The document provides an overview of literary criticism, beginning with its origins in classical works and early modern critics. It discusses different approaches to literary criticism such as formalism, reader-response criticism, structuralism, biographical criticism, and sociological criticism including feminist criticism and Marxist criticism. The document examines key concepts and theorists associated with different approaches to literary criticism.

1. LITERARY CRITICISM
Introduction

2. LITERARY Criticism
 Literary criticism is the
comparison, analysis, interpretation,
and/or evaluation of works of literature. Literary
criticism is essentially an opinion, supported by
evidence, relating to theme, style,
setting or historical or political context.
 Critical analysis is a careful examination and
evaluation of a text, image, or other work or
performance. Performing a critical analysis
does not necessarily involve finding fault with a work.
On the contrary, a thoughtful critical analysis may help
us understand the interaction of the particular elements

3. Cont…
 Matthew Arnold (1865) – Literary Criticism is the
disinterested endeavor to learn and propagate the best
that is known and thought in the world.
 Literary Criticism are methods of literary analysis and
close readings in order to expand our understanding of a
particular text.
 Distinguished from book or film review: Reviews mainly
evaluate whether texts are good or bad with the ultimate
goal of recommending the reading experience or warning
others away from a text that is not worth it. Criticism
value judgment not based on taste but evaluate the
influence of texts upon each other, their contribution to
innovation in literary practice, their impact upon readers
and societies, but only if historical and cultural evidence
or textual examples from close readings can support
those judgments.

4. Cont…
 The implications of critical arguments extend beyond
recommendations for readers.
 Criticism may use analysis of texts in order to explain
underlying truths about language or aesthetics.
 Criticism may work from textual examples to explore
the role of story-telling, life-writing, self-expression, or
political speech.
 It may have political or cultural aims to revise or refine
our accepted knowledge about a particular culture, time
period, or writer.
 It may recover buried knowledge by locating writers
and texts that went out of print or fashion but made
valuable contributions in an earlier time.
 Or it may expose the subversive and revolutionary
content within literature in order to inspire people to

5. Why Write Literary Criticism?
 By reading and discussing literature, we expand
our imagination, our sense of what is possible,
and our ability to empathize with others.
 Reading and discussing literature can enhance
our ability to write. It can sharpen our critical
faculties, enabling us to assess works and better
understand why literature can have such a
powerful effect on our lives.

6. Canonical Analysis vs. Academic
Criticism
 Analyses of Canonical Literature are due to
readers who got confused about a reference,
symbol or scene in a book. Online reference like
Sparknotes, Shmoop ,Wikipedia and many other
student blogs offer useful clues to interpretation
though largely unregulated and unedited, these
general criticisms can be lacking of consistency.
 Academic Criticism is reviewed by experts prior to
publication, edited and published with writers’ and
publishers’ names and reputations attached to the
work – offers more credible and more extensive
interpretation. They read every text published by
they authors and quite a few others within literary
period as well. They too, read other works bringing
wealth of information to they extended literary

7. Canonical Criticism

8. Reading Criticism & Critical
Debates

9. Reading Criticism & Critical
Debates
 Reading Analysis can be improved by
understanding what critics have already said
about particular text which important ideas
and questions experts continue to debate.
Scholarly works can be challenging to read due
to their use of specialized jargons and literary
terms and theories. The Critical articles article or
book chapter follows its own generic
conventions that makes reading criticism
easier and more rewarding.
 Locating criticism are within research libraries
like database of the MLA International
Bibliography which sorts out only academic
journal articles and high quality books
limited to the fields of language, literature or film
studies.

10. Reading Criticism & Critical
Debates
 Critical arguments may not immediately state
their claims. Often First paragraphs offers an
interesting anecdote or example of the kinds of
issues the critic plans to discuss to reveal what he
wished to correct or reverse parts of the
arguments. Next, the first 5 paragraphs the
critic explains the point of the argument, the
critic outlines the major questions this research
aims to answer in what is called a literature
review of the critical conversation as the body of
the essay may move deep into the detailed

11. October
BY ROBERT FROST
O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away.
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!
For the grapes’ sake, if they were all,
Whose leaves already are burnt with
frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost—
For the grapes’ sake along the wall.

12. Reading Criticism & Critical
Debates

13. Criticism on Novels
 Much of the criticism reflects on the way the
novel both develops narrative strategies and
the novel genre and at the same time
discusses reading practices through the
characters within the text. Character analyses
of gender roles, family structures, marriage and
the economics of inheritance also serve to
highlight the novel’s social dimensions. Ex
Criticism of William Dereiewicz (1997) After the
detailed discussion of the novels opening line
and literature review of the critical
conversation that emphasizes Elisabeth Bennet
Intelligence and difference from the rest of the
community. He discussed about community
wherein the article was broken up into 3
sections under the subheadings: Cognition and

14. LITERARY THEORY

15. BEGINNING OF LITERARY CRITICISM
Practices concerning literary theory and the evaluation of literary
works:
• PLATO's comments on the role of poets in his Republic;
• ARISTOTLE's response to this, the Poetics, represents the first
systematic attempt to establish principles of literary procedure.
• Sir Philip SIDNEY's The Defence of Poesie (1595);
• DRYDEN's Of Dramatick Poesie (1668);
• WORDSWORTH's preface to Lyrical Ballads (1798);
• SHELLEY's A Defence of Poetry (1820);
• Matthew ARNOLD, in particular, critical works of Culture and
Anarchy (1869).
The 20th century’s explosion of literary criticism:
• T. S ELIOT, I. A. Richards, William Empson and F. R. LEAVIS;
• important are the writings of STRUCTURALISM and post-
structuralism, notably Roland BARTHES, Michel FOUCAULT, and
Jacques DERRIDA.
The late 20th century saw the beginning of new critical approaches
such as DECONSTRUCTION and FEMINISM (World Encyclopedia,

16. BEGINNING OF LITERARY CRITICISM

17. What is literary theory?
 The capacity to generalize about phenomena
and to develop concepts that form the basis for
interpretation and analysis—in this instance, of
a “literary” text.

18. 1. Formalism
2. Marxism
3. Feminism
4. Psychoanalytic
5. Cultural Criticism
6. Structuralism
7. Post-structuralism
8. Archetypal
YOU'RE GOING TO STUDY EIGHT
PARADIGMS …

19.  Author intention
 Reader Response
 Biological
 Cognitive scientific
 Moralist
 Queer
 Socio-political
 Sociological
 And so many more …
But there are many more …

20. 1. The World
2. The Author
3. The Text
Other
Texts
Real
World
4. The Reader
Beyond the
World
Text =
Objective
reality
Formalism: the TEXT (as art)
Structuralism: the TEXT (as language system)
Psychoanalytic: AUTHOR/READER/text
Reader Response: READER/TEXT/community
of readers w/shared values
THE 4 CRITICAL
VARIABLES of LITERARY
THEORY & CRITICISM
Text = Ideologically
constructed
language
ITS CONTEXTText = Symbol,
Archetype
Gender Studies: WORLD/author/text/reader
Postcolonial: AUTHOR/world/text/reader
Marxist: WORLD/text
Territorial: TEXT/[reader/ author/world])

21.  The work itself is placed in the center because
all approaches must deal, to some extent or
another, with the text itself.
 Formalism and deconstruction are placed here
also because they deal primarily with the text
and not with any of the outside considerations
such as author, the real world, audience, or other
literature. Meaning, formalists argue, is inherent
in the text. Because meaning is determinant, all
other considerations are irrelevant.
 Deconstructionists also subject texts to careful,
formal analysis; however, they reach an opposite
conclusion: there is no meaning in language.
Understanding the Map

22.  A historical approach relies heavily on the
author and his world. In the historical view, it is
important to understand the author and his world
in order to understand his intent and to make
sense of his work. In this view, the work is
informed by the author's beliefs, prejudices, time,
and history, and to fully understand the work, we
must understand the author and his age.
 An intertextual approach is concerned with
comparing the work in question to other
literature, to get a broader picture.
 Reader-Response is concerned with how the
work is viewed by the audience. In this
approach, the reader creates meaning, not the
author or the work.
Cont'd …

23.  Mimetic criticism seeks to see how well a work
accords with the real world (is it accurate?
correct? moral? ).
 Then, beyond the real world are approaches
dealing with the spiritual and the symbolic--
the images connecting people throughout time
and cultures (archetypes). This is mimetic in a
sense too, but the congruency looked for is not
so much with the real world as with something
beyond the real world--something tying in all
the worlds/times/cultures inhabited by humans.
Cont'd …

24.  The Psychological approach is placed outside
these poles because it can fit in many places,
depending how it is applied:
(1) Historical if diagnosing the author himself
(2) Mimetic if considering if characters are acting
by "real world" standards and with recognizable
psychological motivations
(3) Archetypal when the idea of the Jungian
collective unconscious is included
(4) Reader-Response when the psychology of the
reader--why he sees what he sees in the text--is
examined.
Cont'd …

25.  Likewise, Feminist, Minority, Marxist, and
other such approaches may fit in:
(1) Historical if the author's attitudes are being
examined in relation to his times (i.e. was
Shakespeare a feminist for his times, though
he might not be considered so today?)
(2) Mimetic--when asking how well characters
accord with the real world. Does a black
character act like a black person would, or is
he a stereotype? Are women being portrayed
accurately? Does the work show a realistic
economic picture of the world?
Cont'd …

26. What does this literary work mean?
 Different approaches or lenses help us to
discover rich and deeper meaning
 Each lens has its strengths and weaknesses
 Each lens is valuable
 Try to become a pluralist rather than an
inflexible supporter of one
There are so many possible
answers …

27. TYPES OF LITERARY
THEORY

28. Formalism
 Has the advantage of forcing writers to evaluate a work
on its own terms rather than to rely on “accepted”
notions of the writer’s work
 Works best when applied to poetry and short fiction.
 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
 Considers the work in isolation, disregarding author’s
intent, author’s background, context, and anything else
outside of the work itself.

29. Formalism/New Criticism
 The formalist movement began in England with
the publication of I.A. Richards’ Practical
Criticism (1929).
 American critics (such as John Crowe Ransom,
Robert Penn Warren, and Cleanth Brooks)
adapted formalism and termed their adaptation
“New Criticism.”

30. Formalism/New Criticism
 New Criticism varied from formalism in that New
Criticism focuses on image, symbol, and
meaning. Traditional formalists often attacked
New Critics for their lack of attention to the form
of the work.
 Seminal works on New Criticism include John
Crowe Ransom’s The New Criticism (1941) and
Cleanth Brooks’ The Well Wrought Urn (1947).

31. 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
*one type of formalism

32. Impact of Formalism
Today, few critics adhere only to the formalist or
New Criticism theory. However, its back-to-
the-basics approach pervades many other
critical theories.

33. Reader-Response Criticism
 Sees the reader as essential to the interpretation of a work.
 Each reader is unique, with different educations, experiences,
moral values, opinions, tastes, etc.
 Therefore, each reader’s interaction with a work is unique.
 Analyzes the features of the text that shape and guide a
reader’s reading.
 Emphasizes recursive reading—rereading for new
interpretations.

34. Reader-Response Criticism
 Reader-response theory has been criticized as
being overly impressionistic and guilty of the
affective fallacy (too focused on the emotional
effect of the work). Less tactful critics have
plainly said that it is not intellectual.
 These attacks resulted in an adaptation of
reader-response criticism called reception
theory.

35. READER RESPONSE
Text has many interpretations—text & reader interact to
create meaning
Meaning ultimately resides in the reader’s mind
or the consensual “mind” of a community of readers
(this class, for example)
A text’s truth is relative
Readers may reach the same conclusions about a
work--but approach the task quite differently

36. Reader-Response/Reception
Theory
Reception theory is applied to the general
reading public rather than an individual reader.
 Each generation has different experiences,
values, issues, etc.
 Therefore, each generation will read a work
differently.

37. STRUCTURALISM
 Meaning resides in the structure of language,
not in art nor in the reader’s mind
 Scientific approach to literary analysis:
structure of language as a logical sign system
determines meaning
 Two levels of language: langue (“the King’s
English”) & parole (everyday speech)
 Interpret a text or part of a text by taking its
language apart (study word derivations,
sentence syntax, etc.)

38. Biographical Criticism
 Analyzes an author’s life in regard to their
work
 Can enhance the understanding of a work
 Must be used carefully—example: Kate
Chopin

39. Sociological Criticism
Maintains that the literary work cannot be
separated from the social context in which it was
created. In general, sociological criticism
examines one of these two aspects:
 Conditions of production, such as schools,
magazines, publishers, and fashions.
 The applicability of a given work—fiction especially—
in studying the dynamics of a given society.

40. Types of Sociological Criticism
Sociological theory is so broad that it can be
subdivided in many different categories. Two
dominant theories we’ll study are
 Feminist criticism
 Marxist criticism

41. Feminist Criticism
 Feminist criticism grew out of the women’s
movement that followed World War II.
 Feminist critics analyze the role of gender in
works of literature. Leading critic Elaine
Showalter describes two purposes of feminist
criticism:
 Feminist critique: The analysis of works by male
authors, especially in the depiction of women’s writing
 Gynocriticism: The study of women’s writing

42. Feminist Criticism
Feminist critics have been responsible for
recovering neglected works by women authors
through the ages and creating a canon of
women’s writing.
A case in point is Kate Chopin. She was fairly
widely published in the 1890s, but her work was
largely neglected by literary critics until the
1960s, when Chopin was “rediscovered” by
feminist critics.

43. FEMINIST CRITICISM
Meaning is socially constructed.
Texts have more than one interpretation
Texts are commodities (products of
society)
Truth is relative, highly dependent on
arbitrary categories of difference, esp.
those based on “sex” and “gender”
Look for systems of containment; for evidence
of repression, oppression, suppression,
subversion, & rebellion in texts by women;
study women’s unique ways of understanding
and writing about the human condition.

44. Marxist Criticism
 Marxist criticism is based on the social and
economic theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels. Their beliefs include the following:
 Value is based on labor.
 The working class will eventually overthrow the capitalist middle
class.
 In the meantime, the middle class exploits the working class.
 Most institutions—religious, legal, educational, and
governmental—are corrupted by middle-class capitalists.

45. Marxist Criticism
 Marxist critics apply these economic and social
theories to literature by analyzing:
 Ideologies that support the elite and place the working
class at a disadvantage
 Class conflict
 Marxism strongly influenced fiction, particularly
American fiction, in the 1930s.

46. New Historicism
 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.

47. New Historicism
 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).

48. New Historicism
 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.

49. NEW HISTORICISM
 Literature is one among many socially constructed texts. If there is
a difference, it’s the intentional use of the imagination to convey
ideas.
 History is every bit as subjective as intentionally imaginative texts
 Purpose of analyzing literature is to locate hidden social messages,
especially those that promote oppression.
 Texts have no final interpretation
 Language, though socially constructed, is stable enough to be
useful.
 Find a small intriguing or odd piece of the text and interpret it by
comparing it to contemporary sign systems—magazines,
newspapers, fads, laws. Try to locate uses & abuses of power.

50. Psychoanalytic Criticism
 Analyzes literature to reveal insights about the
way the human mind works.
 Is based on the work of Sigmund Freud and
his disciples.
 Works well as a method of analyzing
characters’ actions and motivations.

51. Basic Freudian Concepts
 All 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.

52. Basic Freudian Concepts
 The mind has three major areas of activity:
 Id: Area in the unconscious that works for gratification
through the pleasure principle
 Superego: An internal censor bringing social
pressures to bear on the id.
 Ego: Area in the consciousness that mediates among
demands of social pressure, the id, and the superego.

53. Mythological Approach
 Largely attributed to Carl Jung, a disciple of
Sigmund Freud
 Archetype: a model or pattern from which all
other things of a similar nature are made

54. Mythological Approach
 Collective Unconscious--there are certain basic
and central images and experiences that are
inherent in the human psyche
 Analyzes what in a work evokes a similar
response in people, regardless of culture
 Concerned with enduring patterns and how they
are reflected in literature

55. Examples of Archetypes
Common Themes:
 Stories of quest and initiation
 Descents into the underworld
 Ascents into heaven
 Search for father/mother
 Fall from innocence

56. Examples of Archetypes
Characters:
 Scapegoat
 Hero/Villian
 Outcast
 Temptress
 Mother/Father
 Mentor