TRANSES-LIT.docx

Literary Theory and Criticism

LITERARY THEORY AND CRITICISM

  • Literary theory and literary criticism are interpretive tools that help us think more deeply and insightfully about the literature that we read.

  • Over time, different schools of literary criticism have developed, each with its own approaches to the act of reading.

SCHOOLS OF INTERPRETATION

CAMBRIDGE SCHOOL (1920s–1930s):

◈ A group of scholars at Cambridge University who rejected historical and biographical analysis of texts in favor of close readings of the texts themselves.

CHICAGO SCHOOL (1950’s)

A group, formed at the University of Chicago in the 1950s, that drew on Aristotle’s distinctions between the various elements within a narrative to analyze the relation between form and structure. Critics and Criticisms: Ancient and Modern (1952) is the major work of the Chicago School.

DECONSTRUCTION (1967-present)

A philosophical approach to reading, first advanced by Jacques Derrida that attacks the assumption that a text has a single, stable meaning. Derrida suggests that all interpretation of a text simply constitutes further texts, which means there is no “outside the text” at all.

DECONSTRUCTION (1967-present)

Therefore, it is impossible for a text to have stable meaning. The practice of deconstruction involves identifying the contradictions within a text’s claim to have a single, stable meaning, and showing that a text can be taken to mean a variety of things that differ significantly from what it purports to mean.

LITERARY THEORIES

FEMINIST CRITICISM (1960s–present):

An umbrella term for a number of different critical approaches that seek to distinguish the human experience from the male experience.

FEMINIST CRITICISM (1960s–present)

◈ Feminist critics draw attention to the ways in which patriarchal social structures have marginalized women and male authors have exploited women in their portrayal of them.

FEMINIST CRITICISM (1960s–present)

◈ Although feminist criticism dates as far back as Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) and had some significant advocates in the early20th century, it did not gain widespread recognition as a theoretical and political movement until the 1960s and 1970s.

PSYCHOANALYTIC CRITICISM

Any form of criticism that draws on psychoanalysis, the practice of analyzing the role of unconscious psychological drives and impulses in shaping human behavior or artistic production.

PSYCHOANALYTIC CRITICISM

The three main schools of psychoanalysis are named for the three leading figures in developing psychoanalytic theory:

  1. Sigmund Freud,

  2. Carl Jung,

  3. Jacques Lacan

Freudian Criticism

1900–present

FREUDIAN CRITICISM

◈ The view of art as the imagined fulfillment of wishes that reality denies. According to Freud, artists sublimate their desires and translate their imagined wishes into art.

FREUDIAN CRITICISM

Also known as psychoanalytic literary criticism, is a literary theory that applies the principles and concepts of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory to the analysis of literature. Freud was a pioneering psychologist who developed a comprehensive theory of the human mind and behavior. Freudian criticism seeks to explore the psychological and subconscious aspects of literary texts.

FREUDIAN CRITICISM

Central to Freudian criticism is the notion of the unconscious mind. Freud believed that human behavior and thoughts are driven by unconscious desires, conflicts, and impulses. In literature, this concept can be applied to analyze characters' motivations, fears, and repressed desires.

Jungian Criticism

1920 –present

JUNGIAN CRITICISM

A school of criticism that draws on Carl Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious, a reservoir of common

thoughts and experiences that all cultures share.

JUNGIAN CRITICISM

Jungian criticism offers a psychoanalytic lens through which to explore the deeper layers of meaning and symbolism in literature. It seeks to uncover the archetypal elements that connect literature to the broader human experience and the collective unconscious.

JUNGIAN CRITICISM

Jungian analysis can provide valuable insights into the psychological and symbolic dimensions of literary texts

Lacanian Criticism

1977–present

LACANIAN CRITICISM

Based on Jacques Lacan’s view that the unconscious, and our perception of ourselves, is shaped in the “symbolic” order of language rather than in the

“imaginary” order of prelinguistic

thought.

LACANIAN CRITICISM

Lacanian criticism, also known as Lacanian psychoanalytic literary criticism, is a theoretical approach to analyzing literature that draws upon the ideas of the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. Lacanian theory is an extension of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis but offers a unique perspective on the role of language, desire, and the unconscious in shaping human subjectivity.

LACANIAN CRITICISM

Lacanian criticism often seeks to uncover the unconscious dimensions of literary texts, examining how language, symbolism, and narrative structure reflect and shape human subjectivity.

LACANIAN CRITICISM

Lacanian criticism can provide a rich and complex perspective on literature, emphasizing the interplay between language, desire, and the unconscious. It is particularly suited to exploring how

literature represents the complexities of human identity and the ways in which individuals navigate the symbolic and social dimensions of their lives.

MARXIST CRITICISM

An umbrella term for a number of critical approaches to literature that draw inspiration from the social and economic theories of Karl Marx.

MARXIST CRITICISM

◈ Marx maintained that material production, or economics, ultimately determines the course of history, and in turn influences social structures.

◈ These social structures, Marx argued, are held in place by the dominant ideology, which serves to reinforce the interests of the ruling class.

MARXIST CRITICISM

◈ Marxist criticism approaches literature as a struggle with social realities and ideologies.

NEW CRITICISM (1930s–1960s)

Coined in John Crowe Ransom’s The New Criticism (1941), this approach discourages the use of history and biography in interpreting a literary work.

NEW CRITICISM

  • It encourages readers to discover the meaning of a work through a detailed analysis of the text itself.

  • This approach was popular in the middle of the 20th century, especially in the United States, but has since fallen out of favor

NEW HISTORICISM (1980s–present):

An approach that breaks down distinctions between “literature” and “historical context” by examining the contemporary production and reception of literary texts, including the dominant social, political, and moral movements of the time.

NEW HISTORICISM CRITICISM

  • It encourages readers to discover the meaning of a work through a detailed analysis of the text itself.

  • This approach was popular in the middle of the 20th century, especially in the United States, but has since fallen out of favor.

NEW HUMANISM (1910–1933):

An American movement, led by Irving Babbitt and Paul Elmer More, that embraced conservative literary and moral values and advocated a return to humanistic education.

POST-STRUCTURALISM (1960s-1970s)

A movement that comprised, among other things, Deconstruction, Lacanian criticism, and the later works of Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault.

POST-STRUCTURALISM (1960s-1970s)

It criticized structuralism for its claims to scientific objectivity, including its

assumption that the system of signs in which language operates was stable.

QUEER THEORY (1980s- present

A “constructivist” (as opposed to “essentialist”) approach to gender and sexuality that asserts that gender roles and sexual identity are social constructions rather than an essential, inescapable part of our nature.

QUEER THEORY

Queer theory consequently studies literary texts with an eye to the ways in which different authors in different eras construct sexual and gender identity. Queer theory draws on certain branches of feminist criticism and traces its roots to the first volume of Michel Foucault’s History of Sexuality (1976).

STRUCTURALISM (1950-1960s)

An intellectual movement that made significant contributions not only to literary criticism but also to philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and history.

STRUCTURALISM (1950-1960s)

  • Structuralist literary critics, such as Roland Barthes, read texts as an interrelated system of signs that refer to one another rather than to an external “meaning” that is fixed either by author or reader.

  • Structuralist literary theory draws on the work of the Russian Formalists, as well as the linguistic theories of Ferdinand de Saussure and C. S. Peirce.