Rigid interpretations of Marxist historical materialism (notably in the reactionary theories of an early Trotsky) suggest that the “formal” features of art are subservient to its content (and that all art is just a superstructural reflection of underlying class structure), but revisions to this dogma emerge in the 1920s and 1930s that begin to consider “form” with more seriousness. This next wave of Marxists delves into how formalist decisions might have a politics of their own...