Matéria e ilusão: sociedade e literatura em Balzac e Marx

Abstract

The work intends to present an approach to Marxian theory of modernity in connection with some works of Balzac. The purpose is thus to understand the possible ties to be identified among a certain canonical theoretical framework within the social sciences and a number of literary works. The approach taken is not limited to focus on the issue of class struggle or how the economic infrastructure interfere in the political and ideological superstructure, as generally the studies about Marxism stress, but the way the two authors, even devoted to distinct intellectual activities, can be articulated between themselves. This research shows how much Marx appropriated the approach method from the literary narratives of Balzac and converted these gains to a scientific analysis of the reality established by the modern world. Despite the differences of political and ideological positions that exist between Marx and Balzac, an aimed critique of bourgeois society inaugurated by the French author contributed greatly to the German author to consolidate his own revolutionary point of view of modernity.