This course presents an introduction to the Marxist critical tradition by highlighting its attempts to read modernist and avant-garde texts by authors such as Franz Kafka, César Vallejo, and André Breton, within the social and class contexts in which they were written. Marx famously stated that "Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it." Paradoxically, however, his ideas have served as the starting point for literary and cultural interpretations throughout the world. Authors to be read may include classical Marxists like Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Leon Trotsky; Western Marxists, such as György Lukács, Theodor Adorno, and Walter Benjamin; Marxists from the Global South, such as José Carlos Mariátegui, CLR James, Aijaz Ahmad, and Roberto Schwarz; and more recent avatars, such as Angela Davis and Fredric Jameson.