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55-583: Paul Lafargue ( French: [lafaʁg] ; 15 January 1842 – 25 November 1911) was a Cuban-born French political writer, economist, journalist, literary critic , and activist ; he was Karl Marx 's son-in-law, having married his second daughter, Laura . His best known work is The Right to Be Lazy . Born in Cuba to French and Creole parents, Lafargue spent most of his life in France, with periods in England and Spain. At

110-475: A Congress in Toulouse , the different socialist tendencies were unified in the form of a single party. Lafargue opposed the social democratic reformism defended by Jaurès. During these later years, Lafargue had already begun neglecting politics, living on the outskirts of Paris in the village of Draveil , limiting his contributions to a number of articles and essays, as well as occasional communication with some of

165-479: A Marxist leadership in Madrid , while exercising an ideological influence through unsigned articles in the newspaper La Emancipación (where he defended the need to create a political party of the working class , one of the main topics opposed by the anarchists). At the same time, Lafargue took initiative through some of his articles, expressing his own ideas about a radical reduction of the working day (a concept which

220-420: A burden to myself and to others. For some years I had promised myself not to live beyond 70; and I fixed the exact year for my departure from life. I prepared the method for the execution of our resolution, it was a hypodermic of cyanide acid. I die with the supreme joy of knowing that at some future time, the cause to which I have been devoted for forty-five years will triumph. Long live Communism! Long Live

275-515: A by-election, being the first-ever French Socialist to occupy such an office. His success would encourage the POF to remain engaged in electoral activities, and largely abandon the insurrectionist policies of its previous period. Nevertheless, Lafargue continued his defence of Marxist orthodoxy against any reformist tendency, as shown by his conflict with Jean Jaurès , as well as his refusal to participate with any " bourgeois " government. In 1908, after

330-525: A form of hermeneutics : knowledge via interpretation to understand the meaning of human texts and symbolic expressions – including the interpretation of texts which themselves interpret other texts. In the British and American literary establishment, the New Criticism was more or less dominant until the late 1960s. Around that time Anglo-American university literature departments began to witness

385-622: A girl, all of whom died in infancy. They had no other children. Lafargue was chosen as a member of the General Council of the First International, then appointed corresponding secretary for Spain, although he does not seem to have succeeded in establishing any serious communication with workers' groups in that country—Spain joined the international congress only after the Cantonalist Revolution of 1868, while events such as

440-685: A long career as a political journalist. After the revolutionary episode of the Paris Commune during 1871, political repression forced him to flee to Spain. He finally settled in Madrid , where he contacted some members of the International's Spanish chapter (FRE-AIT) . Unlike in other parts of Europe where Marxism came to have a dominant part, the FRE-AIT were mostly devotees of the International's anarchist faction (they were to remain very strong until

495-516: A resemblance in some ways to the Greek polis , due to both being systems of individual towns or cities, ruled by citizens, which make up the overall confederacy. Cantonalism was predominantly a phenomenon of the petty bourgeoisie , but also had a great influence on the nascent labor movement , and constituted a precedent for anarchism in Spain . In Spain there have been two eras when cantonalism has come to

550-617: A rise of a more explicitly philosophical literary theory , influenced by structuralism , then post-structuralism , and other kinds of Continental philosophy . It continued until the mid-1980s, when interest in "theory" peaked. Many later critics, though undoubtedly still influenced by theoretical work, have been comfortable simply interpreting literature rather than writing explicitly about methodology and philosophical presumptions. Today, approaches based in literary theory and continental philosophy largely coexist in university literature departments, while conventional methods, some informed by

605-522: A separate field of inquiry from literary theory is a matter of some controversy. For example, The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism draws no distinction between literary theory and literary criticism, and almost always uses the terms together to describe the same concept. Some critics consider literary criticism a practical application of literary theory, because criticism always deals directly with particular literary works, while theory may be more general or abstract. Literary criticism

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660-580: Is often published in essay or book form. Academic literary critics teach in literature departments and publish in academic journals , and more popular critics publish their reviews in broadly circulating periodicals such as The Times Literary Supplement , The New York Times Book Review , The New York Review of Books , the London Review of Books , the Dublin Review of Books , The Nation , Bookforum , and The New Yorker . Literary criticism

715-554: Is the source of Marx's remark, reported by Friedrich Engels , " ce qu'il y a de certain c'est que moi, je ne suis pas Marxiste " ("If one thing is certain, I am not a Marxist"). Lafargue was born in 1842 in Santiago de Cuba . His father was the owner of coffee plantations in Cuba , and the family's wealth allowed Lafargue to study in Santiago and then in France. Each of Lafargue's grandparents

770-681: Is thought to have existed as far back as the classical period. In the 4th century BC Aristotle wrote the Poetics , a typology and description of literary forms with many specific criticisms of contemporary works of art. Poetics developed for the first time the concepts of mimesis and catharsis , which are still crucial in literary studies. Plato 's attacks on poetry as imitative, secondary, and false were formative as well. The Sanskrit Natya Shastra includes literary criticism on ancient Indian literature and Sanskrit drama. Later classical and medieval criticism often focused on religious texts, and

825-553: The Jacobin Radicals and Blanquists . From then until his death, Lafargue remained the most respected theorist of the POF, not just extending the original Marxist doctrines, but also adding original ideas of his own. He also participated with public activities such as strikes and elections, and was imprisoned several times. In 1891, despite being in police custody, he was elected to the French Parliament for Lille in

880-738: The New Critics , also remain active. Disagreements over the goals and methods of literary criticism, which characterized both sides taken by critics during the "rise" of theory, have declined. Some critics work largely with theoretical texts, while others read traditional literature; interest in the literary canon is still great, but many critics are also interested in nontraditional texts and women's literature , as elaborated on by certain academic journals such as Contemporary Women's Writing , while some critics influenced by cultural studies read popular texts like comic books or pulp / genre fiction . Ecocritics have drawn connections between literature and

935-552: The Spanish Civil War of the 1930s, and the subsequent dictatorship ). Lafargue became involved with propagating Marxism, an activity that was directed largely by Friedrich Engels , and one that became intertwined with the struggles that both tendencies had internationally—as the Spanish federation of the International was one of the main endorsers of the anarchist group. The task given to Lafargue consisted mainly of gathering

990-462: The history of the book is a field of interdisciplinary inquiry drawing on the methods of bibliography , cultural history , history of literature , and media theory . Principally concerned with the production, circulation, and reception of texts and their material forms, book history seeks to connect forms of textuality with their material aspects. Among the issues within the history of literature with which book history can be seen to intersect are:

1045-459: The 1872 Hague Congress which marked the end of First International as a united group of all communists. Between 1873 and 1882, Paul Lafargue lived in London, and avoided practising medicine as he had lost faith in it after the death in infancy of his and Laura's three children. He opened a photolithography workshop, but its limited income forced him to request money from Engels (whose family co-owned

1100-494: The 9th century, notably by Al-Jahiz in his al-Bayan wa-'l-tabyin and al-Hayawan , and by Abdullah ibn al-Mu'tazz in his Kitab al-Badi . The literary criticism of the Renaissance developed classical ideas of unity of form and content into literary neoclassicism , proclaiming literature as central to culture, entrusting the poet and the author with preservation of a long literary tradition. The birth of Renaissance criticism

1155-459: The Enlightenment theoreticians so that the business of Enlightenment became a business with the Enlightenment. This development – particularly of emergence of entertainment literature – was addressed through an intensification of criticism. Many works of Jonathan Swift , for instance, were criticized including his book Gulliver's Travels , which one critic described as "the detestable story of

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1210-544: The Yahoos". The British Romantic movement of the early nineteenth century introduced new aesthetic ideas to literary studies, including the idea that the object of literature need not always be beautiful, noble, or perfect, but that literature itself could elevate a common subject to the level of the sublime . German Romanticism , which followed closely after the late development of German classicism , emphasized an aesthetic of fragmentation that can appear startlingly modern to

1265-452: The age at which the Lafargues chose to die — for here we were dealing not with the number of years, but with the possible usefulness of a political figure — then one could by no means argue against the very principle of a political figure departing from this life at the moment when he felt that he would no longer bring any benefit to the cause to which he had devoted himself. Vladimir Lenin, who

1320-497: The age of 69, he and 66-year-old Laura died together by a suicide pact . Lafargue was the subject of a famous quotation by Karl Marx . Soon before Marx died in 1883, he wrote a letter to Lafargue and the French Workers' Party organizer Jules Guesde , both of whom already claimed to represent "Marxist" principles. Marx accused them of "revolutionary phrase-mongering" and of denying the value of reformist struggles. This exchange

1375-558: The arrival of the Italian anarchist Giuseppe Fanelli caused it to be influenced strongly by anarchism (and not the Marxism that Lafargue chose to represent). Lafargue's opposition to anarchism became notorious when, after his return to France, he wrote several articles criticizing the Bakuninist tendencies that were very influential with some French workers' groups; this series of articles began

1430-482: The attempt to establish cantons took place in Extremadura , Coria , Hervás and Plasencia . Pi y Margall , seeing that cantons declared independent by the tardiness of the taxation of improvements, resigned from his post to be succeeded by Nicolás Salmerón who worked to defeat the cantonal movement. The second period when this phenomenon took place, despite not being in an ideological manner as above, corresponds to

1485-514: The author's psychology or biography, which became almost taboo subjects) or reader response : together known as Wimsatt and Beardsley's intentional fallacy and affective fallacy . This emphasis on form and precise attention to "the words themselves" has persisted, after the decline of these critical doctrines themselves. In 1957 Northrop Frye published the influential Anatomy of Criticism . In his works Frye noted that some critics tend to embrace an ideology, and to judge literary pieces on

1540-516: The basis of their adherence to such ideology. This has been a highly influential viewpoint among modern conservative thinkers. E. Michael Jones, for example, argues in his Degenerate Moderns that Stanley Fish was influenced by his own adulterous affairs to reject classic literature that condemned adultery. Jürgen Habermas , in Erkenntnis und Interesse [1968] ( Knowledge and Human Interests ), described literary critical theory in literary studies as

1595-685: The better-known socialist activists of the time, such as Karl Kautsky and Hjalmar Branting of the older generation, and Karl Liebknecht or Vladimir Lenin of the younger generation. It was in Draveil that Lafargue and his wife Laura Marx ended their lives together, to the surprise and even outrage of French and European socialists. In his suicide letter, Lafargue explained: Healthy in body and mind, I end my life before pitiless old age which has taken from me my pleasures and joys one after another; and which has been stripping me of my physical and mental powers, can paralyse my energy and break my will, making me

1650-408: The development of authorship as a profession, the formation of reading audiences, the constraints of censorship and copyright, and the economics of literary form. Cantonalism It advocates federalism with a radical character (including redistribution of wealth , improvement of the working classes etc.). Its goal is to establish a confederation of independent towns or cities (cantons). It has

1705-525: The end of the Second Spanish Republic , which was developed during the Spanish Civil War and the Spanish Revolution , when for five months committees were established. Dozens of municipal and district councils of autonomous power, independent from the state , with their own notes and coins, were established. In some cases, independent municipalities or provinces communicated this decision to

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1760-451: The first draft of The Right to Be Lazy . In 1882, he started working in an insurance company , which allowed him to relocate back to Paris and become more involved with French socialist politics. Together with Jules Guesde and Gabriel Deville , he began directing the activities of the newly initiated French Workers' Party ( Parti Ouvrier Français ; POF), which he caused to conflict with other major left-wing trends: anarchism, as well as

1815-406: The first full-fledged crisis in modernity of the core critical-aesthetic principles inherited from classical antiquity , such as proportion, harmony, unity, decorum , that had long governed, guaranteed, and stabilized Western thinking about artworks. Although Classicism was very far from spent as a cultural force, it was to be gradually challenged by a rival movement, namely Baroque, that favoured

1870-599: The forefront. The first of these events took place during the First Spanish Republic , on July 12 of 1873 in Cartagena , when an insurgency took place declaring the Canton of Cartagena . In the following days it spread through many regions including, Valencia , Andalusia (especially Granada ), and in the provinces of Salamanca and Ávila , all of them in places that came to articulate cantonalism. It can also be noted,

1925-587: The international socialism! Most well-known socialists deplored his decision publicly or privately; a few, notably the Spanish anarchist Anselmo Lorenzo , who had been a major political rival of Lafargue during his Spanish period, accepted his decision with understanding. Lorenzo wrote after Lafargue's death: The double, original and, whatever the routine response, even sympathetic suicide of Paul Lafargue and Laura Marx [in Spain, women keep their maiden surname after marriage], who knew and could live united and lovers until death, has awakened my memories. [...] Lafargue

1980-406: The more controversial criteria of the author's religious beliefs. These critical reviews were published in many magazines, newspapers, and journals. The commercialization of literature and its mass production had its downside. The emergent literary market, which was expected to educate the public and keep them away from superstition and prejudice, increasingly diverged from the idealistic control of

2035-734: The most prominent revolutionists: Marx and Auguste Blanqui , whose influence largely ended the anarchist tendencies of the young Lafargue. In 1865, after participating in the International Students' Congress in Liège , Lafargue was banned from all French universities, and had to leave for London in order to start a career. It was there that he became a frequent visitor to Marx's house, meeting his second daughter Laura, whom he married at St Pancras registry office in April 1868. During their first three-years of marriage they had three children, two boys and

2090-399: The natural sciences. Darwinian literary studies studies literature in the context of evolutionary influences on human nature. And postcritique has sought to develop new ways of reading and responding to literary texts that go beyond the interpretive methods of critique . Many literary critics also work in film criticism or media studies . Related to other forms of literary criticism,

2145-630: The new direction taken in the early twentieth century. Early in the century the school of criticism known as Russian Formalism , and slightly later the New Criticism in Britain and in the United States, came to dominate the study and discussion of literature in the English-speaking world. Both schools emphasized the close reading of texts, elevating it far above generalizing discussion and speculation about either authorial intention (to say nothing of

2200-447: The reader of English literature, and valued Witz – that is, "wit" or "humor" of a certain sort – more highly than the serious Anglophone Romanticism. The late nineteenth century brought renown to authors known more for their literary criticism than for their own literary work, such as Matthew Arnold . However important all of these aesthetic movements were as antecedents, current ideas about literary criticism derive almost entirely from

2255-494: The same grave. Literary critic A genre of arts criticism , literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation , and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory , which is the philosophical analysis of literature's goals and methods. Although the two activities are closely related, literary critics are not always, and have not always been, theorists. Whether or not literary criticism should be considered

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2310-416: The several long religious traditions of hermeneutics and textual exegesis have had a profound influence on the study of secular texts. This was particularly the case for the literary traditions of the three Abrahamic religions : Jewish literature , Christian literature and Islamic literature . Literary criticism was also employed in other forms of medieval Arabic literature and Arabic poetry from

2365-572: The simple ones were comforted by his optimisms , but those touched by depressing passions changed friendship into hate and produced personal issues, divisions and created organizations that, because of original vice, will always give bitter fruit. Adolf Abramovich Joffe , who later committed suicide to protest the expulsion of Leon Trotsky from the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party , noted in his final letter to Trotsky on

2420-616: The textile company Baumwollspinnerei Ermen & Engels ) on several occasions. Thanks to Engels' assistance, he again began communicating with the French workers' movement from London, after it had started to regain popularity lost as a result of the reactionary repression under Adolphe Thiers during the first years of the Third Republic . From 1880, he again worked as editor of the French socialist newspaper L'Égalité . During that same year, and in that publication, Lafargue began publishing

2475-608: The transgressive and the extreme, without laying claim to the unity, harmony, or decorum that supposedly distinguished both nature and its greatest imitator, namely ancient art. The key concepts of the Baroque aesthetic, such as " conceit ' ( concetto ), " wit " ( acutezza , ingegno ), and " wonder " ( meraviglia ), were not fully developed in literary theory until the publication of Emanuele Tesauro 's Il Cannocchiale aristotelico (The Aristotelian Telescope) in 1654. This seminal treatise – inspired by Giambattista Marino 's epic Adone and

2530-447: The verge of committing suicide that he approved of the suicide pact of Lafargue and Marx in his youth: When I was still an inexperienced youth, and the suicide of Paul Lafargue and his wife Laura Marx raised such an outcry in the socialist parties, I firmly defended the principled and correct nature of their positions. I recall that I vehemently objected to August Bebel, who was indignant over these suicides, that if one could argue against

2585-521: The work of the Spanish Jesuit philosopher Baltasar Gracián – developed a theory of metaphor as a universal language of images and as a supreme intellectual act, at once an artifice and an epistemologically privileged mode of access to truth. In the Enlightenment period (1700s–1800s), literary criticism became more popular. During this time literacy rates started to rise in the public; no longer

2640-609: Was an “international[ist] of blood before [he] was one of ideology” and that “the blood of three oppressed races runs in my veins.” When Daniel De Leon asked him about his origins, he promptly replied, “I am proudest of my Negro extraction.” Karl Marx in various correspondence referred to him as “Descendant of a gorilla”, “Negro” and “Negrillo”, In 1851, the Lafargue family relocated back to its hometown of Bordeaux , where Paul attended secondary school. Later he studied medicine in Paris . It

2695-434: Was in 1498, with the recovery of classic texts, most notably, Giorgio Valla 's Latin translation of Aristotle 's Poetics . The work of Aristotle, especially Poetics , was the most important influence upon literary criticism until the late eighteenth century. Lodovico Castelvetro was one of the most influential Renaissance critics who wrote commentaries on Aristotle's Poetics in 1570. The seventeenth-century witnessed

2750-424: Was my teacher: his memory is for me almost as important as that of Fanelli. [...] [I]n Lafargue were two different aspects that made him appear in constant contradiction: affiliated to socialism, he was anarchist communist by intimate conviction; but enemy of Bakunin , by suggestion of Marx, he tried to damage Anarchism. Due to that double way of being, he caused different effect in those that had relations with him:

2805-552: Was not entirely alien to the original thought of Marx). In 1872, after public criticism of La Emancipación against the new anarchist Federal Council of the FRE-AIT, the Federation of Madrid expelled the signatories of that article, who soon initiated the New Madrid Federation  [ es ] , a group of limited influence. The last activity of Lafargue as a Spanish activist was to represent this Marxist minority group in

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2860-549: Was of a different ethno-religious origin. His paternal grandfather was a French Christian from the region of Bordeaux . His paternal grandmother was a mulatto from Saint-Domingue who had fled to Cuba following the Haitian Revolution . Lafargue's maternal grandparents were also refugees from Saint-Domingue. His maternal grandfather was a French Jew , and his maternal grandmother was a Jamaican woman who claimed to be of indigenous Taíno ancestry. Lafargue has remarked that he

2915-645: Was one of the speakers at the funeral as representative of RSDLP , later told his wife Nadezhda Krupskaya : If one cannot work for the Party any longer, one must be able to look truth in the face and die like the Lafargues." Paul Lafargue and Laura Marx were buried at division 76 (near the Communards' Wall ) of the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Their nephew Jean Longuet and his wife and two sons later were buried in

2970-407: Was reading exclusive for the wealthy or scholarly. With the rise of the literate public, the swiftness of printing and commercialization of literature, criticism arose too. Reading was no longer viewed solely as educational or as a sacred source of religion; it was a form of entertainment. Literary criticism was influenced by the values and stylistic writing, including clear, bold, precise writing and

3025-656: Was there that Lafargue started his intellectual and political career, endorsing Positivist philosophy, and communicating with the Republican groups that opposed Napoleon III . The work of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon seems to have particularly influenced him during this phase. As a Proudhonian anarchist , Lafargue joined the French section of the International Workingmen's Association (the First International ). Nevertheless, he soon began communicating with two of

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