Formas literárias em O Capital de Karl Marx: conteúdo e forma da educação da classe trabalhadora

Abstract

The current dissertation assesses the literary forms present in Karl Marx's Capital, namely on its first volume, and its relationship with popular education. The starting point is the understanding of Marx’s method, as well as the exposition of his criticism of Political Economy, and its history. The assessment presents a bibliographic survey carried out on the role of art, and in particular, on the presence of certain literary traits, or even the use of certain literary works, in the course of the exposition of the ways of being, in a society where the capitalist mode of production reigns. It was also necessary to deal with the content of the first three sections of volume I of Capital, with the aim of identifying the functions fulfilled by the literary forms present in the book. The main literary forms used by Marx are elucidated through the location and assessment of the main verbal modules that are characteristic of the author, the use he makes of literature, his illustrations, his narrative constructions, and his ironies. Therefore, an intention is proposed, since the assessed author seeks to make the theoretical conclusions reached in the course of his investigations more understandable. Such intention is shown not only in his prefaces and letters but in the assessed literary forms, evidencing this didactic nature of his text. Returning to our starting point, the popular education based on the critique of Political Economy, we present the trajectory of the Núcleo de Educação Popular – 13 de Maio and the main theoretical and methodological issues that characterize its pedagogical practice. Finally, we consider the relationship between this pedagogical practice and the literary forms present in volume I of Capital.