LIT1 Midterm Reviewer PDF

What is Literary Criticism? * "the practice of studying, evaluating, and interpreting works of literature." * "Similar to the literary theory" * "Provides a broader philosophical framework for how to analyze literature." "literary criticism offers readers new ways to understand an author's work." W...

What is Literary Criticism? * "the practice of studying, evaluating, and interpreting works of literature." * "Similar to the literary theory" * "Provides a broader philosophical framework for how to analyze literature." "literary criticism offers readers new ways to understand an author's work." What is Literary Theory? "Literary theories were developed as a means to understand the various ways people read texts."... All literary theories are lenses through which we can see texts." -Deborah Appleman What is Literary Theory? "These ideas act as different lenses critics use to view, and talk about art, literature, even culture." * "These different lenses allow critics to consider works of art based on certain assumptions within that school of theory." * "The different lenses also allow critics to focus on a particular aspects of a work they consider important What is the purpose of Literary Criticism? * "The purpose of literary criticism is to broaden a reader's understanding of an author's work by summarizing, interpreting, and exploring its value." * "The practice of literary criticism creates space for readers to better understand the beauty and complexity of the world through literature." 11 Traditional Critical Approaches The Monkey and Turtle (Published by Jose Rizal in July 1889) 1. Historical-biographical criticism * "Examines literature through the perspective of the author's historical context." * "This approach assumes that the significance of a particular piece of literature is inextricably linked to its historical context." How to conduct historical criticism? Ask questions like: 1. How does it reflect the time in which it was written? 2. How accurately does the story depict the time in which it is set? 3. What literary or historical influences helped to shape the form and content of the work? 4. How does the story reflect the attitudes and beliefs of the time in which it was written or set? (Think beliefs and attitudes related to race, religion, politics, gender, society, philosophy, etc.) 5. What other literary works may have influenced the writer? How to conduct biographical criticism? Literary Criticism: Questions for a Variety of Approaches Ask questions like: 1. What aspects of the author's personal life are relevant to this story? 2. Which of the author's stated beliefs are reflected in the work? 3. Does the writer challenge or reflect the values of her contemporaries? 4. What seem to be the author's major concerns? Do they reflect any of the writer's personal experiences? 5. Do any of the events in the story correspond to events experienced by the author? 6. Do any of the characters in the story correspond to real people? 2. Moral-philosophical criticism * "Approaches literature based on its ethical merits." * "Moral-philosophical critics evaluate literary works based on the moral statements and judgments the characters and author express throughout the literary text." How to conduct moral criticism? 1. Maturity, sincerity, honesty, sensitivity, and/or courage become important criteria in determining the worth of literature and art. Is the author and his/her treatment of the subject (both character and theme) mature, honest, sensitive, or courageous? How so, and how does honest, sensitive, or courageous? How so, and, sin doe, knowing this help us approach the text in a meaningful way? 2. Does the text seek to corrupt or negatively influence the reader? How so and/or why? 3. What moral lesson or ethical teaching is the author presenting in the text/or through character, plot, or theme? 4. How do characters, settings, and plot events represent or allegorize moral or ethical principles? 5. Does the work in question poses a pragmatic or moral lesson or philosophical idea? 3. Sociological criticism * "Evaluates literature based on its relationship to society" * "Examines the author's status in their society as well as the effect that the literary work had on its audience within the society." * "One is Marxist criticism, which examines how a specific work of literature affirms or rejects oppression within class systems." How to conduct sociological criticism? Literary Criticism: Questions for a Variety of Approaches Ask questions like: 1. What is the relationship between the characters and their society? 2. Does the story address societal issues, such as race, gender and class? 3. How do social forces shape the power relationships between groups or classes of people in the story? Who has the power, and who doesn't? Why? 4. How does the story reflect certain aspirations? (e.g. the Great American Dream) 5. How does the story reflect urban, rural, or suburban values? 6. What does the work say about economic or social power? Who has it and who doesn't? Any Marxist leanings evident? 4. Psychoanalytic criticism * "Examines literature based on the psychological desires and neuroses of the characters within a particular piece of literature" * "Psychoanalytic critics believe that an author's unconscious thoughts are expressed through their work." How to conduct psychological criticism? Literary Criticism: Questions for a Variety of Approaches Ask questions like: 1. What forces are motivating the characters? 2. Which behaviors of the characters are conscious ones? 3. Which unconscious? 4. What conscious or unconscious conflicts between the characters exist? 5. Given their backgrounds, how plausible is the characters' behavior? 6. Are the theories of Freud or other psychologists applicable to this work? To what degree? 7. Do any of the characters correspond to the parts of the tripartite self? (id, ego, superego) 5. Practical criticism "Encourages readers to examine the text without regard to any outside context-like the author, the date and place of writing, or any other contextual information that may enlighten the reader" How to conduct practical criticism? Practical Criticism Ask questions like: 1. What genre/form is this, and what meter is it written in? i.e. form sets up expectations, produces and frames meaning) 2. Who is speaking/narrating: What can you say about that authoritative, wessk (e. If there is more than sive, ormal, speaking voice, what emerges when you compare them? 3. Look at imagery, metaphor, simile: analyze their function and effect 4. Pay attention to rhythm, speed, phonic effects, visual effects. 5. If you are dealing with narrative, how is that narrative spun out? What creates drama and intensity? Is this passage a turning point or a climax, or a coda, or an interlude? Have we 'been here before? 6. Formalism (in other references this is related to New and Structural Criticisms) * "Compels readers to judge the artistic merit of literature by examining its formal elements, like language and technical skill." * "Favors a literary canon of works that exemplify the highest standards of literature, as determined by formalist critics." How to conduct formalistic criticism? Literary Criticism: Questions for a Variety of Approaches Ask questions like: 1. How is the work's structure unified? 2. How do various elements of the work reinforce its meaning? 3. What recurring patterns (repeated or related words, images, etc.) can you find? What is the effect of these patterns or motifs? 4. How does repetition reinforce the theme(s)? 5. How does the writer's diction reveal or reflect the work's meaning? 6. What is the effect of the plot and what parts specifically produce that effect? 7. What figures of speech are used? (metaphors, similes, hyperbole, personification, etc.) 8. How does the writer use paradox, irony, symbol, plot, characterization, and style to enhance the story?What effects are produced? Do any of these relate to one another or to the theme? 9. Is there a relationship between the beginning and the end of the story? 10. What tone and mood are created at various parts of the work? 11. How does the author create tone and mood? What relationship is there between tone and mood and the effect of the story? 12. How do the various elements interact to create a unified whole? 7. Reader-response criticism "Is rooted in the belief that a reader's reaction to or interpretation of a text is as valuable a source of critical study as the text itself." How to conduct reader-response criticism? Ask questions like: 1. How does the meaning of a text change as you reread it? 2. How do your values alter your perceptions of the text? 3. How have readers in different time periods or of different ages interpreted the text? 4. How is the informed reader's response to the text shaped by the reader and the text? 5. Which of your personal experiences or memories is affecting your perceptions of the story? 6. What was the work's original intended audience? To what extent are you similar or different from that audience? 8. New criticism "Focused on examining the formal and structural elements of literature, as opposed to the emotional or moral elements" 9. Post-structuralism "Abandoned ideas of formal and structural cohesion, questioning any assumed universal truths as reliant on the social structure that influenced them" How to conduct post-structuralist, deconstructive criticism? 1. What binary oppositions or tensions (e.g., light/dark, good/evil, old/young, linear/nonlinear, poor/rich, perate in the texte, and western/eastern) 2. How does the text uphold, versus resolve, contradictory meanings, particularly as they relate to binary oppositions or tensions? 3. How do other details and aspects of the text (e.g., dialogue, denotation, connotation, allusion, and imagery) undermine or subvert tension in the text? 4. How does the text invite ambiguity versus certainty? 11.Feminist criticism "the ways in which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women" (Tyson 83) Feminism: Questions for Analysis * Is the author male or female? * Is the text narrated by a male or female? * What types of roles do women have in the text? * Are the female characters the protagonists or secondary and minor characters? * Do any stereotypical characterizations of women appear? * What are the attitudes toward women held by the male characters? * What is the author's attitude toward women in society? * How does the author's culture influence her or his attitude? Is feminine imagery used? If so, what is the significance of such imagery? * Do the female characters speak differently than the male characters? In your investigation, compare the frequency of speech for the male characters to the frequency of speech for the female characters.