New Criticis m

1. New Criticism “When I’m right, I’m right. Even when I’m wrong, I’m still right” -Anonymous

2. Definition • New Criticism: An analytic literary criticism that is marked by concentration on the language, imagery, and emotional or intellectual tensions in literary works

3. Normal People Words A form of literary criticism that focuses on choice of words, imagery, emotions, and intellects within a literary work

4. Origins • founded on books an essays written during the 1920s and 1930s • Developed by American poets and critics trying to make a cultural statement Possibly linked to American isolationism pre-World War 2

5. Important Names John Crow Ransom – author of The New Criticism Allen Tate – author of “Ode to the Confederate Dead” and The Fathers Robert Penn Warren – member of a group of Agrarians that founded New Criticism

6. Important Texts “Criticism, Inc.,” and “The Ontological Critic” by John Crow Ransom “Miss Emily and the Bibliographer” by Allen Tate The Well Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry and “Pure and Impure Poetry” by Robert Penn Warren

7. Structuralism

8. Structuralism by any other name… “A theory of humankind whose proponents attempted to show systematically, even scientifically, that all element of human culture, including literature, may be understood as parts of a system of signs.”

9. Great Scott! What Millennium is This? • Originated in France in the 1950’s. • Brought about as a result of the two World Wars. • People desired to “embrace systems of thought that emphasized comprehensibility and significance, rather than absurdity and meaninglessness.”

10. Do You Want Frye With That? Northrop Frye • July 14, 1912 – January 23, 1991 • Canadian literary critic • Centripetal- Aesthetic perspective • Centrifugal- Outward perspective

11. de Saussure…de Swiss Cheese. Ferdinand de Saussure • November 26, 1857 – February 22, 1913 • de Sweden • Linguist • Pioneering work heavily influenced structuralism • Langue - refers to the relationship between words and sounds in varying languages

12. Major Works Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe 1 Anatomy of Criticism, by Northrop Frye 3 “Sleeping Beauty” 2 1: “Rhetorical novels, like Uncle Tom’s Cabin, are centrifugal, stressing the thematic connection of the stories and characters to the social order.” 2: “The deep structure of the narrative is analyzed through the discovery of a binary opposition and the resultant mediation.” 3: “attempts to formulate an overall view of the scope, theory, principles, and techniques of literary criticism derived exclusively from literature”

13. The End of the structuralism period…

14. Kim Jones Christopher Rush Makala Payton Analysis of Psychoanalysis

15. What is Psychoanalysis? • In literature, psychoanalysis is the attempt to uncover the working of the human mind and the expression of the unconscious, to analyze a text like a dream, looking for symbolism and repressed meaning, or developing a psychological analysis of a character. • Psychoanalytic literary criticism uses the role of language and symbolism in the text to focus on one or more of the following: • Examines the author’s life and experiences in relation to the characteristics of the author’s writings • Explains the character’s behavior and motivations; can be applied to more than one character. • Appeals to the subconscious of the reader and allows the reader to connect to universal psychology.

16. Visualizing the Psychology

17. History of Psychoanalytical Criticism in Literature Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) - Freud was one of the first people to intertwine psychoanalytic criticism in to literature. Although his contributions were not numerous, he did suggest that literature, just as any other art form, contained the concealed desires and wants of the author. The emotions of the author were then shared and revealed with the audience. Jacques Lacan (1901-1981) - Lacan was one of the more significant contributors to literary psychoanalysis, He stated that within literature, there exists the understanding of the real, the imaginary, and the symbolic. Lacan felt that this thinking process, while dominantly experienced in children, was also experienced by all humans when exposed to literature or any other form of expression. He also believed that the subconscious formed a universal language of sorts in literature. His most famous lecture was over Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Purloined Letter.”

18. Jacques Lacan Sigmund Freud

19. History Continued • Norman Holland (1926-2011) - best known for his books concentrating psychoanalytic and cognitive psychology on literary questions, eg: Psychoanalysis and Shakespeare (1966) • Michel Focault (1926-1984) - For Foucault, people do not have a 'real' identity within themselves; that's just a way of talking about the self -- a discourse. An 'identity' is communicated to others in your interactions with them, but this is not a fixed thing within a person. It is a shifting, temporary construction. • Other contributors include: George Klein, Elizabeth Wright, Frederick Hoffman, Simon Lesser, Jane Gallop, and Shoshone Felman, Carl Jung

20. 1895(?) – 1915(?) – Sigmund Freud theorized and defined Psychoanalysis. Included Oedipus complex and came up with the concepts of Id, ego, and superego 1907 – Carl Jung and Freud meet for the first of many times to discuss their theories on psychoanalysis 1912 – Jung and Freud discuss psychoanalytical journals and applied the essay “Amenhotep IV” to actual conflicts in the psychoanalytical movement 1953 - Jacques Lacan begins applying psychoanalysis to literature. 1953 – 1981 – Lacan gives yearly seminars in Paris 1955- Lacan gives seminar on ‘The Purloined Letter’

21. 1957- The Agency of the Letter in the Unconscious or Reason since Freud translated by Alan Sheridan 1959- Desire and Interpretation of Desire in Hamlet translated by J. Hulbert 1966- Écrits: A Selection, transl. by Alan Sheridan 1. The mirror stage as formative of the function of the I 2. Aggressivity in psychoanalysis 3. The function and field of speech and language in psychoanalysis 4. The Freudian thing 5. The agency of the letter in the unconscious or reason since Freud 6. On a question preliminary to any possible treatment of psychosis 7. The direction of the treatment and the principles of its power 8. The signification of the phallus 9. The subversion of the subject and the dialectic of desire in the Freudian unconscious

22. Jacques Lacan in 1 minute

23. Psychoanalysis at Work “On her way home she usually bought a slice of honeycake at the baker’s. It was her Sunday treat. Sometimes there was an almond in her slice, sometimes not. It made a great difference. If there was an almond it was like carrying home a tiny present – a surprise – something that might very well not have been there. She hurried on the almond Sundays and struck the match for the kettle in quite a dashing way. But today she passed the baker’s by, climbed the stairs, went into the little dark room – her room like a cupboard – and set down on the red eiderdown. She sat there for a long time. The box that the fur came out of was on her bed. She unclasped the necklet quickly; quickly, without looking, laid it inside. But when she put the lid on she thought she heard something crying.”BecauseMiss Brill takes off the fur quickly, it is clear that she feels shame. But why shame? From this reaction, the reader can make a variety of assumptions about Miss Brill’s current mental state and the events of the past that could have shaped her personality. 1) She could have suffered severe ridicule and criticism during her childhood based on how quickly she got rid of her “flaw”.

24. 2) She have been in a controlled situation by a parent or a former spouse due to the boldness she felt in wearing the fur out in public for the first time in years. The fur became a bigger deal than it should have been. 3) She could have remembered a lost love from her teenage years. Perhaps when the young couple mocked her, the ridicule didn’t necessarily bother her, but the fact that the ridicule came from the young man upset her. Maybe she was humiliated in some manner by a young love. To a literary psychoanalyst, the causes of Miss Brill’s shame due to the boy may have been caused by rape or concealed sexual desires that were never fulfilled in her youth. After being mocked, she’s reminded that she can’t be attractive to anyone. This idea, however, does not mean she was looking for the boy’s “approval”- simply recognition from someone. These concealed desires may explain her boldness and insecurities at the same time. They also may explain why she just wants to impress someone with her outward appearance – the fur. 4) Maybe Miss Brill’s childhood was forcefully taken away from her. Perhaps her habit of going to pick up a “slice of honeycake at the baker’s” was a routine from her childhood, and she continues to practice the routine in an attempt to find comfort.

25. Applying Psychoanalysis

26. ad finem ( …we done :P )

27. Marxist Literary Theory By Nathanial Edwards And Rebekah Meyer

28. Definition of Marxist Literary Criticism • Marxist literary theories tend to focus on the representation of class conflict as well as the reinforcement of class distinctions through the medium of literature. • This system of belief relies on the social classes as well as the economic and political development of society.

29. Time Period 1930-present

30. History of Marxist Literary Theory • Systemized in mid 1920’s • October Revolution • The October Revolution guided both literary creation and official literary criticism in Russia, where works focused on the lives of the different classes. In the years since then, the Russian beliefs regarding literary theory have been modified to acknowledge that literary creation is a result of both subjective inspiration and the objective influence of the writer's surroundings. • Socialist Realism was accepted as the highest form of literature – a theory based on an art movement that depicted and glorified the proletariat’s struggle towards societal progress. These ideas guided both literary creation and official literary criticism in Russia, where works focused on the lives of the different classes.

31. Five Step Process • To implement these ideals of Marxist Criticism, a five step process exists to effectively critique literature. • Analyse how the characters interact with one another. Marxist thought relied on the relationships between individuals, thus, their interaction will show hierarchy and particular mannerisms associated with different social classes. • Evaluate the jobs of the characters. The Marxist critique includes a focus on a 'class system' where the vocations of characters provided the most direct reference to their place within the system. The level of luxury and how much they work is also an indicator. • Identify how the characters use their free time. Marxist theory states that individuals have the ability to use free time productively or by their own choice. These free choices are an indicator to the individual’s way of life and connection to the societal conforms around them. • Assess the role of the government in the piece – identify its form, tools for implementation, public receptiveness and its success. • Reference other Marxist writers and research the period in which the piece of literature was published. Connect all the ideals displayed in the work to the era it was written and the effectiveness in which they were conveyed.

32. Names of Major Figures • Walter Benjamin • Tony Bennett • John Frow • Raymond Williams • Pierre Macherey • Michael Ryan • Ronald Taylor

33. Georg Lukacs • The Changing Function of Historical Materialism-demonstrated his creative and independent approach to Marxist theory. • Part of the Hungarian Communist Party. He later fled from the Hungarian White Terror. • Developed and laid the basis for his critical literary tenets by linking the development of form in art with the history of the class struggle. • He frequently clashed with Jean-Paul Sartre and others who combined Marxism with psychoanalysis, structuralism and other philosophical currents inherently incompatible with Marxism.

34. TERRY EAGLETON • Marxism and Literary Criticism • He was active in both the International Socialists and Workers Socialist League whilst in Oxford. • One of Britain's most influential living literary critics. • Raised in a working class Roman Catholic family. • “To call Terry Eagleton the most gifted Marxist thinker of his generation is only a slender acknowledgement of his critical and creative achievements.”~ Stephen Regen • He argues that value-judgements ‘have a close relation to social ideologies’ and this connection is embedded in all of our reading practices

35. Major Texts • What is Orthodox Marxism? By Georg Lukacs • History and Class ConsciousnessBy Georg Lukacs • Marxism and Literature By Raymond Williams • Criticism and Ideology By Terry Eagleton • Marxists on Literature By David Craig

36. Feminist Theory and Criticism By: Sara Clark and Stacey Ware "Purple is to lavender as woman is to feminist" – Alice Walker

37. Definition: • Study of concepts and symbols in fields such as literature, which create and perpetuate an image of women. It is the extension of feminism into philosophical or theoretical discourse aiming to understand the nature of gender inequality. Or for easier comprehension: • The symbols that create an image of women which is portrayed in literature. It helps the masculine-dominated culture to understand the nature of gender inequality.

38. 1st Wave • 19th -20th century • Suffrage, working conditions, education rights By: Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton

39. 2nd Wave • 1960-1980 • Inequality in laws, role of women, cultural inequalities Betty Friedan wrote and published her book in 1963.

40. 3rd Wave . . • Late 1980s-early 21st century • Failures • Rebecca Walker

41. The FORTH WAVE of feminism is one that desires to include all. Women along with men are encouraged to help support these age old stereotypes. We want everyone to be free to be who they are, and most importantly to be themselves.

42. Star Figures Julia Kristeva • Living: June 1941- Present • French/ Bulgarian • Bonds between mother and child • “Truly feminist innovation in all fields requires an understanding of the relation between maternity and feminine creation.” • Patriarchal society Susan Gubar • Born 1944 • Taught at Indiana State Sandra Gilbert Both Susan and Sandra Pulitzer Prize and National Critics Circle Award 3 Books • Born December 27, 1936 • Taught at University of California • Poet

43. Pictures ofFeminists Sandra Gilbert Madwoman in the Attic is widely recognized as a text central to second- wave feminism Julia Kristiva Susan Gubar

44. Colors Symbols Sports Money Education Fertility Faith Pride Work Listening/Hearing Things to look for:

45. WHY? To rediscover the works of women writers overlooked by the masculine-dominated culture.

46. New Historicism

47. A Definition • New Historicism can be defined as a focus on the ideological oppositions of a time period and how those oppositions have shaped the structure and format of the work. The work conveys the ideologies of a particular time period along with other works such as pamphlets, political documents, essays, and other non-literature works. It refuses to privilege literary texts.

48. Background • Prior to the emergence of New Historicism, there was a prevailing idea that the historical context of the work and the author’s intent for writing were not important for understanding it. This is known as the “intentional fallacy.” • The pioneers of New Historicism denied the intentional fallacy and believed that the socio-political atmosphere and beliefs of the author affected the work. • This approach brought literature back to reality rather than believing that it was only something transient and removed from issues.

49. Background • Appeared in America in the early 1980’s. • Similar to Marxist theory because both see literature through the eyes of the political structure of the day. They are dissimilar in that New Historicism focuses more on the top echelon of society rather than the lower echelons. • Term first coined by Stephen Greenblatt in The Power of Forms in the English Renaissance.

50. Interests/Goals • Focus on government, institutions, culture, politics, and anthropology. • Shows the political emphasis and side of literature. • Attempts to catch the ideology of a time in the literature, and the role the literature had in spreading that ideology. • Mediates and shapes rather than imitating and reflecting an age’s understanding of human experience. • Goals: • Place literature with non-literature of an age. • Reconstruct the actual relations of people in an age.