Marxism and Literary Value

Literary theory is perhaps the most debated subject in academic circles today. The last few decades have witnessed an unprecedented proliferation of theory which has radically questioned our understanding of literature as an object of critical study. Various approaches have been adopted by critics and readers to respond to works of art and literature. "What constitutes literary value?" and "How are literary values constituted?" The present book explores the Marxist answers to such questions, focusing on how Raymond Williams and Fredric Jameson have approached the problem of ‘literary value’, and the related issues of the nature and function of literature, tradition, canon-formation, and the survivability of texts. Other theorists discussed include Karl Marx, Georg Lukacs, Lucien Goldmann, T.W. Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Louis Althusser, Pierre Macherey, Terry Eagleton, and Mikhail Bakhtin. The author discovers a great deal of diversity within the Marxist approaches. He argues that the major achievement of Marxism has been to create an awareness of the historicity of our minds, and consequently of our responses, opinions, and standards of evaluation, thus opening up the possibility of redefining the role of literature and literary studies in our daily lives.