Final answer:
Marxist criticism in literature focuses on class struggle and social inequality, examining how literary works comment on socioeconomic issues.
Step-by-step explanation:
The concern of the Marxist critic in literature is primarily with how the text reflects, reinforces, or challenges the effects of class, power relations, and social roles. Unlike psychoanalytical criticism, which explores the psychological dimensions of characters and their hidden desires, Marxist criticism examines literature through the lens of social and economic systems, particularly focusing on class struggle and social inequality. For example, a Marxist critique may analyze how a literary work portrays the struggles of the working class, the dynamics of capitalist exploitation, or the way a societal hierarchy influences the characters' lives and relationships.
Literary theories, including Marxist criticism, develop their arguments through various methods, such as historical context, use of other scholarly critiques, or a close reading of the text. Unlike New Criticism, which might focus on a story's characters, setting, and plot, Marxist criticism tends to engage with literature by questioning how it interacts with and comments on real-life socioeconomic conditions. Through this mode of criticism, literature becomes a reflection of the human struggle in relation to economic forces and social structures.