Types of Literary Criticism
Types of Literary Criticism
Types of Literary Criticism
Sociological Criticism
- Like historical criticism, sociological criticism examines literature in the cultural, economic, and
political context in which it is written or received. This type of criticism may analyze the social
content of a literary work – the cultural, economic or political values particular text simplicity or
explicitly expresses
- Sociological criticism is literary criticism directed to understanding or placing literature in its
larger social context; it codifies the literary strategies that are employed to represent social
constructs through a sociological methodology. Sociological criticism analyzes both how the
social functions in the literature and how literature how literature works in society. This form of
literary criticism was introduced by Kenneth Burke, a 20th century literary and critical theorist,
whose article “Literature As Equipment for Living” outlies the specifications and significance of
such a critique.
- Sociological criticism is influenced by New Criticism; however it adds a sociological elements
as found with critical theory (Frankfurt School), and considers art as a manifestation of society,
one that contains metaphors and references directly applicable to the existing society at the
time of its creation.
- This type of criticism attempts to describe what happens in the reader’s mind while interpreting
a text. A reader-response critic might also explore the impact of the particular text on his or her
own ideas or values. For example, one might reflect on how a particular character seems
admirable or unlikable and why. One might reflect on how one’s religious, culture, or social
values affect readings. It also overlaps with gender criticism in exploring how men and women
may read the same text with different assumptions.
- It focuses on the reader or audiences and their experience of a literary work, in contrast to
other schools and theories that focus attention primarily on the author or the content and form
of the work
Gender Criticism
- This type of criticism examines how sexual identity influences the creation and reception of
literary works. Gender studies originated during the feminist movement, when critics began
investigating the unexamined assumptions around gender in piece of literature. Feminist critics
explored how an author’s gender – might consciously or unconsciously – affects his or her
writing. These critics may also explore how images of men or women in literature might reflect
or reject the social norms around gender in a particular society.
Mythological Criticism
- mythological critics explore the universal patterns underlying a literary work. This type of
criticism draws on the insights of anthropology, history, psychology, and comparative religion
to explore how a text uses myths and symbols drawn from different cultures and epochs. A
central concept in mythological criticism is the archetype, a symbol, character, situation, or
image that evokes a deep universal response. For example, critic Joseph Campbell, in his
books like The Hero with a Thousand Faces, demonstrates how similar mythic characters and
situations, like the hero’s journey, appear in virtually every culture.
Biographical Criticism
- Biographical critics explore how understanding an author’s life can help readers more
thoroughly comprehend the literary work. NOTE: biographical critics are not concerned with
simply describing the author’s life but instead with interpreting literary works using the insights
provided by knowledge of the author’s life.
- Biographical criticism is a form of literary criticism which analyzes a writer’s biography to show
the relationship between the author’s life and their works of literature. Biographical criticism is
often associated with the historical-biographical criticism a crucial method that sees literary
work chiefly, if not exclusively, as a reflection of its author’s life and times.
This long-lasting critical method dates back at least to the Renaissance period and was
employed extensively by Samuel Jonson in Lives of the Poets (1779-81)
New Historicism
- New historicist critics look at the impact of the politics, ideologies, and social customs of the
author’s world on the themes, images, events or conditions during which the work was written.
Psycho-Analytic Criticism
- this type of criticism views the themes, conflicts and characterization of a text. This type of
critic considers the historical events of conditions during which the work was written.
Formalist Criticism
- Formalist critics look closely at the work itself, analyzing the various elements of the work as
the way of explicating or interpreting text.
Marxist Literary Criticism
- is a loose term describing literary criticism based on socialist and dialects theories. Marxist
criticism views literary works as reflections of the social institutions from which they originate.
Most Marxist Critics, who were writing in what could chronologically be specified as the early
period of Marxist criticism subscribed to what has come to be called Vulgar Marxism.
- The simplest goal of Marxist literary criticism can include an assessment of the political
tendency of a literary work, determining whether its social content or its literary form are
progressive. It also includes analyzing the class constructs demonstrated in the literature.
- it is concerned with the ethical impact any literary text has upon and audiences. Regardless of
art’s other merits or failing.
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