Marxist Theory and The Tenets of Liberal Humanism

Marxist Theory has one main viewpoint in which the entire theory centralizes around. This viewpoint is that conditions in both culture and history affect the way a literary text is written. I believe this to be true. Although the writer is essentially writing the text, the surrounding conditions make their writing style the way that it is. Also, the writers’ past experiences affect the style and content of their writing.

Marxist theory directly opposes many, if not all, of the tenets of liberal humanism. The first two of the ten tenets of liberal humanism apply the most directly to what I am discussing. The first tenet basically states that a text cannot be captured in a period; it somehow goes beyond the time in which it was written. This directly contradicts the main Marxist theory of a text being captured by time and the affect of historical and cultural occurrences on a text. The second tenet of liberal humanism is that the text should essentially be read for what it is. It should not be placed within a time or circumstance. It is simply a text, not affected by the events of the culture in which it was written. Therefore, the first two tenets work hand in hand to oppose Marxist criticism.