Soran Abdulrahman1 & Khals Mala 2
1English Language Teaching Department, Faculty of Education, Tishk International University, Erbil, Iraq
2University of Raparin, Iraq
Abstract: The play entitled The Bedbug is one of the most imaginative political satires on the Soviet Union in the twentieth century which was written by one of the greatest Russian poets, Vladimir Mayakovsky in 1929. The primary purpose of this study is to analyze the play in terms of Marxism’s Materialistic Aspects. This article intends to show the economic positions and influence of materialistic interests of the characters in general, and the protagonist of the play, Prisypkin, in particular. It shows how Prisypkin behaves like the upper classes, and it also explains the reasons behind the character’s change. Moreover, the paper demonstrates the reasons why Mayakovsky portrayed him like that. In conclusion, Mayakovsky criticizes all the self-interest proletariat class through Prisypkin, he also indirectly criticizes the Soviet Union leaders.
Keywords: Marxism, Social Classes, Economic Position, Proletariat, Bourgeoisie, Opportunist
Published: August 10, 2022
References:
Abrams, M. H. (1999). Marxist criticism: A glossary of literary terms. Wadsworth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers.
Elster, J., & Jon, E. (1986). An introduction to Karl Marx. Cambridge University Press.
Habib, M. R. (2011). Literary criticism from Plato to the present: An introduction. John Wiley & Sons.
Lawton, A. (1988). Introduction. Russian futurism through its manifestoes, 1912–1928. Trans. and ed. Anna Lawton and Herbert Eagle. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1-48.
Lynn, S. (1998). Texts and contexts: Writing about literature with critical theory. Addison Wesley Publishing Company.
Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1967). The communist manifesto. 1848. Trans. Samuel Moore. London: Penguin, 15(10.1215), 9780822392583-049.
Mayakovsky, V. (1975). The Bedbug [a Play] and Selected Poetry. Indiana University Press.
Russell, R. (1988). Russian drama of the revolutionary period. Rowman & Littlefield.
Sundaram, C. (2001). Manufacturing culture, the Soviet state and the Mayakovsky legend, 1930-1993 (Doctoral dissertation).
International Journal of Social Sciences & Educational Studies
ISSN 2520-0968 (Online), ISSN 2409-1294 (Print), September 2022, Vol.9, No.3