The Marxian Imagination : Representing Class in Literature

Description

The Marxian Imaginationis a fresh and innovative recasting of Marxist literary theory and a powerful account of the ways class is represented in literarcy texts. Where earlier theorists have treated class as a fixed identity site, Julian Markels views class in more dynamic terms, as a process of accumulation involving many, often conflicting, sites of identity. This makes it possible to see how racial and gender identities are caught up in the processes of accumulation that define class. Markels shows how a Marxian imagination is at work in readings of important novels, ranging from Dickens’Hart Timesto Kingsolver’sPoisonwood Bible, and concludes with a telling critique of the work of the major Marxist litearary theorists, Raymond Williams and Frederic Jameson.

Julian Markelsis professor emeritus of English at Ohio State University, Columbia, and the author ofThe Pillar of the World: "Antony and Cleopatre"in Shakespeare’s Development and Melville and the Politics of Identity: From "King Lear" to "Moby Dick".

—————————————————————————————————–

"Radiates with a generoisty as deep as the learning…There are no books in this field as skilled, as beautifully written, as well-informed, and as fully and wonderfully accessible as Markels’." – James R. Kincaid, Aerol Arnold Professor of English, University of Southern California.

"Sophisticated theorizing and deft interpretations…A significacne contribution to Marxist theory and the theory of the novel." – Jim Phelan, Professor of English, Ohio State University and editor of Narrative.

"An excellent work…Literary critics, as well as economicsts and sociologists, will find stimulating new approaches here to be vexed question of class in today’s changing world."-Annette Rubinstein, author of American Literature: Root and Flower and The Great Tradition in English Literature.