ELIT 48C

Class #18

Disinterested or Uninterested?

Disinterested Versus Uninterested

Disinterested traditionally means having no stake in the matter. For

example, when you are arguing with someone, you might bring in a

disinterested third person to help settle the issue fairly

.

Uninterested traditionally means not engaged, bored, or

unconcerned.

AGENDA

Marxist Criticism

Writing a character analysis

Author Introduction:

William Faulkner

Marxist CriticismLecture

Marxist criticism is based on the theories of Karl Marx

(and so influenced by Hegel). This theoretical

perspective is concerned with class differences:

economic, social, and cultural, as well as the

challenges and consequences of the capitalist system.

Tyson says that “Marxism attempts to reveal the ways

in which our socioeconomic system is the ultimate

source of our experience” (277).

Those working in the Marxist tradition are interested in

answering the overarching question, whom does it (the

work, the effort, the policy, the road for example)

benefit? The elite? The middle class?

Marxists critics are also interested in how the lower or

working classes are oppressed in everyday life and in

literature.

The Material Dialectic

This Marxist belief system maintains that “what

drives historical change are the material realities

of the economic base of society, rather than

the ideological superstructure of politics, law,

philosophy, religion, and art that is built upon that

economic base" (Richter 1088).

Marxist critics generally work in areas

covered by the following questions.

Whom does it benefit if the work or effort is accepted, successful, or believed?

What is the social class of the author?

Which class does the work claim to represent?

What values does it reinforce?

What values does it subvert?

What conflict can be seen between the values the work champions and those it portrays?

What social classes do the characters represent?

How do characters from different classes interact or conflict?

Discussion

Post #17: Brain Buster

Discuss Feminist, New Critical or Marxist theories in terms of The Great Gatsby. Choose a specific passage on which to focus your interpretation.

by Lois

Tyson

(Tyson 75)

(Tyson 76)

By Lois Tyson

Feminist Criticism by Lois Tyson

By Lois Tyson

William Faulkner

Author Introduction

William Faulkner,

shown here in 1954,

believed it was a

writer's duty to write

about the compassion

and endurance of

people

Novelist William Faulkner knew the South well.

He spent most of his life there, and wrote with

compassion about family, community, and the

people he knew. Born in New Albany, Mississippi,

on September 25, 1897, Faulkner created the

legendary Yoknapatawpha County. Its fictitious

population includes Southern white aristocrats,

merchants, farmers, poor whites, and persecuted

blacks. Faulkner told how the South is still

affected by its past. "The past is never dead," he

wrote. "It's not even past."

http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/progress/jb_progress_

faulkner_1.html

HOMEWORK

Read: “Barn Burning” 800-

12

Post #18 QHQ “Barn Burning”