Marxism and Literature: Marxist Analysis of ‘The Garden Party’
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47264/idea.lassij/3.2.16Keywords:
Marxism, Behaviour, Economics, Katherine Mansfield, Social Behaviour, Poor, RichAbstract
Research is conducted on Marxism but many literary genres still need to be studied using Marxist lens. Short stories like ‘The Garden Party’ gives realistic depiction of life so demands a Marxist explanation. It is full of themes and characters, every individual encounters frequently in real life, has not yet been studied in view of some economic or social theory. This research aims to analyse this short story applying Marxism to yield plurality of meanings embedded in it and to widen compass of this economic and political theory. Research technique used here is qualitative in nature as it analyses ‘words and phrases’ used in the text to decipher its underlying theme. The findings of this study gives an insight into social condition of a common human being and subjugation of lower social class in the hands of upper social class. Further, it scrutinizes “the politics of class” to observe socio-economic circumstances of individuals and societies along with asserting how people are shaped, and their behaviour is affected by their social class. Through characters, Katherine Mansfield has not only portrayed exploitation and manipulation of the lower social class/stratum but has also revealed role of ideology to maintain this status quo.
Metrics
References
Althusser, L., and E. Balibar. 2009. Reading “Capital”. Verso.
Awan, A. G., & Raza, S. A. (2016). Effects of totalitarianism & Marxism towards dystopian society in George Orwell’s selected Fictions. Global Journal of Management and Social Sciences, 2(4), 21-37. https://www.gjmsweb.com/archives/2016/Volume%202/Issue%204,%202016/Ahmad%20Raza%20paper.pdf
Birch, D. (1989). Language, literature and critical practice: ways of analysing text. Routledge.
Eagleton, T. (1976). Marxism and Literary Criticism. Metheun Books.
Feuer (ed.). (1959). Marx and Engels- Basic Writings: Doubleday.
Gramsci, A. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (5th ed.). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Grampp, W. D. (1973). Classical economics and its moral critics. History of Political Economy, 5(2), 359-374. https://doi.org/10.1215/00182702-5-2-359
Jay, M. (1993). Marx after Marxism- New German Critique.
John, M. N. (2017). A Microcosm of Life and Death: A Review of The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. International Journal of Research in Humanities, Arts, and Literature. 5(10), 75-78.
Lashari, M. A. (2008): A Marxist Approach to Shaikh Ayaz's Poetry: https://www.researchgate.net/publication
Marcuse, H. (1941). Technology, War and Fascism. Routledge.
Marx, K. (1867). Das Kapital: Kritik der politischen Oekonomie (Vol. 1). Der Produktions prozess des Kapitals (1st ed.). Verlag von Otto Meissner. https://doi.org/10.3931/e-rara-25773
Marx, K. (1865). Value, Price, and Profit. Retrieved from, http://www.iep.utm.edu/l/literary.htm#h4
Mansfield, K. (1989). The garden Party. Penguin Popular Classics (Original work published 1921).
Royanian, S., & Omrani, E. (2016). Class Oppression and Commodification in Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Merchant of Venice. World Scientific News. http://www.worldscientificnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/WSN-50-2016-186-196.pdf
Scott, W. (1962). (Ed.). “The sociological approach". Five approaches of literary criticism. Collier Books.
Selden, Ramden. (1985). A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory: University Press of Kentucky.
Simpson, S. (2000). Of crime and criminality: The use of theory in everyday life. Pine Forge Press.
Williams, R. (1977). Marxism and Literature: Oxford University. http://www.iep.utm.edu/l/literary.htm#H4
Lukacs, J. (1967). Preface to History & Class Consciousness. https://www.marxists.org › archive › lukacs
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Tayyaba Bashir, Shahid Hussain Mir, Arshad Mehmood

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Licensing & Copyright Policies
Articles in LASSIJ-IDEA are Open Access contents published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) http://
The copyright policy of LASSIJ-IDEA is based on a non-exclusive publishing agreement, according to which the journal retains the right of first publication, but the author(s) are free to subsequently publish their work. The copyright of all work rests with the author(s).
The users may use, reproduce, disseminate or display the article(s) provided that the author(s) are attributed as the original creators and that the reuse is restricted to non-commercial purposes, i.e., research or other educational use. Authors are encouraged to familiarise themselves with the various creative commons licenses.
Readers are advised to consult the licensing information embedded in each published work to ensure that they are familiar with the terms of use that apply.