ABSTRACT
This chapter examines in detail one of Marx’s most important ideas: the connection between culture and economics – the base and superstructure. It discusses how later Marxist thinkers – notably Louis Althusser, Fredric Jameson, and Raymond William have developed Marx’s ideas for thinking seriously about literature and culture. The chapter talks about a short story, ‘The Necklace’ by the French writer Guy de Maupassant, as an example to show how Marx’s ideas can be used to produce a Marxist literary criticism. For Marx, the sum of the forces and relations of production in each society constitute its ‘base’, which is firstly a fundamental reality. From the base there develops a ‘superstructure’, which comprises all other aspects of the social, cultural, and political life of that given society. Several contemporary Marxist intellectuals have challenged, extended, and developed these ideas, arguing for the necessity to rethink the relationship between culture and economics by moving beyond readings that emphasise prediction and control.
