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Literary Criticism

Literary Criticism. Examining Othello. Marxist. Idea that society is run by the bourgeoisie, who keep proletariats (workers) in line with propaganda at all levels of their institutions (church, school, government, media, business, etc.) repression

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Literary Criticism

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  1. Literary Criticism Examining Othello

  2. Marxist • Idea that society is run by the bourgeoisie, who keep proletariats (workers) in line with propaganda at all levels of their institutions (church, school, government, media, business, etc.) repression • Socialism: A political theory that advocates a collective or government ownership of the means of production and distribution of goods and pay according to work done Ex: The way institutions/administrations work in the novel. Who is the prole? Who is the bourgeoisie?

  3. Marxist • Brabantio’s treatment of Desdemona • Iago’s treatment of EVERYONE • Othello breaks Marxist ideas since he rises to a position of power through acts of valor and a virtuous reputation

  4. New Historical • Stresses the relationship of literature to its historical period • Deals with background knowledge • Ex: What historical and cultural comments are being made through the telling of this story? Racism? Political power in Cyprus?

  5. New Historical • Strictly look at how the historical culture is reflected in the relationships between: • Husband and Wife • Father and Daughter • Venetian and Turk

  6. Feminist Theory • Radical: superiority of female attributes; individual more important than the group • Liberal: Work within society for equality- reform, not revolt; minimize differences; individual more important • Materialist: Minimizes biological differences; stresses also history, race, class; group more important • Ex: Look at the women in Othello through a feminist lens. How are they portrayed? Why?

  7. Psychoanalytical Theory • Psychoanalysis: Sessions in which a patient is encouraged to talk about personal experiences; especially early childhood and dreams in an attempt to get at our hidden unconscious motives. • Can analyze characters, or the author and the artistic process • What are the hidden motives that cause a character’s behavior and speech? How much background does the author reveal about a character (esp. childhood)?

  8. Psychoanalytical Theory: Four Models • Freud: id (libido; unconscious), ego (rational, logical) and superego (moral judgments) – what the ego and superego tell us not to do is repressed in the unconscious mind and emerges in other forms: dreams, language (Freudian slips), creative activity; neurotic behavior • Oedipal Theories: Oedipus complex – males love mother, father as rival until son fears castration by father, so he pulls away from mother and identifies with father • Importance of Dreams: Repressed desires and fears; displacement; replacement of actual object in life with a symbol in a dream; condensation: anger consolidated into a single sentence; neurosis

  9. Psychoanalytical Theory: Four Models • Jung: Personal conscious (waking state); personal unconscious (storage and memory); collective unconscious (cumulative knowledge of the human race; genetically inherited) • Northrop Frye: There is an overall “monomyth” to all literature – archetypes

  10. Psychoanalytical Theory: Four Models • Jacques Lacan: Imaginary (birth to 6 months: wishes fantasies, we see ourselves in our mother’s image); Symbolic (we learn we are separate from our mother, we learn language, differentiate between male and female); Real (the physical world and everything in it, as well as that which we lack) • Examples • How is Iago a form of Freud’s id? • What is the nature of evil? • What aspects of Othello’s psyche allow for his jealousy to form so quickly?

  11. New Critical Theory • Detailed examination and explanation of a text • Goal: single, best and most unified interpretation of the text • POV, plot, tone, character and structure are discussed with regard to artistic quality of the works and writers • Tries to find a reading that explains the facts of the text • Structure and meaning should not be analyzed separately because they are intimately connected • IGNORES history/author’s background • Most similar to literary analysis essays; focuses on the author’s style and purpose

  12. Deconstruction • “An interpretation is misinterpretation.” • Stresses ambiguity and contradiction • Truth is unknowable because circumstances and time are changeable and arbitrary • Only absolute is that there is no absolute; Infinite meanings • No closure; no ultimate truth • Ambivalence, indecision, discrepancies, etc. • Language is arbitrary; it doesn’t match reality • Look for binaries; reverse them to allow text to be undecided • Binaries: a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning • accept the possibility of various perspectives or levels of meaning in a text based on the new binary inversions.

  13. Deconstruction • Who is ruled by emotion over logic? • Men? • Women? • Who is really barbaric? • Venetian? • Turk/Moor? • Who is more mature and valiant? • Men? • Women?

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