1. By : Moyra Haslett
Presented by : Bahra Laila
Instructor : prof. Khalid Amar

2. The outline
 1) The author ‘’Moyra Haslett’’
 2) The relationship between literature, culture and
society.
 3) Base and superstructure.
 4) The materiality of culture.
 5) Materialism and Dialectics.
 6) The materiality of language.
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3. 1) Moyra Haslett
 Moyra Haslett is an author of Marxist literary and cultural
theories.
 Moyra Haslett argues that Marxist literary and cultural
theories are more diverse than is conventionally thought.
She draws upon the work of a wide range of Marxist
thinkers and discusses the works of those who sought to
theorise the relationships between literature, culture and
society, and between culture and ideology, including
Volosinov, Lukacs, Jameson, Eagleton, Raymond
Williams, John Berger…
 Marxist literary and cultural theory is primarily concerned
with the relationship between literature, culture and
society.
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4. 2) The relationship between
literature, culture and society.
 Literature : literature is a term used to describe written or
spoken material, it is used to describe anything from
creative writing, to more technical or scientific works.
‘’Marxist view’’. It represents people and
language, culture and tradition. So literature represents
culture.
 Culture : culture has many different meanings, it is a
learned pattern of behaviours, traditions, perceptions and
ways in which a person lives his or her life, it is essential
for the existence of society. Culture is socially adaptive.
 Society : human societies are characterised by patterns of
relationships « social relations » between individuals
who share a distinctive culture, language and institutions. 4

5.  According to the author, literature and other artistic
forms are social. She argues that all Marxist theories
share a common element which is the focus on the
relationship between literature and society. « the
reflection of society »
 The idea of art is very important, according to some
Marxists critics, John Berger, Raymond Williams, Terry
Eagleton, art has been altered to go out of society
especially during the eighteenth century, that’s why it lost
its real value.
 According to Marxist theory, culture includes everything
in our daily life, which means that everything in this globe
is connected and so hard to be seperated, in spite of this
interconnection between elements in a whole way of life;
Marxists view, that we can divide society from culture in
order to grasp them independently.
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6. 3) Base and Superstructure.
 Base and superstructure are concepts in Marxist thought.
 The base : It is the set of economic conditions and the
relationships of different classes in society and the modes of
production used in that society. It includes the economic
system, capitalism ‘the economic freedom’, socialism,
feudalism. It deals with anything that is related to material
production ‘’machines, land, raw materials, factories… ’’
 The superstructure : It incorporates non-economic forms of
production. The superstructure of a society includes its
culture, institutions, political power structures, religious,
education, media, roles, rituals. The collective consciousness
of the whole people ‘’society’’.
 The superstructure often inflences the base, the influence of
the base. However, predominates.
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7.  Marxist theories distinguish between three major practices
within society which are : the economic, the political and the
ideological ; each one of these practices would act
autonomously.
 Many Marxist theories give more prominence to the economic
practice has been the crucial determinant but there are some
Marxists like ’’Thompson’’ who sees that the relationship
between the base and superstructure is the only determinant
and both of them emphasise on the human consciousness. In
this regard Thompson draws the example of the working class
which can not recognise itself as a class without the existing of
other classes. Therefore, the Marxist theory insists on the idea
that the literary production is bound by the economic
dimension ‘’materiality’’ which means that it is so prominent
for determining literature.
 We can not seperate the base and superstructure.
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8. 4) The materiality of culture.
 Material culture is a term that refers to the relationship
between artifacts and social relations.
 It is the set of economic and social structures/relations in the
production, reproduction and reception of literary texts
‘’artifacts’’. Literature is apparently ‘ideal’ but belongs to the
economic and political systems.
 According to the author, cultural artifacts are made by and for
people and are subject to social and economic laws. For
example, literary production is shaped by social, economic and
technological factors, such as the histories of
printing, publishing and the reading public ‘’practices ’’. So
literary work in itself is a material production. Before the
emergence of Computer mediated information, literary works
had been followed some social, economic and political
constraint of production, distribution. Novel, book, films... had
been printed and commodified like goods.
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9.  In Marx’s writing, the mode of production is the economic
system of society. ‘’the dominant economic mode’’ (economic
relations between groups of people, most obvious in the class
structure) literary production represents social relations of
production, the relations between publishers, writers and
readers also forces of production ‘’cultural forms’’.
 The materiality of culture deals with the economic, social and
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political conditions of production. ‘’the production of literary
texts, artifacts’’, distribution or consumption. However; for
Pierre Macherey, the materiality of culture deals with the self-
production of the text (writer) the writer as the producer of a
text.
 Literary texts and cultural artifacts ‘’production’’ are
recognised as social products, they are treated as creative
practices, they are not only produced of composition or
publication but they are also reproduced in their readings.

10. 5) Materialism and Dialectics.
 According to Marxists theory, Materialism might be defined as a
philosophy which is grounded in material reality, insofar as it does
not explain concepts by ideal constructions.
 In Marxist terms, this is a mechanical definition of materialism
which dooms the ideal and the material to mutual exclusion instead
of seeing the ways in which they interact.
 The theory of materialism holds that the only thing that exists is
matter, that all things are composed of material and all phenomena
(including consciousness ‘’ideal’’) are the result of material
interactions.
 The key mode of thinking in Marxist theories that of the dialectics.
 Dialectics is a method of argument or exposition that systematically
weighs contradictory facts or ideas. It is an open way of considering
elements of social process and interaction between contradictory or
opposition. Such as the individual Vs society, theory Vs
practice, parts Vs whole.
 For Raymond Williams, dialectics is generally held to mean the
interactions between contradictory or opposite forces.
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11. 6) The materiality of language.
 Vonosinov is one of the eminent theorist of language. Material
language is a term used by Volosinov, he claims that the word
is a social sign and the meduim of consciousness.
 Language is the human capacity for acquiring and using
complex systems of communication.
 According to Volosinov, language is the predominant signifying
system, which mediates and translates our understanding of
non-verbal arts : music, pictures, dance. For
Volosinov, language is social and it is adapted and produced by
individuals as they use it.
 Language as a system of signification is not in itself
material, but the materiality is seen in the word because it
gives meaning “specific meaning” and it originates in material
practices and it appears as concrete in a particular text.
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12.  ‘’The Multiaccentuality ’’ of the word is a term used by
Volosinov, which means the ways in which different social
groups and different classes use one language differently.
He assumes that language is never neutral.
 Language as a communication system that allows humans
to undertake linguistic behaviour, to learn
language, produce and understand utterances. Language
changes and it is always used in a context.
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13.  This article, « Culture and Society » illuminates the
complex issue of culture( literature ) and society. It aims
at discovering whether there is any link between
literature and society and to identify, if ever there is any,
the determination of their relations. The article presents
the Western Marxism’s of culture and society and
Marxism critics who advocate an interrelationship
between culture and society.
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