One of the basic tenets of liberal humanism maintains that the literary text contains it own meaning within itself. It does not require any elaborate process of placing it within a context, whether that be socio-political, literary-historical, or autobiographical. Basically a liberal humanist would remove the text from all of these contexts and commit themselves to the study of the words on the page and see the text for what it presumably really is. I was interested in this particular tenet precisely because a Marxist critic would indeed have a strong reaction to this mode of thinking.
The very nature of Marxist criticism is that the nature of literature is influenced by the social and political circumstances in which it was produced. Rather than take a determinist position and argue that literature is the passive product of socio economic forces, I personally think along the lines of a liberal who sees the socio economic influence as distant and subtle. This liberal stance reinforces the tenet of Marxist criticism in which the assumption is made that the author is unaware of precisely what he or she is saying or revealing in the text. That being said, Marxist critics are committed to relating the context of a work to the social-class status of the author which is in direction opposition to the tenet of liberal humanism that is devoted to separating the text from any autobiographical context. Marxist critics simply cannot ignore (because of what they strongly believe) the weight and influence that the author's social class and its prevailing ideology have on what is then produced by a member of that class.
A Marxist critic would be very interested in the autobiography of the author in order to flesh out how exactly that individual was formed by their social context and how this influences the content of their work. Social class and the ideologies put forth by society are of central importance to all Marxists, Althusser himself speaks of it as a system of representation at the heart of a given society. These systems of representation reveal values and assumptions which are subtly ingrained in the minds of individuals and play a part in the creation of the text whether it is known to the author or not. A Marxist critic would definitely not limit him or herself to simply the words on the page, such as a liberal humanist would when undertaking a 'on-sight close reading'.

An Introduction

Before enrolling in this class I had a very basic understanding of critical theory. I had been taught in the past that literary theory is the term for a variety of scholarly approaches to reading texts and that theories can be used as different types of 'lenses' through which texts can be viewed, analyzed, and understood. After having read the preliminary assignments for the class, I have now realized that critical theory is a more general term for new theoretical developments and that it can be applied to a variety of fields. I have also realized that reality is something unfixed, vast, and infinitely complex and that critical theory calls for us to go beyond the familiar and immediate inferences, assumptions, and judgements that our minds naturally make. Theory and critical theory are a continual debate and process of trial and error which allow for the eventual growth of knowledge. Theory is simply the search to know and understand more, it is discovering the possibility of truth however nebulous that search may be.
I am learning that theory is something very hard to define, which is why I would like my blog to parallel my sentiments and also be a continual process of trial and error. As an English literature major I have some reservations about the creative writing process because of my training in analyzing and responding to texts. I have to admit my fear of free form public expression. I am much more comfortable writing, re-writing, editing, and then submitting a final product. This blog will be a great learning experience, forcing me to play with ideas and to explore, question, and critique through a trial and error process.