ABSTRACT
It is usual to assume, when confronted by the formula ‘Marxism and …’, that a relationship is to be argued for in which Marxism will figure as the analytical donor and the other bit, the bit which comes after the ‘and’, as the beneficiary. In this case, it suggests that what might be on offer is a Marxist theory of popular fiction. I should stress, therefore, that this is not the approach adopted here. Indeed, rather than proposing a Marxist theory of popular fiction, I want to argue against the need for such a theory or for a theory formulated in those terms.
