Marxism critical theory was founded by Karl Marx. The ideal is based in class-based struggle and conflict. Marxism is political economic theory of class conflict and  equitable “classless society”.  Marxism critical theorist focus on who suffers and who benefits.  Marx criticism have a specific way of looking at and understanding an “artifact” that has been produced by specific culture. Marx criticism are concerned with how an author’s work reinforces or resist the “material conditions” of the power structure. They focus on the differences between those who labor for the benefit of others. Within Marxism, they focus on the effects of materialism on society. Critics believe that human culture is determined by economic and material realities, not outside forces (God or nature) or an individual’s circumstances. Marxism assumes class struggle is the root of all struggle. The bourgeoisie in society are they only ones who benefit from the power structure. The power base is concentrated in alienation, reification, base, and superstructure. Marxism critics try to expose and explain the forces at be that are keeping the oppressed rising up, and inciting a revolution. Marxism critics believe that society is under control of a “false consciousness” in which the false ideals in societal constructs. Individuals within society that are not in the bourgeoisie work within an internalized idea of “natural”. Instead of being determined, individuals within society are “overdetermined”. None of the individual within society are autonomous outside of it. Marxist look at literature as a cultural artifact. They observe the text to see if it reinforces oppressive ideologies that keep the superstructure in place, attempts to subvert those ideologies overtly, or you can mix in deconstruction and show how the text does both. Some of the main Marxist critical theorist are Antonio Gramsci and Althusser.  Gramsci focused on hegemony, and the domination of the power class on the oppressed citizens of society. Gramsci believed that the rules of the power structure are internalized to the point at which people believe they are their own. Althusser looked for ideologies present within text that work to reinforce the status quo, and understand how they work.