MARXISM AND MARXIST LITERARY &

CULTURAL THEORY

Professor Alys Weinbaum

Class time: Tuesdays and Thursday  9:30-11:20

Place:  Smith 404

Email: alysw@uw.edu

Office hours: drop in office hours after class Tu/Th 11:30-12

All other appointments are set up by email.

Class Zoom Link:  https://washington.zoom.us/j/91785238094

(Use this link for remote office hours and class meetings)

Course Description

This course begins with a world changing text by Marx and his collaborator, Engels, and then proceeds to examine the debates that have emerged among Marxist thinkers who have taken up Marxist ideas and run with them.  These thinkers have expanded on Marx’s and Engels’s insights about class conflict and history, and have sought to understand how capitalism, racism, and sexism work together to create dominant systems of power, or hegemony. At the center of the course is therefore the question of how 19th century ideas about political economy (aka economics), history, and philosophy were taken up by 20^th and 21^st century scholars, and how a distinct tradition of interpreting literature, culture, and society from a Marxist perspective, using Marxist tools, has developed over time.

By contrast to other models of literary and cultural criticism which often seek to find in art and other cultural texts transcendent messages and universal meanings, Marxist thinkers have instead situated art and other cultural texts within their historical contexts of production and reception. In so doing, they have sought to understand how  power dynamics (including those informed by race, gender, and sexuality) create meaning, and how the conflicts that result from the imposition of power impact the meaning, message, genre, style, and form of literature and all other forms of art and cultural production.

Our study of Marxist theory will necessarily involve close, intensive reading of dense and often highly philosophical texts. Through engagement with these texts we will seek to understand how a materialist method indebted to Marx and Engels emerged as dominant (if often unnamed or acknowledged) within contemporary literary and cultural studies scholarship, and how diverse critical practices (given labels such as “critical theory,” “feminist theory,” “critical race theory,” and “cultural studies”) sit within an expansive Marxist intellectual tradition. Over the course of the quarter we will treat several cultural texts (short fiction and films). We will consider how our understanding of each is shaped by the Marxist frameworks that the course introduces, and how each, in turn, may be used to reveal the possibilities and pitfalls of Marxist methodologies.

Course organization

This course is loosely organized into three units that treat several of the issues and concepts repeatedly returned to by Marx and Engels and their interpreters: I) History and Class; II) Capitalism and Ideology; and III) Ideology, Literature and Culture.   In Unit I, we focus on the idea of “class,” paying special attention to how social and economic classes function as motors for historical transformation (historical materialism), and how class has been articulated with race and gender in the United States and globally.  In Unit II, we explore the concept of ideology as it was first developed by Marx, and then by later theorists who sought to describe the violence of “idea systems” that obscure the realities of human exploitation.  In Unit III, we examine how ideas of historical materialism and ideology can be used to study literature and culture more broadly.

Class format

I will generally begin each class by lecturing on the days readings.  My lectures provide context and raise questions.   I will mark out the important aspects of the readings and explain how they may connect to other readings and ideas.  I do not explain the readings to you.  My lectures are followed by class discussion (in both large and small groups depending on the reading and pedagogical goals for the day).  It is my expectation that the meaning of the readings will emerge through our collective discussion of them.  Unpacking the readings depends on sharing insights and generously engaging the ideas of your classmates.  

Electronic devices and note taking

No electronic devises may be used in class (except if you require an accommodation specified by DRS--if this is the case, please let me know immediately).  

All students must have a dedicated course notebook in which they take notes on the discussion.  At the start of each class I will appoint two note takers for the day.  Both will be required to post photographs of their notes on canvas for use by the rest of the class.  

Course goals and learning objectives

• • To read and understand dense theoretical texts.
  • To write about them with clarity and nuance.
  • To write about a range of cultural texts (literature and film) by setting the theories examined in this course to work.
  • To understand how Marxist theory develops out of intensive dialogue among scholars.
  • To evaluate the usefulness of Marxist theory as a distinct critical practice.
  • To evaluate the limitations of Marxist approaches to cultural texts.
  • To gain confidence discussing theoretical and cultural texts in informed and nuanced ways.

Course requirements  

• • Active, prepared, and informed participation in all class meetings and activities.  
  • A set of written analytical responses to course materials.  As discussed below, each student determines how many responses they will write based on their desired grade. 
  • Posting of your class notes to canvas at least two times during the quarter when requested. 

Attendance and participation

I will lecture briefly at the start of each class meeting to contextualize and raise relevant questions about readings. This noted, this is a discussion based course.  To process the often dense and complex materials you need to both write and discuss them with others.  For this reason, you must regularly participate in class.  If regular in-person participation is not possible for you, you should select a different course.

This course is fast paced.  To do well in this course you need to keep up with both the reading and writing.  I read all reader responses prior to class and base my lectures on what you write, understand and don’t understand.  For this reason, late reader responses will not be accepted. 

You should plan to check your UW email each day for any announcements or updates related to this course.  To find out if we have need to shift to zoom check at 9 am before class meets.

If you do not attend class and/or fall behind in the readings, it will be exceedingly difficult to submit written work that meets the minimum requirements for this course.  For most of you this means that it will be difficult to miss more than two class meetings over the course of the quarter.  If you must miss class due to illness please contact me immediately so we can figure out a way for you to catch up.

Course grades

Your course grade is based on a combination of regular in-class participation, and submission of a set of responses that clearly demonstrate your consistent deep engagement with course materials, lectures, and in class discussions (large and small).  

Response that meet the expectation of deep engagement will be fully counted toward you grade.  Responses that fail to meet this expectation will receive partial or no credit.  For instance, responses that are too short, underdeveloped, or carelessly written or edited will be graded down.  If you wish to know how your responses are being assessed, email me to set up a meeting to discuss your responses in office hours.  

Deep engagement is demonstrated in the following ways...

1. 1. 1. Offering thoughtful ideas and relevant questions about the readings in class.  Your contributions to class discussions (large and small) should clearly show that you have spent considerable time engaging with the course materials prior to class. This means completing all readings/viewings, being able to connect them to ideas presented in lectures and to prior discussions and related course materials. 
      2. Writing responses that are detailed and always make reference to specific ideas, passages, scenes, concepts. Put otherwise, the more close reading of discursive and visual texts that you do, the better!  See Professor Weinbaum’s Guidelines to Reader Responses for more information about how to write responses.
      3. Submitting written work that is carefully prepared. This entails organizing, editing and proof reading all reader responses to the best of your ability.  Sloppy work will result in partial credit for the response in question.

Your starting grade in this course is 3.4 or B+.  This grade will be given to all students who regularly participate in class and who complete 5 of 7 response assignments that clearly demonstrate deep engagement (see above). 

Each missing response below the require 5 responses will result in increasing penalty and points off of your final grade.  The first missing response will drop your course grade to 3.0, the second to 2.5, the third to 1.9.  Note: the minimal grade required for this course to count toward the major is 2.0.

To receive a grad higher than 3.4 in this course you must complete additional responses. Those who complete 6 responses that demonstrate deep engagement will receive 3.5-3.7.  Those who complete 7 responses that demonstrate deep engagement will receive a starting grade between 3.8-4.0  

Please note that late responses will not count toward your grade.  If you have missed a response because of illness or other exceptional circumstances, please contact me by email so that we can work out a plan to addresses your situation.

Reader response requirements and format

• • All responses are due on Mondays at 12 noon  (except #7)
  • Late responses will not be accepted
  • All students are required to complete reader response #3, #5, and #7
  • All responses MUST respond to the prompts

Prompts are included in the schedule of readings and assignments (see below).  All reader responses must take into account any changes to the prompt that have been discussed in class or posted as announcements prior to the response due date.

You may choose between an 750-word or a 1,000-word response depending on how much space you feel you need to develop your ideas and close reading. Please indicate which length of response you have chosen at the top by inserting the number in parentheses. Your response length must not be significantly over or under the word count (10 words over or under is fine). The set word count requires you to practice and hone skills of self-editing, precision, and concision in your writing.  In short, the structural constraint forces you to be a better and more thoughtful writer!

SCHEDULE OF READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS

All course readings are available on Canvas in the “files” section.

One text is also available through the University Bookstore:  Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto. NB:  I will be referencing the pagination to the Oxford edition in class lectures and discussions.

The following schedule is subject to revision. Revisions will be discussed in class and/or sent out as announcements.  It is your responsibility to check your email daily and to stay abreast of all changes to readings and assignments (including changes in due dates).

WEEK 1 

Tuesday, March 29

Introduction to the course 

Thursday, March 31

Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto (1848), sections I and II (pp. 1-26 Oxford edition)

Prof. Weinbaum's Reader Response Guidelines:  review here for discussion in class

WEEK 2

Response #1 due Monday 12-noon.

This response must treat The Communist Manifesto.  It should include a summary of at least one of the first three sections of the text, and must raise a question about the argument elaborated in that section.  Your question should emerge out of your treatment of a particular passage--choose one that you found either especially interesting, perplexing, or surprising. 

Tuesday, April 5

Final two sections of Communist Manifesto (pp.27-39) and the "Prefaces" to the English (1888), German (1890), and Polish (1892) editions.

Thursday, April 7

Karl Marx, “Theses Concerning Feuerbach” (1845)

Herman Melville, “Bartleby the Scrivener”

Supplementary reading:

Karl Marx, “A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy” (1859)

(NB:  this reading is attached to the same pdf as the one above).

WEEK 3

Response #2 due Monday 12-noon.  All students must do this response.

This response must treat “Bartleby” in relation to The Communist Manifesto.  Choose a character in the story and explain how his in/action illuminates a particular idea or argument that you found important within The Communist Manifesto.  Consider if and how this short story offers a critique of capitalism.

Tuesday, April 12

Immanuel Wallerstein (two essays),  “The Ideological Tensions of Capitalism:  Universalism versus Racism and Sexism” and “Class Conflict in Capitalist World Economy.” 

Thursday, April 14

No class meeting, but you are expected to read and write on Tuesday or before!

Assignment:  Read at least one of the three articles listed below and write a "discussion post" of at least 500 words on two things you learned from this reading that you did not know prior.  See the discussion board for further thoughts on posting.

Nicole Hannah-Jones, “What is Owed." https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/24/magazine/reparations-slavery.html

Matthew Desmond, (the second essay--scroll through), "If you want to understand the brutality of American Capitalism...". Nicole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, The New York Times Magazine.  https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html

Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The Case for Reparations.” https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/?utm_source=atl&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=share (Links to an external site.)

Read and explore other parts of the 1619 project!  The lead essay by Hannah-Jones is excellent; also see the essay on music by Wesley Morris or any others that interest you.        

WEEK 4

Tuesday, April 19

Jodi Melamed, “Racial Capitalism”

Thursday, April 21

Boots Riley dir., Sorry to Bother You.

The film is available on several platforms.  You are responsible for obtaining and viewing the film prior to class, and for taking viewing notes for use in writing your response and for reference during class discussion.

Supplementary reading:

Robin D. G. Kelley, “The Rebellion Against Racial Capitalism."  Available on the Intercept as article or podcast: https://theintercept.com/2020/06/24/the-rebellion-against-racial-capitalism/

Keeanga-Yamahatta Taylor, “From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation”

WEEK 5

Response #3 due Monday 12-noon.  All students must do this response.

This response must offer an analysis of a particular scene in Riley’s film. Use your analysis of this scene to meditate on a key insight that you have drawn from one of the key readings on the relationship between racism and capitalism (Wallerstein, Melamed, April 14 readings, Kelley, Taylor).  First elaborate in detail the particular theoretical insight you have selected as your focus,  then bring this insight to your analysis of the scene from the film that you wish to parse.

Tuesday, April 26

Silvia Federici (two essays), "Wages Against Housework" and "Why Sexuality is Work" 

Thursday, April 28

Melissa Wright, “The Dialectics of a Still Life:  Murder, Women and Disposability”

WEEK 6

Tuesday, May 3

Elizabeth Bernstein, “Bounded Authenticity and the Commerce of Sex”

Kimberly Kay Hoang, "Economies of Emotion, Familiarity, Fantasy, and Desire:  Emotional Labor in Ho Chi Minh City's Sex Industry"

Thursday, May 5

Octavia Butler, “Bloodchild”                    

WEEK 7

CLASS CANCELED (May 10, May12)

Note:  this syllabus has now been adjusted to reflect changes starting in Week 8.  See below for due dates relevant to remainder of the quarter.

WEEK 8

Response #4 due Monday, 12-noon.  

This response must consider how Butler’s short story resonates with at least one of the preceding readings that theorizes the relationship between sexism and capitalism (Federici, Wright, Bernstein, Hoang) .  As in the previous response, you must first elaborate on the theoretical insight you wish to focus on and set to work, then must explore how it opens up your understanding of a particular passage or scene from the story.

Tuesday, May 17

Marx, "The Fetishism of the Commodity" (pp. 163-177 of Chapter 1, Vol 1 of Capital)

Thursday, May 19

Louis Althusser, “Ideological State Apparatus” to page 177

WEEK 9

Response #5 due on Monday 12-noon.

This response must explore one major idea you have taken from Althusser’s essay.  It must explore how this particular idea helps you understand some aspect of your own participation in “the family/school dyad.”  Be specific.  You must draw on your own life experience while also demonstrating your understanding of the central claims that Althusser is making about how ISAs function.

Tuesday, May 24

Louis Althusser “ISA” essay completed

Louis Althusser, “A Letter on Art in Reply to Andre Daspre”

Thursday, May 26

Raymond Williams, “Introduction” to Keywords and keyword entries: “Art,” “Class,” and “Literature”   

Supplementary viewing:

Banksy dir., “Exit Through the Gift Shop.”                              

WEEK 10

Response # 6 due Monday 12-noon. 

This response must make an argument for why one word that is in use today and we hear on a regular basis counts as a keyword.  Be sure to offer a clear and concise definition of “keyword” based on your reading of Williams before discussing how and why the word you have selected ought to be understood as a keyword.

(You can access the OED via UW Libraries here: https://guides.lib.uw.edu/research/encydict)

Tuesday, May 31 

 Raymond Williams, Chapters 6, 8, 9 from Marxism and Literature      

Thursday, June 2

Bong Joon-Ho dir.  Parasite

The film is available on Netflix and other platforms.  It is your responsibility to view the film prior to class.  You should take viewing notes for reference during class discussion.

Supplementary reading:

Criss Moon & Julie Moon, "'Parasite' and the Plurality of Empire"

Ju-Hyun Park, "Reading Colonialism in 'Parasite'"

Exam/Reading Week

Response #7 is due on Monday June 6, 10 am.  All students must do this response.

This response must treat Parasite in relation up to two readings (at least one must be theoretical) that we have done this quarter.  We will discuss it in class on the last day of the quarter.  It must be 1000 words in length.

ETIQUETTE

General classroom etiquette

This class deals with politicized material. You do not have to agree with everything we read. Our collective goal is to treat other people’s ideas with respect and interrogate them with critical rigor. It is important that you come to class each day with an open mind, a sense of humor, and a willingness to discuss ideas in polite dialogue with others. By doing so, we all ensure that this course remains a forum in which we can learn from one another. Language or behavior that is sexist, racist, homophobic, xenophobic, and so on prevents the exchange of ideas and will confronted on the spot.  

Zoom etiquette (in the event we must meet remotely)

• To facilitate smooth synchronous meetings, please adhere to the following standards of etiquette:
• Mute your microphone upon entering the meeting; unmute your microphone only when you talk
• Wear clothes that would be acceptable in a physical classroom space on campus
• Use the "chat" feature for vital communication only, as chat can distract from the primary discussion
• Raise your hand physically or with the raise hand feature under the participants tab
• Leave your video on whenever possible (I understand it will not be possible in all circumstances)
• Do not text or engage in activities unrelated to class on your computer or otherwise during Zoom meetings.
• If you need to step away from your computer momentarily, mute your microphone, stop your video, and display the “away” button on your screen (available via the participants tab).
• To protect all our privacy, I will not automatically record Zoom meetings. Therefore, on occasions when we must meet on zoom, I encourage you to consult class notes posted on canvas.

Shift to Zoom

We will meet in person during our regularly scheduled class time. If however, circumstances once again mandate our return to remote, we will meet during our regular class time on zoom using the link provided at the top of the syllabus.  Should a shift to remote be needed I will send an announcement via canvas to your UW email address.  Yet another reason to check your email daily, ideally before class meets on Tu/Th mornings at 9 am.

Plagiarism

You are not required to consult outside sources in writing responses. This noted, if you do consult websites, blogs, academic articles, discussion boards, etc… it is your responsibility to accurately and fully acknowledge these sources.  Any failure to do so amounts to plagiarism.  For instance, failure to provide citations for quoted or paraphrased formulations and ideas, and submission of a paragraph, sentence, phrase or concept conceived of by someone else without full attribution all constitute plagiarism. Work containing plagiarism, however minor, will be excluded from consideration toward your grade. All instances of plagiarism will be immediately reported to appropriate authorities.

Email

If you contact me via email to set up office hours or for any other reason, please allow at least 24 hours for my response. Please also understand that I am unable to respond to email after 5 p.m., on weekends, or after the last day of classes.

OTHER USEFUL INFORMATION

Religious accommodation

Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy (https://registrar.washington.edu/staffandfaculty/religious-accommodation...). Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form (https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious- accommodations-request/).

Writing resources

I encourage you to take advantage of the writing resources available to you at no charge:

The CLUE Writing Center in the Gateway Center of Mary Gates Hall is open Sunday to Thursday from 7pm to midnight. The graduate tutors are adept at helping you develop your claims and improve your essays. You do not need to make an appointment, so arrive early in case there is a wait. You may visit their site here: http://depts.washington.edu/clue/dropintutor_writing.php

The Odegaard Writing and Research Center offers a range of one-on-one appointment times, Sunday to Friday. It provides a research-integrated approach to writing instruction. Make an appointment on the website: www.depts.washington.edu/owrc

The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) allows you to browse or search writing related questions. It is also an excellent resource for questions about MLA formatting and citation. You can visit the site here: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

Ask Betty is a UW-designed grammar resource center for FAQs on common subjects including how to work with instructor feedback on writing. You can find the site here: http://depts.washington.edu/engl/askbetty/

Disability accommodation

If you need accommodation of any sort, please do not hesitate to talk to me so that I can work with the UW Disability Resource for Students (DRS) to provide what you require. More information about accommodation may be found at http://www.washington.edu/students/drs/

UW Safe Campus

Preventing violence is everyone’s responsibility. If you’re concerned, tell someone.

• Always call 911 if you or others may be in danger.
• Call 206-685-SAFE (7233) to report non-urgent threats of violence and for referrals to UW counseling and/or safety resources. TTY or VP callers, please call through your preferred relay service.
• Don’t walk alone. Campus safety guards can walk with you on campus after dark. Call Husky Night Walk 206-685-WALK (9255).
• Stay connected in an emergency with UW Alert. Register your mobile number to receive instant notification of campus emergencies via text and voice messaging. Sign up online at www.washington.edu/alert.

For more information, visit the SafeCampus website at www.washington.edu/safecampus.