Cultural Materialism

The content arrangement of Cultural Materialism is as follows:The section titled 'Intellectual Origins and Historical Background' mainly introduces the socio-historical context in which cultural materialist criticism emerged. It focuses on the complex relationships between cultural materialism and various other critical schools, such as deconstructionist criticism, historicist criticism, and Western Marxist theory. It also compares and analyzes the similarities and differences between cultural materialism and New Historicism in the United States.The two sections 'Cultural Materialist Criticism (I): Allen Sinfield' and 'Cultural Materialist Criticism (II): Jonathan Dollimore' respectively elaborate on the critical achievements of the two most representative figures of British cultural materialism in the fields of Renaissance literature and Shakespeare studies. By using their actual research as case studies, these sections demonstrate their specific critical approaches.The section 'A Cultural Materialist Analysis of Major Barbara' takes George Bernard Shaw's famous play as the research object. Employing commonly used critical strategies within materialism, it uncovers the subversive elements in the play, reveals the inherent contradictions within the text, and explains their causes in the specific historical context.The section 'A New Historicist Reading of Hard Times' discusses the complex relationship between this classic novel and utilitarianism. It counters some misinterpretations by other researchers, uncovers the subtle contradictions within the text, and reveals how these subversive elements are ultimately suppressed.This book provides a comprehensive exploration of cultural materialism and its application in literary criticism, offering insights into the theoretical foundations and practical methodologies of this approach.