Literary Theory and Introduction to Modern Criticism

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering key definitions, concepts, and works across schools of modern literary criticism.

Modern Literary Criticism (c. 1900–present)

A revolutionary shift in literary study that moves criticism from author-centered to text-centered and reader- & culture-centered approaches.

Defamiliarization (Ostranenie)

A Russian Formalist concept formulated by Viktor Shklovsky stating that art makes the familiar seem strange to refresh perception.

Literariness

In Russian Formalism, the quality that distinguishes literary language from ordinary language.

Close Reading

A core method in New Criticism involving detailed line-by-line textual analysis to examine textual unity.

Intentional Fallacy

A New Criticism concept stating that a reader should not seek or evaluate a text based on the author's intention.

Affective Fallacy

A New Criticism concept stating that criticism should not rely on or be judged by the reader's emotional response.

Base and Superstructure

A foundational Marxist concept asserting that the economic base shapes culture and ideology.

Hegemony

Antonio Gramsci's concept describing cultural domination achieved through consent rather than force.

Reflection Theory

A Marxist concept stating that literature reflects underlying material and economic conditions.

Langue / Parole

Structuralist linguistic terms from Ferdinand de Saussure, where Langue refers to the system of language and Parole refers to individual speech acts.

Différance

Jacques Derrida's concept in Deconstruction stating that meaning is never fixed and arises through difference and deferral.

Logocentrism

The belief in a fixed center of meaning, which is criticized by Post-Structuralism and Deconstruction.

Implied Reader

A concept in Reader-Response criticism, associated with Wolfgang Iser, referring to the hypothetical reader presupposed by the text.

Interpretive Communities

Stanley Fish's Reader-Response concept referring to groups of readers who share common interpretive strategies.

Gynocriticism

A feminist criticism framework, popularized by Elaine Showalter, focusing on women as writers and female literary history.

Orientalism

Edward Said's concept defined as a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and constructing the East.

Ecocriticism

A critical approach focusing on the relationship between literature and nature or environment, promoting environmental awareness.

Performative Gender (Queer Theory)

A concept associated with Judith Butler and Michel Foucault asserting that gender and sexuality are performative acts rather than fixed biological truths.

The Heresy of Paraphrase

Cleanth Brooks's phrase asserting that the meaning of a poem is inseparable from its form and structure.

After Amnesia: Tradition and Change in Indian Literary Criticism

A major critical work by modern Indian critic G. N. Devy.

The Twice Born Fiction

A key contribution to modern Indian literary criticism written by Meenakshi Mukherjee.

Translation as Discovery

A major critical work on translation studies written by Sujit Mukherjee.