Most importantly, Eagleton 1976b: v affirms that Marxist literary theory is a theoretical analysis with ideology as its central instrument. Literature has a
specific ideological dimension because it can bring a complex series of ideas and explains them to people who otherwise might not be able to understand them
Fischer, 1969: 272. Marxist literary analysts have to disclose the truths of ideology that literature emphasizes within the representation of social, cultural,
historical, and political and economic materials. Since the existence of ideology in literature is not apparent, literary forms, styles and symbols need to be interpreted
in order to reveal it Althusser, 1971: 74. Furthermore, in Marxist literary analysis, the authors’ social background and
condition are noteworthy. It is significant to understand their intentions of writing certain works. The ways the authors construct the literary elements in their works
are influenced by their own ideological intentions. Their intentions are poured into both the intrinsic and extrinsic elements, such as the types of characters that will
be developed, the storyline that will be drawn as well as the social and moral impacts expected from the works. One Marxist literary theorist who develops the
relation between literature and the authors’ ideological intention is Terry Eagleton.
a. Terry Eagleton’s Marxist Literary Theory
Eagleton is an important figure in literary studies because he has made remarkable contributions in enriching Marxist literary theory from the 1970s to
the latter half of first decade of the 2000s. He is the one who makes a distinction
to distance Marxist literary theory from sociology of literature. He 1976b: 2 states that:
Marxist criticism is not merely a ‘sociology of literature, concerned with how novels get published and whether they mention the working class. Its aim is
to explain the literary work more fully; and this means a sensitive attention to its forms, styles, and meanings. But it also means grasping those forms,
styles, and meanings as the products of a particular history.
Unlike sociologists of literature who examine only the intrinsic and extrinsic elements of literature, Marxist literary theorists also scrutinize the ways and the
reasons those literary elements written in literary works. This way, that the forms, styles and meanings of the elements are contextualized as social, cultural,
historical, political and economic materials. Moreover, both explicit values and implicit assumptions on those materials are important for the analysis of Marxist
literary theory. Marxist literary analysts shall not concern in showing all explicit parts of the
work together, or in harmonizing and smoothing over any apparent contradictions. They have to show literary works as they cannot know themselves Eagleton,
1976a: 43. Similar to psychoanalysts, the task of Marxist literary analysts is to reach unconsciousness in the works; what is unspoken and inevitably repressed.
To do so, the ideology embedded in the works has to be exposed. Taking account on Macherey’s work, Eagleton 1976b: 16 acclaims the importance to reveal the
implicit gasps, absences and silences in order to articulate the ideology. Otherwise, it will not be a complete Marxist literary analysis.
To be more detailed, Eagleton deepens William’s theory of materialist aesthetics by elaborating the complex layering of ideology. To reveal the
embedded ideology in literary works, Eagleton 1976a: 44 in Criticism and Ideology: a Study in Marxist Literary Theory develops a schematic form namely
“Categories for a Materialist Criticism” consisted of: 1 General Mode of Production GMP refers to the social formation where the
historical construction and social relation of material production unite together Eagleton, 1976a: 45. A social formation can be composed by more than one
GPMs. One of these GMPs is more dominant than the others. In this sense, that GMP is used by Eagleton to denote the dominant mode of production.
2 Literary Mode of Production LMP is a substructure of GMP conceived as the social formation where the historical construction and social relation of
literary production unite together Eagleton, 1976a: 45. There are several distinctive LMPs in a society, which one of them is more dominant than the
rests. An LMP consists of the process of production, distribution, exchange and consumption Eagleton, 1976a: 47. The forces of the LMP are
constructed by the linkage of the authors, editors and publishers to the materials and instruments of the LMP. Thus, the relation between a literary
work and its LMP is both extrinsically and intrinsically. 3 General Ideology GI is the most powerful ideological formation formed by
an interrelated set of values and beliefs that is manifested in material existence and correlated with the construction of material production Eagleton, 1976a:
54. The empirical relations of humans and their social situations are reflected by GI to disguise how society really works; the misinterpretations of the
reality influence the social relations. A GI, which is determined by the LMP, has components of linguistic or language, politics and cultures.
4 Authorial Ideology AuI is the result of the way authors’ attempt to attach their biography into their literary works Eagleton, 1976a: 58. An AuI is
affected by the authors’ background, such as origin, gender, social class, spirituality and education. The establishment process of the AuI is not to be
separated from the GI because the establishment process of both is reproductive and contradictive Eagleton, 1976a: 59. Thus, it is possible for
an AuI to be or not to be in line with the dominant ideology in the material existences, which the authors surround themselves with. In addition, the AuI is
not to be confused with the ideology of literary works as the latter refers to the result of the GI processed using an aesthetic technique.
5 Aesthetics Ideology AI is an internal complex structure of the function, meaning and value of the aesthetic in a social construction Eagleton, 1976a:
60. It is a specific area of GI, aside from other areas, such as ethics and
religions.
6 Text, in this sense, refers to literary texts. It is a series of certain events and experiences that is served in written forms Eagleton, 1976a: 63.
Since the text is a production of ideology, thus treated as the object of the theory. Only the other five constituents are considered the major layers of
ideology in Eagleton’s method. He also provides examples to explain these constituents and discuss the relations between them. However, due to the focus of
this research, not all of the constituents will be described. The researcher only
elaborates the Authorial Ideology AuI, in order to find the author’s ideology concealed in the novel being analyzed.
