Y12 Lit Worlds Critical Analysis

Ur-text

a text’s literary origins within a particular genre

Intertext

a text’s relationship to other texts in the past or present of the text’s creation

Paratext

textual details that are not in the text specifically i.e. blurb

Subtext

those elements that are in the text as a result of a reader’s engagement

Subjunctive mood

grammatical mood which indicates the speaker’s attitude toward it i.e. wishes or demand ‘i wish i was a bird’/ ‘if i were to do this’

Sub specie aeternitatis

used in philosophy to denote a viewpoint that is universal, timeless, and objective

Defamiliarisation

composers present a situation in a way that ‘makes it strange’

Barthe’s Readerly Text

straightforward, easy to understand

Barthe’s Writerly Text

requires readers to actively participate

Formalism

the most important aspect of a work of art is its form – the way it is made and its purely visual aspects

New Criticism (Type of Formalism)

meaning resides in the text (not the reader or the world)

Sociological criticism

maintains that the literary work cannot be separated from the social context in which it was created i.e. feminism and marxist

Feminism

a type of sociological criticism that analyses the role of gender in works or literature (feminist critique = the analysis of work by male authors & gynocriticism = the study of women’s writing)

Marxism

a type of sociological criticism based on Marx and Engels which value labour and the working class overthrowing the capitalist middle class (proletariat/bourgeois relationship)

New Historicism 

literature as a part of history and expression of forces on history

Psychoanalytic

analyses literature to reveal insights about the way the human mind works i.e. Freud → Oedipus and Electra / Id/Superego/Ego

Cultural Criticism

an approach to literary and cultural analysis that examines how texts reflect, challenge, and are shaped by their social, political, and historical contexts

Structuralism

meaning resides in the structure of language rather than art or reader

Post-structuralism

rejects the idea of a text having a singular purpose, rather having multitude i.e. celebration of difference

Archetypal

a model or pattern from which all other things of a similar nature are made i.e. quest narrative

Reader-response

how the work is viewed by the audience where the reader creates the meaning (reception theory is applied to general reading public)

“Death of the author”

literary meaning is produced by reader not author

Mimetic criticism

seeks to see how well a work accords with the real world → mimesis = art imitates life

Hermeneutic code

plot elements that are not explained, introduces question/enigma and creates suspense

Proairetic code

actions or sequences of behavior within a narrative that drive the plot forward and build tension

Semiotic code

implied meanings by reader

Symbolic code

structure that organises meaning by binaries/antithesis

Cultural code

any knowledge that exists outside the text and is referenced within it i.e. scientific, historical

Heterotopia

cultural, institutional spaces that are somehow ‘other’

Derrida’s Theory of Deconstruction

examines a text to reveal the instability of its underlying binary oppositions (like male/female, good/evil) and hierarchical structures

Derrida’s Theory of Hauntology

the concept that the past, particularly unfulfilled or lost futures, continues to "haunt" the present as a spectral, spectral presence

Extradiegesis

a narrator who is not a character in the world they are narrating

Intradiegesis

anything that happens within the world of the story i.e. character’s thoughts/actions

Metadiegetic

a character in the story tells their own story

Narrative focalisation

the point of view of the story

Internal focalisation

narrative is told from the perspective of a single character, limiting the reader’s knowledge to their thoughts

External focalisation

narrative is filtered through an external narrator who focuses on the external environment

Omnipotent

narrator is all-knowing and can access the thoughts and feelings of multiple characters

Omniscient

a narrative perspective where an all-knowing narrator presents the story without being limited to one character's point of view

Palimpsest

a manuscript or piece of writing material on which later writing has been superimposed on effaced earlier writing.

Baudrillard

current society has replaced all reality and meaning with symbols and signs, and that human experience is a simulation of reality (incl. Simulacra, Mirror, Hyperreality)

Simulacra

a state where signs and symbols have replaced reality, creating a hyperreality that is no longer connected to an original, authentic truth

Hyperreality

the simulation and reality becomes blurred where individuals have to accept that the simulation is more real than the reality itself

Baudrillard’s “mirror”

relates to how representations like mirrors once reflected reality but have now become detached from it

Public world

refers to the social, political, and collective sphere depicted within a text

Private (imagined) world

internal world of a character's mind, encompassing their thoughts, feelings, and domestic life

Speculative world

an imagined realm that departs from reality, often established through the question, "what if?" i.e. science fiction

Metafictive world

a fictional world that is self-consciously aware of its own artificiality, prompting readers to question the boundaries between fiction and reality