01 Tuesday Feb 22

Class Summary Essay: Tuesday, February 22, 2011 Julie Randall

In class today we discussed Karl Marx and Louis Althusser, and their contributions to Marxist criticism. Discussion was related in part to the readings that were assigned for homework, as well as embellishment from a Power point presentation.

A review of terms used in Marxist literature was given, and applied to our own experiences as workers in a capitalist economy. After sharing and reviewing diagrams of the relations of labor, power and commodity, we moved on to a discussion of Louis Althusser, and his definitions of ideology. Ideology was defined as “imaginary relation of individuals to the real relations in which they live” (Althusser, 296). Ideology of the classroom environment, such as facing the same direction, listening to the teacher, speaking one at a time, and sitting in the same seats was discussed, as well as the more implicit forms of ideology, such as earning grades or the Honor Code.

Commercials, such as the Daisy commercial and the 1984 Mac Commercial were shown and dissected using ideology. The implied messages in the commercials were discussed, with a focus on the idea of capitalism and the affects of fear. Literature was also analyzed for Marxist criticism, such as “I Hear America Singing”, by Walt Witman. The class looked at the relations of social class and social and political illustrations within the poem, finding the message that the characters within the poem get joy from their own labor. The poem was also noted to be hiding the wages and social relations, as well as defining the characters by their jobs.