LITERARY CRITICISM

The paradigms and the possibilities…

A man is lying dead in a field. Next to him there is
an unopened package. There is no other creature
in the field. How did he die?
A man is lying dead in a field. Next to him there is
an unopened package. There is no other creature
in the field. How did he die?

• The man had jumped from a plane but

his parachute had failed to open. It is
the unopened package.
A man died and went to Heaven. There were thousands of
other people there. They were all naked and all looked as
they did at the age of 21. He looked around to see if there
was anyone he recognised. He saw a couple and he knew
immediately that they were Adam and Eve. How did he
know?
A man died and went to Heaven. There were thousands of
other people there. They were all naked and all looked as
they did at the age of 21. He looked around to see if there
was anyone he recognised. He saw a couple and he knew
immediately that they were Adam and Eve. How did he
know?

He recognized Adam and Eve as the only people

without navels. Because they were not born of
women, they had never had umbilical cords and
therefore they never had navels.
 DEFINITION …
• The term ‘criticism’ is often understood to be:
• The act of finding fault; censure; disapproval
• The act of criticizing, especially adversely
• But the term ‘criticism’ as it is used in this course
signifies: • The act of interpreting, analyzing and
making judgments of individual and comparative
worth of works of art such as literature
• A critical comment, review, article, essay, etc
expressing such analysis and judgment • The art,
principles, or methods of a critic or critics
What is literary criticism?
• Literary criticism is the interpretation,
analysis, classification and ultimately the
judgment of literary works.
• It is usually in the form of a critical essay,
but in- depth book reviews can sometimes
be considered as literary criticism.
• Criticism may examine a particular literary
work, or may look at an author's writings as
a whole.
"Literary criticism is the evaluation of literary
works. This includes the classification by genre,
analysis of structure, and judgement of value."
"Literary criticism asks what literature is, what it
does, and what it is worth."
Literary criticism is the method used to interpret
any given work of literature. The different
schools of literary criticism provide us with
lenses which ultimately reveal important aspects
of the literary work.
1580s: Critic is "one who passes judgment,"
"a judge, literary critic,"
"able to make judgments to separate, decide."
"one who judges merits of books, plays,
etc.“
17th and 18th centuries: the critic was
considered a judge who finds the faults and
merits of a literary work.
A literary critic is not someone who merely evaluates
the worth or quality of a piece of literature but,
rather, is someone who argues on behalf of an
interpretation or understanding of the particular
meaning(s) of literary texts.
The task of a literary critic is to explain and attempt to
reach a critical understanding of what literary texts
mean in terms of their aesthetic, as well as social,
political, and cultural statements and suggestions.
A literary critic does more than simply discuss or
evaluate the importance of a literary text; rather,
• a literary critic seeks to reach a logical and
reasonable understanding of not only what a
text’s author intends for it to mean but, also,
what different cultures and ideologies render it
capable of meaning
 Why do we have to analyze
everything????
Talking about experiences enhances our
enjoyment of them
Talking about experiences involves the
search for meaning which increases our
understanding of them
Because Socrates said so: "The life which is
unexamined is not worth living."
 To further explain …

Literary criticism helps us to understand

what is important about the text
• its structure
• its context: social, economic, historical
• what is written
• how the text manipulates the reader
 And there's more …

Literary criticism helps us to understand

the relationship between authors, readers,
and texts

The act of literary criticism ultimately

enhances the enjoyment of our reading
of the literary work
 Literary Criticism

Literary criticism has two main functions:

1. To analyze, study, and evaluate works
of literature.
2. To form general principles for the
examination of works of literature.
 What is literary theory?

• The capacity to generalize about

phenomena and to develop concepts that
form the basis for interpretation and
analysis—in this instance, of a
“literary” text.
 EIGHT PARADIGMS …
1. Formalism
2. Marxism
3. Feminism
4. Psychoanalytic
5. Cultural Criticism
6. Structuralism
7. Post-structuralism
8. Archetypal
 But there are many more …

Author intention
Reader Response
Biological
Cognitive scientific
Moralist
Queer
Socio-political
Sociological
And so many more …
THE 4 CRITICAL VARIABLES
of LITERARY THEORY & 1. The World
CRITICISM

2. The Author

Beyond the Real Other

3. The Text
World World Texts
Text = Symbol, Text = ITS CONTEXT Text = Ideologically
Archetype Objective reality constructed language

4. The Reader
Formalism: the TEXT (as art) Gender Studies: WORLD/author/text/reader

Structuralism: the TEXT (as language system) Postcolonial: AUTHOR/world/text/reader

Psychoanalytic: AUTHOR/READER/text Marxist: WORLD/text

Reader Response: READER/TEXT/community Territorial: TEXT/[reader/ author/world])

of readers w/shared values
 Understanding the Map

• The work itself is placed in the center because all approaches

must deal, to some extent or another, with the text itself.
• Formalism and deconstruction are placed here also because
they deal primarily with the text and not with any of the outside
considerations such as author, the real world, audience, or other
literature. Meaning, formalists argue, is inherent in the text.
Because meaning is determinant, all other considerations are
irrelevant.
• Deconstructionists also subject texts to careful, formal
analysis; however, they reach an opposite conclusion: there is no
meaning in language.
 Cont'd …
• A historical approach relies heavily on the author and his
world. In the historical view, it is important to understand the
author and his world in order to understand his intent and to
make sense of his work. In this view, the work is informed by
the author's beliefs, prejudices, time, and history, and to fully
understand the work, we must understand the author and his
age.
• An intertextual approach is concerned with comparing the
work in question to other literature, to get a broader picture.
• Reader-Response is concerned with how the work is viewed
by the audience. In this approach, the reader creates meaning,
not the author or the work.
 Cont'd …
• Mimetic criticism seeks to see how well a work accords
with the real world (is it accurate? correct? moral? ).

• Then, beyond the real world are approaches dealing with

the spiritual and the symbolic--the images connecting
people throughout time and cultures (archetypes). This is
mimetic in a sense too, but the congruency looked for is
not so much with the real world as with something
beyond the real world--something tying in all the
worlds/times/cultures inhabited by humans.
 Cont'd …
• The Psychological approach is placed outside these poles
because it can fit in many places, depending how it is
applied:
(1) Historical if diagnosing the author himself
(2) Mimetic if considering if characters are acting by "real
world" standards and with recognizable psychological
motivations
(3) Archetypal when the idea of the Jungian collective
unconscious is included
(4) Reader-Response when the psychology of the reader--
why he sees what he sees in the text--is examined.
 Cont'd …

• Likewise, Feminist, Minority, Marxist, and other such

approaches may fit in:
(1) Historical if the author's attitudes are being examined
in relation to his times (i.e. was Shakespeare a feminist for
his times, though he might not be considered so today?)
(2) Mimetic--when asking how well characters accord with
the real world. Does a black character act like a black
person would, or is he a stereotype? Are women being
portrayed accurately? Does the work show a realistic
economic picture of the world?
There are so many possible answers
…
What does this literary work mean?
Different approaches or lenses help us to
discover rich and deeper meaning
Each lens has its strengths and weaknesses
Each lens is valuable
Try to become a pluralist rather than an
inflexible supporter of one
Types of Literary
Theory
 Formalism

• Has the advantage of forcing writers to evaluate a

work on its own terms rather than to rely on
“accepted” notions of the writer’s work
• Works best when applied to poetry and short fiction.
 Formalism

• Attempts to discover meaning by close reading of a

work of literature. Focus is on:
• Form, organization, and structure
• Word choice and language
• Multiple meanings
• Considers the work in isolation, disregarding author’s
intent, author’s background, context, and anything
else outside of the work itself.
 Formalism/New Criticism

• The formalist movement began in England

with the publication of I.A. Richards’
Practical Criticism (1929).
• American critics (such as John Crowe
Ransom, Robert Penn Warren, and Cleanth
Brooks) adapted formalism and termed their
adaptation “New Criticism.”
 Formalism/New Criticism

New Criticism varied from formalism in that

New Criticism focuses on image, symbol, and
meaning. Traditional formalists often
attacked New Critics for their lack of
attention to the form of the work.
Seminal works on New Criticism include
John Crowe Ransom’s The New Criticism
(1941) and Cleanth Brooks’ The Well
Wrought Urn (1947).
NEW CRITICISM

Meaning resides in the text—not in reader,

author, or world
Texts may contain numerous messages, but
must have a unifying central theme created by
the perfect union of all artistic elements.
Texts are artistic creations
Close reading is the basis of new critical
analysis
The methodology for finding meaning is clear-
cut; the tools are unique to literary analysis

*one type of formalism

 Impact of Formalism

Today, few critics adhere only to the formalist or New

Criticism theory. However, its back-to-the-basics
approach pervades many other critical theories.
 Reader-Response Criticism
• Sees the reader as essential to the interpretation of a work.
• Each reader is unique, with different educations,
experiences, moral values, opinions, tastes, etc.
• Therefore, each reader’s interaction with a work is unique.
• Analyzes the features of the text that shape and guide a
reader’s reading.
• Emphasizes recursive reading—rereading for new
interpretations.
 Reader-Response Criticism

Reader-response theory has been criticized as

being overly impressionistic and guilty of the
affective fallacy (too focused on the emotional
effect of the work). Less tactful critics have
plainly said that it is not intellectual.
These attacks resulted in an adaptation of
reader-response criticism called reception theory.
 READER RESPONSE

Text has many interpretations—text & reader interact to

create meaning

Meaning ultimately resides in the reader’s mind

or the consensual “mind” of a community of readers
(this class, for example)

A text’s truth is relative

Readers may reach the same conclusions about a

work--but approach the task quite differently
Reader-Response/Reception Theory

Reception theory is applied to the general reading

public rather than an individual reader.
• Each generation has different experiences, values,
issues, etc.
• Therefore, each generation will read a work
differently.
 STRUCTURALISM

• Meaning resides in the structure of language, not in art nor in

the reader’s mind
• Scientific approach to literary analysis:
structure of language as a logical sign system determines
meaning
• Two levels of language: langue (“the King’s English”) & parole
(everyday speech)
• Interpret a text or part of a text by taking its language apart
(study word derivations, sentence syntax, etc.)
 Biographical Criticism

• Analyzes an author’s life in regard to their work

• Can enhance the understanding of a work
• Must be used carefully—example: Kate Chopin
 Sociological Criticism

Maintains that the literary work cannot be

separated from the social context in which it
was created. In general, sociological criticism
examines one of these two aspects:
Conditions of production, such as schools,
magazines, publishers, and fashions.
The applicability of a given work—fiction
especially—in studying the dynamics of a given
society.
 Types of Sociological Criticism

Sociological theory is so broad that it can be subdivided

in many different categories. Two dominant theories
we’ll study are
• Feminist criticism
• Marxist criticism
 Feminist Criticism

Feminist criticism grew out of the women’s

movement that followed World War II.
Feminist critics analyze the role of gender in
works of literature. Leading critic Elaine
Showalter describes two purposes of feminist
criticism:
Feminist critique: The analysis of works by male
authors, especially in the depiction of women’s
writing
Gynocriticism: The study of women’s writing
 Feminist Criticism

Feminist critics have been responsible for

recovering neglected works by women authors
through the ages and creating a canon of
women’s writing.
A case in point is Kate Chopin. She was fairly
widely published in the 1890s, but her work was
largely neglected by literary critics until the
1960s, when Chopin was “rediscovered” by
feminist critics.
FEMINIST CRITICISM
Meaning is socially constructed.
Texts have more than one interpretation
Texts are commodities (products of
society)
Truth is relative, highly dependent on
arbitrary categories of difference, esp.
those based on “sex” and “gender”
Look for systems of containment; for evidence
of repression, oppression, suppression,
subversion, & rebellion in texts by women;
study women’s unique ways of understanding
and writing about the human condition.
 Marxist Criticism
• Marxist criticism is based on the social and economic
theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Their beliefs
include the following:
• Value is based on labor.
• The working class will eventually overthrow the
capitalist middle class.
• In the meantime, the middle class exploits the working
class.
• Most institutions—religious, legal, educational, and
governmental—are corrupted by middle-class
capitalists.
 Marxist Criticism

Marxist critics apply these economic and

social theories to literature by analyzing:
Ideologies that support the elite and place the
working class at a disadvantage
Class conflict
Marxism strongly influenced fiction,
particularly American fiction, in the 1930s.
 New Historicism

New historicist critics view literature as part

of history, and furthermore, as an expression
of forces on history.
New historicism compares literary analysis to
a dynamic circle:
The work tells us something about the
surrounding ideology (slavery, rights of women,
etc.)
Study of the ideology tells us something about
the work.
 New Historicism

New historicism takes two forms:

Analysis of the work in the context in which it
was created
Analysis of the work in the context in which it
was critically evaluated.
New historicists assert that literature “does
not exist outside time and place and cannot
be interpreted without reference to the era in
which it was written” (Kirszner and Mandell
2038).
 New Historicism

• Readers are influenced by their culture, so no

objective reading of a work is possible.
• Critics should consider how their own culture affects
their interpretation of the historical influence on a
work.
NEW HISTORICISM
Literature is one among many socially constructed
texts. If there is a difference, it’s the intentional
use of the imagination to convey ideas.
History is every bit as subjective as intentionally
imaginative texts
Purpose of analyzing literature is to locate hidden
social messages, especially those that promote
oppression.
Texts have no final interpretation
Language, though socially constructed, is stable
enough to be useful.
 Psychoanalytic Criticism

• Analyzes literature to reveal insights about the way

the human mind works.
• Is based on the work of Sigmund Freud and his
disciples.
• Works well as a method of analyzing characters’
actions and motivations.
 Basic Freudian Concepts

• All actions are influenced by the unconscious.

• Human beings must repress many of their desires to
live peacefully with others.
• Repressed desires often surface in the unconscious,
motivating actions.
 Basic Freudian Concepts

The mind has three major areas of activity:

Id: Area in the unconscious that works for
gratification through the pleasure principle
Superego: An internal censor bringing social
pressures to bear on the id.
Ego: Area in the consciousness that mediates
among demands of social pressure, the id, and
the superego.
 Mythological Approach

• Largely attributed to Carl Jung, a disciple of Sigmund

Freud
• Archetype: a model or pattern from which all other
things of a similar nature are made
 Mythological Approach

Collective Unconscious--there are certain basic

and central images and experiences that are
inherent in the human psyche
Analyzes what in a work evokes a similar
response in people, regardless of culture
Concerned with enduring patterns and how they
are reflected in literature
 Examples of Archetypes

Common Themes:
• Stories of quest and initiation
• Descents into the underworld
• Ascents into heaven
• Search for father/mother
• Fall from innocence
 Examples of Archetypes

Characters:
Scapegoat
Hero/Villian
Outcast
Temptress
Mother/Father
Mentor