Literary Theories

Structuralism

A literary movement with roots in linguistics and anthropology, and it concentrates on literature as a system of signs that have no inherent meaning except in their agreed upon or conventional relation to one another.

Reader-Response Criticism

opposes formalism, seeing the audience's interaction with the text as central to interpretation

New Historicism

relates a text to the historical and cultural contexts of the period in which it was created and the periods in which it was critically evaluated. These contexts are not considered simply as "background" but as integral parts of a text

New Criticism

was made popular by college instructors who realized formalist criticism provided a useful way for students to work along with an instructor in interpreting a literary work rather than passively listening to a lecture on biographical, literary, and historical influences

Marxist Criticism

bases interpretations of literature on the studies of two men who believe that the dominant capitalist middle class would eventually be challenged and overthrown by the working class, socioeconomic situation of author/characters

Formalism

Critics focus on each work of literature in isolation. They consider biographical, historical, and social matters to be irrelevant to the real meaning of the play, short story, novel, or poem.

Feminist Criticism

Emerged as a distinct approach to literature only in the 1960s. this criticism focuses on the negative female stereotypes in books authored by men and points out alternative female characteristics suggested by women authors.

Psychoanalytic Criticism - Freudian

focuses on a work of literature as an expression in fictional form of the inner workings of the human mind, analyzes the characters and authors with a focus on dreams

Psychoanalytic Criticism - Lacanian

focuses on a work of literature as an expression in fictional form of the inner workings of the human mind, analyzes POV choices, fragmentation, and what isn’t included

Human Liberalist

How the text applies to universal themes

Post-Structuralism

Language is limited and limiting, there’s no real reason, looks for discontinuities and unintentional meaning, “textual harassment”, ignores the author’s intention

Modernism

Nostalgia of old authority, revival of the past, blurs the line between prose and poetry, traditional values were oppressive, shared vision, shared goal

Post-Modernism

There is no truth, disenchantment from WW2, nothing is original, parody and pastiche, there’s no agreement, no truth

Historicism

History frames the work while keeping its focus, contextualizes

Cultural Materialism

Uses modern historical knowledge applied to works that didn’t have those conversations happening yet, applying modern standards to historical context