Formalism and Marxism (New Accents)

226 Pages·1979·0.71 MB·English

by  Tony Bennett

New Accents

General Editor: TERENCE HAWKES
FORMALISM AND MARXISM
IN THE SAME SERIES
Structuralism and Semiotics Terence Hawkes *
Linguistics and the Novel Roger Fowler
Reading Television John Fiske and John Hartley
Language and Style E.L.Epstein
Subculture: The Meaning of Style Dick Hebdige
Critical Practice Catherine Belsey
The Semiotics of Theatre and Drama Keir Elam
Science Fiction: Its Criticism and Teaching
Patrick Parrinder
Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion Rosemary Jackson
Translation Studies Susan Bassnett-McGuire
Sexual Fiction Maurice Charney
Re-Reading English edited by Peter Widdowson
Deconstruction: Theory and Practice Christopher Norris
Orality and Literacy Walter J.Ong
Poetry as Discourse Antony Easthope
Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics
Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan
Literature and Propaganda A.P.Foulkes
Reception Theory: A Critical Introduction
Robert C.Holub
Metafiction: The Theory and Practice of Self-Conscious
Fiction Patricia Waugh
Psychoanalytic Criticism: Theory in Practice
Elizabeth Wright
iii
Making a Difference: Feminist Literary Criticism edited
by Gayle Green and Coppélia Kahn
Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory
Toril Moi
Rewriting English: Cultural Politics of Gender and Class
Janet Batsleer, Tony Davies, Rebecca O’Rourke and
Chris Weedon
Alternative Shakespeares edited by John Drakakis
The Unusable Past: Theory and the Study of American
Literature Russell J.Reising
*Not available from Methuen, Inc. in the USA
TONY BENNETT
FORMALISM AND
MARXISM
ROUTLEDGE
LONDON AND NEW YORK
To my father and mother, with thanks
First published in 1979 by
Methuen & Co. Ltd
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis
or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to
www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 1979 Tony Bennett
ISBN 0 -203-97790-4 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0 416 70870 6 (hardbound)
ISBN 0 415 05086 3 (paperback)
All rights reserved. No part of this book may
be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical or other
means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
CONTENTS
General Editor’s Preface ix
Acknowledgements xii
Part One: Formalism revisited xiv
1 CRITICISM AND LITERATURE 3
Questions of language 3
Questions of literature 6
Questions of aesthetics 9
2 FORMALISM AND MARXISM 17
Russian Formalism: theoretical 17
perspectives
Reassessing Formalism 26
Historical perspectives on Russian 30
Formalism
New directions in Marxist criticism 39
3 RUSSIAN FORMALISM: 45
CLEARING THE GROUND
Linguistics and literature 45
The question of literariness: criticism 49
and its object
viii
The system and its elements: form 53
and function
Against the ‘metaphysic of the text’ 60
The problem of literary evolution 65
4 FORMALISM AND BEYOND 69
The accomplishments of Formalism 69
Saussure’s magic carpet 75
Bakhtin’s historical poetics 81
‘Literature’ as a historical category 89
Part Two: Marxist criticism: from aesthetics 99
to politics
5 MARXISM VERSUS 103
AESTHETICS
Formalism: a lost heritage 103
Marxist criticism: aesthetics, politics 107
and history
Literature’s ‘non-said’ 114
6 SCIENCE, LITERATURE AND 118
IDEOLOGY
On practices 118
On ideology 120
On science 126
On art and literature 128
7 THE LEGACY OF AESTHETICS 135
The lessons of Formalism 135
A new idealism 141
Criticism and politics 147
ix
8 WORK IN PROGRESS 153
The post-Althusserians 153
Modes of literary production 161
Literature and the social process 168
9 CONCLUSION 181
Notes 189
Bibliography 200
Index 206