Unit IV: Political Criticism, Historiography and Cultural Studies

Political Criticism

The Political Criticism section grounds students in Marxist theory and its later developments, focusing on how economic structures shape ideology, politics, and cultural production. The readings trace a trajectory from Marx’s early materialist conception of history to Gramsci’s notion of hegemony and Althusser’s theory of Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs). Together, these works provide a toolkit for analyzing how power operates through both coercive and consensual mechanisms.

Introduction to the Section (Rivkin and Ryan 643)

The editors emphasize that political criticism is not merely about partisan politics but about uncovering the underlying ideological formations that govern social relations. They argue that literary texts are sites where dominant ideologies are both reproduced and contested, making the Marxist tradition indispensable for critical interpretation.

Karl Marx, The German Ideology (Rivkin and Ryan 653)

In The German Ideology, Marx and Engels formulate the materialist conception of history: the mode of production (the economic base) determines the social, political, and intellectual life processes (the superstructure). This relationship can be expressed succinctly as:

Base (forces & relations of production) → Superstructure (law, politics, ideology, culture)

The text stresses that consciousness is not independent but arises from material conditions. For literary analysis, this implies that themes, characters, and narrative structures reflect the prevailing economic relations of their historical moment.

• Base: Forces of production (technology, labor) + Relations of production (property, class)
• Superstructure: Legal systems, state power, religion, art, philosophy
• Dialectical: Changes in the base eventually provoke transformations in the superstructure.

Karl Marx, Wage Labor and Capital (Rivkin and Ryan 659)

This essay expands on the exploitative nature of capitalist relations, introducing the concept of surplus value—the difference between the value produced by labor and the wage paid to the worker. Marx argues that this surplus is the source of profit and the mechanism through which capital accumulates.

“The worker becomes poorer the more wealth he produces, the more his production increases in power and extent.”

Key takeaways for literary critics:

1. Characters’ economic struggles often mirror the extraction of surplus value.
2. Narratives that glorify individual merit may obscure systemic exploitation.
3. Settings of factories, markets, or financial districts serve as symbols of capitalist relations.

'Marxism' (Ryan 112)

Ryan’s concise overview situates Marxism within contemporary critical theory, highlighting its evolution from orthodox economic determinism to more nuanced engagements with culture and ideology. He notes that later Marxists have retained the core insight—that material conditions shape consciousness—while allowing for relative autonomy of the superstructure.

Formula of Relative Autonomy:

Superstructure = f(Base) + γ·(cultural/political struggles)

where γ represents the degree of independence afforded to ideological forms.

Antonio Gramsci, Hegemony (Rivkin and Ryan 673)

Gramsci shifts focus from coercive domination to the winning of “consent” through ideological leadership. Hegemony describes the process by which a ruling class projects its worldview as common sense, thereby securing the acquiescence of subordinate groups.

“The supremacy of a social group manifests itself in two ways, namely as ‘domination’ and as ‘intellectual and moral leadership.’”

Key concepts:

• Historical Bloc: The alliance between dominant class forces and subordinate groups secured through hegemony.
• War of Position: A gradual struggle to transform civil society’s ideological landscape.
• War of Maneuver: Direct, confrontational action (e.g., strikes, revolutions).

For literary analysis, hegemony explains why certain narratives feel “natural” or “universal,” masking their partisan origins.

Louis Althusser, Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Rivkin and Ryan 693)

Althusser distinguishes between the Repressive State Apparatus (RSA) (government, police, military) and the Ideological State Apparatuses (ISA) (schools, churches, family, media, culture). While the RSA functions through force, the ISA operates by shaping individuals’ subjectivities and beliefs, thereby reproducing the relations of production.

“Ideology represents the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence.”

He introduces the notion of interpellation (or “hailing”): ideology calls individuals into subject positions (e.g., “you are a student,” “you are a consumer”).

Althusserian Formula:

Subject = Ideology (ISA) ↔ Individual (lived experience)

Literary texts, as part of the ISA, can both interpellate readers into dominant ideologies and offer sites of resistance where interpellation fails or is subverted.

'Politics' (Ryan 210)

Ryan’s entry on politics underscores the interdisciplinary nature of political criticism, linking it to theories of power, governance, and public spheres. He argues that political readings of literature must consider both explicit political content and the implicit ways texts reinforce or challenge prevailing power structures.

Analytical tools discussed include:

• Discourse analysis of political language.
• Examining representations of state authority and resistance.
• Mapping the circulation of political affect (e.g., fear, hope) within narratives.

Historiography

The Historiography section introduces students to the theory and practice of writing history, with a particular focus on Michel Foucault’s innovations. Moving beyond traditional narratives of great men and events, Foucault’s work reveals how power/knowledge regimes produce regimes of truth that shape what counts as historical knowledge.

Introduction to the Historicisms Section (Rivkin and Ryan 505)

The editors argue that historicism is not merely about placing texts in their time periods but about understanding how historical consciousness itself is constructed. They highlight the shift from “history as a container” to “history as a productive force” that shapes identities and possibilities.

Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish (Rivkin and Ryan 549)

Foucault traces the transformation from sovereign power (public spectacles of torture) to disciplinary power (surveillance, normalization, and the micro‑physics of power). Central to his argument is the panopticon, a architectural metaphor for a society in which individuals internalize surveillance.

“He who is subjected to a field of visibility, and who knows it, assumes responsibility for the constraints of power; he makes them play spontaneously upon himself; he inscribes in himself the power relation in which he plays both roles.”

Key concepts:

• Disciplinary Power: Power that operates through observation, classification, and correction.
• Docile Bodies: Individuals molded to be useful, obedient, and efficient.
• Power/Knowledge: The inseparability of power relations and the production of truth.

Literary implication: Narratives that depict prisons, schools, hospitals, or factories often engage with disciplinary mechanisms; characters’ internalized self‑surveillance reflects panoptic logic.

Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality (Rivkin and Ryan 892)

In this multi‑volume work, Foucault challenges the “repressive hypothesis” (the idea that Victorian society repressed sexuality) and argues that power instead produced discourses about sexuality, creating new categories of identity (e.g., the homosexual as a “species”).

“The nineteenth century did not ‘bury’ sex; it began to speak of it, to find in it the truth of ourselves.”

Core ideas:

• Biopower: Power over life itself—regulating populations through birth rates, health, and sexuality.
• Discursive Formation: The set of statements, concepts, and practices that define an object of knowledge at a given historical moment.
• Technologies of the Self: Practices through which individuals shape their own conduct and identity.

For literary studies, this invites analysis of how texts construct sexual identities, how they participate in or resist discursive formations, and how they portray technologies of the self (e.g., confession, self‑examination).

'Historicism' (Ryan 66)

Ryan defines historicism as an approach that treats historical context not as a static backdrop but as an active, interpretive lens. He distinguishes between:

• Traditional Historicism: Seeks to reconstruct the author’s intention and original audience response.
• New Historicism: Views literature and power as mutually constitutive; texts are both products and agents of historical forces.
• Post‑Structuralist Historicism: Emphasizes the instability of historical meaning and the role of discourse in constructing “facts.”

He concludes that a productive historicism remains alert to the ways in which our own present shapes our reconstructions of the past.

Cultural Studies

The Cultural Studies section moves from economic and historiographic concerns to the everyday lived experience of culture, focusing on how meanings are produced, circulated, and contested. The readings highlight the role of ideology, interpellation, and subcultural style in shaping identities and social relations.

Introduction to the Section (Rivkin and Ryan 1233)

The editors note that cultural studies emerged from a desire to break down the “high/low” culture divide and to examine the politics of meaning in everyday life. They stress the importance of analyzing both texts and the practices of audiences who consume them.

John Fiske, Culture, Ideology, Interpellation (Rivkin and Ryan 1268)

Fiske builds on Althusser’s concept of interpellation but emphasizes the active role of the audience. He argues that while ideology attempts to hail individuals into specific subject positions, audiences can negotiate, resist, or reinterpret those hails.

“Popular culture is a site of struggle between the forces of incorporation and resistance.”

Key distinctions:

• Dominant Ideology: Seeks to secure consensus and naturalize power relations.
• Oppositional Ideology: Emerges from subordinate groups to challenge dominant meanings.
• Negotiated Readings: Audiences accept some aspects of a text while rejecting or altering others.

Fiske introduces the idea of semiotic democracy: the capacity of ordinary people to produce and exchange meanings outside the control of cultural industries.

Literary application: Examine how readers may adopt oppositional readings of canonical works, or how popular adaptations (e.g., fan fiction) rewrite ideological messages.

Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style (Rivkin and Ryan 1258)

Hebdige analyzes how subcultural groups (e.g., punks, mods, teddy boys) use style—clothing, music, hairstyles—as a form of symbolic resistance to dominant culture. He draws on semiotics and Marxist theory to show how style functions as a “signifying practice.”

“Subcultures represent a noisy refusal of the parent culture’s attempt to impose a coherent, meaningful, and predictable world.”

Concepts:

• Signifying Practices: The ways in which objects (clothes, music) acquire meaning within a subcultural code.
• Bricolage: The process of recombining existing cultural elements to create new meanings (e.g., safety pins as punk jewelry).
• Recuperation: The dominant culture’s tendency to commodify and neutralize subversive styles (e.g., punk fashion sold in mainstream stores).

Implication for literary analysis: Subcultural style can be read as a text in its own right; novels that depict youth cultures often engage with these processes of signification and recuperation.

Comparative Overview

To synthesize the three sections, the following table highlights each tradition’s core focus, key concepts, and typical literary questions.

By working through these theories, students will acquire a multifaceted toolkit for uncovering the layered relations of power, history, and meaning that animate literary and cultural texts.