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Literary Theory

Literary Theory. a.k.a. Critical Theory Way of looking beyond plot and character development Allows you to put on a lens and view a text in a variety of different ways. Recognized Critical Lenses. Moral/Intellectual Topical/Historical New Critical/Formalist Structuralist Feminist

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Literary Theory

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  1. Literary Theory • a.k.a. Critical Theory • Way of looking beyond plot and character development • Allows you to put on a lens and view a text in a variety of different ways

  2. Recognized Critical Lenses • Moral/Intellectual • Topical/Historical • New Critical/Formalist • Structuralist • Feminist • Economic Determinist/Marxist • Psychological/Psychoanalytic • Archetypalist/Symbolic/Mythic • Deconstructionist • Reader-response • Post-Colonial

  3. Classical Analysis/Twentieth Century • Discipline of literary studies comparable with disciplines in the natural and social sciences • Establish theoretical understanding • Critical theories provide ways to study literature and literary problems. • Theories are not one-size-fits-all. • Meant to help you develop your own critical skills.

  4. Fundamental Questions • What is literature? • What does it do? • Is its concern only to tell stories, or is it to express emotions? • Is it private? Public? • How does it get its ideas across? • What more does it do than express ideas? • How valuable was literature in the past, and how valuable is it now? • What can literature contribute to intellectual, artistic, and social history? • Is it an art, or does it simply impart knowledge? • How is it used? How is it misused? • What theoretical and technical expertise may be invoked to enhance literary studies?

  5. Do I Need to Know Them All? • You absolutely may investigate them all. • We selected the four we thought would be most useful. • Criticism was at its height when the AP Tests were developed.

  6. Our Favorite Four • Feminist • Economic Determinist/Marxist • Psychological/Psychoanalytic • Archetypal/Symbolic/Mythic

  7. Feminist • Most literature presents a masculine-patriarchal view and negates role of women • Similar to feminist movement in politics • Raise consciousness about importance and unique nature of women in literature • differences between men and women • women in positions of power and power dynamics between men and women • the female experience

  8. Feminist Views • Writers of traditional literature have ignored women and have transmitted misguided and prejudiced views of them. • Create a critical milieu that reflects a balanced view of the nature and value of women • Recovers the works of women writers of past times and encourages publication of women writers to add to the literary canon • Eliminate inequities and inequalities that result from linguistic distortions (You are what you speak.)

  9. Key Feminist Questions • How does the work treat women? • What are the shortcomings or enlightenment of the author as a result of this treatment? • How important are the female characters? • How individual are they in their own right? • Are they credited with their own existence and their own character? • In their relationships with men, how are they treated? • Equal status • Ignored • Patronized • Demeaned • Pedestalized • How much interest do the male characters exhibit about women’s concerns?

  10. Economic Determinist / Marxist • Cultural and economic determinism • Based on ideas of Karl Marx • Key influence in life is economic. • Opposition between the capitalist and working classes • Individuals in the midst of grips of the class struggle • “Proletarian literature” • Emphasizes persons of lower class -- poor and oppressed spending their lives in endless drudgery and misery • Usually suppressed when attempting to rise above disadvantages • Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species • Although never widely accepted in U.S. and have faded, they are still credible for literary analysis.

  11. Key Marxist Literary Concerns • What is the economic status of the characters? • What happens to them as a result of this status? • How do they fare against economic and political odds? • What other conditions stemming from their class does the writer emphasize (education, nutrition, health care, opportunity)? • To what extend does the work fail by overlooking the economic, social, and political implications of its material? • In what other ways does economic determinism affect the work? • How should readers consider the story in today’s developed or undeveloped world?

  12. Psychological/Psychoanalytic • Sigmund Freud / scientific study of the mind • New key to understanding of character by claiming that behavior is caused by hidden and unconscious motives • Some critics use it to explain fictional characters (Hamlet has an Oedipus complex.) • Some critics use it as a way of analyzing authors and the artistic process (Coleridge and “Kubla Khan”) • Similar to patients in therapy

  13. Psych Questions about Characters • In the work itself, what are the obvious and hidden motives that cause a character’s behavior and speech? • How much background (e.g., repressed childhood trauma, adolescent memories) does the author reveal about a character? • How purposeful is this information with regard to the character’s psychological condition? • How much is important in the analysis and understanding of the character?

  14. Psych Questions about Authors • What particular life experiences explain characteristic subjects or preoccupations? • Was the author’s life happy? Miserable? Upsetting? Solitary? Social? • Can the death of someone in the author’s family be associated with melancholy situations in that author’s work?

  15. Archetypal/Symbolic/Mythic • Do you watch Disney movies? Based on work of Carl Jung - Human life is built of patterns that are similar throughout various cultures and historical periods. • Archetype = “first molds” “first patterns” • Stresses connections that may be discovered in literature written in different times and in various locations (Similar to Structuralism)

  16. Questions Asked by Archetypal Searchers • How are human beings created? • Is there a sacrifice of a hero? • Is there a search for paradise? • How does an individual, story, poem, or play fit into any of the archetypal patterns? • What truths does this correlation provide (particularly truths that cross historical, national, and cultural lines)? • How closely does the work fit the archetype? • What variations can be seen? • What meaning or meanings do the connections have? • If you love this lens, spend a little time looking it up on the www. Many lists of archetypes are available.

  17. AVOID THIS MISTAKE • MOST WRITERS DO NOT WRITE USING A LENS. • AS A READER AND EXPLICATOR OF LITERATURE, YOU USE A LENS TO FIND MEANING IN A WORK. • Some 20/21st century writers do focus their work on certain issues. • If you say something close to “Writer X uses a feminist lens to present Main Female Character,” you are incorrect.

  18. Assignment • In groups, create a PowerPoint slide to serve as a one-pager for your group’s assigned lens. • Your group should go over your notes/handouts from today as well as internet research to create your handout. • Handout contents: • Summary of lens • Background of lens • Critical questions when viewing literature through lens • Image to help you remember fundamentals of the lens

  19. Groups • Feminist: • Marelyn, Emmalee, Chanel, Chrissy • Archetypal: • B.Smith, Genni, Jocelyn, • Marxist: • Connor, Karra, Brianne • Psychoanalytic: • B.Davis, Kolin, Tameika

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