The term Cultural Materialism in literary theory and cultural studies was made current in 1985 when it was used by Jonathan Dollimore and Alan Sinfield who developed a methodology which included an analysis of any historical material (including literature) within a politicized framework.
The four characteristics of their method concerning Cultural Materialism are:
Historical context
Theoretical method
Political commitment
Textual analysis
These characteristics explain that Cultural Materialism seeks to recover the histories of a text (historical context), that it wishes to offer a critique of the present and it also signifies the influence of Marxist and feminist perspectives and the break from the conservative – Christian system which dominated Shakespearean criticism (political commitment). Cultural Materialism is not merely interested in abstract theorizing, but in applying and using theory in order to read canonical texts (textual analysis). Cultural Materialism also signifies the break with a liberal humanist criticism. It wants to get involved with the lessons of structuralism, post structuralism, Marxism, feminism and other critical methods (theoretical method).
In addition to Jonathan Dollimore and Alan Sinfield, whose influence in the development of the Cultural Materialism movement was a great and considerable one, Raymond Williams also played a significant role. The left -wing literary critic developed a term called “structures of feeling. These “structures of feeling” are concerned with “meanings and values as they are lived and felt “.They are often found in literature and they decline the status quo. Cultural Materialism is optimistic about the presumption of change and often sees literature as a source of oppositional values. The theory “uses the past to read the present, revealing the politics of the present in what we emphasize or suppress of the past”.
To better understand how Cultural Materialism “deals with specific historical documents and attempts to analyze and recreate the zeitgeist of a particular moment in history”, we should take a look at Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre.
As Cultural Materialism analyzes the conditions of the production of a text, one should take into account the background of Jane Eyre’s production to fully understand the motifs behind its creation and the possible influences of the author. All who have read Jane Eyre and are informed about Charlotte Bronte’s life can see that she was inspired by her own background when writing the novel as one can draw certain parallels between Jane Eyre’s childhood and the author’s childhood.
Since Cultural Materialism examines texts with the eye for how they reveal social realities of a certain moment in history, one can observe the social environment in which the novel was set and compare it to the particular period in which it was written, when having a look at Jane Eyre. As Cultural Materialism concentrates on marginalized groups and insists “on the importance of an engagement with issues of gender, sexuality, race and class”, one can see how the novel reflects certain views and beliefs of the Victorian Era and one can understand how these beliefs influenced and determined the protagonists’ lives.
Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. Manchester: Manchester Univ. Press, 1995.
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