Activity 1

Chapter 24 introduced you to the basic principles of Marx's philosophy of history, economics, and politics. Take a moment to consider some of the nuances of his thought. Read Marx's comments on the alienation of labor from his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. What does Marx mean by alienation of labor? How does this alienation occur? Who benefits from it and how? Now read Marx's discussion of the fetishism of commodities (from Capital, volume 1, Chapter 3). What, according to Marx, is a commodity? What does it mean to fetishize a commodity? How does this process of fetishization com about? Who benefits from commodity fetishism and how? What is the alternative to it?

Activity 2

Gustave Courbet, about whom you read, was only one of several prominent realist painters who worked during the mid-nineteenth century. Take a look at some works by three other important realists: The Burden (The Laundress), The Uprising, and The Third Class Carriage by Honore Daumier (1808-79); The Bridge at Nantes, Woman with a Pearl, and View of Genoa by Camille Corot (1796-1875); and The Gleaners and The Walk to Work by Jean-Francois Millet (1814-75). How would you characterize the individual styles of these artists? What strike you as their unique features? How do they resemble and differ from each other? How do they exemplify realism as defined in Chapter 24? In what ways do they ask you to amplify or qualify that definition?