Literary Criticisms

Introduction• A very basic way of thinking about literary theory

is that these ideas act as different lenses critics use to view and talk about art, literature, and even culture. These different lenses allow critics to consider works of art based on certain assumptions within that school of theory. The different lenses also allow critics to focus on particular aspects of a work they consider important.

Timeline• Moral Criticism, Dramatic Construction (~360 BC-present)• Formalism, New Criticism, Neo-Aristotelian Criticism

(1930s-present)• Psychoanalytic Criticism, Jungian Criticism(1930s-present)• Marxist Criticism (1930s-present)• Reader-Response Criticism (1960s-present)• Structuralism/Semiotics (1920s-present)• Post-Structuralism/Deconstruction (1966-present)• New Historicism/Cultural Studies (1980s-present)• Post-Colonial Criticism (1990s-present)• Feminist Criticism (1960s-present)• Gender/Queer Studies (1970s-present)

Feminist (Gender) Criticism• An approach to literature that considers the

gender and sexual orientation of both writers and readers of literature. Gender criticism sought to correct or supplement a predominantly male-dominated critical perspective with a woman’s point of view, often how women’s writing strategies were related to their social conditions.

Feminist (Gender) Criticism continued• Feminist criticism is concerned with "...the ways in

which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women" (Tyson).

• Feminist criticism is also concerned with less obvious forms of marginalization such as the exclusion of women writers from the traditional literary canon: "...unless the critical or historical point of view is feminist, there is a tendency to under-represent the contribution of women writers" (Tyson 82-83).

Formalist Criticism• An approach to literature that focuses on the

formal elements of the work. Formalist critics concentrate on analyzing how the various elements of a literary work—especially such elements of style as irony, metaphor, and symbol—are integrated into the unique structure of a literary work. Anything outside of the work, such as biographical information or the work’s historical context, is usually NOT discussed.

Formalist Criticism continued• Formalists disagreed about what specific elements

make a literary work "good" or "bad"; but generally, Formalism maintains that a literary work contains certain intrinsic features, and the theory "...defined and addressed the specifically literary qualities in the text" (Richter 699).

• Formalism attempts to treat each work as its own distinct piece, free from its environment, era, and even author.

Historical Criticism• An approach to literature that investigates the

historical background of the text. Historical critics may also explain the meaning that the work had for its original readers, especially if the text includes words that had different connotations in the past.

Historical Criticism continued• Literary criticism in the light of historical evidence

or based on the context in which a work was written, includes facts about the author’s life and the historical and social circumstances of the time. This is in contrast to other types of criticism, such as textual and formal, in which emphasis is placed on examining the text itself while outside influences on the text are disregarded.

Marxist Criticism• An approach to literature based on the writings of

Karl Marx that emphasizes the political and socioeconomic aspects and contexts of literary works

Marxist Criticism continued• The Marxist school follows a process of thinking called

the material dialectic. This belief system maintains that "...what drives historical change are the material realities of the economic base of society, rather than the ideological superstructure of politics, law, philosophy, religion, and art that is built upon that economic base" (Richter 1088).

• The continuing conflict between the classes will lead to upheaval and revolution by oppressed peoples and form the groundwork for a new order of society and economics where capitalism is abolished. According to Marx, the revolution will be led by the working class (others think peasants will lead the uprising) under the guidance of intellectuals.

Mythological Criticism• An approach to literature that developed out of

Jungian psychoanalytic theory about the importance of archetypal human behavior. Mythological critics attempt to identify and analyze the psychological elements of recurrent patterns in literary works that create deep universal responses in readers.

Mythological Criticism continued• The anthropological origins of mythological criticism

can pre-date its mythological psychology origins by over thirty years. The Golden Bough (1890–1915), written by the Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer, was the first influential text dealing with cultural mythologies. Frazer was part of a group of comparative anthropologists working out of Cambridge University who worked extensively on the topic. The Golden Bough was widely accepted as the seminal text on myth that spawned numerous studies on the same subject. Eventually, the momentum of Frazer’s work carried over into literary studies.

New Criticism• An approach to literature developed after World

War II that evolved out of formalist criticism. New critics emphasize close reading of literary texts rather than inquiring into their biographical or historical backgrounds.

New Criticism continued• New Criticism emphasizes explication, or "close

reading," of "the work itself." It rejects old historicism's attention to biographical and sociological matters. Instead, 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. It has long been the pervasive and standard approach to literature in college and high school curricula.

Psychological Criticism• An approach to literature indebted to modern

psychological theories, including those of Sigmund Freud, that explores the unconscious motivations of characters and the symbolic meanings of events, as well as the reader’s personal responses to the text.

Psychological Criticism continued• In this form of literary criticism, critics think about

the symbols in the work and what they might mean. They also evaluate the psychological state of the characters, and examine their motivations and actions with an understanding of psychology in mind.

Reader-response Criticism• An approach to literature that suggest that

reading is as much a creative act as the writing of a text, because both involve the play of imagination and intelligence. The consciousness of the reader as he or she reads the literary work is the subject of this type of criticism, investigating the possibility of multiple readings and analyzing what our readings tell us about ourselves.

Reader-response Criticism continued• Reader-response theorists share two beliefs: 1)

that the role of the reader cannot be omitted from our understanding of literature and 2) that readers do not passively consume the meaning presented to them by an objective literary text; rather they actively make the meaning they find in literature

Sociological Criticism

• An approach to literature by critics interested in exploring the economic, racial and political context which fiction, poetry, and drama are created and read. Sociological critics treat literature as either a documents reflecting social conditions, or a literary work produced by those conditions (Feminist and Marxist are two forms of sociological criticism.)

Sociological Criticism continued• Sociological criticism analyzes both how the social functions in

literature and how literature works in society. This form of literary criticism was introduced by Kenneth Burke, a 20th century literary and critical theorist, whose article "Literature As Equipment for Living" outlines the specification and significance of such a critique.

• Sociological Criticism is influenced by New Criticism, however it adds a sociological element as found with critical theory (Frankfurt School), and considers art as a manifestation of society, one that contains metaphors and references directly applicable to the existing society at the time of its creation. According to Kenneth Burke, works of art, including literature, "are strategic namings of situations" (Adams, 942) that allow the reader to better understand, and "gain a sort of control" (Adams, 942) over societal happenings through the work of art.

Realism• An approach to literature which is committed to

truth and accurate representation. –we are just people. We are free to act, but choices are limited by good and bad forces.

Elements:1. Approaches the fidelity of nature2. Avoids impracticality3. Down to earth approach

Realism continued• Broadly defined as "the faithful representation of reality" or

"verisimilitude," realism is a literary technique practiced by many schools of writing. Although strictly speaking, realism is a technique, it also denotes a particular kind of subject matter, especially the representation of middle-class life. A reaction against romanticism, an interest in scientific method, the systematizing of the study of documentary history, and the influence of rational philosophy all affected the rise of realism. According to William Harmon and Hugh Holman, "Where romanticists transcend the immediate to find the ideal, and naturalists plumb the actual or superficial to find the scientific laws that control its actions, realists center their attention to a remarkable degree on the immediate, the here and now, the specific action, and the verifiable consequence" (A Handbook to Literature 428).

Regionalism• An approach to literature which investigates the

particular setting. Regionalism evokes the following distinctions within a specific region:• Customs• Culture• Speech

Regionalism continued• Local color or regional literature is fiction and poetry

that focuses on the characters, dialect, customs, topography, and other features particular to a specific region. Influenced by Southwestern and Down East humor, between the Civil War and the end of the nineteenth century this mode of writing became dominant in American literature. According to the Oxford Companion to American Literature, "In local-color literature one finds the dual influence of romanticism and realism, since the author frequently looks away from ordinary life to distant lands, strange customs, or exotic scenes, but retains through minute detail a sense of fidelity and accuracy of description" (439).

Naturalism• An approach to literature which explores man’s

lack of control amidst bigger forces such as:• Heredity• Culture• Nature (dominate force)

• The naturalism biew is that the American Dream doesn’t exist. We are helpless slaves to fortune, chance, and destiny.

Naturalism continued• The term naturalism describes a type of literature that

attempts to apply scientific principles of objectivity and detachment to its study of human beings. Through this objective study of human beings, naturalistic writers believed that the laws behind the forces that govern human lives might be studied and understood. Naturalistic writers thus used a version of the scientific method to write their novels; they studied human beings governed by their instincts and passions as well as the ways in which the characters' lives were governed by forces of heredity and environment. Although they used the techniques of accumulating detail pioneered by the realists, the naturalists thus had a specific object in mind when they chose the segment of reality that they wished to convey.

Romanticism • An approach to literature that suggests we are all

in control of our destiny. Romanticism sees the bet in mankind and recognizes the potential of the world. We can through our known virtues (and hard work)obtain the American dream.

Romanticism continued• Some of the earliest stirrings of the Romantic

movement are conventionally traced back to the mid-18th-century interest in folklore which arose in Germany--with Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm collecting popular fairy tales and other scholars like Johann Gottfried von Herder studying folk songs--and in England with Joseph Addison and Richard Steele treating old ballads as if they were high poetry. These activities set the tone for one aspect of Romanticism: the belief that products of the uncultivated popular imagination could equal or even surpass those of the educated court poets and composers who had previously monopolized the attentions of scholars and connoisseurs.

Works Cited• http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/722/03

/• http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/26735

8/historical-criticism• http://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/new.crit.html• http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-psychological-crit

icism.htm• http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/hum_303/romanticis

m.html• http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/natural.ht

m• http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/lcolor.html