gave new valuable insights to understand literature that have different concerns from the sociology of literature.
a. Literature as Social Production
Marxism has its own voice about literature. Marxism treats literature as a product of social consciousness which is a part of the superstructure, thus it has
concrete relation with its socioeconomic system. Literature comes with a specific material and historical cause. It is not derived from some timeless or aesthetic
realm. Specifically, literature is the product of the author’s mind and the author hisherself is socially constructed. As a social production, literature always
contains ideology of the author in definite space and time. It is supported by Tyson 2006:66 who says that:
For Marxism, literature does not exist in some timeless, aesthetic realm as an object to be passively contemplated. Rather, like all cultural
manifestations, it is a product of the socioeconomic and hence ideological conditions of the time and place in which it was written, whether or not the
author intended it so. Because human beings are themselves products of their socioeconomic and ideological environment, it is assumed that
authors cannot help but create works that embody ideology in some form.
Tyson 2006:66 further says that since literature is born with the influences of its material and historical conditions, Marxist critics believe
literature always comes with two tasks for readers. It tends to reinforce ideologies to the readers and provoke the readers to criticize the ideology produced in
literature. This means that literature works both gives ideologies and in the same time opens to readers to give an evaluation about ideologies it embodies.
The elements in literature that carry ideology are its content and form because the content tells “what” of literature and the form is the “how” Tyson,
2006: 66. Both the content and the form are important parts in conveying ideology because they create experiences and scenes that can make the readers
perceive the ideology. For Marxist critics, realism is the most suitable form for Marxist purpose. Realism as a genre of literature has a form that drags its readers
to enter into such actual scenes that are similar with the events in their lives and makes the readers follow the story without being aware of its language and
structure. Since it can accurately depict the real world by giving the pictures of socioeconomic inequality and ideological contradictions, realism is very helpful
for Marxist critics. Tyson, 2006:66. Those statements imply that the form and the content work together to give ways to see reality in literature and feel the
ideology in literature especially in realism genre that is why some Marxist critics prefer realism as a relevant form for the application for Marxist literary criticism
than other genres. In addition, Many Marxist critics agree that all literature genres are useful
for Marxist criticism because they can show how ideologies work Tyson, 2006:67. Today, many Marxist critics reach the same conclusion that every form
of literary genre is meaningful for Marxist analysis in which it can reveal the way how ideology operates as a repressive social agenda.
b. Marxist Literary Criticism
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