UPDATED Critical Approaches to Literature 2021-2022 PDF

2 1 st C e n t u r y L i t e r a t u r e f r o m t h e P h i l i p p i ne s a n d t h e Wo r l d Critical Approaches to Literature Objectives: 1. Identify, define, and explain the different critical approaches and theories used in literary analysis and criticism; 2. Employ different liter...

2 1 st C e n t u r y L i t e r a t u r e f r o m t h e P h i l i p p i ne s a n d t h e Wo r l d Critical Approaches to Literature Objectives: 1. Identify, define, and explain the different critical approaches and theories used in literary analysis and criticism; 2. Employ different literary approaches and theories in writing critical papers that seek to analyze literary texts/film; and 3. Appreciate the importance of using critical approaches and theories in understanding and analyzing literature. Critical Approaches to Literature What, How, and Why do We Read? Critical Approaches These are different perspectives we consider when looking at a piece of literature. They seek to give us answers to these questions, in addition to aiding us in interpreting literature. 1. What do we read? 2. Why do we read? 3. How do we read? Literary Theory Sometimes called critical theory Body of ideas and methods used in the practical reading of literature Tools by which one attempts to understand literature Principles derived from internal analysis of literary text that can be applied in multiple interpretative situations. Literary Criticism An informed, written analysis and evaluation of a work of literature It 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. Based on a literary theory.  Do we have to analyze everything? https://www.cleanpng.com/png-the-thinker-daily-wisdom-365-best-motivational-quo-2675716/  Talking about The life experiences enhances our enjoyment of them which is Talking about unexamined experiences involves the search for meaning is not worth which increases our understanding of them living. https://lh5.ggpht.com/Qf9ocrqGGUQSSw270jec--uL1FW0lAvbbnPIxnDxJp0fvLJft1QdYUf2EPc=x0-y0-z1-nt0kjJ51fw7CdUNu9Y3yG_YZKzh3H0 -Socrates 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 What to remember in the course of discussion 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  Critical Approaches Formalism/New Structuralism Deconstruction Criticism Marxism Feminism Postcolonialism Questions to Ponder for Each Theory/Approach o What are the benefits of each form of criticism? o What are potential problems with each form? o Is there a “right” or a “wrong” form? o Can the mode of criticism alter the entire meaning of a text? https://www.cleanpng.com/png-the-thinker-daily-wisdom-365-best-motivatio nal-quo-2675716 Formalism and New Criticism Formalism and New Criticism A literary text exists independent of any particular reader and, in a sense, has a fixed meaning. An interpretative approach that emphasizes literary form and the study of the literary devices within the text Formalism (aka New Criticism) ignores the author’s biography and focuses only on the interaction of literary elements within the text. Formalism and New Criticism Historical Background New Criticism arose in opposition to biographical or vaguely impressionistic approaches It sought to establish literary studies as an objective discipline Its desire to reveal organic unity in complex texts may be historically determined, reflective of early 20th century critics seeking a lost order or in conflict with an increasingly fragmented society Formalism and New Criticism Key Terms Intentional Fallacy - equating the meaning of a poem with the author's intentions. Affective Fallacy - confusing the meaning of a text with how it makes the reader feel. A reader's emotional response to a text generally does not produce a reliable interpretation. Heresy of Paraphrase - assuming that an interpretation of a literary work could consist of a detailed summary or paraphrase. Close reading (from Bressler - see General Resources below) - "a close and detailed analysis of the text itself to arrive at an interpretation without referring to historical, authorial, or cultural concerns" (263). Defamiliarization - Literary language, partly by calling attention to itself as language, estranged the reader from the familiar and made fresh the experience of daily life. Formalism and New Criticism Assumptions Texts possess meaning in and of themselves; therefore, analyses should emphasize intrinsic meaning over extrinsic meaning (verbal sense over significance in E.D. Hirsch's view). The best readers are those who look most closely at the text and are familiar with literary conventions and have an ample command of the language. Meaning within the text is context-bound. This means that readers must be ready to show how the parts of the text relate to form a whole. The test of excellence in literature: the extent to which the work manifests organic unity. The best interpretations are those which seek out ambiguities in the text and then resolve these ambiguities as a part of demonstrating the organic unity of the text. Formalism and New Criticism Methods Close reading of texts This includes paying attention to semantic tensions that complicate meaning. At the end, though, these ambiguities must be resolved. Learn and apply the appropriate literary conventions that apply in any discourse (e.g. imagery, motifs, metaphor, symbols, irony, paradox, structural patterns, choice of narrative perspective, oppositions, prosody, etc.) Formalism and New Criticism Criticisms of this approach Some critics of this approach have argued that a New Critic's commitment to revealing organic unity of a work blinds him or her to elements in the text that do not contribute to this unity. Others have argued that in dismissing the importance of history, or the response of readers as irrelevant to an understanding of the work, New Critics have contradicted their own claims that meaning is context bound. What can we gain from applying a Formalist/New Critical approach? Close reading skills leading to a deeper appreciation of the multiple uses of language that a text uses Formalism and New Criticism Guide Questions 1. Does this work follow a traditional form or chart its own development? 2. How are the events of the plot recounted i.e. in sequential fashion or flashback? 3. How does the work’s organization affect its meaning? 4. What is the effect of using the literary device? 5. What recurrences of words, images or sounds do you notice? 6. How does the narrator’s point of view shape the meaning? 7. What visual patterns do you find in this text? 8. What progressions in nature are used to suggest meaning? Structuralism Structuralism COURSE IN GENERAL LINGUISTICS (1906-1911) Rejects mimetic theory of language (in which discussion of language must include reference in real world) for structural view of language. Language a system (la langue) that is prior to any linguistic utterance (parole). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_de_Saussure Structuralism It is a theory developed in France between 1950 and 1960. Begins with the work of Ferdinand de Saussure on linguistics, along with that of the Prague and Moscow schools. Analyzes any phenomena about the world mostly contrasting elementary structure in a system of binary opposition (a pair of opposite concepts). Description and perception of the structure. Structuralism Structuralism is a science that seeks to understand how systems work. Structuralists look for patterns that underlie human behavior, experience and creation, not just structures in a physical sense. Structure comes from the human mind as it works to make sense of the world. Language, not sense experience or modes of consciousness, shapes who we are, what we think, and what we understand reality to be. This relates literary texts to a larger structure, which may be genre, intertextual connections, narrative structure, or recurrent patterns (like how the structures of a text are resolved). There must be a structure in every text to interpret it. An example would be West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet structures. o "Boy + Girl“. o "Boy's Group - Girl's Group" or "Opposing forces“. o Conflict is resolved by their death. Structuralism Assumptions Structuralists are not concerned with producing a "correct" interpretation. They are more concerned with how meaning is generated or how a text fits in within a system of possible discursive strategies. As with New Criticism, this is less concerned with historical context. Treats literature almost as if it were an organized, scientific body of knowledge. To know something you need to understand the underlying system (structure) that makes meaning possible. This is true for language as well as any other signifying system. In applying structuralist thinking to literature, we would assume literature contains a structure from which individual texts emerge. Very often we would be less concerned with the individual text on its own terms and more interested in the ways in which it participates in a larger system. Structuralism Criticisms of this approach In any theory that focuses on system rather than individual text, sometimes we lose sense of the uniqueness of a text (not a problem in New Criticism). On the other hand, this approach forces us to think about how we make sense of things; it gives us a vocabulary that helps us describe the operations we make. Knowing the underlying rules to the game better helps us to find meaning in convincing manner. Finally, gaining awareness of how codes operate to guide our reactions we are better able to resist them, if we choose. Structuralism What to consider? 1. The text’s genre or conventions: is it a comedy or a tragedy? Prose or poetry? What kind of poetry? Lyric, epic, or narrative? What kind of fiction? Gothic, realist or magical realism? When it comes to film is it: horror, fantasy, drama, or documentary? What about sub- genre? Is it a slasher-film? A coming-of-age film? A rom-com film? 2. The use of binary opposition: light vs. dark, good vs. evil, nature vs. culture, man vs. woman, rich vs. poor, etc. 3. The plot structure which basically is beginning, middle, and end. Deconstruction Deconstruction Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) Transcendental signified – no ultimate reality or end to all references from one sign to another; no unifying element to all things Humankind is logocentric— words and language as fundamental expression of an external reality. https://www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_derrida.html Deconstruction Some critics used the terms post-structuralism and deconstruction interchangeably. This approach employs more of a reading strategy rather than a philosophy. While structuralism is more focused on language, deconstruction is more focused on meaning. Reveals the ‘grammar’ behind form and meaning. Deconstructive readings treated works of art not as the harmonious fusion of literal and figurative meanings but as instances of the intractable conflicts between meanings of different types. They generally examined the individual work not as a self-contained artifact but as a product of relations with other texts or discourses, literary and non-literary. Deconstruction In describing deconstruction, Derrida famously observed that "there is nothing outside the text." That is to say, all of the references used to interpret a text are themselves texts, even the "text" of reality as a reader knows it. There is no truly objective, non-textual reference from which interpretation can begin. Deconstruction, then, can be described as an effort to understand a text through its relationships to various contexts. Deconstruction Binary Opposition It is the most important part of deconstruction. It is a dichotomy that is actually an evaluative hierarchy. It underlies human acts and practices. Of the two parts of binary oppositions, there is a dominant and oppressed or non-dominant. Structuralism vs Deconstruction Structuralism Deconstruction 1. The texts are static and 1. The texts are fluid, dynamic unchanging entities that are given new life with repeated reading through interactions with other texts. 2. The analysis through codes and 2. The meaning is essentially rules establishes the possibility undecidable, what a text means of objective knowledge. and how it means simply cannot be determined. 3. Looks at the structure of a text 3. Looks for place where text including its convention contradicts. Deconstruction Guide Questions What is the primary binary opposition in the text? What associated binary oppositions do you find? Which terms in the oppositions are privileged? What elements in the work support the privileged terms? What statement of values or belief emerges from the privileged terms? What elements in the text contradict the hierarchies as presented? Where is the statement of values or belief contradicted by characters, events, or statements in the text? Are the privileged terms inconsistent? Do they present conflicting meanings? What associations do you have with the terms that complicate their opposition? That IS, what associations keep you from accepting that the terms are all good or all bad? Deconstruction Guide Questions What new possibilities of understanding emerge when you reverse the binary oppositions? How does the reversal of oppositions tear down the intended statement of meaning? What contradictions of language, image, or event do you notice? Are there any significant omissions of information? Can you identify any irreconcilable views offered as coherent systems? What is left unnoticed or unexplained? How would a focus on different binary oppositions lead to a different interpretation? Where are the figures of speech so ambiguous that they suggest several (and perhaps contradictory) meanings? What new vision of the situation presented by the text emerges for you? Marxism Marxism Karl Marx believed that the means of production (i.e., the basis of power in society) should be placed in the hands of those who actually operated them. He wrote that economic and political revolutions around the world would eventually place power in the hands of the masses, the laborers. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Karl_Marx_001.jpg Marxism For Marxism, the socioeconomic system not only determines who has the most power, but more so, how we are educated, and it influences our religious beliefs, which together control to a great degree how we perceive ourselves and the world. The goal of Marxism is to achieve a worldwide classless society by exposing the oppressive ideologies (belief systems) that keep the nations of this planet bound within socioeconomic systems in which a relatively small number of people are extremely wealthy while most people are struggling, or even failing to get by. Marxism Marxism asserts that literature is a reflection of culture, and that culture can be influenced by literature; Marxists believe literature can instigate revolution. In understanding a literary work through a Marxist perspective, readers look at what oppressive socioeconomic ideologies influence a character’s behavior and looks at how a literary work reinforces or opposes these ideologies Marxism Basic Concepts Classism – the belief that our value as human beings is directly related to class to which we belong: the higher our social class, the higher our natural, or inborn superiority. Capitalism – a system in which everything—every object, every activity, every person—can be defined in terms of its worth in money, its “going rate” on a specific market. o Competition – capitalism believes that competition among individuals is the best way to promote a strong society because this ensures that the most capable, most intelligent people will rise to the top. o Commodification – relating things and people in terms of how much money it is worth and what social status it gives to the owner of that object. o Rugged Individualism – an ideology in which an individual strikes out alone in pursuit of a goal not easily achieved, putting self-interest above the needs of the community. The Role of Religion – Marxist theory observes that religion too often plays a role in oppressing the poor. Belief in God is not the issue, rather what is done in the name of organized religion to keep the poor oppressed. Marxism Guide Questions 1. Does the work reinforce (intentionally or not) capitalist or classist values? 2. How might the work be seen as a critique of capitalism or classism? That is, in what ways does the text reveal, and invite us to condemn oppressive socioeconomic forces (including repressive ideologies)? 3. Does the work in some ways support a Marxist agenda but in other ways (perhaps unintentionally) support a capitalist or classist agenda? In other words, is the work ideologically conflicted? 4. How does the literary work reflect (intentionally or not) the socioeconomic conditions of the time in which it was written and/or the time in which it is set, and what do those conditions reveal about the history of class struggle? 5. How might the work can be seen as a critique of organized religion? That is, how does religion function in the text to keep a character/s from realizing and resisting socioeconomic oppression? Feminism Feminism Feminist theory asks us to examine, the ways in which our personal identity is formed by our culture’s definition of what it means to be a man and a woman. From a feminist perspective, our experience of both the family and the socioeconomic system in which we live depends to a large extent on our sex (i.e. the ways in which men and women are treated differently and on the way men are socialized to be masculine and women are socialized to be feminine). According to feminist anthropologists such as Gayle Rubin, the subordination of women to men originated in early societies in which women were used as tokens of exchange between clans. Whatever its origin – nature or society – this situation of gender inequality is sustained by culture. Feminism Feminism and Literature A feminist understanding of a text begins with the question: Do the characters conform to patriarchal gender roles? Or more specifically with the question: are the female characters depicted according to patriarchal stereotypes of women? Feminist criticism is concerned with the role, position, and influence of women in a literary text. It asserts that most “literature” throughout time has been written by men, for men. It examines the way that the female consciousness is depicted by both male and female writers. Feminism Basic Concepts Patriarchy – is any society in which men hold all or most of the power. Men are given power by promoting traditional gender roles and anyone who deviates from the traditional gender roles are considered unnatural, unhealthy, or even immoral. Traditional Gender Roles – traditional gender roles define men as naturally rational, strong, protective, and decisive. While women are defined as emotional (irrational for patriarchy), weak, nurturing, and submissive. These traditional gender roles are produced by patriarchy and have been used to justify the many inequities which still occur in our world today. The Objectification of Women – women are not viewed as independent human beings with their own goals, needs, and desires; they are valued only in terms of their usefulness to patriarchal men. Feminism Basic Concepts Sexism – the belief that women are innately, or by nature, inferior to men: less intelligent, less rational, less courageous, and so forth. The “Cult of ‘True Womanhood’” – a Victorian belief that idealized what it called “true woman”. The “true woman” fulfilled her patriarchal gender role in every way, and was defined as fragile, submissive, and sexually pure. Feminism Guide Questions 1. How are women’s lives portrayed in the work? 2. Is the form and content of the work influenced by the writer’s gender? 3. How do male and female characters relate to one another? Are these relationships sources of conflict? Are these conflicts resolved? 4. Does the work challenge or affirm traditional views of women? 5. How do the images of women in the story reflect patriarchal social forces that have impeded women’s efforts to achieve full equality with men? 6. What marital expectations are imposed on the characters? What effect do these expectations have? 7. What behavioral expectations are imposed on the characters? What effect do these expectations have? 8. If a female character were male, how would the story be different and vice versa? 9. How does the marital status of a character affect her decisions or happiness? Postcolonialism Postcolonialism Postcolonial theory emerged in an attempt to understand people from different cultures in terms of an important experience they had in common: colonial domination by a superior European military force. The word postcolonial refers to the experience of conquered peoples— not only those colonized by the British Empire, but also native populations subjugated by white settlers and governed today by the majority culture that surrounds them. Postcolonial literature refers to literary works written both by colonized or formerly colonized populations and by members of the colonizing (white) culture in colonized or formerly colonized nations. As a domain within literary studies, postcolonialism is both a subject matter—analyzes literature produced by cultures or populations that developed in response to colonial domination, from the first point of contact to the present—and a theoretical framework—seeks to understand the operations (politically, socially, culturally, and psychologically) of colonialist and anticolonialist ideologies. Postcolonialism Basic Concepts Colonialist Ideologies – based on the colonizer’s belief in their own superiority over the colonized, i.e. the colonizers were civilized, the colonized savages; colonizers believed their entire culture was more highly advanced, thus the religions, customs, codes of behavior of the colonized were ignored or swept aside. o Othering– the practice of judging those who are different as inferior, as somehow less human. o Subaltern – colonialist ideologies create social hierarchies and subalterns are those who occupy the bottom of the social ladder whether their inferior status is based on race, class, gender, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or any other cultural factors. The Colonial Subjects – subalterns who internalize or “buy into” the colonialist belief that those different from a society’s dominant culture are inferior—they have a colonized consciousness– whether the dominant culture in question is that of foreign power or that of their own country. o Mimicry – imitation by a subaltern of the dress, speech, behavior, or lifestyle of members of the dominant culture. o Unhomeliness – the feeling of having no stable cultural identity—no real home in any culture— that occurs to people who do not belong to the dominant culture and have rejected their own culture as inferior. Postcolonialism Basic Concepts Anticolonialist Resistance – the effort to rid one’s land and/or one’s culture of colonial domination. Can take the form of organized, armed rebellion against a colonialist regime, or can take the form of organized, non-violent resistance to colonialist oppressions. o Psychological resistance – when colonized peoples have been completely subjugated to a foreign power over the course of many generations and no longer have access to their own language or their own cultural past, many oppressed individuals manage to keep their minds free of the colonialist ideology that tells them they are inferior. Such anticolonialist resistance exists on the psychological level alone and perhaps without this the other forms of resistance would never occur. Postcolonialism Guide Questions 1. How does the literary text, explicitly or allegorically, represent various aspects of colonial oppression? 2. What does the text reveal about the problematics of post-colonial identity, including the relationship between personal and cultural identity within cultural borderlands? 3. What person(s) or groups does the work identify as "other" or stranger? How are such persons/groups described and treated? 4. What does the text reveal about the politics and/or psychology of anticolonialist resistance? 5. What does the text reveal about the operations of cultural difference (race, religion, class, cultural beliefs, and customs) in shaping our perceptions of ourselves, others, and the world in which we live? 6. How does the text respond to or comment upon the characters, themes, or assumptions of a canonized (colonialist) work? 7. Are there meaningful similarities among the literatures of different postcolonial populations? 8. How does a literary text in the Western canon reinforce or undermine colonialist ideology through its representation of colonization and/or its inappropriate silence about colonized peoples? 2 1 st C e n t u r y L i t e r a t u r e f r o m t h e P h i l i p p i ne s a n d t h e Wo r l d Critical Approaches to Literature References Bressler, C. E. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. New York: Prentice Hall, 2004. Habib, M.A.R. A History of Literary Criticism: From Plato to Present. Oxford, Blackwell, 2008. Kusch, Celena. Literary Analysis: The Basics. New York: Routledge, 2016 Leitch, Vincent B, Gen. Ed. The Norton Anthology of Literary Theory and Criticism, New York and London: W.W. Norton and Company, 2001. Roberts, Edgar V. Writing About Literature. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2003. Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory today. New York: Routledge, 2006 _________. Using Critical Theory, 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2011 http://www.kristisiegel.com/theory.htm#newcriticism http://www1.assumption.edu/users/ady/hhgateway/gateway/Approaches.html#New Criticism/Formalism Image Sources https://www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_derrida.html https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Karl_Marx_001.jpg https://lh5.ggpht.com/Qf9ocrqGGUQSSw270jec--uL1FW0lAvbbnPIxnDxJp0fvLJft1QdYUf2EPc=x0-y0-z1- nt0kjJ51fw7CdUNu9Y3yG_YZKzh3H0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_de_Saussure https://www.cleanpng.com/png-the-thinker-daily-wisdom-365-best-motivational-quo-2675716/