Marxist & Feminist Literary Theory

[Misanthrope]

So today was my first day of high school. My first class, english, the teacher said we would be studying Marxist and Feminist Literary Theory. I never heard of these. Could someone give me some resources or explain what they are please? Do they have any relevance?

and has anyone else encountered discussions of these theories in government education camps, what should I expect?

thanks comrades.

[Nwoye]

So today was my first day of high school. My first class, english, the teacher said we would be studying Marxist and Feminist Literary Theory. I never heard of these. Could someone give me some resources or explain what they are please? Do they have any relevance?

and has anyone else encountered discussions of these theories in government education camps, what should I expect?

thanks comrades.
i can't fucking believe you get to take such a sweet class as a freshman in high school. oh my marx I'm jealous.

Marxist literary theory is basically just your same old english course but reading every text through a Marxist lens - this means applying Marx's ideas of social relations, alienation, history, class struggle, etc to a given text. I don't know what books you're reading, but I don't know how you could go through a class like that without reading 1984 and probably Brave New World as well. Both of those are just oozing with Marxist influences (in BNW the notion of class consciousness is one of the most important aspects of the book). Hell in BNW the main characters name is Bernard Marx, and the girl he's trying to get with is called Lenina Crowne.

[The Ungovernable Farce]

Them and Us in Literature (http://www.marxists.de/culture/them-n-us/index.htm) is the best easy-to-read introduction to Marxist literary theory I've seen. As for feminism, A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf (http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/w/woolf/virginia/w91r/) is probably the key text, I'll be amazed if you don't study that. Feminist literary theory is basically similar to Marxist lit crit, but with a gendered focus instead of a class one. For instance, none of us are born "knowing" how men or women are "supposed" to act, so one of the main ways we learn gender roles today is through the mass media. Before film or TV or radio existed, novels would've been one of the key cultural forms that transmitted gender roles (at least to that section of the population that was literate and had enough leisure to read).
As for whether they have any relevance...they're probably more relevant than any other literary theories, but they're still ultimately theories about literature, so they're not that likely to give you practical tips for building barricades. Still interesting, tho (at least to me, anyway).

[which doctor]

I have a hard time believing that your teacher will be able to adequately present these topics you, but I believe they are important nonetheless. Most high school english classes teach only the new critical approach to analyzing a text, without even hinting at any other approaches. Where the Marxists and Feminists differ is their addition of the social dimension of literature. Instead of focusing soley on the words on the page, they bring in extra-textual sources and ideas.

Both Marxism and Feminism have extensive influence within literary criticism. However, it's important to realize that there is no single Marxist literary theoy and no single Feminist literary theory as they're are lots of differing sub-groups within the larger classification of "Marxism" and "Feminism." You could literally devote an entire class to the history of Marxist literary criticism, but to give you a brief overview, it begins with Socialist realism and people like Lukacs, then moves into Western Marxism and Critical Theory/Frankfurt School and people like Adorno and Walter Benjamin. Also part of Western Marxism are the Structuralists like Althusser. Most recently you have the post-soviet Marxists like Frederic Jameson and Terry Eagleton.

Whereas the Marxists stuided the role of class in literature, the Feminists study the role of gender in literature. It begins with the early first-wave feminists such as de Beauvoir and Woolf. Later you have the second-wave feminists, most notable with Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique. The post-sixties era brought us the even more radical third-wave feminists and queer theorists.

I'm not sure where to start in mentioning specific resources. Of course there are loads of primary sources, but I think you'll find those exhausting in both language and immensity. I think it would be most helpful to read a historical treatment of both the traditions of Marxism and Feminist literary theories, and I know there are several such books avaliable on Amazon.com.