INTRO TO CRIT LIT MIDTERM

Yeats / An Irish Airman

Formalism

Dickinson / I Heard a Fly Buzz

Formalism

Whitman / A Glimpse

Formalism

McKay / White City

Formalism

Keats / Ode on a Grecian Urn

Formalism

Roland Barthes / Mythologies

Structuralism/Semiotics

Conan Doyle / The Read Headed League

Structuralism/Semiotics

Conan Doyle / The Speckled Band

Structuralism/Semiotics

Orczy / Mysterious Death

Structuralism/Semiotics

Owen / Dulce et Decorum est

Marxism

Sandburg / Clean Curtains

Marxism

Sandburg / Eastland

Marxism

Blake / London

Marxism

Chopin / A Pair of Silk Stockings

Deconstruction

Stevens / Snow Man

Deconstruction

Conan Doyle / The Man with the Twisted Lip

Deconstruction

Parker / A Telephone Call

Feminism

Ransom / Blue Girls

Feminism

Williams / Young Housewife

Feminism

New Criticism

An impactful subgenre of Formalism that was highly impactful on literary studies in America between 1935-1980. This encompasses a versatile set of assumptions and activities as a basis for study.

Critical Theory

An effort to think about how we think about literature and the many meanings behind reading and interpreting text.

New Criticism

Formalism

Focus on the internal form or structure of a text and how this produces “meaning.”

New Criticism

Close Reading

Focusing on the text itself (tone, word choice, etc).

New Criticism

Organic Unity

Every element contributes to the full unity of the text (ex: recurrent patterns, motifs, or parallelisms).

New Criticism

Range of Interpretations

There is no single or “true” interpretation, instead there are many valid readings that exist.

New Criticism

Textual Evidence

Evidence from the text we include in our interpretations.

New Criticism

End-Stripped Lines

These create a sense of orderly movement in a text.

New Criticism

Symbols

Metaphors, objects, or images that hold a greater or more complex meaning than themselves.

New Criticism

Intentional Fallacy

Intentional Fallacy

New Criticism

Affective Fallacy

The idea that a text's meaning is equal to or derived from the ways texts affect the reader.

New Criticism

Heresy of Paraphrase

The idea that a text’s meaning can be reduced to a restatement or paraphrase.

New Criticism

Structuralism

A literary movement created to help readers understand systems rather than instances that had a large impact on many disciplines including anthropology, sociology, psychology, linguistics, etc. This movement primarily focuses on “Langue.”

Structural Linguistics

A literary theory founded by Ferdinand de Saussure that argues language is a human-created sign system and there is no transparent connection between words (S^r) and the things these words (S^d) designate.

Structuralism

Ferdinand de Saussure

Founded Structural Linguistics.

Structuralism

Signifier (S^r) v. Signified (S^d)

S^r is a series of graphic marks or patterns of sounds, and S^d is the concept of that object.

Structuralism

Arbitrary Sign-System of Differences  Convention  Recognition

We learn this sign system through practice (convention) and there is no intrinsic connection to any of these signs, but we are able to recognize its differences.

Structuralism

Phonemes

Units of sound that distinguish one word from another.

Structuralism

Parole v Lanuge

Parole - An individual utterance using a given sign system.

Lanuge - A system of practices and guidelines that underlies individual utterances.

Structuralism

Structural Anthropology

Attempts to develop a general structure that would apply across societies and identify mythemes (the “structural units” of human myth). This was founded by Claude Levi-Strauss.

Structuralism

Deep Structure of a Myth

Mythical thought always progresses from the awareness of opposition towards their resolution. She elements that oppose or contradict each other and other elements that “mediate” these oppositions.

Structuralism

Vladimir Propp

Russian Formalist that founded 31 mythemes and created a structural model (reservoir of possibilities, not requirements).

Structuralism

Genre Theory Generic Conventions

How readers classify and categorize groups of work in terms of their structural elements.

Structuralism

Narrology

Attempts to describe the possible forms that a narrative genre has taken or can take. There are generic requirements that groups these texts together, such as the narratology of the detective story.

Structuralism

The Tale

A path many tales take that include elements such as; scheming, commission, discovery, investigation, deduction, and resolution.

Structuralism

Axis of Activity v Axis of Passivity

Characters that are active in the text vs passive in the text.

Structuralism

Semiotics/Semiology

The study of signs (written, spoken, advertising, etc) that can be analyzed and studied. This led to the creation of cultural studies.

Structuralism

Claude Levi-Strauss

Took the concept of signifying system and applied it to spoken language, rituals, gestures, and visual signs. He argues these create social meanings and play an important part in culture. Additionally, he established that the relationship between S^r and S^d is arbitrary yet meaningful.

Structuralism

Ideology/Ideological Analysis

An ideological approach to text explores how these works reflect, reveal, or obscure ideologies (social, political, etc) that shape our systems.

Structuralism

Interpellation

A process, created by Louis Althusser, which individuals are hailed, questioned, or assigned social identities by systems of power or ideology.

Structuralism

Ideological Criticism

This theory explores how texts reflect, reveal, or attempt to obscure the ideologies and power structures that share our societies and lives. This theory also explores propaganda.

Marxism

Networks of beliefs and assumptions that preserve the status quo by obscuring people’s abilities to understand the material forces that define our existence. These beliefs are most powerful when they operate invisibly.

Ideological Criticism

False consciousness

A state of mind that motivates someone to act against their own interests.

Ideological Criticism

Hegemony

the overarching ideologies that shape existence in a particular society. Typically, there is a hierarchy in this society and the ruling class controls beliefs. These beliefs can be resisted if they are countered with enough force.

Ideological Criticism

Ideological Analysis

Texts can be classified as supporting hegemony, advancing an oppositional position, or mixed (most complex texts are mixed).

Ideological Criticism

Oppositional Position

Texts that counter the beliefs the ruling class has created.

Ideological Criticism

Soldiers Poetry

An oppositional sub-genre to war.

Ideological Criticism

Commodity Fetishization

Product value vs exchange value (the exchange value must dominate).

Ideological Criticism

Conspicuous Waste

This theory connects to the theory of Commodity Fetishization and was created by Veblen.

Ideological Criticism

Deconstruction

This theory agrees with Structuralists' established Saussurean model of signifying systems. They believe that literature is a system of differences and the linguistic signifier always eludes our attempts to assign it a specific signifier. This is an interpretive approach that addresses irregularities and gaps in language. It typically critiques the metaphysics of presence that has dominated western intellectual and religious tradition.

Saussurean Model

Agrees with Saussurean and Structuralism regarding the human language functioning as a signifying system.

Deconstruction

System of Differences

The linguistic signifier always eludes our attempts to assign it a specific signified.

Deconstruction

Irregularies/Gaps

There are many languages, and each of these languages has gaps and irregularities. They are not anomalies, but a part of the fundamental nature of language.

Deconstruction

Memes/Tropes Mise-en-abyme Sous Rature

Deconstruction looks for memes and tropes. Mise-en-abyme means put into an abyss and an example of this is peeling an onion. Sous Rature means under erasure and is applied because words are inaccurate, so they must be crossed out. But, they are necessary so they are still legible.

Deconstruction

Binary Opposition

2 direct things oppose each other.

Deconstruction

Moebius Strip

Figure 8, what is front and what is back?

Deconstruction

Differance

Combining “to differ from” and “to defer or postpone” to address the endless deferral of one meaning and the inevitable difference between the signifiers we use and the signified they generate.

Deconstruction

Discourse

A concept developed by Jacquest Derrida which treats language like an unstable, continuously deferred, and shaped by an underlying power.

Deconstruction

Feminism

Feminist literature is linked through the shared experiences of women in a given society or era and holds deconstructive influences (as the literature commonly challenges binaries). Additionally separated the female from the feminine. Finally, women’s and men’s experience is related in complicated way, which led to the “gender study” movement.

1st Wave Feminism

This is the earliest wave of influential calls for equal rights. Mary Wollstonecraft played a large part in this movement. Additionally, this movement occurred before critical theory was created.

Feminism

2nd Wave Feminism

This wave began in the 1960s and focused on agitating politically for equal rights. Most literary criticism is connected to this wave. There was a large literary movement during this wave called “images-of-women” criticism. This movement explored how women are portrayed, the attributes produced by men, and female role models within text.

Feminism

3rd Wave Feminism

This wave carried contemporary feminist criticism. It is long lasting and in America it functions as a large-scale recovery project of neglected traditions of women’s writing, leading to a major reshaping of literary canons towards inclusivity. Additionally, there are French-influenced feminists which include psychoanalytic, separatists, and biological elements into their argument.

Feminism

Female v Feminine

The female (biology) is detached from the feminine (behavior, performance). This was also impacted by queer theory.

Feminism

Helene Cixous

Cixous was a French Jewish woman from Algeria. She wrote “Le Rire de la Meduse” (or The Laugh of Medusa) which introduced Ecriture feminine (ambiguity between feminine writing and female writing).

Feminism

Jacques Lacan

Wrote “The Signification of the Phallus.” It argues the phallus is referred not so much to the physical organ but rather the signifying function.

Feminism

Logocentrism

logos in Christian theology refers to the principle of cosmic order expressed as a word (as in “the word of God”). (You’ll also see this idea referred to as “a metaphysics of presence.”) Logocentrism is a metaphysics claiming that certain uses of language (such as religious dogma) possess or embody divine presence. (An example of this way of thinking would be the fundamentalist Christian insistence on the literal truth of the Bible as God’s commands.)

Feminism

Phallocentrism

The idea that the social world is conceived in terms of, and organized around, the male sexual organ (almost always used negatively). The phrase phallus is strictly symbolic. This comes from Sigmund Freud’s theory of the unconscious (penis envy).

Feminism

Phallogocentrism

Derrida coined this to describe a phallocentric point of view that is enforced in and through language (ex: mr. vs mrs./miss.)

Feminism

Ecriture Feminism

The (mostly) French theorists (ex: Cixous, Irigaray, Barrett) closely associated with the term conceived it as an alternative and challenge to the patriarchal or phallogocentric symbolic order that govern. This type of literature often disrupts the phallocentric “rules” of grammar, logic, argumentation,etc. It encourages embracement and celebration of many forms and uses a variety of tones (ex: playful, cryptic, questioning, etc). This is not an identifiable genre.

Feminism

Michel Foucault The Subject Position Human “Self”

Feminism

Formulated the subject position which asks how at every moment of existence, all people occupy certain subject positions and not others Formulated the Human “Self” which says people do not exist apart from its relationship with various defining social categories and discourses.

Feminism

Gender Essentialism

This theory says men and women embody certain qualities intrinsic to their gender and departs from the norms that constitute violations or perversions of the natural order.

Feminism

Male Gaze

Authorize the male viewers desires

Feminism