Materialist literary history argues basic economic structures appear in literature

Evidence

Lowenthal, more than anyone else, took over the materialist conception of history as a ready-made product in his article On the Social Position of Literature'. He used it as a means of putting the demand for a materialist study of literature, based on the positivist and historical methods of the nineteenth century, before the contemporary discipline of literary study, which was more or less metaphysically oriented. A truly explanatory history of literature must be a materialist one. That means it must analyse basic economic structures as they present themselves in literature, and the effects which the work of art, interpreted materialistically, has on an economically determined society.’ — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 497

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the Frankfurt School’s specific meaning of ‘materialist study of literature’.
• XREF: Connects to Lowenthal’s later empiricist turn and to the broader tension between Adorno’s aesthetic Marxism and more mechanical application of historical materialism. — connects to: The commodity structure shapes language itself in modern literature. — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 757; Literature’s own content overlaps with economic form, weakening it as an abstract model; Cultural Studies emerged from a literary rather than economic tradition — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 956 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Intertextual references function as a form of cultural and economic currency within narrative #exemplifies (0.75) — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, 363
• Lowenthal treated literature as a passive reflection of economic development #exemplifies (0.75) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 498
• Historical materialism requires retaining economic determination without economic reductionism #qualifies (0.72)
• Speculation extends beyond finance into literary narrative form #expands (0.72) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 405
• Cultural Studies emerged from a literary rather than economic tradition #qualifies (0.70) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 956