The Politics of Style: Towards a Marxist Poetics (Historical Materialism)

Building on the work of Raymond Williams, Terry Eagleton and Fredric Jameson, Hartley delineates the historical and conceptual preconditions for the emergence of a ‘politics of style’, and uncovers an underground current of stylistics within the Marxist tradition from Marx to Barthes. Sets out an independent and ambitious theory of style as a foundational element of a new Marxist poetics. ‎Contents 7 ‎Acknowledgements 11 ‎Introduction 13 ‎Part 1. Marxist Poetics in Context 23 ‎Chapter 1. Why Marxism and Style? 25 ‎1. The Concept of Style 25 ‎2. Epochal Political Conjuncture: Western Marxism and Beyond 29 ‎3. Intellectual Context: the British Anomaly 32 ‎4. Internal Debates: Types of Marxist Criticism 39 ‎Chapter 2. From State Censorship to the Poetry of the Future: Style in the Marxist Tradition 42 ‎1. An Overview of Marx’s Early Writings 42 ‎2. Style in Aristotle’s Rhetoric 46 ‎3. The Young Marx on Style and Censorship 49 ‎4. Marx After Buffon and Fichte 51 ‎5. Style and the Philosophy of History 55 ‎6. The End of Style? 57 ‎Chapter 3. Mimesis from Plato to Ricoeur 61 ‎1. Mimesis in Plato and Aristotle 62 ‎2. On the Threefold Mimesis 64 ‎3. Historicising the Threefold Mimesis 68 ‎3.1. Mimesis1: Prefiguration 68 ‎3.2. Mimesis2: Configuration 71 ‎3.3. Mimesis3: Refiguration 73 ‎Conclusion 74 ‎Part 2. Theories of Style in Williams, Eagleton and Jameson 77 ‎Overture: Patricide; or, Reformism Versus Revolution 79 ‎Eagleton Contra Williams 79 ‎Williams Strikes Back 82 ‎Chapter 4. Style in Prose Fiction: A Preliminary Definition 87 ‎1. Style as a Social Relationship 87 ‎1.1. Abstract Universal Style versus Particular Style 91 ‎1.2. Prose Settled and Unsettled 93 ‎1.3. Williams’s Theory of Prose: A Balance-Sheet 96 ‎2. Narratology, Voice and Style 98 ‎3. A First Definition of Style in Prose Fiction 104 ‎4. Possible Elaborations 107 ‎Chapter 5. Raymond Williams: Style between Immanence and Naturalism 109 ‎1. On Williams and Immanence 110 ‎1.1. Keywords 112 ‎1.2. Language as ‘Practical Consciousness’ 117 ‎1.3. Forms, Techniques and Technology 122 ‎1.4. Sociological Perspectivism 127 ‎2. Williams’s Multiple Approaches to the Problem of Style 129 ‎2.1. Language in Naturalist Drama; or, the Relation of ‘Structure of Feeling’ and Style 129 ‎2.2. Historical Temporality and Stylistic Inheritance: Against the Ideology of Modernism 133 ‎2.3. Stylistic Integration 141 ‎2.4. Transindividual Subjectivity: Style and ‘Total Expression’ 147 ‎2.5. Style and Cultural Materialism 150 ‎Conclusion 152 ‎Intermezzo: Style and the Meaning of ‘Politics’ and ‘Culture’ 155 ‎Eagleton Contra Jameson 155 ‎Jameson’s Reply 157 ‎Chapter 6. Terry Eagleton: The Political Theology of Style 160 ‎1. The Body as Language 160 ‎2. Leavis 2.0? 164 ‎3. The Close Reading of Styles 170 ‎4. The Problems of Stylistic Ideals 173 ‎5. Tragic Styles 176 ‎Chapter 7. Fredric Jameson: Epic Poet of Postmodernity 182 ‎1. Narrative and Praxis 182 ‎2. Jameson as Epic Poet of Postmodernity 185 ‎3. Jameson, the Epic Contemplator? 190 ‎4. Style and Modernity 195 ‎4.1. Rhetoric versus Style 196 ‎4.2. The Extinction of the Narrative Categories of Experience 204 ‎4.3. Narrative versus Style 206 ‎4.4. The Utopian Vocation of Style 209 ‎5. Postmodernity and the End of Style 211 ‎6. Jameson’s Theory of Style: A Balance-Sheet 212 ‎Coda: New Styles for New Social Relations 216 ‎Part 3. Style in Marxist Poetics 219 ‎Chapter 8. A General Marxist Theory of Style 221 ‎1. Mimesis1 221 ‎1.1. Linguistic Situation 221 ‎1.2. Linguistic Ideology 231 ‎1.3. Experience 233 ‎2. Mimesis2 234 ‎2.1. Poetic Shaping 234 ‎2.2. Stylistic Ideology 237 ‎2.3. Directionality 240 ‎2.4. Modes, Types, Genres, Forms 241 ‎2.5. Lyric 243 ‎2.6. Drama 245 ‎2.7. The Pain and Joy of Writing 249 ‎3. Mimesis3 251 ‎3.1. Literal Phase: Micro-Structures of Feeling 254 ‎3.2. Identification Phase: Instance, Idiom, Interpellation 255 ‎3.3. Formal Phase: From Form to Formation 258 ‎3.4. Generic Phase: Projects and Modes 262 ‎3.5. Utopian Phase 267 ‎4. Poiēsis and Praxis 268 ‎Conclusion 270 ‎Bibliography 275 ‎Name Index 287 ‎Subject Index 290 This book develops a Marxist theory of literary style. The first part explains why Raymond Williams, Terry Eagleton and Fredric Jameson came to see style as central to political criticism. It delineates the historical and conceptual preconditions for the emergence of a 'politics of style', and uncovers an underground current of stylistics within the Marxist tradition from Marx to Barthes. The second part sets out precisely what each thinker has written on style and demonstrates how this came to figure in their overall intellectual and political projects, focusing above all on a detailed reconstruction of Williams's best-known concept, the 'structure of feeling'. Finally, the third part sets out an independent theory of style and makes an ambitious attempt to establish it as a foundational element of a new Marxist poetics "This ambitious work develops a comprehensive Marxist theory of literary style. Beginning by engaging with the contributions of Raymond Williams, Terry Eagleton and Fredric James, Hartley goes on to describe a distinctive "politics of style". Retrieved from an underground current of stylistics within Marxist thought, running from Marx himself to Roland Barthes, this is argued to be central to political criticism itself."--Back cover