AP English Literature: Modern Literary Theories

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What is Reader Response Theory?

the reader or audience reaction, emphasizing __the role of the reader in actively constructing meaning rather than passively consuming the text.__

Who are the key figures in the Reader Response Theory?

Stanley Fish

David Bleich

Wolfgang Iser

What time period is Readers Response from?

1960s

What is Horizons of Expectations?

__Explains how a reader's "expectations" is based on your past reading and literary ideas__, which affects how you understand a story. It's influenced by your time and history.

Who defined Horizons of Expectations?

Hans Robert Jauss

What theory is the Horizons of Expectations under?

Reader Response Theory

What is the implied reader?

__An imagined ideal reader for a text__. The implied reader holds the attitudes needed for the text to have an impact, shaped by the text itself, not real-world experiences. This idea comes from the text's structure and isn't a real reader.

Who defined the implied reader?

Wolfgang Iser

What theory is the Implied Reader under?

Reader Response Theory

What is Transactional Analysis?

Meaning comes from the __interaction between a reader and a text__. In this approach, a critic thinks about how the reader understands the text and how the text makes the reader react.

Who defined Transactional Analysis

Louise Rosenblatt

What is the psychoanalytic theory?

Literary texts, like dreams, __express the secret unconscious desires and anxieties of the author__, and all characters in an author’s work are projections of the author's psyche.

Who are the key figures in psychoanalytic theory?

Sigmund Freud

Jacques Lacan

What time period is the psychoanalytic theory from?

Early 1900s

Unconscious

the irrational part of the psyche unavailable to a person's consciousness except through dissociated acts or dreams.

What are the 3 parts to Freud’s model of the psyche?

Id, Ego, Superego

Id

completely unconscious part of the psyche that serves as a __storehouse of our desires, wishes, and fears.__

Ego

mostly/partially __conscious part of the psyche that processes experiences__ and operates as a referee or mediator between the id and superego.

Superego

Often thought of as __one's "conscience"__; the superego o__perates "like an internal censor__ \[encouraging\] moral judgments in light of social pressures"

What is New Historicism?

Looking at __literature alongside other cultural products of a particular historical period__ to show how concepts, attitudes, and ideologies and cultures operated through time, and this analysis helps to situate artistic texts both as products of a __historical context and as the means to understand cultural and intellectual history__.

The meaning of text based on New Historicism

Since there is biases based on historical position and beliefs, __the meaning of text is fluid based on time, and not fixed in time__

Key Figures of New Historicism

Michael Foucault 

Stephen Greenblatt

What time period is New Historicism a part of?

1970s-1980s

What is Discourse?

Refers to how different groups (like the law, medicine, or the church) use language __to show power dynamics between people.__

What theory is Discourse a part of?

New Historicism

What is Power?

__Key part of how individuals are formed__, along with ethics and truth. Power and knowledge are closely linked: __having knowledge gives you power, but you can also control what knowledge is considered true or false in certain situations.__

What theory is Power a part of?

New Historicism

What is Existentialism?

A belief that __each person is alone in a world without inherent truth or meaning__. Life is seen as moving between nothingness, creating a sense of anguish and absurdity. Choices become significant in a world without clear purpose, which Sartre described as the main challenge of human existence.

Who are the key figures of Existentialism?

Albert Camus

Franz Kafka

Jean-Paul Sarte

Søren Kierkegaard

What time period is Existentialism in?

mid-to-late 19th Century; peaked in mid-20th Century France. 

What is Absurd?

a term used to describe existence--a world without inherent meaning or truth.

What theory is Absurd a part of?

Existentialism

What is Authenticity?

to make choices __based on an__ __*individual*__ __code of ethics rather than because of societal pressure__s (A choice made just because "it's what people do" would be considered inauthentic)

What theory is Authenticity a part of?

Existentialism

What is the “leap of faith”

although 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.__

What theory is the “leap of faith” part of

Existentialism

What was Wave One of Feminisim

during the 19th and early 20th century; voting rights

What was Wave Two of Feminism

early 1960s; Reproductive rights and challenging gender roles

What was Wave Three of Feminism

early 1990s; redefine feminism as a more inclusive and evolving movement, uprising of social media

What was Wave Four of Feminism

began around 2012; gender equality, reproductive rights, workplace discrimination, and combating various forms of gender-based violence, using more social media.

Who were the key figures in feminism?

Simone de Beauvoir's

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Betty Friedan

What can feminism as a theory be characterized as?

1. theories aimed at defining or establishing a feminist literary canon or theories seeking to __re-interpret and re-vision literatur__e (and culture and history and so forth) __to be less patriarchal__
2. theories focusing on sexual difference and sexual politics.

What is Androgyny?

__suggests a world in which sex-roles are not rigidly defined__, a state in which ‘the man in every woman' and the ‘woman in every man' could be integrated and freely expressed.’; __neither masculinity or femininity is dominant.__

What theory is Androgyny a part of?

Feminism

What is Essentialism?

__The belief in a uniquely feminine essence__ untouched by culture (the mirror image of biologism which for centuries justified the oppression of women by proclaiming the natural superiority of men)

What theory is Essentialism a part of?

Feminism

What is Patriarchy?

__Male-dominated structures and social arrangements elaborate the oppression of women__. Patriarchy almost by definition also exhibits androcentrism, meaning male-centered.

What theory is Patriarchy a part of?

Feminism

What is Marxism?

__Viewing works of literature or art as the products of historical forces__ that can be analyzed by looking at the material conditions in which they were formed. Generally focuses on the __clash between the dominant and repressed classes in any given age__

Who are the key figures of Marxism?

Karl Marx

Terry Eagleton

Friedrich Engels

What time period is Marxism a part of?

mid-nineteenth century; 

Marxist literary theory systematized in 1920s

Commodification

The attitude of valuing things not for their utility but for their power to impress others or for their resale possibilities

What theory is Commodification a part of?

Marxism

Dialectical Materialism

Theory that history develops neither in a random fashion nor in a linear one but instead as __struggle between contradictions that ultimately find resolution in a synthesis of the two sides.__ (For example, class conflicts lead to new social systems.)

What theory is Dialectical Materialism a part of?

Marxism

What is New Criticism?

A work of literary art should be regarded as autonomous, and so should not be judged by reference to considerations beyond itself.

Who are the key figures in New Criticism?

I. A. Richards

T. S. Eliot

Cleanth Brooks

What time period is New Criticism in?

the late 1920s and 1930s

What is Intentional Fallacy

equating the meaning of a poem with the author's intentions.

What theory is Intentional Fallacy a part of?

New Criticism

What is Affective Fallacy

__Confusing the meaning of a text with how it makes the reader feel.__ A reader's emotional response to a text generally does not produce a reliable interpretation.

What theory is Affective Fallacy a part of?

New Criticism

What is Close Reading

Detailed analysis of the text itself to arrive at an interpretation without referring to historical, authorial, or cultural concerns

What theory is Close Reading a part of?

New Criticism

What is postcolonialism?

Refers to "a collection of theoretical and critical strategies used to __examine the culture of former colonies of the European empires, and their relation to the rest of the world.__"

Who are the key figures in postcolonialism?

Chinua Achebe

Salman Rushdie

Jamaica Kincaid

What is Diaspora?

Refers to any people or ethnic population __forced or induced to leave their traditional ethnic homelands, being dispersed throughout other parts of the world__, and the ensuing developments in their dispersal and culture.

What is Eurocentrism?

The practice (conscious or otherwise) of placing emphasis on European concerns, culture and values at the expense of those of other cultures.

What is Imperialism

Extending the control or authority over foreign entities as a means of acquisition and/or maintenance of empires