Chapter 4 – Marxisms

Before you read

Warm-up

Watch a short interview with Stuart Hall on Marxism and Cultural Studies [link]. Pay attention to the issues he points out. Write them down to later compare them with claims and observations in Chapter 4. How do they possibly overlap?

Preliminary questions

<Insert Icon 2 here> Marx has influenced much work in Cultural Studies and this chapter of Cultural Theory and Popular Culture charts some of these. The insistence by Marx that all texts and practices should be located within their specific and historical contexts of production (and in some versions, the changing conditions of their consumption and reception) obliges a political analysis of their meaning.

In reading Chapter 4, you may like to reflect on the questions below:

• Why is Marx’s work important in Cultural Studies even though he has been dead for over 100 years?
• What and who are Marxisms and Marxists?
• Do you agree with Marx that all texts and practices are political?
• Is culture just about economics, money, the division of labour and social class?

The discussion on post-Marxism sees the analysis of the various interpretations of the term, either as an acceptance that Marxism must be left behind for something better or that Marxism needs to be reinterpreted and transformed. Storey discusses that at the heart of post-Marxist theory is discourse, where the meanings produced inform and organize action. Alongside this, is a focus on hegemony and articulation, drawing on the work of Laclau and Mouffe.  It is through culture, states Storey, that the ‘world is made to mean’ – and this culture is a place of struggle, resistance, acceptance, incorporation, pleasure and ideological concerns.

After you read: Important ideas

Chapter 4 explains the connections between Marxism and cultural studies delineating Marxist-centered influences on the development of cultural criticism. It guides you across a variety of approaches and their related influences. Bearing in mind Marxists’ argument for approaching all cultural practices in relation to history and changes in the economy, check your understanding of that argument in quizzes 4.1 and 4.2.

Quiz 4.1

Chose between true or false

1. 

Each period of history is constructed around a particular mode of production.

True

False

None

2. 

Cultural texts can be completely divorced from the historical period in which they were produced.

True

False

None

3. 

The economy (e.g. feudal or capitalist modes) influences political, social and cultural life.

True

False

None

4. 

The economy can be described in terms of the base and superstructure. One way of understanding the base is to think of it as the forces of production and relations of production.

True

False

None

5. 

Relations of production refer to social groups/classes involved in production.

True

False

None

6. 

The superstructure refers to various social institutions, social practices, culture, law and consciousness.

True

False

None

7. 

The superstructure exists independently of the economic base.

True

False

None

8. 

In any economy and culture there is never a dominant group. Any social class can easily insist on being dominant.

True

False

None

9. 

A ruling class often imposes its own views, beliefs, values and opinions in the form of ideology.

True

False

None

10. 

Ideology is often articulated in cultural texts and practices over which a dominant group may exercise control.

True

False

None

11. 

A Classical Marxist approach to culture insists that the economy has no influence whatsoever on the shape of texts and practices.

True

False

None

12. 

Nineteenth-century cultural practices are identical to twenty-first-century cultural practices.

True

False

None

13. 

Cultural texts can influence social change.

True

False

None

14. 

Althusser embraces completely the Classical Marxist model of the base/superstructure.

True

False

None

15. 

Althusser's notion of the base superstructure includes what is referred to as the social formation.

True

False

None

16. 

The social formation consists of three practices, defined as the economic, the political and the social.

True

False

None

17. 

The superstructure (law, education, culture) is a very unnecessary part of the economic base.

True

False

None

18. 

In Althusser's model, the superstructure has a degree of autonomy from the base.

True

False

None

19. 

The economy is ultimately determinant, and is always, as a result, the dominant factor in cultural arrangements.

True

False

None

20. 

In Althusser's work, ideology is seen to occupy an important and informing status.

True

False

None

21. 

Ideology is a system of representations as well as a practice.

True

False

None

22. 

Ideology as practice means that ideology informs and shapes how people relate to each other in culture and society.

True

False

None

23. 

Ideology does not provide answers, nor does it make any pretensions about its powerful status. Put simply, ideology is not powerful at all.

True

False

None

24. 

There are real conditions (forces and relations of production) and there are ways that we represent these conditions and relations. Ideology works at this latter level.

True

False

None

25. 

It is easy to escape ideology, to stand outside ideology, because it is full of contradictions and ambivalences.

True

False

None

26. 

In Althusser's model, people always resist their interpellation.

True

False

None

27. 

Ideology is, for Althusser, a closed and, at times, obscure system.

True

False

None

28. 

Ideologies can convince us that all is well with the world.

True

False

None

29. 

An Althusserian reading of a text attempts to expose the hidden messages in the text.

True

False

None

30. 

A symptomatic reading examines the manifest and latent aspects of the text.

True

False

None

31. 

Ideology can also be understood as material practices such as rituals, customs and patterns of behaviour.

True

False

None

32. 

Ideological state apparatuses include education, the law and the culture industries.

True

False

None

33. 

Ideological state apparatuses encourage subjects to challenge their subjection.

True

False

None

34. 

Interpellation refers to the way subjects are addressed in discourse.

True

False

None

35. 

Cultural texts always encourage subjects to question their sense of individuality and identity.

True

False

None

36. 

Cultural texts often interpellate subjects in compelling and convincing ways.

True

False

None

37. 

Hegemony also refers to the way in which there is often a high degree of consensus and social stability

True

False

None

38. 

Hegemony also refers to the ways in which all conflict is eradicated in culture.

True

False

None

39. 

Hegemony is maintained by dominant groups who are often forced to negotiate with each other.

True

False

None

40. 

Hegemony is also connected to the idea of resistance to incorporation.

True

False

None

41. 

Hegemony is always imposed from above, never articulated or negotiated in conflicting contexts.

True

False

None

42. 

The practices and texts of subcultures have no bearing on how hegemony might work.

True

False

None

43. 

Alongside hegemony, the notion of articulation suggests that meaning in culture is always fixed and stable.

True

False

None

Time’s up

Quiz 4.2

Match the answer to the statements (choose one)

1. 

According to E.P. Thompson, William Morris is

the first English Marxist

a post-Marxist

a neo-Marxist

None

2. 

Morris’s contribution to Marxist thought is

small but significant

extensive

debatable

None

3. 

Like Marx and Engels, Morris believed that creative labour is

an essential part of what makes us human

a fad

only to be enjoyed by artists

None

4. 

According to Marx and Morris, industrial capitalism

satisfies workers’ needs, as they are using their hands

is beneficial for social organisation

alienates labour

None

5. 

In comparison, art is

the expression of power in the labour production

an ornamental addition to everyday life

an outcome of the capitalist economy

None

6. 

Under socialism, labour will

follow assembly line production practices

use the whole of the worker, not just a part of them, to produce goods

exploit the machine

None

7. 

In a communist society, all men and women, argues Morris, will

work like artists

suffer injustice

commit themselves exclusively to one line of work

None

8. 

Morris’s novel News from Nowhere describes a society in which

people are socially stratified

the distinctions between culture and popular culture and social classes no longer exist

the distinctions between culture and popular culture and social classes exacerbate

None

9. 

The Frankfurt School is often associated with the term

critical theory

criticism

critique

None

10. 

The Frankfurt School work mixes Marxism with

psychiatry

mindfulness

psychoanalysis

None

11. 

The Frankfurt School are credited with using and developing the term

cultural studies

the culture industry

mass industry

None

12. 

The Frankfurt School describe culture as

homogenous

heterogenous

hybrid

None

13. 

The Frankfurt School termed popular culture texts as

unique

predictable

experimental

None

14. 

The Frankfurt School argued that popular culture

represents a threat

maintains social standards

maintains social authority

None

15. 

According to the Frankfurt School, popular culture is totally standardized and keeps the working classes

politicized

depoliticized

politically engaged

None

16. 

Who said: Popular culture encourages ‘one-dimensional thought and behaviour’?

Arnold

Marcuse

Morris

None

17. 

Who claimed that high culture and art were different; they embody ideals denied by capitalism?

classical Marxists

post-Marxists

the Frankfurt School

None

18. 

Who said: Authentic culture has taken over the utopian function of religion; to keep alive the desire for a better world?

Marx

F. R. Leavis

Horkheimer

None

19. 

Who believed that authentic culture was threatened by the process of the culture industry?

Marcuse

Marx

Jameson

None

20. 

Authentic culture is deprived of its critical function by

the culture industry

Marxists

artistic expression

None

21. 

According to Adorno, what is very standard and all the same?

popular music

folk music

classical music

None

22. 

The Frankfurt School would argue that people are passive when they listen to

Bach

Miles Davis

Beyonce

None

23. 

What acts as a ‘social cement’ according to Adorno?

opera

popular music

ethnic music

None

24. 

Last evidence and analysis indicate that the production and consumption of popular music is more complex than suggested by

Adorno

Hirsch

Marcuse

None

25. 

Texts and practices associated with subcultures suggest that Adorno’s conclusions were

insightful

naïve

inconsequential

None

26. 

Who argued that the consumption of disco music seemed to assert that the limits of work were not the limits of experience?

Richard Dyer

Horkheimer

Adorno

None

27. 

The Frankfurt School claimed falsity, passivity, mass distraction and standardization typify

culture

mass culture

working-class culture

None

28. 

The Frankfurt School argued that reality, European-ness, creativity and intellectual activity typify

culture

mass culture

working-class culture

None

29. 

A more optimistic and positive understanding of popular culture than that proposed by the Frankfurt School was discussed by

the Culture and Civilisation Tradition

Benjamin

Richard Dyer

None

30. 

Post-Marxism

extends the postulates of Marxism by other theoretical developments

rejects traditional Marxism

modifies major ideas of traditional Marxism and replaces them with new critical viewpoints

None

31. 

Theorists who believed to initiate post-Marxist criticism are:

Antonio Gramsci and Mathew Arnold

Stuart Hall and Raymond Williams

Fredric Jameson and David Harvey

None

32. 

Hegemony suggest

imposition and implication

implication and Evaluation

evaluation and Imposition

None

33. 

The sequence that best explains the meaning of discourse is

practice versus signification

idiom-making and performativity

articulation, action, perception

None

34. 

Objects depend on discourse

with their essence

in what they mean in a social practice

in how they develop

None

35. 

The meaning of ‘text’

is always stable

depends on the context

undergoes periodical changes

None

Time’s up

Important names

Chapter 4 introduces people responsible for applying Marxist ideas to cultural studies. Some of them formed schools of thought (e.g. the Frankfurt School), others simply laid the ground for socialist thinking to kick in (e.g. William Morris).  Use the following flashcards to better understand those people’s critical contexts and provenance with regard to their prominent ideas and their work.

William Morris

Theodor W. Adorno

Walter Benjamin

Max Horkheimer

Leo Lowenthal

Herbert Marcuse

Complementary materials

<Insert Icon 4 here> Having taken on board what the Frankfurt School were arguing, what is your own view regarding their perspectives on popular culture? How convincing are their claims that it is formulaic and predictable?

Before you consider this, check out the link below (The Axis of Awesome’s ‘4 Chords’): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOlDewpCfZQ

But isn’t the meaning of popular culture more complex than the Frankfurt School would have us believe? Think about your own engagement with the Popular Culture that you access, use or even generate. What does it mean to you? Where does its meaning lie? Are you on the side of Adorno or Benjamin? Use the examples below to help you decide:

•  Television comedy programmes (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxB1gB6K-2A)
• Clothes (e.g. what was the meaning of the safety pin used by punks?)
• User-generated content on YouTube
• Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Tinder
• Music remix apps (such as ‘Tunepacks’ by Ninja Jamm which allow users to creatively mix artist tracks, turn instruments on or off, add their own effects and upload to SoundCloud)
• Photography (check out Bliphoto)
• Graffiti (you may like to read John Storey’s account of graffiti in Tarragona in Chapter 11)