This work investigates the historical and theoretical tension between Russian Formalism and Marxist literary criticism to determine how each framework accounts for the social function of literature. Tony Bennett, a prominent scholar in cultural studies, examines the methodological divergence between the formalist focus on the internal mechanics of texts and the Marxist emphasis on the socio-economic conditions of production. He argues for a synthesis that avoids the reductionism of early Marxist approaches while retaining the formalist attention to the specific linguistic and structural properties of literary works.

Scholars frequently cite this text as a foundational resource for understanding the evolution of materialist literary theory. Readers often note the academic density of the prose, which requires a strong background in critical theory to fully grasp the nuances of the argument.