Document 12727728
Marx and Engels
Cultural Materialism and Art
From the Introduction:
“It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but on the contrary, their
social being that determines their consciousness” (Lodge 31).
“The basic – and systemic – economy of life, how one procures and under what conditions, is the prime motive force, refracted with superstructural prohibitions and supposed freedoms allowed by legal and educational systems as well as religious codes.
The Base determines human behaviour in way that are often hidden from individuals by superstructural forces that give the impression that they are open to change and
evolution” (Lodge 31).
“To this end, art can never be disinterested or simply created for its own sake” (Lodge
32)
“The most significant works are, therefore, not simply those that deploy strikingly original or complex art, but those that allow readers or spectators to realize the specificity of their historical situation and that strengthen a belief in collective human
action and possibility” (Lodge 32)
From The German Ideology :
“They are the real individuals, their activity and the material conditions are which they live, both those which they find already existing and those produced by their activity.
These premises can thus be verified in a purely empirical way” (34)
“The way in which men produce their means of subsistence depends first of all on the nature of the actual means of subsistence they find in existence and have to reproduce”
(34)
“The production of ideas, of conceptions, of consciousness, is at first directly interwoven
with the material activity and the material intercourse of men…” (37)
“Life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life” (38)
“From the start the ‘spirit is afflicted with the curse of being ‘burdened’ with matter, which here makes its appearance in the form of agitated layers of air, sounds in short, of
language” (40)
Cultural Materialism
"Westerners think that Indians would rather starve than eat their cows. What they don't understand is that they will starve if they do eat their cows," he once told Psychology
Today. "During droughts and famines in India, farmers who succumb to the temptation to kill their cows seal their [own] doom; for when the rains come they will be unable to plow their fields." (Marvin Harris, Cultural Anthropologist – proponent of cultural
materialism).
Emic : the viewpoint from within the cultural group: i.e., cows are sacred.
Etic : the viewpoint from outside the cultural group: i.e., cows are necessary to modes of production thus the culture has constructed them as sacred.
Infrastructure : the etic view on modes of production (how the basic elements needed for survival are produced). Within this etic frame, these are dependent upon environmental, technological and demographic variables (in Marx’s terminology this is
the ‘real’ conditions). This is the base, in Marx’s terminology.
Structure : this consists of the organisational aspects of a culture (e.g., kinship, divisions of labour), again this is the etic viewpoint.
Superstructure : this is the symbolic or ideological aspect of culture (e.g., religion, art, literature, music, sport, rituals). These things are strictly necessary for survival.
* The structure shapes the superstructure and the superstructure maintains and legitimises the structure.
In other words, they aren’t separate entities but work together to form a complete picture of a culture.
1.
What infrastructural / structural elements can you infer from Howl (or what impression do you get of these things)?
2.
How does Howl work as an aspect of American culture’s superstructure – the culture as you know it or as imagined/constructed by the text?
3.
Does Howl support, or question, the infrastructural and structural aspects of the culture it constructs.
