Readings and Response for Monday 9/17

For Monday, read the 'General Introduction' (pp. 1-7) to Modern Literary Theory, then Marx and Engels' The German Ideology (pp. 18-23) in the same. In addition, read the Ramamurthy excerpt and the Anna Karenina excerpt listed under the important links.

The critical text here is The German Ideology, Marx and the effect of Marx on criticism ever since. It is also a knotty and difficult text and riddled with complex terms. To this end, this week we will approach the response a bit differently. Each of you are required to post a passage (no more than three or four sentences) which you find particularly difficult to comprehend, etc. Type out the passage in its entirety and explain, in no more than one sentence, your difficulty. Once you have done that, you are required to choose someone else's post and comment on their bewildering passage. Try to paraphrase it, clarify it, point out your own problems and, most especially, explain it in real world terms, with real world examples. Your comment for this week, then, will be as long as your past posts.

The rule here, of course, is only one comment per post. If you find that a post already has a comment, find another. And please, no commenting on your own post.

In addition, you will probably be doing a bit of minor research to comprehend difficult terms, etc. Try to find at least one website which might help readers new to Marx and Marxism, and copy the link here.