This document provides an overview of literary theory, including definitions, key approaches, and examples. It discusses several influential theoretical movements and thinkers that helped shape the development of literary criticism in the 20th century, such as New Criticism, structuralism, Marxist criticism, reader-response theory, and deconstruction. The document also provides summaries of sample poems to demonstrate how different theoretical lenses can be applied in literary analysis.
Take the quiz to discover what poem you have been assigned to discus.docxbriankimberly26463
Take the quiz to discover what poem you have been assigned to discuss this week;
"On Being Brought From Africa to America" By: Phillis Wheatley
2.Look through the critical approaches in the Week 4 lesson, and CHOOSE 2 that you think could be used to analyze the poem you chose.
Literary Critical Theory:
Interpretive Strategies
1. Historicism considers the literary work in light of "what really happened" during the period reflected in that work. It insists that to understand a piece, we need to understand the author's biography and social background, ideas circulating at the time, and the cultural milieu. Historicism also "finds significance in the ways a particular work resembles or differs from other works of its period and/or genre," and therefore may involve source studies. It may also include examination of philology and linguistics. It is typically a discipline involving impressively extensive research.
2. New Criticism examines the relationships between a text's ideas and its form, "the connection between what a text says and the way it's said." New Critics/Formalists "may find tension, irony, or paradox in this relation, but they usually resolve it into unity and coherence of meaning." New Critics look for patterns of sound, imagery, narrative structure, point of view, and other techniques discernible on close reading of "the work itself." They insist that the meaning of a text should not be confused with the author's intentions nor the text's affective dimension--its effects on the reader. The objective determination as to "how a piece works" can be found through close focus and analysis, rather than through extraneous and erudite special knowledge.
3. Archetypal criticism "traces cultural and psychological 'myths' that shape the meaning of texts." It argues that "certain literary archetypes determine the structure and function of individual literary works," and therefore that literature imitates not the world but rather the "total dream of humankind." Archetypes (recurring images or symbols, patterns, universal experiences) may include motifs such as the quest or the heavenly ascent, symbols such as the apple or snake, or images such as crucifixion--all laden with meaning already when employed in a particular work.
4. Psychoanalytic criticism adopts the methods of "reading" employed by Freud and later theorists to interpret what a text really indicates. It argues that "unresolved and sometimes unconscious ambivalences in the author's own life may lead to a disunified literary work," and that the literary work is a manifestation of the author's own neuroses. Psychoanalytic critics focus on apparent dilemmas and conflicts in a work and "attempt to read an author's own family life and traumas into the actions of their characters," realizing that the psychological material will be expressed indirectly, encoded (similar to dreams) through principles such as "condensation," "displacement," and "symbolism."
5. Femini.
I hope, it is quite helpful for the beginner to understand the concept of contemporary Literary theory. Students can take the help to study and understand the basics of contemporary literary theory. It includes concise concepts, tenets and components to make the strategic study for competitive examination at one specific study material.
Take the quiz to discover what poem you have been assigned to discus.docxbriankimberly26463
Take the quiz to discover what poem you have been assigned to discuss this week;
"On Being Brought From Africa to America" By: Phillis Wheatley
2.Look through the critical approaches in the Week 4 lesson, and CHOOSE 2 that you think could be used to analyze the poem you chose.
Literary Critical Theory:
Interpretive Strategies
1. Historicism considers the literary work in light of "what really happened" during the period reflected in that work. It insists that to understand a piece, we need to understand the author's biography and social background, ideas circulating at the time, and the cultural milieu. Historicism also "finds significance in the ways a particular work resembles or differs from other works of its period and/or genre," and therefore may involve source studies. It may also include examination of philology and linguistics. It is typically a discipline involving impressively extensive research.
2. New Criticism examines the relationships between a text's ideas and its form, "the connection between what a text says and the way it's said." New Critics/Formalists "may find tension, irony, or paradox in this relation, but they usually resolve it into unity and coherence of meaning." New Critics look for patterns of sound, imagery, narrative structure, point of view, and other techniques discernible on close reading of "the work itself." They insist that the meaning of a text should not be confused with the author's intentions nor the text's affective dimension--its effects on the reader. The objective determination as to "how a piece works" can be found through close focus and analysis, rather than through extraneous and erudite special knowledge.
3. Archetypal criticism "traces cultural and psychological 'myths' that shape the meaning of texts." It argues that "certain literary archetypes determine the structure and function of individual literary works," and therefore that literature imitates not the world but rather the "total dream of humankind." Archetypes (recurring images or symbols, patterns, universal experiences) may include motifs such as the quest or the heavenly ascent, symbols such as the apple or snake, or images such as crucifixion--all laden with meaning already when employed in a particular work.
4. Psychoanalytic criticism adopts the methods of "reading" employed by Freud and later theorists to interpret what a text really indicates. It argues that "unresolved and sometimes unconscious ambivalences in the author's own life may lead to a disunified literary work," and that the literary work is a manifestation of the author's own neuroses. Psychoanalytic critics focus on apparent dilemmas and conflicts in a work and "attempt to read an author's own family life and traumas into the actions of their characters," realizing that the psychological material will be expressed indirectly, encoded (similar to dreams) through principles such as "condensation," "displacement," and "symbolism."
5. Femini.
I hope, it is quite helpful for the beginner to understand the concept of contemporary Literary theory. Students can take the help to study and understand the basics of contemporary literary theory. It includes concise concepts, tenets and components to make the strategic study for competitive examination at one specific study material.
English 205Masterworks of English LiteratureHANDOUTSCritica.docxYASHU40
English 205:
Masterworks of English Literature
HANDOUTS
Critical Approaches to Literature
Plain text version of this document.
Described below are nine common critical approaches to the literature. Quotations are from X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia’s Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, Sixth Edition (New York: HarperCollins, 1995), pages 1790-1818.
· Formalist Criticism: This approach regards literature as “a unique form of human knowledge that needs to be examined on its own terms.” All the elements necessary for understanding the work are contained within the work itself. Of particular interest to the formalist critic are the elements of form—style, structure, tone, imagery, etc.—that are found within the text. A primary goal for formalist critics is to determine how such elements work together with the text’s content to shape its effects upon readers.
· Biographical Criticism: This approach “begins with the simple but central insight that literature is written by actual people and that understanding an author’s life can help readers more thoroughly comprehend the work.” Hence, it often affords a practical method by which readers can better understand a text. However, a biographical critic must be careful not to take the biographical facts of a writer’s life too far in criticizing the works of that writer: the biographical critic “focuses on explicating the literary work by using the insight provided by knowledge of the author’s life.... [B]iographical data should amplify the meaning of the text, not drown it out with irrelevant material.”
· Historical Criticism: This approach “seeks to understand a literary work by investigating the social, cultural, and intellectual context that produced it—a context that necessarily includes the artist’s biography and milieu.” A key goal for historical critics is to understand the effect of a literary work upon its original readers.
· Gender Criticism: This approach “examines how sexual identity influences the creation and reception of literary works.” Originally an offshoot of feminist movements, gender criticism today includes a number of approaches, including the so-called “masculinist” approach recently advocated by poet Robert Bly. The bulk of gender criticism, however, is feminist and takes as a central precept that the patriarchal attitudes that have dominated western thought have resulted, consciously or unconsciously, in literature “full of unexamined ‘male-produced’ assumptions.” Feminist criticism attempts to correct this imbalance by analyzing and combatting such attitudes—by questioning, for example, why none of the characters in Shakespeare’s play Othello ever challenge the right of a husband to murder a wife accused of adultery. Other goals of feminist critics include “analyzing how sexual identity influences the reader of a text” and “examin[ing] how the images of men and women in imaginative literature reflect or reject the social forces that have historically kept th ...
Operation “Blue Star” is the only event in the history of Independent India where the state went into war with its own people. Even after about 40 years it is not clear if it was culmination of states anger over people of the region, a political game of power or start of dictatorial chapter in the democratic setup.
The people of Punjab felt alienated from main stream due to denial of their just demands during a long democratic struggle since independence. As it happen all over the word, it led to militant struggle with great loss of lives of military, police and civilian personnel. Killing of Indira Gandhi and massacre of innocent Sikhs in Delhi and other India cities was also associated with this movement.
English 205Masterworks of English LiteratureHANDOUTSCritica.docxYASHU40
English 205:
Masterworks of English Literature
HANDOUTS
Critical Approaches to Literature
Plain text version of this document.
Described below are nine common critical approaches to the literature. Quotations are from X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia’s Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, Sixth Edition (New York: HarperCollins, 1995), pages 1790-1818.
· Formalist Criticism: This approach regards literature as “a unique form of human knowledge that needs to be examined on its own terms.” All the elements necessary for understanding the work are contained within the work itself. Of particular interest to the formalist critic are the elements of form—style, structure, tone, imagery, etc.—that are found within the text. A primary goal for formalist critics is to determine how such elements work together with the text’s content to shape its effects upon readers.
· Biographical Criticism: This approach “begins with the simple but central insight that literature is written by actual people and that understanding an author’s life can help readers more thoroughly comprehend the work.” Hence, it often affords a practical method by which readers can better understand a text. However, a biographical critic must be careful not to take the biographical facts of a writer’s life too far in criticizing the works of that writer: the biographical critic “focuses on explicating the literary work by using the insight provided by knowledge of the author’s life.... [B]iographical data should amplify the meaning of the text, not drown it out with irrelevant material.”
· Historical Criticism: This approach “seeks to understand a literary work by investigating the social, cultural, and intellectual context that produced it—a context that necessarily includes the artist’s biography and milieu.” A key goal for historical critics is to understand the effect of a literary work upon its original readers.
· Gender Criticism: This approach “examines how sexual identity influences the creation and reception of literary works.” Originally an offshoot of feminist movements, gender criticism today includes a number of approaches, including the so-called “masculinist” approach recently advocated by poet Robert Bly. The bulk of gender criticism, however, is feminist and takes as a central precept that the patriarchal attitudes that have dominated western thought have resulted, consciously or unconsciously, in literature “full of unexamined ‘male-produced’ assumptions.” Feminist criticism attempts to correct this imbalance by analyzing and combatting such attitudes—by questioning, for example, why none of the characters in Shakespeare’s play Othello ever challenge the right of a husband to murder a wife accused of adultery. Other goals of feminist critics include “analyzing how sexual identity influences the reader of a text” and “examin[ing] how the images of men and women in imaginative literature reflect or reject the social forces that have historically kept th ...
Operation “Blue Star” is the only event in the history of Independent India where the state went into war with its own people. Even after about 40 years it is not clear if it was culmination of states anger over people of the region, a political game of power or start of dictatorial chapter in the democratic setup.
The people of Punjab felt alienated from main stream due to denial of their just demands during a long democratic struggle since independence. As it happen all over the word, it led to militant struggle with great loss of lives of military, police and civilian personnel. Killing of Indira Gandhi and massacre of innocent Sikhs in Delhi and other India cities was also associated with this movement.
2024.06.01 Introducing a competency framework for languag learning materials ...Sandy Millin
http://sandymillin.wordpress.com/iateflwebinar2024
Published classroom materials form the basis of syllabuses, drive teacher professional development, and have a potentially huge influence on learners, teachers and education systems. All teachers also create their own materials, whether a few sentences on a blackboard, a highly-structured fully-realised online course, or anything in between. Despite this, the knowledge and skills needed to create effective language learning materials are rarely part of teacher training, and are mostly learnt by trial and error.
Knowledge and skills frameworks, generally called competency frameworks, for ELT teachers, trainers and managers have existed for a few years now. However, until I created one for my MA dissertation, there wasn’t one drawing together what we need to know and do to be able to effectively produce language learning materials.
This webinar will introduce you to my framework, highlighting the key competencies I identified from my research. It will also show how anybody involved in language teaching (any language, not just English!), teacher training, managing schools or developing language learning materials can benefit from using the framework.
Honest Reviews of Tim Han LMA Course Program.pptxtimhan337
Personal development courses are widely available today, with each one promising life-changing outcomes. Tim Han’s Life Mastery Achievers (LMA) Course has drawn a lot of interest. In addition to offering my frank assessment of Success Insider’s LMA Course, this piece examines the course’s effects via a variety of Tim Han LMA course reviews and Success Insider comments.
Macroeconomics- Movie Location
This will be used as part of your Personal Professional Portfolio once graded.
Objective:
Prepare a presentation or a paper using research, basic comparative analysis, data organization and application of economic information. You will make an informed assessment of an economic climate outside of the United States to accomplish an entertainment industry objective.
Biological screening of herbal drugs: Introduction and Need for
Phyto-Pharmacological Screening, New Strategies for evaluating
Natural Products, In vitro evaluation techniques for Antioxidants, Antimicrobial and Anticancer drugs. In vivo evaluation techniques
for Anti-inflammatory, Antiulcer, Anticancer, Wound healing, Antidiabetic, Hepatoprotective, Cardio protective, Diuretics and
Antifertility, Toxicity studies as per OECD guidelines
June 3, 2024 Anti-Semitism Letter Sent to MIT President Kornbluth and MIT Cor...Levi Shapiro
Letter from the Congress of the United States regarding Anti-Semitism sent June 3rd to MIT President Sally Kornbluth, MIT Corp Chair, Mark Gorenberg
Dear Dr. Kornbluth and Mr. Gorenberg,
The US House of Representatives is deeply concerned by ongoing and pervasive acts of antisemitic
harassment and intimidation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Failing to act decisively to ensure a safe learning environment for all students would be a grave dereliction of your responsibilities as President of MIT and Chair of the MIT Corporation.
This Congress will not stand idly by and allow an environment hostile to Jewish students to persist. The House believes that your institution is in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and the inability or
unwillingness to rectify this violation through action requires accountability.
Postsecondary education is a unique opportunity for students to learn and have their ideas and beliefs challenged. However, universities receiving hundreds of millions of federal funds annually have denied
students that opportunity and have been hijacked to become venues for the promotion of terrorism, antisemitic harassment and intimidation, unlawful encampments, and in some cases, assaults and riots.
The House of Representatives will not countenance the use of federal funds to indoctrinate students into hateful, antisemitic, anti-American supporters of terrorism. Investigations into campus antisemitism by the Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Committee on Ways and Means have been expanded into a Congress-wide probe across all relevant jurisdictions to address this national crisis. The undersigned Committees will conduct oversight into the use of federal funds at MIT and its learning environment under authorities granted to each Committee.
• The Committee on Education and the Workforce has been investigating your institution since December 7, 2023. The Committee has broad jurisdiction over postsecondary education, including its compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, campus safety concerns over disruptions to the learning environment, and the awarding of federal student aid under the Higher Education Act.
• The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating the sources of funding and other support flowing to groups espousing pro-Hamas propaganda and engaged in antisemitic harassment and intimidation of students. The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is the principal oversight committee of the US House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate “any matter” at “any time” under House Rule X.
• The Committee on Ways and Means has been investigating several universities since November 15, 2023, when the Committee held a hearing entitled From Ivory Towers to Dark Corners: Investigating the Nexus Between Antisemitism, Tax-Exempt Universities, and Terror Financing. The Committee followed the hearing with letters to those institutions on January 10, 202
The Roman Empire A Historical Colossus.pdfkaushalkr1407
The Roman Empire, a vast and enduring power, stands as one of history's most remarkable civilizations, leaving an indelible imprint on the world. It emerged from the Roman Republic, transitioning into an imperial powerhouse under the leadership of Augustus Caesar in 27 BCE. This transformation marked the beginning of an era defined by unprecedented territorial expansion, architectural marvels, and profound cultural influence.
The empire's roots lie in the city of Rome, founded, according to legend, by Romulus in 753 BCE. Over centuries, Rome evolved from a small settlement to a formidable republic, characterized by a complex political system with elected officials and checks on power. However, internal strife, class conflicts, and military ambitions paved the way for the end of the Republic. Julius Caesar’s dictatorship and subsequent assassination in 44 BCE created a power vacuum, leading to a civil war. Octavian, later Augustus, emerged victorious, heralding the Roman Empire’s birth.
Under Augustus, the empire experienced the Pax Romana, a 200-year period of relative peace and stability. Augustus reformed the military, established efficient administrative systems, and initiated grand construction projects. The empire's borders expanded, encompassing territories from Britain to Egypt and from Spain to the Euphrates. Roman legions, renowned for their discipline and engineering prowess, secured and maintained these vast territories, building roads, fortifications, and cities that facilitated control and integration.
The Roman Empire’s society was hierarchical, with a rigid class system. At the top were the patricians, wealthy elites who held significant political power. Below them were the plebeians, free citizens with limited political influence, and the vast numbers of slaves who formed the backbone of the economy. The family unit was central, governed by the paterfamilias, the male head who held absolute authority.
Culturally, the Romans were eclectic, absorbing and adapting elements from the civilizations they encountered, particularly the Greeks. Roman art, literature, and philosophy reflected this synthesis, creating a rich cultural tapestry. Latin, the Roman language, became the lingua franca of the Western world, influencing numerous modern languages.
Roman architecture and engineering achievements were monumental. They perfected the arch, vault, and dome, constructing enduring structures like the Colosseum, Pantheon, and aqueducts. These engineering marvels not only showcased Roman ingenuity but also served practical purposes, from public entertainment to water supply.
2. Literary criticism as a systematic study
“It is clear that criticism cannot be a
systematic study unless there is a quality in
literature which enables it to be so. We have
to adopt the hypothesis, then, that just as
there is an order of nature behind the natural
sciences, so literature is not a piled aggregate
of 'works' but an order of 'words'.”
Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism (1957)
3. Vassilis Lambropoulos, David Neal
Miller , eds.
Twentieth-Century Literary Theory:
An Introductory Anthology
http://www.sunypress.edu/p-861-twentieth-century-literary-theo.aspx
http://books.google.com/books/about/20th_century_literary_criticism.ht
ml?id=WSMaAQAAIAAJ
David Lodge,
20th century literary criticism:
a reader (1972)
4. Terry Eagleton,
Literary Theory: An Introduction
(1983)
http://books.google.com/books?id=QNmFm4M_RXkC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs
_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false,
http://books.google.com/books?id=6TZ2iVrS6MgC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&
Raman Selden, Peter
Widdowson, Peter Brooker,
A reader's guide to
contemporary literary theory
(1985; 5th edition 2005)
5. From theories to Theory
English Literature as a discipline
was designed and consolidated during the second half of the
19th century
(it was a consequence of the coming of the national
dimension into prominence)
Canon construction, canon as a national narrative
Historical, biographical, moral and rhetorical considerations
were blended
As an academic discipline it started to develop in a way to meet
scientific criteria
6. From theories to Theory
New Criticism
New Criticism was a movement in literary theory that
dominated American and had an impact on English
literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th
century.
Its chief critical strategy was close reading, particularly
when discussing poetry, emphasizing that a work of
literature functions as a self-contained, self referential
aesthetic object.
7. From theories to Theory
New Criticism
New Criticism developed in the 1920s-30s and peaked
in the 1940s-50s. The movement is named after John
Crowe Ransom's 1941 book The New Criticism.
New Critics focused on the text of a work of literature
and tried to exclude the author's biography and
intention, historical and cultural contexts, and
moralistic bias from their analysis.
Reader's response was not taken into account either.
8. From theories to Theory
New Criticism
New Critics often performed a "close reading" of the
text and believed the structure and meaning of the text
were intimately connected and should not be analyzed
separately.
The main aim of New Criticism was to make literary
criticism scientific.
9. From theories to Theory
New Criticism
In 1954, William K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley
published a classic and controversial New Critical
essay entitled "The Intentional Fallacy", in which they
argued strongly against the relevance of an author's
intention, or "intended meaning" in the analysis of a
literary work. For Wimsatt and Beardsley, the words on
the page were all that mattered; importation of
meanings from outside the text was considered
irrelevant, and potentially distracting.
10. From theories to Theory
New Criticism
In another essay, "The Affective Fallacy”, which served
as a kind of sister essay to "The Intentional Fallacy„
Wimsatt and Beardsley also discounted the reader's
personal/emotional reaction to a literary work as a valid
means of analyzing a text.
This fallacy would later be repudiated by theorists from
the reader-response school of literary theory.
11. From theories to Theory
New Criticism
The popularity of the New Criticism persisted through
the Cold War years in both American high schools and
colleges, in part, because it offered a relatively
straightforward (and politically uncontroversial)
approach to teaching students how to read and
understand poetry and fiction. To this end, Cleanth
Brooks and Robert Penn Warren published
Understanding Poetry and Understanding Fiction
which both became standard pedagogical textbooks in
American high schools and colleges during the 1950s,
60's, and 70's.
12. From theories to Theory
New Criticism
Studying a passage of prose or poetry in New Critical
style required careful, exacting scrutiny of the passage
itself. Formal elements such as rhyme, meter, setting,
characterization, and plot were used to identify the
theme of the text. In addition to the theme, the New
Critics also looked for paradox, ambiguity, irony, and
tension to help establish the single best and most
unified interpretation of the text.
Such an approach has been criticized as constituting a
conservative attempt to isolate the text and to shield it
from external, political concerns such as those of race,
class, and gender.
13. From theories to Theory
New Criticism
One of the most common grievances against the New
Criticism, is an objection to the idea of the text as
autonomous; detractors react against a perceived anti
historicism, accusing the New Critics of divorcing
literature from its place in history.
14. From theories to Theory
New Criticism
Another objection comes from the reader-response
school of theory, rightly claiming that the fundamental
close reading technique is based on the assumption
that the subject and the object of study - the reader
and the text - are stable and independent forms, rather
than products of the unconscious process of
signification.
15. From theories to Theory
I. A. Richards
I. A. Richards (1893–1979) was an English literary critic.
His books, especially Principles of Literary Criticism
(1924) and Practical Criticism (1929), proved to be
founding influences for the New Criticism.
The concept of 'practical criticism' led in time to the
practices of close reading, what is often thought of as
the beginning of modern literary criticism. Richards is
regularly considered one of the founders of the
contemporary study of literature in English.
16. From theories to Theory
I. A. Richards
In Practical Criticism he advocated an empirical study
of literary response. He removed authorial and
contextual information from thirteen poems, including
one by Longfellow and four by decidedly marginal
poets. Then he assigned their interpretation to
undergraduates at Cambridge University in order to
ascertain the most likely impediments to an adequate
response. This approach had a startling impact at the
time in demonstrating the depth and variety of
misreadings to be expected of otherwise intelligent
college students as well as the population at large.
17. From theories to Theory
I. A. Richards
The question arises, however, whether such
interpretations are misreadings or relevant varieties of
reading.
18. From theories to Theory
René Wellek and Austin Warren’s Theory of Literature
was much ahead of its time when it first published in
1949.
By the 1970s and 80s the term „study of literature” was
getting to be substituted by the term „theory” and soon
taken over by „Theory” with capital T.
19. From theories to Theory
Theory has a history and is categorized into schools,
such as – roughly in the order of their appearance –
Liberal Humanism, New Criticism, Formalism,
Structuralism, Marxist, Psychological Approach,
Archetypal Approach, Myth Criticism, Cultural
Criticism, Post-structuralism, Deconstruction, New
Historicism, Reader’s Response Criticism,
Hermeneutic Approach, Phenomenological Criticism,
Postmodernism, Postcolonialism, Feminism, Gender
Studies, Queer Theory, Ecocriticism, etc.
20. Structuralism
Structuralism originated in the structural linguistics of
Ferdinand de Saussure and the subsequent Prague
and Moscow schools of linguistics. Just as structural
linguistics was facing serious challenges from the likes
of Noam Chomsky and thus fading in importance in
linguistics, structuralism appeared in academia in the
second half of the 20th century and grew to become
one of the most popular approaches in academic fields
concerned with the analysis of language, culture, and
society.
21. Marxist literary criticism
Marxist literary criticism is a loose term describing
literary criticism based on socialist and dialectic
theories. Marxist criticism views literary works as
reflections of the social institutions from which they
originate. According to Marxists, even literature itself is
a social institution and has a specific ideological
function, based on the background and ideology of the
author.
22. Marxist literary criticism
The simplest goals of Marxist literary criticism can
include an assessment of the political 'tendency' of a
literary work, determining whether its social content or
its literary form are 'progressive'. It also includes
analyzing the class constructs demonstrated in the
literature.
23. Structuralism
The structuralist mode of reasoning has been applied
in a diverse range of fields, including anthropology,
sociology, psychology, literary criticism, and
architecture.
The most prominent thinkers associated with
structuralism include the linguist Roman Jakobson, the
anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, the psychoanalyst
Jacques Lacan, the philosopher and historian Michel
Foucault, the philosopher and social commentator
Jacques Derrida, and the literary critic Roland Barthes.
24. Structuralism
Proponents of structuralism would argue that a
specific domain of culture may be understood by
means of a structure - modelled on language - that is
distinct both from the organizations of reality and
those of ideas or the imagination. In the 1970s,
structuralism was criticized for its rigidity and
ahistoricism.
25. New Historicism
New Historicism is a school of literary theory,
grounded in critical theory, that developed in the
1980s, primarily through the work of the critic Stephen
Greenblatt.
New Historicists aim simultaneously to understand the
work through its historical context and to understand
cultural and intellectual history through literature,
which documents the new discipline of the history of
ideas.
26. Deconstruction
Deconstruction is a term introduced by French
philosopher Jacques Derrida in his 1967 book
Of Grammatology.
Deconstruction refers to a process of exploring the
categories and concepts that history and tradition has
imposed on a word or a work. Deconstruction suggests
analysis with high precision.
27. Deconstruction
In describing deconstruction, Derrida famously
observed that "there is nothing outside the text." That
is to say, all of the references used to interpret a text
are themselves texts, even the "text" of reality as a
reader knows it. There is no truly objective, non-textual
reference from which interpretation can begin.
Deconstruction, then, can be described as an effort to
understand a text through its relationships to various
contexts.
28. Post-structuralism
The post-structuralist movement may be broadly
understood as a body of distinct responses to
Structuralism. Structuralism argued that human culture
may be understood by means of a structure - modeled
after structural linguistics - that is distinct both from
the organizations of reality and the organization of
ideas and imagination.
29. Post-structuralism
The post-structuralist approach includes the rejection
of the self-sufficiency of the structures that
structuralism posits and an interrogation of the binary
oppositions that constitute those structures.
30. Reader-response criticism
Reader-response criticism is a school of literary theory
that focuses on the reader (or "audience") and his or
her experience of a literary work, in contrast to other
schools and theories that focus attention primarily on
the author or the content and form of the work.
Although literary theory has long paid some attention
to the reader's role in creating the meaning and
experience of a literary work, modern reader-response
criticism began in the 1960s and '70s, particularly in
America and Germany, in works by, Stanley Fish,
Wolfgang Iser, Hans-Robert Jauss, Roland Barthes,
and others.
31. Reader-response criticism
An important predecessor was I. A. Richards, who in
1929 analyzed a group of Cambridge undergraduates‘
misreadings.
Reader-response theory recognizes the reader as an
active agent who constitutes meaning to the work
and completes its meaning through interpretation.
Reader-response criticism argues that literature should
be viewed as a performing art in which each reader
creates his or her own, possibly unique, text-related
performance.
32. Reader-response criticism
vs. New Criticism
It stands in total opposition to the theories of
formalism and the New Criticism, in which the reader's
role in re-creating literary works is ignored. New
Criticism had emphasized that only that which is within
a text is part of the meaning of a text. No appeal to the
authority or intention of the author, nor to the
psychology of the reader, was allowed in the
discussions of orthodox New Critics.
33. Psychoanalytic criticism
Psychoanalytic literary criticism refers to literary
criticism or literary theory which, in method, concept,
or form, is influenced by the tradition of
psychoanalysis begun by Sigmund Freud.
Psychoanalytic reading has been practiced since the
early development of psychoanalysis itself, and has
developed into a heterogeneous interpretive tradition.
34. Ecocriticism
Ecocriticism is the study of literature and environment
from an interdisciplinary point of view where all
sciences come together to analyze the environment
and brainstorm possible solutions for the correction of
the contemporary environmental situation.
Ecocriticism is an intentionally broad approach that is
known by a number of other designations, including
"green (cultural) studies", "ecopoetics", and
"environmental literary criticism".
35. From theories to Theory
Delia Da Sousa Correa and W. R. Owens: The
Handbook to Literary Research. 2nd ed. London:
Routledge, 2010
Theory exerts an institutional pressure. Students of
literature are supposed to understand that their various
projects must demonstrate an awareness of Theory.
Theory is a dominant academic discourse, a body of
knowledge that should be acquired and applied.
36. From theories to Theory
Theory is not a given field of knowledge with many
‘schools’ which has to be sampled and picked from
and applied, but is an institutional extrapolation from
an ongoing process of debating and thinking about
literature and criticism.
37. Theories
If so, can any work be analyzed by any method and
critical perspective
↕ ↕ ↕
Certain works are more suitable for an analysis
according to a particular method or critical perspective
38. Robert Frost
(1874-1963)
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
39. Frost cont.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
41. William Blake
(1757-1827)
The Chimney Sweeper
When my mother died I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!
So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep.
There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head,
That curled like a lamb's back, was shaved: so I said,
"Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head's bare,
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair."
And so he was quiet; and that very night,
As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight, -
That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack,
Were all of them locked up in coffins of black.
42. Blake cont.
And by came an angel who had a bright key,
And he opened the coffins and set them all free;
Then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run,
And wash in a river, and shine in the sun.
Then naked and white, all their bags left behind,
They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind;
And the angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy,
He'd have God for his father, and never want joy.
And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark,
And got with our bags and our brushes to work.
Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm;
So if all do their duty they need not fear harm.
44. Carol Ann Duffy
(1955)
Sit at Peace
When they gave you them to shell and you sat
on the back-doorstep, opening the small green envelopes
with your thumb, minding the queues of peas, you were
sitting at peace. Sit at peace, sit at peace, all summer.
When Muriel Purdy, embryonic cop, thwacked the back
of your knees with a bamboo-cane, mouth open, soundless
in a cave of pain, you ran to your house,
a greeting wean, to be kept in and told once again.
Nip was a dog. Fluff was a cat. They sat at peace
on a coloured-in mat, so why couldn’t you? Sometimes
your questions were stray snipes over no-man’s land,
bringing sharp hands and the order you had to obey. Sit –
45. Duffy, cont.
At – Peace! Jigsaws you couldn’t do or dull stamps
didn’t want to collect arrived with the frost.
You would rather stand with your nose to the window, clouding
the strange blue view with your restless breath.
But the day you fell from the Parachute Tree, they came
from nowhere running, carried you in to a quiet room
you were glad of. A long silent afternoon, dreamlike.
A voice saying peace, sit at peace, sit at peace.
47. John Donne
(1572-1631)
A Valediction: Of Weeping
Let me pour forth
My tears before thy face, whilst I stay here,
For thy face coins them, and thy stamp they bear,
And by this mintage they are something worth.
For thus they be
Pregnant of thee ;
Fruits of much grief they are, emblems of more ;
When a tear falls, that thou fall'st which it bore ;
So thou and I are nothing then, when on a divers shore.
48. Donne, cont.
On a round ball
A workman, that hath copies by, can lay
An Europe, Afric, and an Asia,
And quickly make that, which was nothing, all.
So doth each tear.
Which thee doth wear,
A globe, yea world, by that impression grow,
Till thy tears mix'd with mine do overflow
This world, by waters sent from thee, my heaven dissolvèd so.
49. Donne, cont.
O ! more than moon,
Draw not up seas to drown me in thy sphere;
Weep me not dead, in thine arms, but forbear
To teach the sea, what it may do too soon;
Let not the wind
Example find
To do me more harm than it purposeth :
Since thou and I sigh one another's breath,
Whoe'er sighs most is cruellest, and hastes the other's death.
51. Charles Tennyson Turner
(1808-1879)
Letty’s Globe
When Letty had scarce pass'd her third glad year,
And her young artless words began to flow,
One day we gave the child a colour'd sphere
Of the wide earth, that she might mark and know,
By tint and outline, all its sea and land.
She patted all the world; old empires peep'd
Between her baby fingers; her soft hand
Was welcome at all frontiers. How she leap'd,
And laugh'd and prattled in her world-wide bliss;
But when we turn'd her sweet unlearned eye
On our own isle, she raised a joyous cry--
'Oh! yes, I see it, Letty's home is there!'
And while she hid all England with a kiss,
Bright over Europe fell her golden hair.
52. Charles Tennyson Turner
(1808-1879)
Letty’s Globe
When Letty had scarce pass'd her third glad year,
And her young artless words began to flow,
One day we gave the child a colour'd sphere
Of the wide earth, that she might mark and know,
By tint and outline, all its sea and land.
She patted all the world; old empires peep'd
Between her baby fingers; her soft hand
Was welcome at all frontiers. How she leap'd,
And laugh'd and prattled in her world-wide bliss;
But when we turn'd her sweet unlearned eye
On our own isle, she raised a joyous cry -
'Oh! yes, I see it, Letty's home is there!'
And while she hid all England with a kiss,
Bright over Europe fell her golden hair.
58. William Butler Yeats
(1865-1939)
Leda and the Swan
A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.
How can those terrified vague fingers push
The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?
And how can body, laid in that white rush,
But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?
59. Yeats, cont.
A shudder in the loins engenders there
The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
And Agamemnon dead.
Being so caught up,
So mastered by the brute blood of the air,
Did she put on his knowledge with his power
Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?
61. Leda and the Swan. The work is probably an old copy after a painting of this
subject by Michelangelo which he made in 1530, in tempera, for the Duke of
Ferrara, but which was sent instead to the King of France. National Gallery,
London
62. Leda and the Swan. The work is probably an old copy after a painting of this
subject by Michelangelo which he made in 1530, in tempera, for the Duke of
Ferrara, but which was sent instead to the King of France. National Gallery,
London
63. Leda and the Swan. Engraving after Michelangelo’s lost painting
by Cornelus Bos (1506-1564)
British Museum, London
64. Critical approaches
Wilfred L. Guerin, Earle Labor, Lee Morgan, Jeanne C.
Reesman, John R. Willingham:
A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. 4th
ed.
New York, Oxford: Oxford University Oress, 1999
65. M. H. Abrams,
The Mirror and the Lamp:
Romantic Theory and the
Critical Tradition
(1953)
Introduction: Orientation
of Critical Theories
66. The literary work examined
in relation to
the world
the audience
the author
or examined in itself
67. The literary work in relation to:
UNIVERSE
WORK OF ART
AUTHOR AUDIENCE
68. The literary work in relation to:
Work of art – universe:
How art reflects / mirrors / represents the world
e.g., realism (or the effect of the real)
Work of art – artist:
How the artist creates, what it is the artist
expresses
69. The literary work in relation to:
Work of art – audience
What effect the work of art has / should have
Work of art – in itself:
What it is like (formal, structural analyses)
70. Mimetic theories
Mimesis and imitation
rather: representation
Aristotle’s Poetics: dramatic plot as imitation of an action
Coleridge: imitation of nature in being an organic unity
Realistic imitation: recognizable
(it is like what the reader knows)
Aristotle: imitation: an internal relation of form to content,
vs. an external relation of copy and original
You are aware of the resemblance of tragic action to
human behaviour and you are aware of the conventions
of tragic drama as different from other forms
71. Pragmatic theories
1970s: reader-response criticism, Literary
Pragmatics: reader’s contribution to text
reading actualizes potential meaning
18th century: art has to be useful
"The end of writing is to instruct; the end of
poetry is to instruct by pleasing,“
(Samuel Johnson's Preface to Shakespeare)
Follows classical theory of rhetoric (= art of
persuasion) 5 part process:
invention, arrangement, style, memory, delivery
72. Expressive theories
Art as an expression of feelings:
“For all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow
of powerful feelings” William Wordsworth in
“Preface to Lyrical Ballads” (1800)
Art as an expression of the personal subconscious
Sigmund Freud, “The Interpretation of Dreams”
(1900) → psychoanalytical criticism
Art as an expression of the collective unconscious
C.G. Jung, archetypes, archetypal images
73. Objective theories
The work of art studied in itself, as a closed
system: internal structure, form, internal
consistency - its "intrinsic" rather than
"extrinsic" qualities.
art for art’s sake (l’art pour l’art)
No one theory can explain all works
(The essay is an introduction to his book on
the Romantics: The Mirror and the Lamp,
1953)
75. textual criticism
The editorial art - establishing the text
“The aim of a critical edition should be to present
the text, so far as the available evidence permits,
in the form in which we may suppose that it
would have stood in a fair copy, made by the
author himself, of the work as he finally intended
it.”
W. W. Greg, The Editorial Problem in Shakespeare
(rev. edn. Oxford 1954)
76. authorial intention
A design or plan in the author's mind:
“We argued that the design or intention of the
author is neither available nor desirable as a
standard for judging the success of a work of
literary art, and it seems to us that this is a
principle which goes deep into some differences
in the history of critical attitude.”
“The Intentional Fallacy” by W.K. Wimsatt and
Monroe C. Beardsley (1946) In: The Verbal Icon:
studies in the meaning of poetry
(also In: Lodge's 2Oth c. Literary Criticism)
77. impressionistic criticism
Recreate the poem while writing about the poem.
“The Affective Fallacy is a confusion between the poem
and its results (what it is and what it does) [...] It begins
by trying to derive the standard of criticism from the
psychological effects of the poem an ends in
impressionism and relativism. [...] Plato's feeding and
watering of the passions was an early example of
affective theory, and Aristotle's counter-theory of
catharsis was another”
“The Affective Fallacy” by W.K. Wimsatt and Monroe
C. Beardsley (1949) In: The Verbal Icon: studies in the
meaning of poetry (also In: Lodge's 20th c. Literary
Criticism)
78. value judgements
“Literary criticism has in the present day become a
profession, - but it has ceased to be an art. Its object is
no longer that of proving that certain literary work is
good and other literary work is bad, in accordance with
rules which the critic is able to define. English criticism
at present rarely even pretends to go so far as this. It
attempts, in the first place, to tell the public whether a
book be or be not be worth public attention; and, in
the second place, so to describe the purport of the
work as to enable those who have not time or
inclination for reading to feel that by a short cut they
have become acquainted with its contents. Both these
projects, if fairly well carried out, are salutary.”
Anthony Trollope, Autobiography (1883), ch. xiv
79. interpretation
“Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect
upon art... The temptation to interpret
Marienbad should be resisted. What matters
in Marienbad in the pure, untranslatable,
sensuous immediacy of some of its images,
and its vigorous if narrow solution to certain
problems of cinematic form... In place of a
hermeneutics we need an erotics of art.”
Susan Sontag, Against Interpretation (1967)
80. deconstructing interpretations
We need to interpret interpretations more than
to interpret things.
(Montaigne)
Quoted in Jacques Derrida, “Structure, Sign, and
Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences”
[1967], Writing and Difference, trans. Alan
Bass (London: Routledge Classics, 2001) page
351-370:351.
81. An example: gender studies
• Mimetic approach: the way the work
represents gender issues in society
• Pragmatic approach: the way the work can
help raising awareness and show alternative
models of relating to gender issues
• Expressive approach: the way the author
expresses the experience of being a woman, a
man, a human being of a specific gender
• Objective approach: e.g.,écriture féminine
82. (an aside about basic terms)
• female ≠ feminine ≠ feminist
biological vs. socio-cultural vs political context and
terminology
• feminism ≠ gender studies
- political vs academic context and terminology,
- focus on women vs focus on gendered experience of being
human
• feminist literary criticism
• gender studies in literature
• feminist literary criticism
84. Another example:
adaptation theory
“My method has been to identify a text-based issue
that extends across a variety of media, find ways to
study it comparatively, and then tease out the
theoretical implications from multiple textual
examples. At various times, therefore, I take on the
roles of formalist semiotician, poststructuralist
deconstructor, or feminist and postcolonial
demythifier;
85. Linda Hutcheon
but at no time do I (at least consciously) try to
impose any of these theories on my examination of
the texts or the general issues surrounding
adaptation. All these perspectives and others,
however, do inevitably inform my theoretical frame
of reference”
Hutcheon, Linda (2009-04-04). “Preface” to A
Theory of Adaptation . T & F Books US. Kindle
Edition.
86. Linda Hutcheon
… It is the very act of adaptation itself that
interests me, not necessarily in any specific
media or even genre.…
My working assumption is that common
denominators across media and genres can be
as revealing as significant differences.
87. Linda Hutcheon
….A Theory of Adaptation begins its study of
adaptations as adaptations; that is, not only as
autonomous works. Instead, they are
examined as deliberate, announced, and
extended revisitations of prior works. Because
we use the word adaptation to refer to both a
product and a process of creation and
reception, this suggests to me the need for a
theoretical perspective that is at once formal
and "experiential."
88. Linda Hutcheon
…This book is not, however, a history of
adaptation, though it is written with an
awareness of the fact that adaptations can
and do have different functions in different
cultures at different times. A Theory of
Adaptation is quite simply what its title says it
is: one single attempt to think through some
of the theoretical issues surrounding the
ubiquitous phenomenon of adaptation as
adaptation.”
90. The language of literary criticism
“A statement may be used for the sake of the
reference, true or false, which it causes. This is
the scientific use of language. But it may also
be used for the sake of the effects in emotion
and attitude produced by the reference it
occasions. This is the emotive use of
language.” I.A. Richards, “The two uses of
language” (ch. 34 from The Principles of
Literary Criticism (1924) also in Lodge's 20th
Century Literary Criticism