My Ph.D. is in English, broadly, but in Literary Criticism more specifically. This means I spend a lot of time reading texts and employing different methods for interpreting them. One of the primary methods of contemporary literary criticism is based upon Marxist theory. I tend to employ (and refute) the economic angle of this perspective, but Marxist theory is also applied to the culture at large. Cultural Marxism, as it is known, takes the fundamentals of Marxist ideas--power dynamics, most notably--and applies them to all aspects of human interaction. There are some interesting social views and some clever literary exercises that can emerge, but like most Marxist-related ideas, it can also be disastrous in its inconsistent and illogical positions. College students should be aware of its prevalence in literary studies and in broader social spaces. For those interested in the foundation, and flaws, of such a worldview, here is a short video from yesterday that explains, courtesy of the economics site Mises.org.
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AuthorDr. Spivey is a college English professor and lives in Scottsdale, Arizona. Archives
October 2017
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