Critical Theory Vocab

Mimesis

The idea that art is an imitation or copy of nature and reality, rather than something original in itself

Catharsis

The emotional release (specifically of pity and fear) that an audience experiences through drama

Dramatic Construction

Aristotle’s principles for organizing a work (plot, character, thought, diction, song, spectacle) to achieve its intended effect on an audience

Organic unity

The idea that all parts of a work function together to create an inseparable, unified whole

Ambiguity

Multiple possible meanings coexisting within a text, treated as a source of richness rather than a flaw

Tension

the productive friction between opposing elements (ideas, images, tones) within a text

Close reading

The practice of analyzing a text’s language, structure, and form in isolation, without reference to author or historical context

The unconscious

The part of the mind holding desires, fears, and conflicts a person isn’t consciously aware of, but which still drives behavior

Repression

The unconscious suppression of painful experiences or unacceptable desires

Id, ego, superego

Freud’s three-part model of the psyche

Id

Houses raw drives

Ego

Mediates and defends against them

Superego

Houses internalized judgment and morality

Oedipus complex

A child’s conscious rivalry with the same-sex parent for the attention of the opposite-sex parent, occurring roughly between ages three and six

Collective unconsious

Jung’s concept of a shared reservoir of memory and symbol inherited by all humans, beneath individual experience

Archetype

A recurring symbolic figure or patter (e.g., the Shadow, the Hero) that appears across cultures and eras

Syzygy

Jung’s term for the paired archetypes (Animal/Animus, Shadow/Self) that together compose the unified self

Material dialectic

The belief that economic and material conditions, not ideas or ideology, are the true drivers of historical change

Base and superstructure

The economic “base” of a society (production, labor, class relations) versus its “superstructure” (law, politics, religion, art) built upon it

Class Consciousness

an awareness among members of a social class of their shared economic position and intrerests

Hegemony

The dominance of one class’s ideology or worldview over society, often so pervasive it seems like common sense rather than a construct

Patriarchy

A social system in which men hold primary power and women are structurally subordinated

Feminist Criticism - The “other”

The marginalized position assigned to women (of any group) when defined only in relation to, and as different from, a dominant norm

Gender vs. sex

The distinction between biological sex (determined by biology) and gender (a culturally constructed set of roles and expectations)

Sisterhood

Solidarity among women as a mode of resisting patriarchal oppression

Épistéme

Michel Foucault’s term for the underlying framework of assumption and knowledge that shapes what can be thought or said in a given historical period

Interpretation vs. fact

The New Historical claim that we never have neutral access to historical “facts”, only culturally situated interpretations of them

Cultural text

The idea that literary works exist on a continuum with other cultural products of their era (laws, sermons, pamphlets, etc. all worth reading together

Hgemony

The dominance of colonial powers over colonized peoples, culturally and politically

Post-Colonial Criticism - The “other”

The colonized or foreign group defined by a colonizing culture as different from, and inferior to, itself

Hybridity

The blended cultural indentity that emerges when colonizer and colonized cultures intermix

Double consciousness

The experience of holding two, often conflicting, cultural or racial identities/awareness simultaneously

Intersectionality

Kimberlé Crenshaw’s concept that race, gender, sexuality, and class overlap and compound one another in shaping a person’s experience of discrimination

Interest convergence

Derrick Bell’s thesis that racial progress tend to occur only when it also serves the interests of the dominant group

Systemic racism

Racism embedded in laws, institutions, and structures, rather than limited to individual prejudice or bias