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Art, Literature and Culture from a Marxist Perspective Art, Literature and Culture from a Marxist Perspective Tony McKenna © Tony McKenna 2015 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN: 978–1–137–52660–1 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data McKenna, Tony, 1979– Art, literature and culture from a Marxist perspective / Tony McKenna. pages cm ISBN 978–1–137–52660–1 (hardback) 1. Socialism and culture. 2. Socialism and the arts. I. Title. HX523.M395 2015 306—dc23 2015013970 For my mother and father, Gay and Mike Contents Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 1 B reaking Bad: Capital as Cancer 9 2 I n Time : The First Hollywood Movie of the Occupy Wall Street Era 2 3 3 T he Walking Dead: The Archetype of the Zombie in the Modern Epoch 3 3 4 L et Me In : The Figure of the Vampire as Kantian Noumenal 43 5 T rue Detective and Capitalist Development in Its Twilight Phase 5 8 6 T upac Shakur: History’s Poet 7 0 7 V incent van Gogh 8 1 8 T he Song of Achilles : How the Future Transforms the Past 91 9 B arbara Kingsolver’s The Lacuna and the Nature of the Historical Novel 9 8 10 B alzac’s Women and the Impossibility of Redemption in Cousin Bette 1 07 11 T he Wife: A Study in Patriarchy 120 12 T he Vigilante in Film: The Movement from D eath Wish , to Batman , to Taxi Driver 1 28 13 A Mirror into Our World: The Radical Politics of Game of Thrones 1 34 14 H arry Potter and the Modern Age 141 15 T he Hunger Games Trilogy – Art for the Occupy Era 153 16 T he Politics of Deduction: Why Has Sherlock Holmes Proven So Durable? 1 62 vii viii Contents 17 L iterary Love as Kantian Sublime: W uthering Heights and The Sea, The Sea 1 70 18 B rief Loves That Live Forever: The Historical Melancholy of Andreï Makine 1 81 19 J ohn Williams’ Novel Stoner and the Dialectic of the Infinite and Finite 1 90 20 F rom Tragedy to Farce: The Comedy of Ricky Gervais as Capitalist Critique 197 Bibliography 2 10 Index 2 13 Acknowledgements I am grateful to the publishers of the following works for permission to reuse copyrighted material from them as the basis for the chapters indicated: ‘In Time: The First Hollywood Movie of the Occupy Wall Street Era’, Science & Society , 79(1) (Guilford Press, New York) 117–126. ‘Vincent van Gogh’, C ritique Journal of Socialist Theory, 2011, 39(2), (Taylor and Francis, Oxford) 295–303. www.tandfonline.com ‘A Mirror into Our World: The Radical Politics of Game of Thrones’, published Monday, 7 April 2014 in C easefire Magazine. www.ceasefire- magazine.co.uk ‘Harry Potter and the Modern Age’, C ritique: Journal of Socialist Theory , 39(3) (Taylor and Francis, Oxford) 355–364. www.tandfonline.com ‘The Politics of Deduction’, O verland Literary Journal, 217/Summer 2014. ix