Literary Theory and Lenses

How Do I Evaluate a Text?

What is “literary theory?”

• The basis for the “lens” through which one views the literature

• There is no “right” way to look at literature

• All schools of thought think they are the “right” way

Why study literary theory?

• The main reason for studying theory at the same time as literature is that it forces you to deal consciously with the problem of ideologies…. There are many truths and the one you will find depends partly on the ideology you start with. [Studying theory] means you can take your own part in the struggles for power between different ideologies. It helps you to discover elements of your own ideology, and understand why you hold certain values unconsciously. It means no authority can impose a truth on you in a dogmatic way—and if some authority does try, you can challenge that truth in a powerful way, by asking what ideology it is based on…. Theory is subversive because it puts authority in question.

• Stephen Bonnycastle, • In Search of Authority • Broadview Press, 1991, p.34.

The Creation of Critical Theory

• 20th Century: theories began to emerge

• No theory is based in factual knowledge- someone created it and it is arguable

• Some theories are created in opposition or response to another theory

Using Theories/Lenses

• Rigid application of a theory/lens can spoil a book

• Using multiple theories/lenses can enhance the story

• This is an open ended process- NOT a science

Reader Response

• Making a connection between your experiences and the text

• Literature has no objective meaning

• A reader brings his/her own thoughts and experiences; “identity theme”

Reader Response

For Example:• Connect the literature to your

life• Connect the literature to

current events• Discuss how the literature

makes you feel• Compare the literature to the

way you view the world

Formalist Criticism

• Scientific “dissection” of texts

• Focus on literary elements

• Analyze: setting, character, plot, theme, imagery, foreshadowing, irony, etc.

Formalism

What a work of literature says cannot be separated from how the literary work says it.

Therefore the form and structure of a work, far from being merely the decorative wrapping around content, is in fact part of the content of the work.

Common Assumptions of Formalist Criticism

• Literature is a special mode of language and different from every day language

• A literary work is independent of the author and historical context during which it was written

Archetypal Criticism

• Archetypes are universal symbols that appear in literature, myth, dreams, oral tradition, songs, etc.

Examples of Archetypes

Images such as:

water

sun

certain colors or numbers

circles

the serpent

garden

tree

desert

Examples of Archetypes

Characters such as:

“the hero”

"the earth mother"

"the soul mate" 

"the trickster" 

“the damsel in distress”

Examples of Archetypes

Ideas such as:

• Light vs. Darkness

• Good vs. Evil

• The Journey/Quest

Common Assumptions of Archetypal Criticism

• Certain images recur in texts

• Certain characters/character types recur in texts

• Certain motifs and patterns recur in texts

• There are universal, often unconscious reactions to these archetypes

Colonialism

• Colonialism is the political and economic control over a dependent territory

• Colonialism seeks to shape the identities of the colonized people

• Uses a process called “othering”- the colonized are seen as different and lesser than the colonizer

• http://www.lyricsdepot.com/rage-against-the-machine/darkness.html

Post-Colonial Criticism

• Examines how different religions, ethnicities, class identifications, and political beliefs affect how texts are created and interpreted

• What it means to be part of- or excluded from- a particular group enhances understanding of the text in relation to culture

Common Assumptions of Post-Colonial Criticism

• It is important to look at the relationship between dominant and non-dominant cultures

• Many times, literature written by colonized people attempts to articulate empowered identities and reclaim culture

What postcolonial critics do

• Reject claims of universalism on behalf of Western Literature canon

• Examine representations of non dominant cultures

• Show how such literature is silent on matters of colonialism and imperialism

• Celebrate situations whereby individuals belong to more than one culture

• Foreground questions of diversity & difference

Historical Criticism

• The text is in the foreground as the “jewel” and the history is the background

• Understanding the social structure or way of life of a certain time period will help the reader draw conclusions and better understand the story

• Discovering details about the author's life and times will help the reader develop ideas about a story

New Historicism

• The literary text and non literary material have equal weight

• New Historicism seeks to find meaning in a text by considering the work within the framework of the ideas and assumptions of its historical era

• Concerned with the political function of literature and with the concept of power

New Historicism

• Focused on revealing the historically specific model of truth and authority (not a "truth" but a "cultural construct") reflected in a given work.

• Literature will tell us about ways of thinking at the time: ideas of social organization, prejudices, taboos, etc.

New Historicism

• New Historicism is more "sociohistorical" than it is a delving into facts

• concerned with cultural constructs of society

New Historicism

• It's not just where would Keats have seen a Grecian urn in England, but from where he may have absorbed the definitions of art and beauty

Structuralism

• Structuralism is a way of thinking about the world in relationship to structures

• Every element in the literature has no significance by itself- it is determined by all the other elements involved in the literature

• The literature is a stable, closed entity with definite meaning

Narratology: branch of structuralism with roots also in linguistic theory

• The study of how narratives make meaning and the basic mechanisms and procedures which are common to all acts of story-telling.

• Not the reading or interpretation of individual stories, but the attempt to study the nature of ‘story’ itself, as a concept and a cultural practice

• Distinguishes between story and plot, wherein the story is the actual sequence of events as they happen, and the plot is those events as they are edited, ordered, packaged, and presented in what we recognize as a narrative.

Narratology Example

• The story of someone’s life has to begin at birth, move through years and end in death.

• The plot of someone’s life might begin at an advanced age and look back, or begin at a pivotal coming of age moment, etc

• Plot should not be taken literally

Narratology asks:

• Is the basic narrative mimetic or diegetic?

– Mimetic: parts which are dramatized, or presented in a scenic way with a specified setting and using dialogue that contains direct speech. Scenes are staged for the reader, creating the illusion that we see and hear what is happening. (showing not telling)

– Diegetic: parts which are given in a more rapid, summarizing or panoramic way. The reader gets essential or linking information efficiently. (telling not showing)

Narratology asks:

• How is time handled in the story? Flashback (analeptic); flash forward that anticipates an event which happens later (proleptic)—Dickens at beginning of A Tale of Two Cities when barrel of red wine spilt in street anticipates bloodshed caused later by revolution.

• How is the story “packaged”? frame narrative (primary narrative) with embedded narratives (secondary narrative) Heart of Darkness has main story embedded within the frame narrative of group of sailors telling ‘yarns’ as they wait for tide to turn. Frame narratives have sub-categories called single-ended, double-ended, intrusive. Heart of Darkness double-ended because frame situation is re-introduced at end of embedded tale. When tale is over, we return briefly to group of listeners to whom Marlow has been telling the tale of his experiences in Congo. Single-ended frame narratives never go back to opening structure—James’ The Turn of the Screw

Marxist Criticism

• Based on the economic and cultural theory of Karl Marx

• founder of communism• Communism: a stateless,

classless society• Wrote The Communist

Manifesto (1848)• Deals with class struggles

May 5, 1818 – March 14, 1883

Marxist Criticism

• Marx argued that capitalism, like previous socioeconomic systems, will produce internal tensions which will lead to its destruction

Marxist Criticism

• Marx believed that groups of people that owned and controlled major industries could exploit the rest of the population by forcing their own values and beliefs onto other social groups

How to Use Marxist Theory

• Focus on power and money in the literature

• Who has the power or money?

• Who does not?

• What happens as a result?

• http://www.lyricsdepot.com/tears-for-fears/everybody-wants-to-rule-the-world.html

Feminist Criticism

• Realizes cultural and economic problems in a “patriarchal” society

• Realizes issues that have hindered or prevented women from achievement

• Recognizes that society sees women as “other” to man

Common Assumptions of Feminist Criticism

• Our civilization is pervasively patriarchal

• The concepts of “gender” are cultural constructs

Common Assumptions of Feminist Criticism

• The patriarchal ideology pervades writing that has been considered “great literature”

• “Great literature” lacks autonomous female role models

• Primarily addresses male readers

• Makes the female reader an “outsider”- assumes male values to identify

Strategies for Using Feminist Criticism

• Consider the gender of the author and the characters- what role does gender or sexuality play in this work?

• How are sexual stereotypes reinforced?

• How does the work reflect or distort the place of women or men in society?

Psychological Criticism

• Deals with the work of literature as a fictional expression of the personality, state of mind, feelings, and desires of the author

• The idea is to evaluate the psychology of the character or the author to find meaning in the text

Common Assumptions of Psychological Theory

• The author’s psychological conflicts are revealed in his or her work

• Readers can do an in-depth analysis of the characters as if they were real people

• The reader’s psychological analysis of a piece of text might analyze the author’s psychological state or the readers own psychological state of mind

What Psychoanalytic Critics do

• Give importance to conscious vs unconscious mind

• Pay attention to unconscious motives/feelings of author and/or characters

• Look for classic psychoanalytic symptoms, stages or conditions

• Make large scale applications of psychoanalytic concepts, such as the Oedipus Complex

• Identify a ‘psychic’ content for the work; putting the psycho-drama above the social drama of class conflict, eg conflict between generations or siblings, etc.

Modernism

• WWI: The belief in human goodness is splintered

• Yeats says, “The center will not hold”

• People feel alienated from one another

• Can no longer could count on unifying beliefs or behaviors 

• Veered away from linearity or harmony

Many Modernists Think:

• Works of art can provide the unity, coherence, and meaning which has been lost in most of modern life

• Art will do what other human institutions fail to do

Postmodernism

• WWII: The Holocaust and atomic bomb took the splintered views of modernism and destroyed them entirely

• “There never was a center”

• Stresses absences, contradictions, sub-texts, and the inability of language to connect one human being with another

Postmodernists

• Postmodernism doesn’t mind fragmentation or incoherence, but rather celebrates that lack of meaning

• Let's not pretend that art can make meaning then, let's just play with nonsense(From Mary Klages, 2007)

Postmodern Theory

• A reaction to structuralism

• The reader can find endless meaning

• There is no single center, essence, or meaning in the literature

Postmodern Theory

• No objective and absolute truth• Rather, ideas are viewed as being social

constructions• It is a broad movement with many different

writers, often disagreeing among themselves

Modernism Vs. Postmodernism

Modernism• There is an absolute,

universal truth that we can understand through rationalism and logic

• "disenchantment with material truth and search for abstract truth."

Postmodernism• There is no universal

truth. Rationality by itself does not help us truly understand the world

• "There is no universal truth, abstract or otherwise."

Resources & Documentation

• Slides 2-4: Dr. Toni McNaron, Lecture, October 25th, 2007• Slides 5-32: Deborah Appleman, “Literary Theory: A Sampling of

Critical Lenses”• Slide 17: Wilfred Guerin, A Handbook of Critical Approaches to

Literature: Fourth Edition by Wilfred Guerin, Earle Labor, Lee Morgan, Jeanne C. Reesman, and John R. Willingham.

• Slide 33:Kristi Siegel, http://www.kristisiegel.com/theory.htm• Slides 34-37: University of Minnesota EngL1001W Moodle, “Critical

Theory: Lenses”• Slides 38-39: Mary Klages,

http://www.colorado.edu/English/courses/ENGL2012Klages/pomo.html• Slide 40: Adam Blatner, M.D.,

http://www.blatner.com/adam/level2/pmodfaq.htm• Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory. Manchester University Press. Manchester:

2002.• Bonnycastle, Stephen. In Search of Authority. Broadview Press: Ontario.

2002.