english theories

Deconstruction

Declares that a text has an almost infinite number of possible interpretations. Removes the author, history, time period, culture, gender, etc. from the analysis.

Jacques Derrida

Argued that these oppositions were arbitrary & inherently unstable. The structures themselves begin to overlap and clash. Ultimately, these structures of the text dismantle themselves from within the text.

Binary Opposition

The structuralist idea that acknowledges the human tendency to think in terms of opposition. (ex. Light vs. Dark)

Ferdinand de Saussure

The means by which the units of language have value or meaning; each unit is defined against what it is not. Terms and concepts tend to be associated with a positive or negative.

Syntax

The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language.

Logocentrism

Western desire to find a center and its belief in ultimate reality or center of truth to serve as basis for all thoughts and actions.

Arbitrary

Based on random choice or personal whim, rather than any reason or system.

Ethics

Refers to standards of behavior that tell us how human beings ought to act in the many situations in which they find themselves: as friends, parents, children, citizens, business people, professionals, and so on.

Morality

An individual’s human conduct and character referring to “those acts which it makes sense to describe as right or wrong, good or bad.”

“Black and White” Topics

Fairly clear or straightforward topics that most people feel the same way about.

Gray Areas

Unclear situations in ethics, often personal and hotly debated in politics.

Utilitarian Approach

The ethical action is the one that provides the greatest good for the greatest number or, the greatest happiness for the greatest number.

Rights Approach

Focus on the individual's right to choose for herself or himself.

Justice (Fairness) Approach

Treat people the same, unless there are morally relevant differences between them.

Common-Good Approach

Focuses on ensuring that the social policies, social systems, institutions, and environments, on which we depend, are beneficial to all. As an entire community, we should recognize and further common goals.

Virtue Approach

Assumes there are certain ideals toward which we should strive, which provide for the full development of our humanity.

Moral Criticism

Judges the value of the literature on its moral lesson or ethical teaching.

Archetypes

Characters, plots and themes that, for whatever reason, psychological or spiritual, are “hardwired” in the human brain. Speaks to our common human experience and our deepest hopes, fears, and desires.

Archetypal Criticism

Focuses on patterns in a literary work that commonly occur in past literary works. Patterns include persistent images, figures, and story patterns shared by people across diverse cultures. Also interested in certain myths and rituals that recur in a wide variety of cultures.

Carl Jung

Collective Unconscious: Inherited fantasy life, part of the unconscious mind derived from ancestral memory and experience common to all humankind, as distinct from the individual's unconscious. Theorized that human beings were born with an innate knowledge of certain archetypes.

Intertextuality

Literary theory stating all works of literature are a derivation or have been influenced by a previous work of literature. Deliberate and Latent.

Categories of Archetypes

Situational: Describe a role

Character: Personality types

Symbolic: Universal symbols

Joseph Campbell

The Hero’s Journey/“Monomyth”: Path with specific stages, all of which the potential hero must travel.

Traditional Historicism

Historical context is essential to comprehending a text, research history to understand. (ex. Reading documents by slave owners to understand U.S. slavery)

New Historicism

Focuses on the subjectivity of history and culture. (ex. Reading slave narratives to understand U.S. slavery)

Post-Colonial Theory

Second half of the 20th century. Seeks to understand the effects centuries of colonial rule and exploitation have had on colonial subjects and their cultures, to combat the harmful consequences of colonial oppression carried over into the new, postcolonial environment.

Hegemony

Leadership or dominance, especially by one country or social group over others.

Culture

The sum of the beliefs, institutions, arts, and behaviors of a particular people or time.

Cultural Theory

Focuses on how a particular phenomenon relates matters of ideology, nationality, ethnicity, social class and/or gender. Aims to uncover/critique racially oppressive social structures, meanings, and ideas for the purposes of combating them.

Institutional Racism

Embedded not only in individual minds but also in social relationships, practices, and institutions.

Feminism

The advocacy of women’s rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes; politically, socially, economically.

Feminist Criticism

Examines representations of women in literature and film, oftentimes in how they have been portrayed by male writers and male directors. Closely examines a text to determine what is said about: Oppression, Personal Freedom, Social Justice, Stereotyping.

Wave 1 Feminism

Mid 1800’s – 1900’s. Fight for social and political equality. Struggle for women’s suffrage.

Wave 2 Feminism

Liberation movement of 1960’s – 1970’s. Characterized by struggles for: Equal pay, Equal rights at work, Better representation in public bodies.

Wave 3 Feminism

1990’s – 2000’s. Less emphasis on battles for equality. More emphasis on the positive nature of ambiguity and difference.

Wave 4 Feminism

Present day, MeToo Movement, Marriage Equality.

Gender Theory

Seeks to break down the labels/binaries; less about identifying, more about less emphasis on biological sex.

Gender

A term referring to the identities as a “man” and “woman” and the range of characteristics commonly associated with masculinity and femininity.

Patriarchy/Patriarchal

Social organization favoring males on every level; rule by men.

Matriarchy/Matriarchal

Social organization favoring females on every level; rule by female.

Marginalize

To assign a lesser importance or an “absent presence,” to objectify or place “at the margins” those not considered important to a society, culture, or text.

Misogyny

Dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women.

Misandry

Dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against men.

Androcentrism

Conscious or subconscious practice of placing the male perspective in the center of a broader worldview.

Psychoanalytic Criticism

Look either at the psychological motivations of the characters or the actual authors. Most frequently, psychological critics apply Freudian and/or Jungian (archetypes) psychology to works.

Sigmund Freud

Father of modern psychology. Believed people's behavior is affected by their unconscious, influenced by childhood events.

Id

Based on biological impulses, works to gain satisfaction for instinctual needs, no morality.

Ego

What people decide to display to the world, often responds and controls the id in order to avoid unpleasant consequences, such as being punished.

Superego

Where the conscience is located, helps inhibit the id, controlled by our perspective of social expectations.

Oedipus Complex

Described as the experience of children feeling a possessive fixation toward the parent of their opposite sex, along with rival feelings toward the parent of their same sex.

Electra Complex

Possessive form of attachment between a female child and her opposite-sex parent, may also have a competitive drive against the parent of the same sex.

Abraham Maslow

Hierarchy of Needs: Psychological, Safety, Belonging & Love, Esteem, Self-Actualization.

Erik Erikson

8 stages of personality development: Each stage presents a new conflict between the individual’s needs and societal demands. Conflicts must be resolved in order to obtain a healthy personality & become fully functional members of society.

Carl Rogers

Personality Development: One’s inner personality that can be likened to the soul.
Humanistic Psychology: Client-Centered Approach, humans have a natural desire for personal growth.
Rogerian Theory: Client believed to be the expert in their life.
19 Propositions: How individuals perceive and interact with the world.

Alfred Adler

Psychology of Growth: People strive to overcome difficulties and make actual changes to their lives.

Individual Psychology: One must study all aspects of a human (not just parts of a human) in order to understand an individual.

Community Feeling: True psychological health came from a sense of belonging.

Social inequality: Disease that harms entire populations.

Lawrence Kohlberg

6 Stage Theory of Moral Development: People make decisions based on factors (i.e. punishment, laws, ethical principles, etc.)

Mary Ainsworth

Strange Situation Experiment: Infants have a innate need to form a bond with primary caregivers.

John Bowlby

Attachment Theory: Earliest bonds formed by children with their caregivers largely impact the child’s life.

Conscious

Awake, aware of and responding to one’s surroundings. (ex. Driving to Target for toothpaste)

Preconscious

Caught between the conscious and unconscious, not present in consciousness, can be recalled without inner resistance or oppression. (ex. Driving a car)

Unconscious

Not conscious, the part of the mind that is inaccessible to the conscious mind but still affects behaviors and emotions, unable to respond. (ex. Driving home without remembering the details of the journey)

Iceberg Theory

Id: Resides only in the unconscious level

Ego: Lives in all three levels

Superego: Lives in all three levels

Karl Marx

Emphasized that the primary influence on life was economic, and he saw society as an opposition between: the capitalists & the working class.

The Communist Manifesto

Published in 1848. Concerned with class differences, economic and otherwise, as well as the implications and complications of the capitalist system.

Marxist Criticism

Focus on how those in power seek to maintain that power, the struggle that exists between the working class and the ruling (elite) class. Explores how the lower or working classes are oppressed, in everyday life and in literature.

Revolution

Continuing conflict between the classes will lead to upheaval and revolution by oppressed peoples and form the groundwork for a new order of society and economics where capitalism is abolished.

Bourgeoisie

Name given by Marx to the owners of the means of production in a society, controls the capital.

Proletariat

Working class that produces the capital.

False Consciousness

People’s acceptance of an unfavorable social system without protest or questioning as the logical way for things to be.

Internal Contradictions

The ideas that each class system contains the seeds of its own destruction.

Sign Value

Denotes and describes the value accorded to an object because of the prestige (social status) that it imparts upon the possessor, rather than the material value and utility derived from the function and the primary use of the object.

Commodification

The attitude of valuing things not for their utility (usefulness) but for their power to impress others or for their resale possibilities.

Ideology

A form of ideas, and especially ideas that form the basis of economic & political theories/ policies.

Dialectical Materialism

View of history as determined by the struggle between economic forces.

Dialectical Marx

Means to see history as progressing through conflict between opposing forces.

Materialism Marx

Holds that it is the material factors of human reality are the field in which these shaping conflicts take place.

Interpellation

The process by which the working class is manipulated to accept the ideology of the dominant one.

Conspicuous Consumption

Practice by consumers of using goods of a higher quality or in greater quantity than might be considered necessary in practical terms, to display economic power.