Marxist Criticism Term Definitions
Alienation: the process where the worker is alienated from his/her own product by being exploited by his/her Capitalist manufacturer; product of the worker’s labor no longer belongs to the worker
Alienation Effect: uses techniques to remind the audience of the artificiality of performances by distancing emotional involvement
Aristocracy (Aristocrat): the dominant class during the feudal stage of economic development
Bourgeoisie: The middle class of an economic society, mostly characterized by its materialistic and conventional ideals
Capital: Buying a commodity in order to sell it at a profit
Capitalism: socio-economic system based on private ownership of production and the exploitation of the labor force
Class: a social category in a socio-economic system determined by the subject’s social and economic status
Commodity: a manufactured object which satisfies human needs of any kind; can be obtained only through exchanges of another commodity
Dialectical: process of change through confrontations of opposing forces in a Marxist economy
Division of Labor: the system where different tasks are assigned to different people in a given society
False Consciousness: idea that material goods and institutional ideas within capitalist societies are deceitful towards the proletariats
Hegemony: government where a central power rules neighboring states with implied powers, such as the natural threat of force, rather than direct military intervention
Production Theory: study to understand the economic process of converting inputs to outputs in an economic market
Proletariat: the lower or the working class who must work under and exploited by the Bourgeoisie and Capitalism in order to earn their livings; often alienated from their own productions as they have no ownership of such commodities
Self Awareness: being able to act on the capacity of one's own rational interests
Slave Wage: a condition where a person's livelihood is totally dependent on wages
Socialism: a socio-economic system where the Proletariats control the mode of production to form a society where every member is involved in production and shares the benefit of the production of commodity through means of public ownership
State: a specific mode of government, often determined by its socio-economic systemAlienation: the process where the worker is alienated from his/her own product by being exploited by his/her Capitalist manufacturer; product of the worker’s labor no longer belongs to the worker
The Base: responsible for comprehending the relationships among concepts of production in a Marxist society
The Market: the center of production controlled usually by the bourgeois
Worker's Paradise: an utopian society that is free of social hierarchies and offers employment for and a comfortable life to all workers