When we first started reading Jean Toomer’s Cane and Alice Walker’s Meridian, I probably would have laughed if someone had told me I would be, somewhere down the line, talking about them in the context of how they support Marxism. To be clear, I’m not going to refer to them as socialist works (for that’s quite an intuitive leap, although I’m sure it would be an interesting interpretation). Rather, I’m interested in how Interdisiciplinarity devotes a section to the theories of Marxism in respect to how literature, culture, and history all intersect.
According to Moran, “Marxism…believes that historical processes shape the production of art, culture, and ideas” (112). This idea relates to how we partly interpret Cane and Meridian based on their historical contexts. It’s hard to disagree that these works were shaped, as Marxist theory states, by the historical events occurring before and during their time of publication. Both texts are concerned with the lives of African Americans during periods of great discrimination and hardship. Cane, for instance, takes place during the Reconstruction period after the Civil War. To analyze this book, it is important to understand the historical processes occurring during the time in which it takes place; black people, particularly in the South, were often poor, discriminated against, and restricted by Jim Crow laws. Cane is shaped by this history because it addresses some of the struggles and hardship black people faced at the time through its vignettes and poems. Meridian is also shaped by its historical context; set in the South during the 1960s, a time of social upheaval and the Civil Rights movement, it follows a young, black, female civil rights advocate. The historical events occurring during the time in which the book are directly incorporated into parts of the book, making it clear that Meridian is shaped by historical context. For instance, in one chapter, the many deaths and funerals of prominent figures in the 1960s serve as the subject. Walker uses these historical deaths (such as that of JFK) to make a point about the communal grieving process and how it has changed. Furthermore, this chapter is titled with the names of important black figures of the time.
Marxist theory, at least in regard to the belief that art and culture (and literature) are shaped by historical processes, is important to keep in mind when reading books such as Cane and Meridian because it illustrates one of the ways in which we analyze these texts. Moran cites one of thinker Louis Althusser’s beliefs, “…the sphere of language, culture, and representation is inextricably connected to economic and historical processes…” (117), something I agree with. It’s hard to separate history and literature because literature (like Cane and Meridian) is often based on a significant period in history, is influenced by it, or is responding to it. If you try and take these works out of their historical context, some of the significance is lost. How could we understand the commentary Toomer or Walker are making if we ignore the historical influences on these authors?