Marxist aesthetics

Marxist aesthetics is a theory of aesthetics based on, or derived from, the theories of Karl Marx. It involves a dialectical approach to the application of Marxism to the cultural sphere, specifically areas related to taste such as art, beauty, etc. Marxists believe that economic and social conditions affect every aspect of an individual's life, from religious beliefs to legal systems to cultural frameworks. The role of art is not only to represent such conditions truthfully, but also to seek to improve them.

Some well-known Marxist aestheticians include Theodor W. Adorno, Bertolt Brecht, Herbert Marcuse, Walter Benjamin, Antonio Gramsci, Georg Lukács, Terry Eagleton, Fredric Jameson and Raymond Williams.

See also

• Marxist literary criticism

Bibliography

• PoetryMagic: Literary Theory: Marxist Views
• Aesthetics and Politics: Debates Between Bloch, Lukacs, Brecht, Benjamin, Adorno. 1980. Trans. ed. Ronald Taylor. London: Verso. ISBN 0860917223.
• Adorno, Theodor W. 2004. Aesthetic Theory. London: Continuum. ISBN 0826476910.
• Brecht, Bertolt. 1964. Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic. Ed. and trans. John Willett. British edition. London: Methuen. ISBN 041338800X. USA edition. New York: Hill and Wang. ISBN 0809031000.
• ---. 2000a. Brecht on Film and Radio. Ed. and trans. Marc Silberman. British edition. London: Methuen. ISBN 0413725006.
• ---. 2003a. Brecht on Art and Politics. Ed. and trans. Thomas Kuhn and Steve Giles. British edition. London: Methuen. ISBN 0413758907.
• Eagleton, Terry. 1990. The Ideology of the Aesthetic. Oxford and Malden, MA: Blackwell. ISBN 0631163026.
• Marcuse, Herbert. 1978. The Aesthetic Dimension: Toward a Critique of Marxist Aesthetics. Trans. Herbert Marcuse and Erica Sherover. Boston: Beacon Press.
• Marx, Karl and Frederick Engels. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels on Literature and Art, ISBN 1-905510-02-0
• Daly, Macdonald (1999). A Primer in Marxist Aesthetics. Zoilus Press. ISBN 978-0952202813. http://www.interdisciplina.org/microsound-repository/index.php?action=downloadfile&filename=A%20Primer%20in%20Marxist%20Aesthetics%20preview.pdf&directory=miscellaneous/Reading.