class, economics, and power. It asks: how does literature reflect the economic conditions of the society that produced it? Whose interests does it serve? How does it reinforce — or challenge — the dominant ideology? For A-Level, Marxist criticism is particularly useful for analysing texts that deal with class, money, labour, and social inequality.
Marx argued that society is structured in two layers:
| Layer | Content |
|---|---|
| Base (economic) | The material conditions of production — who owns what, who works for whom, how wealth is created and distributed |
| Superstructure (cultural) | Everything built on the economic base — law, politics, religion, philosophy, art, literature |
The base determines the superstructure. Literature, from a Marxist perspective, is not a free expression of individual genius but a product of specific economic and social conditions.
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