A Marxist reading of Mario Vargas Llosa's 'La Casa Verde', Carlos Fuentes's 'La Muerte de Artemio Cruz' and Manuel Puig's 'Boquitas Pintadas'

In this dissertation selected principles of Marxist literary theory are employed to analyze the sociopolitical, sociological and historical content of each of the novels mentioned above. The analysis postulates that a better understanding of each author's text is rendered through this specific type of literary criticism. The study is divided into four chapters.In Chapter 1 Marxist literary theory is synthesized, with the major thrust being the basic writings on literary criticism of Marx and Engels. This synthesis also delineates explanations of Marxist literary theory from such well known Marxist critics as Terry Eagleton, Henri Arvon, Lee Baxandall and others.Each of the following three chapters begins with a plot summary of the novel being analyzed. Subsequent sections analyze the particular text using specific traits of Marxist literary theory as explained in Chapter l.Among the various aspects of Marxist literary theory that are utilized are the following: (a) Marx's description of the relationship between form and content in a work of art (b) his assertion that literature portrays verifiable aspects of a historical reality (c) Marx's negation of the "art for art's sake" theory of literature and (d) his description of the relationship between the economic base and the superstructure.In addition, various elements of the language utilized in each novel are explored and are categorized as symptomatic of the literary relationship between form and content. In the conclusion the different characteristics of Marxist literary theory that were utilized in the analysis are summarized and the distinct application of these theories to the three selected texts are emphasized.