Empire Thorugh Karl Marx's Perspective

Introduction:

What could greed for power push you and your family to do? In 2014 Fox premiered a television series titled Empire where the Lyon family compete for their family music label.
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Application:

In order to help us better understand the conflict within Empire we are going to be using Karl Marx's, a 19th century German philosopher and sociologist, conflict theory. Marx's theory seeks to explain the social change in society by claiming that all historical change is rooted in class conflict between groups. Throughout the blog we will be analyzing Empire using the conflict theory to explain the struggle for power within the show.


Karl Marx use the concept of class to explain the social inequality he saw in Germany during the 19th century. According to Marx class is a group of people that are separated into different social ranks. In Empire we can see how class plays out within the Lyon family. The Lyon family is considered the upper class post the founding of Empire while their old associates and friends can be seen as the lower class within the show.


Brainstorm Class:

• Def: Groups of people that are separated into different ranks
• Example: The different classes within the family (Family: upper class, Other people: lower class)

Topic: Music, power, and money
Source: Empire (Fox TV show)
Theory: Conflict Theory
Theorist: Karl Marx
Terms: Class, Alienation, Capitalism, Capital