literary theories
TRANSCRIPT
Literary TheoriesThe Basics of Criticism
The point of criticism is to argue your point of view on a work of literature.
You don’t have to “criticize” a text (but you can)
You do have to analyze a text and support your assertions with specific evidence from experts and the text.
The Basic Idea
A critical analysis is an in-depth examination of some aspect of the literary work
you may examine any element of the text: character development, conflicts, narrative point of view, etc.
Even though it’s an examination of a literary work, it’s still a persuasive essay
The Basic Idea
The goal is to prove something about the work
There must be a point to the discussion. You must answer the questions Why? or So
what? For example, why is a recurring symbol
important? Or, why is the development of the female characters significant?
The Basic Idea
There are many different approaches we can take to critical analysis
Literary theories provide a framework for our discussion of a text
We don’t have to identify the theory we’re using, though.
We use it as a starting point for our own ideas and opinions
The Basic Idea
The Basic Idea
Literary criticism has two main functions:1. To analyze, study, and evaluate works of
literature.2. To form general principles for the
examination of works of literature.
New Criticism*
Meaning resides in the text—not in reader, author, or world
Texts may contain numerous messages, but must have a unifying central theme created by the perfect union of all artistic elements.
Texts are artistic creations Close reading is the basis of new
critical analysis The methodology for finding meaning
is clear-cut; the tools are unique to literary analysis
Mantra: “The text itself”
*one type of formalism
Formalist Approach
Attempts to discover meaning by close reading of a work of literature. Focus is on: Form, organization, and structure Word choice and language Multiple meanings analyzing irony, paradox, imagery, and metaphor setting, characters, symbols, and point of view.
Considers the work in isolation, disregarding author’s intent, author’s background, context, and anything else outside of the work itself.
Formalist Approach
Two Major Principles of Formalism1. A literary text exists independent of any
particular reader and, in a sense, has a fixed meaning.
2. The greatest literary texts are “timeless” and “universal.”
intentional fallacy - the false belief that the meaning or value of a work may be determined by the author's intention
affective fallacy - the false belief that the meaning or value of a work may be determined by its affect on the reader
external form - rhyme scheme, meter, stanza form, etc.
Formalist Approach
Advantages: can be performed without much research emphasizes the value of literature apart from its
context virtually all critical approaches must begin hereDisadvantages: text is seen in isolation ignores the context of the work cannot account for allusions Very difficult to perform on longer works
Formalist Approach
Two important ideas:1.An individual reader’s interpretation usually changes over time.2.Readers from different generations and different time periods interpret texts differently.
Reader Response Approach
Reader-Response Approach
asserts that a great deal of meaning in a text lies with how the reader responds to it. Focuses on the act of reading and how it affects our
perception of meaning in a text (how we feel at the beginning vs. the end)
Deals more with the process of creating meaning and experiencing a text as we read. A text is an experience, not an object.
The text is a living thing that lives in the reader’s imagination.
READER + READING SITUATION + TEXT = MEANING
Advantages: recognizes that different people view works
differently and that people's interpretations change over time.
Disadvantages: tends to make interpretation too subjective does not provide adequate criteria for
evaluating one reading in comparison to another
Reader Response Approach
New Historicism Approach
New historicist critics view literature as part of history, and furthermore, as an expression of forces on history.
New historicism compares literary analysis to a dynamic circle: The work tells us something about the
surrounding ideology (slavery, rights of women, etc.)
Study of the ideology tells us something about the work.
New Historicism Approach
New historicism takes two forms: Analysis of the work in the context in
which it was created Analysis of the work in the context in
which it was critically evaluated. New historicists assert that literature
“does not exist outside time and place and cannot be interpreted without reference to the era in which it was written” (Kirszner and Mandell 2038).
New Historicism Approach
Readers are influenced by their culture, so no objective reading of a work is possible.
Critics should consider how their own culture affects their interpretation of the historical influence on a work.
Karl Marx perceived human history to have consisted of a series of struggles between classes--between the oppressed and the oppressing Bourgeoisie - “the haves” Proletariat - “the have-nots”
Marx thought that materialism was the ultimate driving force in history
Marxist Approach
Marxist BeliefsValue is based on laborThe working class will eventually overthrow the capitalist middle classIn the meantime, the middle class exploits the working classMost institutions—religious, legal, educational, and governmental—are corrupted by middle-class capitalists
“Religion is the opiate of the masses”
Marxist Approach
The successful working class will then establish a communist society
In this ideal the labor, the means of production, and the profits are shared by all
This system is an attempt at complete social and economic equality
It’s a great theory but doesn’t work in reality
Marxist Approach
Marxist Approach
Examines literature to see how it reflects1. The way in which dominant groups (typically,
the majority) exploit the subordinate groups (typically, the minority)
2. The way in which people become alienated from one another through power, money, and politics
Look for evidence of oppressive ideologies of the dominant social group; look for uses
and abuses of power
commodities: possessions that give power land and money social position knowledge, or even a person Texts are commodities, not timeless works of art Truths are socially constructed
Look for what commodities bring power and why within a work of literature
Marxist Approach
Psychoanalytic Approach
Freudian
Sigmund Freud
Lacanian
Joseph Lacan (French)
views works through the lens of psychology looks either at the psychological motivations
of the characters or of the authors themselves
most frequently applies Freudian psychology to works, but other approaches also exist.
Psychoanalytic Approach
Psychoanalytic ApproachFreudian
Model of the Psyche the id: the instinctual, pleasure seeking part
of the mind the superego: the part of the mind that
represses the id's impulses the ego: the part of the mind that controls
but does not repress the id's impulses, releasing them in a healthy way
Psychoanalytic ApproachFreudian
Psychoanalytic ApproachFreudian
Basic ConceptsAll actions are influenced by the unconscious.Human beings must repress many of their desires to live peacefully with others.Repressed desires often surface in the unconscious, motivating actions.
Psychoanalytic ApproachFreudian
Recognizes symbols that are linked to sexual pleasure
Female (Yonic): concave images, such as ponds, flowers, cups, and caves, images of sustenance, fertility or fecundity (gardens, food)
Male (Phallic): if it stands up or goes off, objects that are longer than they are wide
dancing, riding, and flying are associated with sexual pleasure
water is usually associated with birth, the female principle, the maternal, the womb, and the death wish.
Psychoanalytic ApproachFreudian
Psychoanalytic ApproachFreudian
The Core IssuesFear of intimacyFear of abandonmentFear of betrayalLow self-esteemInsecure or unstable sense of selfOedipal fixation or Oedipal complex
Oedipus complex: a boy's unconscious rivalry with his father for the love of his mother
Electra complex: a girl’s unconscious rivalry with her mother for the love of her father (a.k.a. “daddy issues”)
Psychoanalytic ApproachFreudian
Psychoanalytic ApproachLacanian
Model of the PsycheImaginary - a preverbal/verbal stage in which a child (around 6-18 months of age) begins to develop a sense of separateness from her mother as well as other people and objects; however, the child's sense of sense is still incomplete.Symbolic - the stage marking a child's entrance into language (the ability to understand and generate symbols); in contrast to the imaginary stage, largely focused on the mother, the symbolic stage shifts attention to the father who, in Lacanian theory, represents cultural norms, laws, language, and power (the symbol of power is the phallus--an arguably "gender-neutral" term). Real - an unattainable stage representing all that a person is not and does not have. Both Lacan and his critics argue whether the real order represents the period before the imaginary order when a child is completely fulfilled--without need or lack, or if the real order follows the symbolic order and represents our "perennial lack" (because we cannot return to the state of wholeness that existed before language).
We know only what we have words for.
Based on Language
Development
Based on Language
Development
based on the theories of psychologist Carl Jung, a disciple of Freud
Collective Unconscious: there are certain basic and central images and experiences that are inherent in the human psyche
Archetypal Approach
assumes that there is a collection of symbols, images, characters, and motifs (i.e. archetypes) that evokes basically the same response in all people regardless of culture
Concerned with enduring patterns and how they are reflected in literature
asserts that these archetypes are the source of much of literature's power.
Archetypal Approach
archetypal women - the Good Wife/Mother, the Terrible Mother, the Virgin (often a Damsel in Distress), and the Fallen Woman.
water - creation, birth-death-resurrection, purification, redemption, fertility, growth
garden - paradise (Eden), innocence, fertility desert - spiritual emptiness, death, hopelessness red - blood, sacrifice, passion, disorder green - growth, fertility black - chaos, death, evil serpent - evil, sensuality, mystery, wisdom, destruction seven - perfection hero archetype - The hero is involved in a quest (in which he overcomes
obstacles). He experiences initiation (involving a separation, transformation, and return), and finally he serves as a scapegoat, that is, he dies to atone.
Some Archetypes
Advantages: provides a universalistic approach to literature
and identifies a reason why certain literature may survive the test of time
it works well with works that are highly symbolic
Disadvantages: literature may become a vehicle for
archetypes can easily become a list of symbols without
much analysis
Archetypal Approach
Feminist Approach
Context and Terminologyfemale (biological) ≠ feminine (socio-cultural) ≠ Feminist (political) feminism ≠ gender studies- political vs academic context and terminology- focus on women vs focus on gendered experience of being human
Feminist Approach
Concerned with the role, position, and influence of women in a literary text.
Asserts that most “literature” throughout time has been written by men, for men. The male experience is the “norm” against which the
woman or “other” experience is measured – the woman is “otherized” thus women assume male values and ways of perceiving, feeling, and acting.
Examines the way that the female consciousness is depicted by both male and female writers.
may argue that gender determines everything, or just the opposite: that all gender differences are imposed by society, and gender determines nothing
4 Basic Principles of Feminist Criticism1. Western civilization is patriarchal.2. The concepts of gender are mainly cultural
ideas created by patriarchal societies.3. Patriarchal ideals pervade “literature.”4. Most “literature” through time has been
gender-biased.
Feminist Approach
Feminine: the female accepts the definitions and roles male authorities have created for her
Feminist: rebels against male authority and intentionally challenges all male definitions and roles
Female: no longer concerned with male definitions or restrictions; defines her own voice and values
Stages of Female Identity
asserts that the larger purpose of literature is to teach morality and to probe philosophical issues
authors intend to instruct the audience in some way
Moral / Philosophical Approach
Existentialism involves the attempt to make meaning in a chaotic world.
Sartre argued, "man makes himself." As a form of literary criticism, existentialism
seeks to analyze literary works, with special emphasis on the struggle to define meaning and identity in the face of alienation and isolation.
Moral / Philosophical Approach
Existentialism
Absurd - a term used to describe existence--a world without inherent meaning or truth.
Authenticity - to make choices based on an individual code of ethics (commitment) rather than because of societal pressures. A choice made just because "it's what people do" would be considered inauthentic.
"Leap of faith" - although Kierkegaard acknowledged that religion was inherently unknowable and filled with risks, faith required an act of commitment (the "leap of faith"); the commitment to Christianity would also lessen the despair of an absurd world.
Moral / Philosophical Approach
Existentialism
views each person as an isolated being who is cast into an alien universe, and conceives the world as possessing no inherent human truth, value, or meaning.
A person's life, then, as it moves from the nothingness from which it came toward the nothingness where it must end, defines an existence which is both anguished and absurd
In a world without sense, all choices are possible, a situation which Sartre viewed as human beings central dilemma: "Man [woman] is condemned to be free.“
In contrast to atheist existentialism, Søren Kierkegaard theorized that belief in God (given that we are provided with no proof or assurance) required a conscious choice or "leap of faith."
Moral / Philosophical Approach
Existentialism
Advantages: useful for works which do present an obvious moral
philosophy useful when considering the themes of works does not view literature merely as "art" isolated from all
moral implications recognizes that literature can affect readers and that
the message of a work is important. Disadvantages: such an approach can be too "judgmental" Some believe literature should be judged primarily (if
not solely) on its artistic merits, not its moral or philosophical content.
Moral / Philosophical Approach:
POSTCOLONIALISM
Meaning resides in text, history, and ideology Literature is a political tool—those in power
decide what is “art” Truth is relative Study the author’s (and reader’s) life & times; locate
tensions between conflicting cultures; explore the “double consciousness” of colonized & postcolonized writers; observe how colonizers “refashion” the colonized;
Territorialism
Possessions (objects of desire) are metaphors for who we are or how we wish to be perceived—aspects of the “self.”
Possessions may be tangible or intangible (my car or my idea, e.g.)
They occupy mental space: cognitive, affective, and conative.
These spaces strongly resemble territories—with rights of ownership, markers, boundaries, rules of “in” and “out,” defensive strategies, etc.
Look for territorial behaviors; determine the “object(s) of desire”; what aspect of self is in play? Who owns the object? Who wants it? Why? Identify the territorial act: acquisition, management, or defense? How does this information improve our understanding of the text?