ELIT 48C Class #4

Less versus Fewer Use fewer if you’re referring to people or things

in the plural (e.g. houses, newspapers, dogs,

students, children). For example:

People these days are buying fewer

newspapers.

Fewer students are opting to study

science-related subjects.

Fewer than thirty children each year

develop the disease.

Use less when you’re referring to something

that can’t be counted or doesn’t have a plural

(e.g. money, air, time, music, rain). For

example:

It’s a better job but they pay me less

money.

People want to spend less time in traffic

jams.

When I’m on vacation, I listen to less music

Agenda

Gatsby

Introduction to Critical Theory.

Lecture: New Criticism

Discussion:

o QHQ: New Criticism

Nick Carraway

1. Why does Fitzgerald narrate the story from Nick Carraway’s perspective? What is Nick’s significance and what truth does he expose about society or human nature?

2. Q: At the beginning of The Great Gatsby, Daisy tells Nick that he reminds her of a rose (16) but Nick immediately rejects the idea as untrue. Does Daisy’s metaphor of Nick being a rose play into his character development?

QHQ: The Great Gatsby

1. Q: Is Jay Gatsby the main character of this story?

2. Q: How does Fitzgerald use the main characters in The Great Gatsby to portray a message about society during this time period, or human nature as a whole?

3. Q: How come the three characters that demonstrate true love are the three characters that die?

• Trace the recurring image of eyes, and ascertain the purposes of those images. Consider blindness on any level as well as sight.

The Eyes “above the gray land and the spasms of bleak

dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg. The eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic – their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no face but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose […] But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintlessdays under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground.” (Chapter 2)

QHQ: The Great Gatsby

1. Q: Is Jay Gatsby the main character of this story?

2. Q: How does Fitzgerald use the main characters in The Great Gatsby to portray a message about society during this time period, or human nature as a whole?

3. Q: How come the three characters that demonstrate true love are the three characters that die?

Literary Theory

What is Literary Theory?

A very basic way of thinking about literary theory is that these ideas act as different lenses critics use to view and talk about art, literature, and 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 particular aspects of a work they consider important.

Why should we bother to learn

about critical theories? According to Tyson, “Theory can help us learn to

see ourselves and our world in valuable new

ways, ways that can influence how we educate

our children, both as parents and teachers; how

we view television, from the nightly news to

situation comedies; how we behave as voters

and consumers; how we react to others with

whom we do not agree on social, religious, and

political issues; and how we recognize and deal

with our own motives, fears, and desires” (2).

She continues by saying, “And if we believe that

human productions—not just literature but also, for

example, film, music, art, science, technology, and

architecture—are outgrowths of human experience

and therefore reflect human desire, conflict, and

potential, then we can learn to interpret those

productions in order to learn something important

about ourselves as a species. Critical theory [. . .]

provides excellent tools for that endeavor, tools that

not only can show us our world and ourselves through

new and valuable lenses but also can strengthen our

ability to think logically, creatively, and with a good

deal of insight.

Four Theories this quarter

New Criticism

Feminist Criticism

African American (and minority) Criticism

Lesbian, Gay, and Queer Criticisms

Critical Theory is a Tool!

Our goal is to learn to use the tools as a

way to put together an opinion about a

piece of literature. Each of you will

encounter tools that are easier or better

for you to use, and that is fine. But for now,

let’s focus on learning how to use each

tool.

Tool for the Day:

The Hammer

New Criticism

New Criticism Generally, New Criticism (or Formalism) maintains that a

literary work contains certain intrinsic features, and the theory “defined and addressed the specifically literary qualities in the text" (Richter 699).

Formalism attempts to treat each work as its own distinct piece, free from its environment, era, and even author. This point of view developed in reaction to “forms of 'extrinsic' criticism that viewed the text as either the product of social and historical forces or a document making an ethical statement” (699). Formalists assume that the keys to understanding a text exist within "the text itself," ("the battle cry of the New Critical effort" and thus focus a great deal on[…] form (Tyson 118).

For the most part, Formalism is no longer used in the academy. However, New Critical theories are still used in secondary and college level instruction in literature and even writing (Tyson 115).

With the permission of

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/7

22/03/

New Criticism: How to use it Ask yourself “”what single interpretation of the

text best establishes its organic unity? In other words, how do the text’s formal elements, and the multiple meanings those elements produce, all work together to support the theme, or overall meaning, of the work? Remember, a great work will have a theme of universal human significance. (If the text is too long to account for all of its formal elements, apply this question to some aspect or aspects of its form, such as imagery, point of view, setting, or the like)” (Tyson 150).

Because New Critics believed their interpretations were

based solely on the context created by the text and the

language provided by the text, they called their critical

practice intrinsic criticism, to denote that New Criticism

stayed within the confines of the text itself.

In contrast, forms of criticism that employ psychological,

sociological, or philosophical frameworks—in other words,

all criticism other than their own—they called extrinsic

criticism because it goes outside the literary text for the

tools needed to interpret it.

New Critics also called their approach objective criticism

because their focus on each text’s own formal elements

ensured, they claimed, that each text—each object being

interpreted—would itself dictate how it would be interpreted.

Paradox, Irony, Ambiguity, and

Tension

For New Criticism, the complexity of a

text is created by the multiple and often

conflicting meanings woven through it.

And these meanings are a product

primarily of four kinds of linguistic

devices: paradox, irony, ambiguity,

and tension.

Paradox “Briefly, paradox is a statement that seems

self-contradictory but represents the actual way things are” (Tyson 138).

“Many of life’s spiritual and psychological realities are paradoxical in nature, New Critics observed, and paradox is thus responsible for much of the complexity of human experience and of the literature that portrays it” (139).

Examples of paradox

Nobody goes to

that restaurant

because it is too

crowded.

Deep down,

you're really

shallow.

In George Orwell's Animal

Farm, the words "All

animals are equal, but

some are more equal than

others.”

In Shakespeare's Hamlet,

the title character states "I

must be cruel to be kind."

Irony “Irony, in its simple form, means a statement or

event undermined by the context in which it occurs” (139).

“New Criticism [. . .] primarily valued irony in a broader sense of the term, to indicate a text’s inclusion of varying perspectives on the same characters or events. [ …] The result is a complexity of meaning that mirrors the complexity of human experience and increases the text’s believability” (139).

“[T]he text’s own internal irony, or awareness of multiple viewpoints, protects it from the external irony of the reader’s disbelief” 140).

Examples of irony It was a tragic irony that he made himself sick

by worrying so much about his health.

I posted a video on YouTube about how

boring and useless YouTube is.

The name of Britain’s biggest dog was “Tiny.”

You laugh at a person who slipped stepping

on a banana peel and the next thing you

know, you slipped too.

The butter is as soft as a marble piece.

“Oh great! Now you have broken my new

camera.”

Ambiguity

“Ambiguity occurs when a word, image, or

event generates two or more different

meanings” (140).

In […] everyday language, ambiguity is

usually considered a flaw because it’s

equated with a lack of clarity and

precision. In literary language, however,

ambiguity is considered a source of

richness, depth, and complexity that adds

to the text’s value” (140).

Example of AmbiguityA good life depends on a liver.

Liver may be an organ or simply a living person.

Foreigners are hunting dogs.

It is unclear whether dogs were being hunted or

foreigners are being spoken of as dogs.

Each of us saw her duck.

It is not clear whether the word “duck” refers to an

action of ducking or a duck that is a bird.

The passerby helps dog bite victim.

Is the passerby helping a dog bite someone? Or is

he helping a person bitten by a dog? It’s not clear.

Tension “Finally, the complexity of a literary text is

created by its tension, which, broadly defined,

means the linking together of opposites. In its

simplest form, tension is created by the

integration of the abstract and the concrete, of

general ideas embodied in specific images.”

(140).

Tension is also created by the dynamic interplay

among the text’s opposing tendencies, that is,

among its paradoxes, ironies, and

ambiguities.[One example is] “the tension

between reality and illusion” (140).

In Groups

Discuss new

criticism and

your QHQs

QHQ: New Criticism1. Q: What is new criticism and why is it important

compared to the other theories?

2. Q: What is “organic unity” and how does it play a role in

New Criticism?

3. Q1: Are “intentional fallacies” really as detrimental to the

understanding of a piece of work as New Critics say they

are?

4. Q: Why it is crucial to learn about critical theories when

personal interpretations are beneficial to the reader?

5. Q: What is the significance of gravitating away from

interpreting literature through authorial intention and

focusing on interpreting literature through different lenses

such as those of the reader, rhetoric, or aesthetic

structure of text?

1. Q: Is New Criticism an effective way of doing

analysis? Why? Are there any limitations you see?

What are they if any?

2. Q: Why is New Criticism not practiced as a whole

anymore?

3. Q: If New Criticism is the only theory not practiced

by literary critics anymore, then why has it “been a

standard method of high school and college

instruction…for several decades”?

4. Q: How do we know that we are reading

something objectively without being influenced by

the author’s intent or our own experiences? Is there

ever one objective answer in reading something?

New Criticism and Gatsby1. Q: Does The Great Gatsby prove the theme

stated in “Critical Theory Today’ that “unfulfilled

longing is an inescapable part of the human

condition?”

2. Q: Did Jay Gatsby achieve the American

dream?

3. Q: How does Gatsby’s “unfulfilled longing”

change our perspective of his pursuit of Daisy?

4. Q: What themes [other than love] are present in

The Great Gatsby and which is the “best” one?

Questions New Critics Ask

Themselves about a Text

1. How does the work use imagery to develop its

own symbols? (i.e. making a certain road stand

for death by constant association)

2. What is the quality of the work's organic unity “the

working together of all the parts to make an

inseparable whole” (Tyson 121)? In other words,

does how the work is put together reflect what it

is?

3. How are the various parts of the work

interconnected?

4. How do paradox, irony, ambiguity, and tension

work in the text?

5. How do these parts and their collective whole

contribute to or not contribute to the

aesthetic quality of the work?

6. How does the author resolve apparent

contradictions within the work?

7. What does the form of the work say about its

content?

8. Is there a central or focal passage that can

be said to sum up the entirety of the work?

9. How do the rhythms and/or rhyme schemes of

a poem contribute to the meaning or effect

of the piece?

With permission from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/722/03/

HOMEWORK

Read: Critical Theory Today: Chapter 4 “Feminist Criticism” 83-130 Read: Critical Theory Today: Chapter 10 “Lesbian, Gay, and Queer Criticism” 317-355

Post #4: QHQ: Feminist or Lesbian, Gay, and Queer Criticism