This document discusses prose fiction and Marxist theory and literature. It defines prose fiction as an imaginary story told in natural language. It then lists the typical elements of prose fiction such as theme, setting, plot, characters, point of view, conflict, and style. The document goes on to explain Marxist criticism and how Marxist critics examine aspects of texts like characters and settings to understand the author's ideology. Marxist theory of literature is divided into basic concepts defining culture, language, and literature, cultural theory about how culture adapts to humans and itself, and literary criticism which is the analysis and interpretation of literary works.

1. THE ELEMENT OF PROSE FICTION
&
MARXIST THEORY AND LITERATURE

2. Prose Fiction is an imaginary story, usually
written down, that someone tells in
everyday, natural language.
PROSE FICTION?

3. THE ELEMENT OF PROSE FICTION
 Theme
 Setting
 Plot
 Character and characterization
 Point of view
 Conflict
 Style and tone

4. MARXIS THEORY AND LITERATURE

5. Marxist Criticism
Marxist critic may begin such an analysis by showing
how an author’s text reflects his or her ideology through
an examination of the fictional world’s characters,
settings, society, or any other aspect of the text. The critic
may then launch an investigation into
1. The author’s social class
2. Its effects upon the author’s society
3. Examining the history and the culture of the times as
reflected in the text
4. Investigate how the author either correctly or
incorrectly pictures this historical period

6. Marxism and Literature is divided into
three parts :
1. Basic Concepts (which includes definitions of
culture, language, and literature)
2. Cultural Theory
3. Literary Criticism

7. 1. Basic Concepts (which includes definitions of
culture, language, and literature)
 Culture is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular
group of people, defined by everything from language,
religion, cuisine, social habits, music and art.
 Language is a human system of communication that uses
arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, and/or
written symbols.
 Literature is a group of works of art made up of words.
Most are written, but some are passed on by word of
mouth. Literature usually means works of poetry and prose
that are especially well written.

8. 2. Cultural Theory
According to many theories that have gained wide acceptance among
anthropologists, culture exhibits the way that humans interpret their
biology and their environment. According to this point of view, culture
becomes such an integral part of human existence that it is the human
environment, and most cultural change can be attributed to human
adaptation to historical events. Moreover, given that culture is seen as
the primary adaptive mechanism of humans and takes place much
faster than human biological evolution, most cultural change can be
viewed as culture adapting to itself.

9. 3. Literary Criticism
Literary criticism is the evaluation, analysis, description, or
interpretation of literary works. It is usually in the form of a critical
essay, but in-depth book reviews can sometimes be considered literary
criticism. Criticism may examine a particular literary work, or may
look at an author's writings as a whole. Finding literary criticism can
be challenging. This pathfinder is designed to help students in
researching and writing a paper that requires sources of literary
criticism.