ABSTRACT
In Marxist theory, art and literature are treated as social and material practices which are produced by and within specific historical conditions. Literature and art are not created in isolation by the individual writer or artist, as romantic theories of art might suggest, but are the product of the labour of a number of workers. Art and literature, like other intellectual activity, would appear to belong to the superstructure which is separate from the base, although the relations between the two are important in theory and practice. Art and literature are related to the dominant modes of production in society and hence to the dominant ideology. Marxism is often contrasted with formalism, the Russian formalists having been condemned by the Soviet social realists for their emphasis on literary language and structure and allegedly a historical approach to art. The strength of Marxist critical theory lies in its insistence on the social and ideological context in which art is made.
