English Criticism

MARXISM
Marx and Engels; View of the individual in: The German Ideology:
In the text 'The German Ideology', Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels reject the notion of identity. Instead declaring that nothing can be regarded in static isolation or exist independently, as everything must be viewed in its relations with class, economic structure, ideology and history. Implying that to discuss 'the worker' is thus to speak about the employer, about social classes and their conflicts, consciousness, morality, behaviour, politics, religion, ethics and so on. Here stressing that any/one thing exists within unseen complex networks of social relations, which are decided by an economic structure. Thus Marx and Engels view human beings in terms of material relations of production and labour, choosing not to recognise an individuals character or genius, (such as an authors creative ability) insisting instead on a materialistic recognition of the persons relationship to the economic world (such as a authors publisher and the market). …