Literary Criticism ( Final Exam )

Traditional approach ( Page 15 )

Q\ What are the parts of traditional approach?

A\
1- Biographical approach
2- Historical approach
3- Moral approach
4- Philosophical approach

Note: The page is showcasing how the background of the

writer is important when it comes to the work itself and how
to criticize it. The example given here is " To His Coy
Mistress " by Andrew Marvell.

Page 17: On top of the page.

Note: The professor tells us that art isn't something random,

art & literature having meanings and important messages
with them. Though, not everyone would be able to
understand these meanings, but only people with
knowledge would.

Genre characteristics in practice ( Page 33 & 34 )

Note: This part here teaches us the things we should know
before we start criticizing a work. The example given here
again is " To His Coy Mistress "

First, when we criticize a work, we must take the genre into

consideration.

Note: Different genres are judged according to different

standards; we expect certain features in particular genre,
features so integral as to define and characterize the type.

Note:
Q\ What is "Soliloquy" ?
A\ A soliloquy is referred to a character in a play who's
speaking to himself \herself, but the audience is able to hear
him\her.
Secondly, after defining the genre of the work, we start
paraphrasing the content.

Note: In page 34 right after the middle of the page, we see

how they paraphrased " To His Coy Mistress " into an
understandable language to make it easier for the critic
when criticizing the poem.

Page 36: On top of the page.

The professor gave an example about “Hamlet ".

Note: As before, the first thing we did was figuring out the
genre. "Hamlet" is a tragic play that was published in the
16th century during the Elizabethan period.

Note:
Q\ What is "Tragic Flaw" ?
A\ Tragic Flaw is a behavior the protagonist is having which
leads to his downfall in the play.
Note: As we process with the play, we come to the
understanding that it's a revenge tragedy, we see hesitation,
suicide, intrigue, real or pretended insanity...etc. These
elements are the characteristics of a “revenge tragedy”, and
these elements are the reason why the work is criticized as a
revenge tragedy.

Pages 36 ( second paragraph) & 37: Plot summary for "

Hamlet "

Page 41: "Everyday Use"

Note: The professor gave this other example. "Everyday

Use" is written by Alice Walker who's also known for writing
" Color Purple". "Everyday Use" was published in the 1970s.

Note: For a critic in that time, what made this short story
special that it was written by a black lady, a lady who faced
racism in her life, so technically and logically, critics would
try to figure out how Alice's perspective of the world as a
black lady effects her work.

Note: The professor then reads the plot of the story, it has
three main characters, The mother ( the narrator) and her
daughters Maggie and Dee.

Pages 41,42, and 43: Plot summary of " Everyday Use"

Note:
Q\ What is the meaning of "Quilts" ?
A \ It's a blanket that's is sewed by pieces of family members
clothes.

Q\ What should a critic do before criticizing a work ?

A\
1- Figure out the work's genre.
2- Paraphrase the work ( usually if it's a poem).
3- look for the genre's characteristics.
Historical & Biographical approaches ( Page 51 )

Q\ A literary work is a reflection of :

1- The Author's life and times
2- The life and times of the character in the work

Note: The second paragraph in this page shows us how we learn

things about the era that the works was written during. There're
many things to learn like the cultural, political, economical, and
religious aspects of the country during the time which the work
was published at.

Note: An example of that we can find on pages 51 ( last two lines )

& 52. " On His Blindness " and " On His Deceased Wife" both
written by John Milton. These two sonnets reflect two important
events of the Milton's life, the first one reflecting his feelings on
losing sight, and also reflecting his religious aspect. The second
sonnet reflects his feelings when his second wife died. The idea
here is that these kind poems work as historical & biographical
books.

Note: Poets, from the earliest of times, have been historians.

William Blake's " London " is considered a historical work because

it shows how the English society was back during the Romantic
era.
Historical and Biographical approaches in practice:

" To His Coy Mistress " as mentioned before is written by Andrew

Marvell. Now Historical & Biological critics would criticize the
poem according to Andrew's personal life important events and
facts. After studying Andrew's past, critics learned that Andrew is
an educated man, Mathew was religious (Puritan), His father was
a priest. Mathew had his fair share of politics ( He was
Parliamentarian and a supporter of Oliver Cromwell who ruled
England for 11 years as a Commonwealth country ).

Note: When the speaker begins his argument in "To His Coy
Mistress" we see allusions to Greek Mythology, courtly love, and
the Bible. These elements in the poem reflects the poet's
characteristics that are mentioned before which are his religious
and classical background.

Note: The poem is about love, the speaker is deeply in love with
his beloved. He idolized her, she's like a Goddess to him. He
accuses her of a crime by not accepting his love. Since she's like a
Goddess to him, he as a worshiper must humor her by following
the conventions of courtly love.

Note: " To His Coy Mistress " is an Erotic Poem.

Q\ What is Erotic Poetry ?

A\ It's love poetry that emphasize the sensual.

Q\ What is Metaphysical Poetry ?

A\ Poems that deal with the psychology of love and religion.

Marvell's other works reflect his religious beliefs since he talked

about the Flood ( Noah's, peace be upon him, story ) and the
conversion of the Jews.

Pages 57-61: "Hamlet"

Note: When criticizing a work, we look for the author's life and
times

Important:

Some ideas in "Hamlet" were mirrors to real life events in

Shakespeare's time:

1- One of the ideas behind " Hamlet " was that queen Elizabeth
was old and tired, and the people of England were worried
because Elizabeth had no heirs for the throne. So Shakespearean
created " Hamlet " with a focus on this idea, so reality reflected
art.
2- Earl of Essex was Queen Elizabeth's favorite, and everyone
thought that he would claim the throne after her death, but he
was tried for treason and executed. We see this same description
in " Hamlet" from Ophelia in the play.

3- Shakespeare created Polonius in " Hamlet" after a real man

named Burghley. Burghley is a lord treasure. Anyway, both
Burghley and Polonius share a very similar characteristics, they're
both boring, meddling, and both had Spy System that kept them
informed about both their friends and foes.

Note: Burghley was so known that is was dangerous for

Shakespeare to portray him on stage while the man was still alive.

Note: A critic for this play is expected to ask "What do we need to

know about eleventh-century Danish court life or about
Elizabethan England to understand this play ?" This question is
asked because in the play, Hamlet doesn't succeed to throne after
his father died....why? ( Although he was the only son of his father
)

A\ Because in Hamlet's times (11th century) The Danish throne

was an elective one, a group of powerful noblemen and the royal
council would name the next king. Unlike nowadays where the
oldest son takes on the throne right after his father's death.
A Historical fact we learned from "Hamlet" is that back in their
times, The brother's wife is still forbidden to his brothers even
after his death, they considered it incest. Unlike nowadays where
it's okay for men to marry their dead brother's widow.

Another Historical thing is that people in Shakespeare's time liked

Revengeful themes. In "Hamlet", Laertes hated Hamlet so much
that he would cut his throat in a church before he get a chance for
repentance.

Note: The reason Laertes gave this example is because ( Another

Historical fact from this play ) Christians believed that in order to
repent, then you got to be able to talk.

Pages 69 - 73 "Everyday Use"

Note: Alice Walker was born in Georgia, in 1944.

Segregation: Is a form of discrimination against black people.

Note: Alice Walker grew up in a racial environment.

We learn from Alice's biography that her father Willie Lee was
among the first black people to vote in 1930. He became
frustrated with slow progress of getting equal rights and started
to beat his kids, including Alice.

We Also learn about Alice's mother Minnie. Minnie was an

outstanding role model for her children, she was a hard worker
who managed to create beauty out of her limited surroundings by
growing flowers.

We learn that Alice lost the sight of her right eye when she was
only eight. She was shot accidentally by her brother and she was
hit in the eye, the hit also left a scar on her. Because of the scar,
she was very shy and believed herself to be ugly for six years, until
one of her brothers and his wife paid for the surgery.

Alice was deeply committed to the civil right movement ( a

movement that asks for equal rights for the blacks just like the
whites ) in we see that in her novel " The Color Purple " in which
she discusses the difficulties black women go through, not just
from racists, but from black men as well.

Important:

In " Everyday Use " lady Johnson reflects Alice's mother Minnie
Walker. Both women are strong and hardworking, they didn't let
the gender barrier stop them from doing what they had to do.
Lady Johnson describes herself as a large, big-boned, rough man-
working hands. She could do things that are usually done by
males. Although she was tough, her soft side was still there; She
appreciates the material...etc. Same goes with Minnie! She
worked at day with her husband in the field and did her female
tasks at night.

Important:

Maggie & Dee both reflect Alice. Maggie reflects the young Alice
Walker. Both had scars, both had lack of self esteem and shyness.
As for Dee, she reflects the adult Alice Walker because of their
sophistication and educational achievements.

"Everyday Use" is also considered a Historical Statement. Dee for

example is like those black people who decided to leave the south
and work use their intelligence. But as for Maggie and lady
Johnson, they stayed in their home in the south just like what
some black people did.
Moral & philosophical approaches:

Q\ Why do we read literature?

A\
1- For instructions ( like teaching).
2- For pleasure & delight.

Note: The work we read reflects philosophical issues and teaches

morality.

Q\ What's the meaning of "Existentialism"

A\ It comes from the word "Existence" because some writers
were asking questions like "Why do we exist? What's is our
purpose?...etc."

Note: Some works like Hawthorne's "Scarlet Letter" have religious

philosophies about puritans. Robert Frost's " Stopping by Woods
on a Snowy Evening " suggests that duty and responsibility take
precedence over beauty and pleasure.

Note: Some critics who were against the traditional approach to

literary analysis have argued that it has tended to be somewhat
"deficient" in imagination, and that it neglected the newer
sciences, such as psychology and anthropology.
Moral and philosophical approaches in practice :

"To his Coy Mistress"

Note: The common philosophical theme in " To His Coy Mistress"

is "Carpe Diem " which mean " Seize the day" an attitude of " eat
and drink today like there's no tomorrow" .

Important:

A Historical aspect of the poem has to do with the paradoxes of

the poem.

Q\ What're the Paradoxes of "To His Coy Mistress " ? Describe

each one.

A\
1- The Speaker is Pessimistic : The speaker could honestly be
reflecting his view of life, and how depressed he is without the
love of his mistress.

2- The speaker is a stereotypical male: The speaker could just be a

typical man who's only there for lust, who sees himself above
women, considering himself as better, stronger, and superior
gender.
"Hamlet" page 80

Q\ What are the moral and philosophical aspects in "Hamlet" ?

Note: Hamlet is an idealist

Q\ What does "Idealist" means ?

A\ An idealist is someone who see what's perfect about things.

Note: Because Hamlet was an idealist, he was shocked when he

learned that some people are willing to kill for the crown ( Like
Hamlet's uncle). He was also shocked by sexed people who would
violate the laws of decorum ( for example, by remarrying within a
month of a spouse's death ) like what his mother did by marrying
her brother in law which was considered incest during that time.
He's also shocked to believe that his fiancé and his former
schoolfellows are tools of his murder uncle ( His school friends
were spies for his uncle)

Note: Hamlet was moral and virtuous intellectual man, but the
people around him weren't.

Q\ Does Hamlet become immoral by seeking revenge?

A\ ( It depends on your opinion, yes you! I'm not joking!)
"Everyday Use" Page 84 :

Note: The characters lived in a racial environment, but this isn't

the moral lesson of the short story.

Q\ In "Everyday Use" why the narrator and her daughter Maggie

are in a low socioeconomic position?
A\ Because they were black, and they lived in a racial
environment. The white system doesn't see them as equals to
them.

Page 85:
Important: the main moral part of the story is Dee's misjudgment
and mistreatment of her mother and sister. She doesn't know
how to treat her family. Dee believed that her mother and sister
chose to live in poverty, which is not true; Dee's ashamed of
bringing her friends to her mother's house.

Note: Dee took pictures of her mother's shack for her own
purpose, she's not really connected to the house or her mother
and sister.

Q\ Is lady Johnson and Objective narrator?

A\ (She's a first person narrator)
Q\ Is lady Johnson fair when it comes to Dee and Maggie?
A\ ( It's your opinion)

Q\ Is lady Johnson a good narrator?

A\ Yes! She's smart, intelligent, sophisticated, and has a good
sense of humor.

Page 86
Note: Because of the narration, we're not sympathizing with Dee
and Hakim-a-barber. Lady Johnson makes them seem cruel and
unkind, she even dislikes their looks.

Note: Dee changed her name to "Wangero" because her name "
Dee " sounded white and she didn't like that. The narrator didn't
like the names Hakim and Wangero.

Note: Dee's name was running through her family ( one of her
aunts is named Dee ). And unlike "Wangero", the name "Dee"
actually connects her with her family.

Note: Dee pretends to like folk arts, but for the mother and
Maggie these folk arts are the most treasured possessions.

Q\ What are Dee's negative characteristics?

A\ Arrogance, self-aggrandizement, condescension. She really
doesn't care about her mother and sister
Note: What the narrator reveals about herself and Maggie makes
them very sympathetic characters, unlike Dee.

Note: The narration makes us love Lady Johnson and Maggie for
their characteristics.

Q\ What are Maggie's Characteristics?

A\ Maggie likes to stay home and had some scars so we feel
sympathetic towards her. She's less talented than Dee and even
very kind towards her.

Q\ What are the lessons that we learned from the two sides ? (
Maggie along with her mother, and Dee )

A\
1- We admire Dee for her accomplishments, achievements,
education, and success. But in the same time, we don't like her
way of thinking when it comes to her heritage and culture.

2- We like lady Johnson and Maggie because they're closer to

their black heritage and culture, they appreciate these artifacts
and use them everyday. But they didn't work hard to get a better
life for themselves.
Psychological Criticism

Freud's Theories ( P 154 )

Note: Freud emphasizes the "unconscious" aspect of human

psyche.

Ex: When you look at an Iceberg in the ocean ( Like the iceberg
the Titanic hit ), the part of the iceberg that is above the surface is
small compared to the part below the surface which is very huge.
The small portion of the iceberg is like our conscious side, and the
huge part is our unconscious side.

Q\ What is the "unconscious" ?

A\ Any mental process in the existence of which we're obligated
to assume but of which we're not directly aware of. The
unconscious is a process that was active at a certain time, but we
knew nothing about it when it happened.

Ex: When you're hungry, you don't do the process of thinking to

get food, it just happens inside you, then you start looking for
food. Also when you hide from rain...etc.

Note: Freud said that even the most conscious processes are only
conscious for a short amount of time, then they become latent
(unconscious).

Note:
Unconscious: Desires, Instincts, needs.
Conscious: logic, reason, right & wrong.

Note: human beings keep shifting between the conscious and

unconscious all the time.

Ex: A student in his classroom focusing with his teacher (

conscious), then suddenly he shifts and thinks about food
(unconscious).

Q\ There're three major premises on the individual mental

processes that are introduced by Freud, what are they ?

A\
1- His first major premise is that most of our mental processes are
unconscious
2- His second major premise is that all human behavior is
motivated ultimately by sexuality.
3- His third major premise is that because of powerful social
taboos, many of our desires and memories are repressed.

Note: Because of our sexual needs, these taboos are important to

keep order.
Q\ Freud introduced three main psyche zones, what are they ?
A\
1- The id
2- the ego
3- the superego

Q\ Are these three aspects (id, ego, superego) part of the

conscious or the unconscious side ?

A\ The id is entirely unconscious, and only a small portion of the

ego and superego are part of the conscious side, the rest is
unconscious.

THE ID

Q\ What is the id ?
A\ the id is the reservoir of libido, the primary source of all psychic
energy. It functions to primordial life principle which Freud
considers to be " Pleasure Principle "

Q\ Why is the id responsible for our pleasure?

A\ because it represents our basic needs, desires, instincts. The
sexual energy is represented in the id.

Note: There's no rational order in the id which means that if

someone was controlled by it, he'll be chaotic and will have no
regard for logic.
Note: The idea of contradictions ( good and bad, right and wrong )
doesn't work in the id.

Note: people controlled by the id can endanger themselves and

others.

Note: The id is the source of our aggressions and desires.

Note: the id as defined by Freud is identical to the devil.

THE EGO

Q\ What is the ego?

A\ Is the zone that protects the individual and is the rational
governing agent of the psyche.

Q\ What does the ego do ?

A\ It regulates the instincts by the id

Note: Ego stands for reason and good sense while the id stands
for the untamed passions.

Note: The ego is governed by " reality principle "

THE SUPEREGO

Q\ What is the superego ?

A\ It's another regulating agent, that which primarily functions to
protect society. Superego is the moral censoring agency, the
repository of conscious and pride.

Note: The superego cares about morals and restrictions.

Q\ Can someone be perfect because of their superego?

A\ No, but they can aspire people because they're highly moral,
responsible, restrictive, and of a high value.

Q\ What does superego do ?

A\ It repress or inhabit the drives of the id like aggression and
sexual passion.

Q\ Why is it important to have superego that is active on our

personality?
A\ Because it helps us make good judgments when doing actions.

Note: People controlled be superego have unconscious sense of

guilt " Guilty Complex "

Important note: The id is dominated by " Pleasure Principle " and

the ego is dominated by " Reality Principle " and the superego is
dominated by " Morality Principle ".

Note: If both the id & superego were overactive then it's bad, it's
best to be controlled by the ego because, depending on the
situation, it shifts between the id and superego.
Note P159: The most controversial aspect of the psychoanalytic
Criticism ( made by Freud) is its tendency to include imagery in
terms of sexuality.

Note: Psychoanalytic critic tends to see all concave images. If the

images were like " ponds, flowers, cups, vases, caves, and hollows
" then it's a female or yonic symbols. Images that exceed their
diameter like " towers, mountain peaks, snakes, knives, lances,
and swords" are male or phallic symbols. Such activities like "
dancing, riding, and flying" are symbols of sexual pleasures. These
are images seen in dreams.

Note: According to Freud, children go through intense sexual

experience inside their bodies.

Q\ What is the Erogenous Zone ?

A\ It is a portion of the body in which sexual pleasure becomes
localized.

Note: According to Freud, the child reaches the stage of gentle

primacy at the age of five.

Important Note: The child at the age of five ( when he knows that
he's a male )goes through something that is called " Oedipus
Complex " in which (unconsciously) the child hates his father and
falls in love with his mother. The reason for that is the child starts
seeing his father as a rival for the love of the mother.
Note: The boy at the age of five realizes he's a male, he also
understands that his father is a male and his mother is a female.
Now because there's only one female here, the child believes that
the female should only be his and his alone, that's why
(unconsciously) he hates his father, but yet he loves him.

The Psychological approach in practice

A. Hamlet: The Oedipus Complex

Note: Ernest Jones is the psychoanalyst who provided the

psychological scale of "Hamlet" in his essay " Hamlet and
Oedipus"

1- Hamlet's delay in killing his uncle ( who's like a father figure for
him, and the one who married his mother ) is explained to be
because of something internal in his mind ( an unconscious feeling
)

Q\ Why did Hamlet delay killing his uncle ?

A\ Because Hamlet was a psycho neurotic who suffers from manic
depressive hysteria combined with abulia

Q\ What is abulia?
A\ The inability to exercise will power and come to decisions
Note: Hamlet's behavior shows that he has an Oedipal feelings.

2- In the play, we see how Hamlet behaves around both his uncle
and his mother. He wants to kill his uncle, not just for killing his
father, but for marrying his mother.

3- One of the reasons why Hamlet delayed killing his uncle (

according to the unconscious Oedipus Complex he had ) is that,
deeply within him as a child, he wanted to be the one who kills his
father, and have his mother, but his uncle was the one who did
so.

4- Another reason of the delay is that Hamlet was afraid that if he

killed his uncle he would hurt his mother emotionally, he didn't
want to do that because of his Oedipal feelings towards her.

5- The Oedipus Complex in the play is that Hamlet can't punish his
uncle for doing something he himself wished to do as a child.

Note: The only Oedipal problem in the play is Hamlet's misogyny

towards his mother and Ophelia. Still, it doesn't mean that deep
down (unconsciously) he's not like that at all.

Note: When Hamlet rejected Ophelia he also rejected his mother,

this explains his misogyny towards women.

Q\ What does "Misogyny" mean ?

A\ It means the dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice
against women.

B. Explaining Morality over Pleasure Principle in " Everyday

Use "

1- each of the three main characters in the story represent

one of the main Psyche zones. Dee represents the id,
Maggie represents the superego, and Mama Johnson
represents ego.

2- Dee symbolizes the pleasure principle. Dee is someone

who never learned to hear someone say "no" to her. She
follows her desires with no regards to what she might do to
herself or even her mother and sister; she changed her
name just because she feels like it suits her more not
thinking about the consequences; she doesn't even ask her
mother that she wants to take stuff of the house, and
instead she's just telling her that she would do so. Dee is the
pleasure principle, she's chaotic just like the id.
Note: Dees chaotic behavior is "unconscious" because she
really just doesn't care.

3- Maggie symbolizes the morality principle. Maggie never

learned to say "no” to her sister. Her fragile personality,
because of her scars, made the matters worse for her.
Maggie is associated with two basic characteristics of
superego : Order ( she cares about cleaning and takes it
seriously) and Guilt ( because she's ashamed of her scars).
She's so strict when it comes to order and guilt, especially
guilt, to the extent that she doesn't have a strong
personality to even face her sister.

Note: Maggie's overuse of the superego part was negative

for her personality.

4- Mama Johnson is the reality principle. She's the rational

character in the story, but just because she's logical doesn't
mean that she doesn't shift to both the id and the superego.
Although she shifts between the two, she doesn't let one of
 them take control over her, a perfect example of this is
when she was daydreaming about herself being in a TV
show with her daughter Dee, but after a few seconds she
came back to reality not falling for the pleasure principle;
the same happens at the end when the logical thing to do
was giving the quilts to Maggie instead of Dee.

Note: Hesitation was no part of Dee's nature, unlike Maggie.

That's why Mama Johnson was the balancing force between
her daughters.

Note: Mama Johnson's ego shifts to the id unconsciously,

but when it shifts to the superego it shifts consciously.

Note: Ego ( Mama Johnson), bolstered by the superego (

Maggie ), has regulated the id ( Dee ).

Mythological and Archetypal Approaches:

Q\ Who is a Myth critic ?

A\ A myth critic is someone who's concerned to seek out those
mysterious elements that inform certain literary works and that
elicit, with almost uncanny force, dramatic and universal human
reactions. He also wishes to discover how certain works of
literature that are considered "Classics".

Q\ What do kind of works myth critics look for in literature ?

A\
1- They look for works with universal reactions.
2- They look for classics.

Note: "Classics" create images of reality.

Q\ Why classic works are considered "Classics" ?

A\ Because they talk about the universal human reaction.

Q\ What are the similarities between the Mythological and

Psychological approaches?
A\ They've one thing in common which is being concerned with
the motives that underline human behavior.

Q\ What are the differences between the Mythological and

Psychological approaches?
A\
1- Psychology tend to be experimental and diagnostic; it closely
relates to biological science (Psychology is scientific). Mythology
tends to be speculative and philosophical; its affinities are with
religion, anthropology, and cultural history (Mythology is
Philosophical).
2- Psychology cares about the individual personality. Mythology
cares about people or the society (Group of people)

Note: Mythology is wider in its scoop than Psychology.

Note: According to the common misconception and misuse of the

term, myths are merely primitive fictions, illusions, or opinions
based upon false reasoning.

- Some definitions of "Myth"

1- In William Blake's " The Politics of Vision" Myth is defined as " A

fundamental, dramatic representation of our deepest instinctual
life, of a primary awareness of man in the universe, capable of
many configurations, upon which all particular opinions and
attitudes depend"

2- According to Alan W. Watts, "Myth is to be defined as a

complex of stories-some no doubt fact, and some fantasy-which,
for various reasons, human beings regard as demonstrations of
the inner meaning of the universe and of human life"

Note: Myths have values depending on our way of thinking

Note: Myths are by nature collective and communal; they bind a

tribe or a nation together in common psychological and spiritual
activities.
3- "Myth is the expression of a profound sense of togetherness of
feeling and of action and of wholeness of living"

4- Myth is a dynamic factor everywhere in human society; it

transcends time, uniting the past (traditional modes of belief)
with the present (current values) and reaching toward the future
(spiritual and cultural aspirations).

Some Examples Of Archetype ( Page 184 )

Q\ (1)What does Archetype mean ? (2) And how does it relate to

myth ?

A\ (1) Archetypes are universal symbols with meanings. (2) Myths

take their specific shapes from the cultural environments in which
they grow-myth is, in the general sense, universal

Images (Page 185)

Note: These meanings below are all universal.

Water: the mystery of creation; birth-death-resurrection;

purification and redemption; fertility and growth. According to
Jung, water is also the commonest symbol for the unconscious.

a. The sea: the mother of all life; spiritual mystery and infinity;
death and rebirth; timelessness and eternity, the unconscious.

b. Rivers: death and rebirth (baptism); the flowing of time into

eternity; transitional phases of the life cycle; incarnations of
deities.
Sun (fire and sky are closely related): creative energy; law in
nature; consciousness (thinking, enlightenment, wisdom, spiritual
vision); father principle (moon and earth tend to be associated
with female or mother principle); passage of time and life.

a. Rising sun: birth; creation; enlightenment.

b. Setting sun: death

Note: Sun is the father Principle, Earth is the mother Principle,

Moon is Female.

Colors

a. Red: blood, sacrifice, violent passion; disorder.

b. Green: growth; sensation; hope; fertility; in negative context

may be associated with death and decay.

c. Blue: usually highly positive, associated with truth, religious

feeling, security, spiritual purity (the color of the Great Mother or
Holy Mother).

d. Black (darkness): chaos, mystery the unknown; death; primal

wisdom; the unconscious; evil; melancholy.

e. White: highly multivalent, signifying, in its positive aspects,

light, purity, innocence, and timelessness; in its negative aspects,
death, terror, the supernatural, and the blinding truth of an
inscrutable cosmic mystery.
Circle (sphere): wholeness, unity.

Yang-yin: a Chinese symbol representing the union of the

opposite forces of the yang (masculine principle, light, activity, the
conscious mind) and the yin (female principle, darkness, passivity,
the unconscious).

Note: The Yang-yin means that nothing is completely white nor

completely black.

Serpent (snake, worm): symbol of energy and pure force (cf.

libido); evil, corruption, sensuality; destruction; mystery; wisdom;
the unconscious.

The Archetypal Woman (Great Mother-the mysteries of life,

death, transformation); the female principle associated with the
moon

a. The Good Mother (positive aspects of the Earth Mother):

associated with the life principle, birth, warmth, nourishment,
protectiory fertility, growth, abundance (for example, Demeter,
Ceres).

b. The Terrible Mother (including the negative aspects of the

Earth Mother): the witch, sorceress, siren, whore, lamia, femme
fatale-associated with sensuality, sexual orgies, fear, danger,
darkness, dismemberment, emasculatory death; the unconscious
in its terrifying aspects.
c. The Soul Mate: the Sophia figure, Holy Mother, the princess or
"beautiful lady"-incarnation of inspiration and spiritual fulfillment

The demon lover (the male counterpart of the Terrible Mother):

the devil, Satan, Dracula (cf. Blake's "The Sick Rose" and the
Jungian animus).

Important Note: A male's soul mate is called "anima". Female's

soul mate is called " animus "

The Wise Old Man (savior, redeemer, guru): personification of the

spiritual principle, representing "knowledge, reflection, insight,
wisdom, cleverness, and intuition on the one hand, and on the
other, moral qualities such as goodwill and readiness to help,
which make his 'spiritual' character sufficiently plain. Apart from
his cleverness, wisdom, and insight, the old man is also notable
for his moral qualities. The old man always appears when the hero
is in a hopeless and desperate situation from which only profound
reflection or a lucky idea.

Garden: paradise; innocence; unspoiled beauty (especially

feminine); fertility.

Tree: "In its most general sense, the symbolism of the tree
denotes life of the cosmos: its consistence, growth, proliferation,
generative and regenerative processes. It stands for inexhaustible
life, and is therefore equivalent to a symbol of immortality".

Desert: spiritual aridity; death; nihilism, hopelessness.

Mountain: aspiration and inspiration; meditation and spiritual
elevation. "The mountain stands for the goal of the pilgrimage
and ascent, hence it often has the psychological meaning of the
self"

Jungian Psychology and its Archetypal Insights:

Quick note: The "J " in the name " Jung " is spelled "ya". So it's
pronounced "Yung"

Note: The second major influence on mythological criticism is the

work of C. G. Jung.

Note: Jung was once Freud's student, but he broke with Freud
because he regarded Freud's psychological approach as too
narrow and too negative.

Note: Jung is not merely a derivative or secondary figure; he is a

major influence in the growth of myth criticism. He provided the
term "Archetype”

Note: Jung believed that libido ( Psychic Energy ) to be more

psychic than sexual opposing to what Freud said.
Note: Jung was careful to explain that "archetypes" are not
inherited ideas or patterns of thought, but rather that they are
predispositions to respond in similar ways to certain stimuli.

Note: Jung said that archetypes are images that are passed down
from one generation to another.

Q\ What are the special archetypes mentioned by Jung ?

A\
1- Shadow
2- Anima
3- Persona

Q\ What is "Individuation" ?

A\ Is a psychological growing up, the process of discovering those

aspects of one's self that make one an individual different from
the others. Individuation is essentially a process of recognition.

Note: Individuation doesn't talk about the physical growth, it talks

about the mental growth.

Important Note: A mature individual must consciously recognize

the various aspects of himself both the favorable and the
unfavorable.
Q\ What does Individuation focus on ?

A\
1- It focuses on the idea of growing up psychologically.
2- It focuses on recognizing who we are.

Q\ According to Jung, how is it possible to tell that a person is

psychologically mature or not ?

A\ For that person to be psychologically mature is for him to have

conscious to what's favorable and unfavorable to him.

Note: Self recognition requires extraordinary courage and

honesty.

Q\ What is "Projection" ?

A\ Projection is an "unconscious, automatic process whereby a

content that is unconscious to the subject transfers itself to an
object, so it seems like it belongs to that object.

Note: The habit of projection is reflected in the attitude that”

everybody is out of step but me" or " I'm the only honest person
in the crowd”
Q\ When are we psychologically imbalanced?

A\ We're Psychologically imbalanced when we don't admit the

bad qualities about us consciously. For example, a person who lies
a lot would be psychologically imbalanced if he\she didn't admit
to themselves that they do actually lie a lot.

Note: If someone is having a bad quality and is refusing to admit

that to himself, he will take this bad quality and drop down on
people accusing them of having it but not him. This is an easy way
out for him to escape judging himself or being judged by others.

Note: The shadow, the persona, and the anima are structural
components of the psyche that human beings have inherited.

Q\ What is the shadow?

A\ The shadow is the darker side of our unconscious self, the

inferior and less pleasing aspects of the personality, which we
wish to suppress.

Note: The shadow is the invisible saurian ( reptilian ) tail that man
still drags behind him ( It's like we hide it in the back of our
minds).

Note: The shadow represents the dangerous aspect of the

unrecognized dark half personality.
Q\ Give two symbolic representations of the shadow archetype
from works of literature :

A\
1- Milton's Satan in "Paradise Lost"
2- Shakespeare's Iago in "Othello"

Note: The anima is perhaps the most complex of Jung's

archetypes.

Q\ What is the anima ?

A\ It's the soul image, the spirit of a man's élan vital, his life force
or vital energy. Anima is the living thing in a man, that which lives
if itself and causes life.

Q\ What is animus?

A\ It's the female psyche of the archetype of anima.

Important Note: anima is the soul mate for a male, and animus is
the soul mate of a female.

Note: anima is the contrasexual part of a man's psyche, the image

of the opposite sex that he carries in both his personal and his
collective unconscious. As an old German proverb puts it, "Every
man has his own Eve within him"
Note: The phenomenon of love, especially love at first sight, may
be explained at least in part by Jung's theory of the anima, we
tend to be attracted to members of the opposite sex who mirror
the characteristics of our own inner selves.

Note: Your soulmate is within you ( It reflects who you are and
what you want ). So, when you find someone of the opposite sex
who reflects your soulmate, then you would find that person
attractive and would fall in love with the person.

Q\ Give two symbolic representations of the anima archetype

from works of literature :

A\
1- Helen of Troy.
2- Milton's Eve.

Important Note: The anima is a kind of mediator between the ego

(the conscious will or thinking self) and the unconscious or inner
world of the male individual.

Note: The persona is the obverse of the anima in that it mediates

between our ego and the external world.

Note: The anima is the inner self in us, the persona is the visible
side of our persona.

Q\ What is the persona ?

A\ The persona is the actor's mask that we show to the world-it is

our social personality, a personality that is sometimes quite
different from our true self.
Important Note: To be psychologically mature, the mask you put
on socially must be in harmony with who you really are.

Note: People who play other characters ( by not being

themselves) go through some disturbance as irritability and
melancholy.

"Everyday Use": The Great [Grand] Mother

Note: No modern short story more clearly dramatizes the

archetypal female as Great Mother ( Mama Johnson) than does
Alice Walker's brilliant tour de force.

Note: In this story, the archetypal woman manifests herself as

both Good Mother and Earth Mother. True to her nature, the
Good Mother is appropriately associated with the life principle.
She is also an anadromous figure, combining the natural strengths
of female and male. Further in keeping with her archetypal
nature, the Good Mother is associated with such life-enhancing
virtues as warmth, nourishment, growth, and protection.

Note: as the story opens, it is her function to preserve the natural

order of things, including tradition and her family heritage. The
central symbol in the story is a nice combination of metonymy
and symbol-the quilts, associated with warmth and signifying the
family heritage ( the quilts).

Note: For the Good Mother, hers is always a living heritage, a vital
tradition of "Everyday Use." Dee, the daughter and antagonist,
has broken that tradition.
Note: For Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo (a.k.a. "Dee" ), on the
contrary, tradition is an essentially useless thing, heritage
something inert to be framed and hung on the wall as mere
ornament, as artificial and pretentious as her new name and her
new prince consort "Hakim-abarber".

FEMINISMS AND FEMINIST LITERARY CRITICISM:

DEFINITIONS ( Page 222 ):

Note: No longer is feminism presumed to have a single set of

assumptions, and it is definitely no longer merely the "ism" of
white, educated, bourgeois, heterosexual Anglo-American
women, as it once seemed to be.

Note: Feminism doesn't have a single set of assumptions. There're

different values and movements to it.

Note: Evolution of feminism into feminisms has fostered a more

inclusive, global perspective.

Note: Feminism has often focused upon what is absent rather

than what is present, reflecting concern with the silencing and
marginalization of women in a " Patriarchal Culture"
Q\ What is the " Patriarchal Culture " ?
A\ It's a culture that is organized in the favor of men.

Q\ What is Feminism ?
A\ Feminism is an overtly political approach that attacks other
approaches for their false assumptions about women.

Note: There're lots of feminism writers like Mary Wollstonecraft

and her daughter Mary Shelley, George Eliot, Charlotte Perkins
Gilman, and Virginia Woolf.

Note: The twentieth century women movement included the

writings of Simone de Beauvoir, Kate Millett, and Betty Friedan,
who examined a female "self" constructed in literature by male
authors to embody various male fears and anxieties.

Note: Feminists attacked male writers for using women wrongly in

their literary works.

Q\ What is woman, and how is she constructed differently from

men ?
A\ She's constructed differently *by* men.
Note: The thesis that men write about women to find out more
about men has had long-lasting implications, especially the idea
that man defines the human, not woman.

Note: Friedan, a feminist critic, demystified the dominant image

of the happy American suburban housewife and mother.

Q\ What did Friedan ask for ?

A\ Friedan called for:
1- She called for enforcement of equal rights.
2- She asked to put an end to sex discrimination.

Note: Friedan also analyzed reductive images of women in

American magazines. For example, when a company is trying to
sell a car, they use a beautiful women in the advertisement to
attract attention.

Q\ What was the first wildly read work of feminist literary

criticism ?
A\ Millett's "Sexual Politics" (1970)

Note: Millett included critiques of capitalism, male power, crude

sexuality, and violence against women. She argued that male
writers distort women by associating them with (male) deviance.
Q\ What's the difference between Gender & Sex ?
A\
1- Gender is the cultural image. ( How culture creates the image
of both men & women ). For example, there's a cultural image
that women should stay at home, and that men should work and
provide.

2- Sex is the biological and physical aspect of the body ( being a

male or a female ).

Note: As women have been re-read in works by male writers,

feminists have promoted the underappreciated work of women
authors, and the writings of many women have been
rediscovered, reconsidered, and collected in large anthologies.

Note: Other critics such as Elaine Showalter, Annette Kolodny,

Sandra Gilbert, and Susan Gubar questioned cultural, sexual,
intellectual, and/or psychological stereotypes about women and
their literatures using both essentialist and constructivist models.

Note: The focus upon the silencing and oppressing of women gave
way to deeper interrogations of what a history of women's
oppression meant. "Was 'woman' something to be escaped from
or into ?"
WOMAN: CREATED OR CONSTRUCTED ( Page 224 )

Important Q\ Elaine Showalter has identified three phases of

modern women's literary development, what are they ?

A\
1- The Feminine Phase (1840 - 1880)
2- The Feminist Phase (1880 - 1920)
3- The Female Phase (1920 - present day)

Q\ What is the feminine phase ?

A\ It's the phase in which women writers "imitated" the dominate
male traditions.

Q\ Why did the women in the feminine phase imitate male

writers?
A\ Because they were still a minority and weren't as strong as the
next phases.

Q\ What is the feminist phase?

A\ It's the phase when women advocated for their rights.
Q\ What's the female phase ?
A\ It's the phase when dependency upon opposition-that is, on
uncovering misogyny in male texts-is replaced by the rediscovery
of women's texts and women.

Q\ What is women's literature?

A\ "an imaginative continuum [of] certain patterns, themes,
problems, and images, from generation to generation"

Q\ Within the present or "female" phase, Showalter describes

four current "models of difference" taken up by many feminists
around the world, what are they ?
A\
1- Biological
2- Linguistic
3- Psychoanalytic
4- Cultural

Q\ What is the biological model ?

A\ It's the most problematic: if the text can be said in some way to
mirror the body, then does that reduce women writers merely to
bodies? Yet Showalter praises the often shocking frankness of
women writers who relate the intimacies of the female
experience of the female body.

Q\ What is the linguistic model ?

A\ It's the model which l asserts that women are speaking men's
language as a foreign tongue; purging language of "sexism" is not
going far enough.

Note: feminist critics see the very act of speaking-and of having a

language-as a victory for women within a silencing patriarchal
culture.

Note: The text can be male or female depending on the author.

Q\ Do men and women speak the same language?

A\ No, male language isn't the same as female language. When
women use men's language, it sounds foreign because this
language doesn't reflect them.

Q\ Tillie Olsen, a feminist, demands to hear women's voices

despite impediments, why?
A\ Because it derives their creativity.
Q\ What are the things that do arise silences in women ?
A\ They're "circumstances" like:
1- Class
2- Race
3- Sex
4- Being denied education
5- Becoming numbed by economic struggle
6- Muzzled by censorship
7- Distracted or impeded by the demands of nurturing.

Note: women's deployment of silence can also be "resistance to

the dominant discourse"

Q\ Though women writers may have to use "male" language,

feminist critics have identified sex-related writing strategies, what
are they ?
A\
1- The use of associational rather than linear logic.
2- Free play of meaning.
3- Lack of Closure.
4- Genre preference such as letters, journals, confessional,
domestic, and body-centered discourse.

Important Note: Showalter has observed, "English feminist

criticism, essentially Marxist, stresses opposition; French feminist
criticism, essentially psychoanalytic, stresses repression;
American feminist criticism, essentially textual, stresses
expression."

Q\ All three ( English, French, and American feminists) being

woman-centered or "gynocentric", had to try something, what is
it ?
A\ They tried to rescue themselves from becoming synonym for
inferiority.

Q\ What's the psychoanalytic model ?

A\ It's the model that identifies gender difference in the psyche
and also in the artistic process.

Q\ What's the cultural model ?

A\ It's the model that places feminist concerns in social contexts,
acknowledging class, racial, national, and historical differences
and determinants among women. It also offers a collective
experience that unites women over time and space-a "binding
force".

Important Note: Today, it seems that two general tendencies, one

emphasizing Showalter's biological, linguistic, and psychoanalytic
models ( The Essentialist ), and the other emphasizing Showalter's
cultural model ( The Constructivist ), account for most feminist
theories.
Note: The essentialist is biological, linguistic, and psychoanalytic.

Q\ What does the essentialist do ?

A\ it inherits feminine traits-whether from "biology, language, or
psychology" that have been undervalued, misunderstood, or
exploited by a patriarchal culture because the genders are quite
different.

Note: These theories focus on "sexual difference and sexual

politics" and are often aimed at defining or establishing a feminist
literary canon or re-interpreting and re-visioning literature (and
culture and history and so forth) from a less patriarchal slant.

Q\ What does the constructivist do ?

A\ It asks women (and men) to consider what it means to be a
woman/ to consider how much of what society has often deemed
to be inherently female traits are in fact culturally and socially
constructed.

Note: The constructative is cultural.

Important Note: For the constructivist the feminine and gender
itself are made by culture in history and are not "eternal norms" (
They're not fixed, they'll keep changing )

Note: It is easy to see how constructivist feminism helped give rise

to gender studies, the framing of all gender categories as cultural
instead of biological. It is also clear that such fluidity of definition
has links in post structuralist and post modernist thinking in
general.

Multicultural Feminisms:

Note: Among the most prominent of feminist minorities are

women of color and lesbians. These feminists practice what is
sometimes called identity politics, based upon essential
differences from white, heterosexual, "mainstream" society,
hence their inclusion here as essentialists.

Note: Women of color (black, red, yellow) have different issues

compared to white women like "oppression"
Note: feminists of many different groups, including Latina and
Chicana feminists, Asian American feminists, and Native American
feminists all have their own particular sets of cultural issues.

Note: It is fair to say that "minority" feminisms share in both

essentialist and constructivist views; that is, whereas ethnic
difference is a fact to be celebrated, feminists of color recognize
the ways women and race are both constructs in society.

Q\ Who are the feminists that are considered minority?

A\ Women of color and lesbians.

Note: Like lesbian feminists, black feminists argue that they face
additional layers of the patriarchy that discourage their "coming
out".

Note: Black feminists have accused their white sisters of wishing

merely to become rewarded members of the patriarchy at the
expense of nonwhite women. That is, they say that the majority of
feminists want to become members of the power structure,
counted as men and sharing in the bounties of contemporary
capitalist culture, equal wages, childcare, or other accepted social
"rights".
Note: A black or lesbian feminist might see a heterosexual white
woman as having more in common with men than with other
women of different ethnicities and classes

Note: Black feminists believe that even white feminists are more
superior to them just like men. Lesbian black feminists also
believe that straight black feminists are more superior to them.

Note: The term "black feminist" is problematic. Alice Walker,

author of The Color Purple (1982), disputes the term feminist as
applied to black women; she writes that she has replaced feminist
with womanist.

Q\ What is a womanist?
A\ A womanist is a black woman who doesn't turn her back on
black men of her community.

Note: Alice was criticized by black critics after " The Color Purple "
movie was released because she portrayed black men as ruthless
and violent people, and this goes against what she meant by
being a womanist.

Note: in "Everyday use," Walker identifies black female creativity

from earlier generations in such folk arts as quilting, music, and
gardening.
Marxist Feminism:

Note: Perhaps the most significant source of constructivist

(cultural) feminism is Marxism, especially its focus upon the
relations between reading and other social constructions.

Q\ How do both feminism and Marxist Feminism relate to each

other ?
A\
1- Feminism is about being equal to men.
2- Marxist Feminism is about being equal both socially and
economically (when it comes to classes).

Note: Karl Marx argued that all historical and social developments
are determined by the forms of economic production.

Note: Marxist feminists have attacked the "classist" values of the

prevailing capitalist society of the West as the world also
gradually becomes " globalized." Marxist feminists do not
separate "personal" identity from class identity.

Note: Our money creates and decides our class in society.

Note: There're feminists in both the high and low classes, and this
is a problem to them because feminists of the high class aren't the
same as feminists of the lower classes.

Gender Studies:

Q\ What is "Gender Studies" about ?

A\ Gender studies examine how gender is less determined by

"nature" than it's by "culture".

Note: Gender studies refer to how we're portrayed by our culture

and not biologically.

Feminism in Practice ( Everyday Use ):

Note: "Everyday Use" is about the everyday lives of women past

and present, encircled by family and culture, and especially about
the contemporary experiences of different generations of African
American women.
Note: The quilt in the story is an emblem of American women's
culture, as it is an object of communal construction and female
harmony.

Note: The quilt's design mirrors the most everyday but profound
concerns of all women, like marriage, family, children, love. Like
much of women's art it is nonlinear, nonhierarchical, intimate.

Note: The quilt is about bonding, like a daughter with her mother,
a woman with another woman, domestic-aesthetic, and so on.

Note: Walker identifies the quilt as one of the traditional art forms
of African American women, along with gospel singing and
gardening, that "kept alive" the creativity of black women
"century after century." African American women slaves were
"the mule[s] of the world," but also "creators"

Q\ "Everyday Use" contains women of all three cycles of history,

talk about them:
A\
1- Maggie inhabits the first cycle and does not know her worth;
her mother says she walks like "a lame animal, perhaps a dog run
over by some careless person rich enough to own a car.
2- Dee inhabits the second cycle. Though she seems to reject
white society, she fails to appreciate her own heritage until it
becomes fashionable to do so. Though her mother applauds Dee's
personal strength, she is saddened by her embarrassment at
Maggie, at herself, and at her home.

3- The mother is the inhabitant of the third cycle. Though

ironically the oldest person in the story, prefigures the women of
Walker's third cycle in her "self-reliance and firm sense of
correctness to her past". As an older woman, she is in a position
within her little community to pass along her wisdom to Maggie
and Dee, women of the first and second cycles, and in being such
a person she seems fresh, modern, and believable.

Note: When the mother suddenly snatches the disputed quilt

away from Dee and gives it to Maggie, she rejects Dee's
stereotypes and reaffirms her own identity.

Note: Walker has made a conscious choice in this story to use only
women; all the men are dead, absent, unnamed (we never do find
out what Dee's boyfriend is really named).

Important Note: Maggie is seen as the "arisen goddess” of

Walker's story; she is the sacred figure who bears the
scarifications of experience and knows how to convert patches
into robustly patterned and beautifully quilted wholes".
Connecting Maggie's understated feminine power with that of
African goddesses of creativity and regeneration. Maggie's
humility and sense of beauty ("just enjoying") make her the
innocent in the story; her quiet femininity is upheld in the end
when her mother takes her side.

Note: Walker is part of Dee. Dee tells her mother that she just
"doesn't understand," but she comes off to most readers as the
one who fails to understand. Dee is very bossy, a fact which helps
reveal her hypocrisy, and there is a hint that she may have been
the one who set the house on fire when Maggie was burned.

Note: Dee is selfish and pretentious. But we must also recognize

her as an example of what most of the girls who grew up with her
could only dream of: she is the black feminist's ideal.

Q\ Why is Dee considered to be a black feminist ideal ?

A\ Because she's a woman who made a success of herself despite
enormous odds. She has managed to move to the city, get an
education, and get a good job. She is politically involved. She has
many friends. She is the future.

Note: Walker's feelings towards Dee are mixed, as they were with
Maggie.
Note: At the end of "Everyday Use," Dee has accepted the
"things" but not the "spirit" of heritage. She has allowed heritage
to become "abstraction rather than a living idea," has
subordinated people to artifacts, and has elevated culture above
community.

Note: Dee is defeated, but to assert only that would be to miss the
deeper point of the story, which is to redefine black feminism in
terms that will reconcile :Dee's aspiration" with "Maggie's
traditionalism". Their mother is the bridge that connects past and
future.

Note: The narrator of the story is the sort of woman who brings to
mind what Walker has elsewhere called Womanism as opposed
to Feminism.

Q\ In an epigraph "In Search of Our Mothers Gardens", Walker

offers four definitions of Womanist. What are they ?
A\

1- First, it is "a black feminist or feminist of color." She explains

the derivation from "womanish".
 2- Second, the term refers to "a woman who loves other
women/ sexually and/or nonsexual", who appreciates and
prefers women's culture, women's emotional flexibility, and
women's strength.

3- Third, the Womanist Loves music. Loves dance. Loves the

moon. Loves the Spirit. Loves love and food and roundness.
Loves struggle. Loves the Folk. Loves herself ( she loves life ).

4- Forth, Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender (

Womanism is a shade of feminism ).

Q\ What is the meaning of “Womanish”

A\ It’s a black folk expression mothers might use to warn female

children who are courageous, audacious, or willful; who want to
know more than what is good for them or want to grow up too
soon.

Cultural studies:

Q\ What is cultural studies?

A\ Cultural studies is not a tightly coherent, unified movement
with a fixed agenda, but a loosely coherent group of tendencies,
issues, and questions. "cultural studies" is not so much a discrete
approach at all, but rather a set of practices.

Note: Cultural studies is composed of elements of Marxism,

poststructuralism and postmodernism, feminism, gender studies,
anthropology, sociology, race and ethnic studies, film theory,
urban studies, public policy, popular culture studies, and
postcolonial studies.

Q\ What are the four goals of cultural studies?

A\ Cultural studies, share four goals:

1- Cultural studies transcends the confines of a particular

discipline such as literary criticism or history.
Cultural studies is not necessarily about literature in the
traditional sense or even about "art." In their introduction to
Cultural Studies. The intellectual promise of cultural studies
lies in its attempts to across social and political interests and
address many of the struggles within the current scene.

2- Cultural studies is politically engaged. Cultural critics see

themselves as "oppositional," not only within their own
disciplines but to many of the power structures of society at
large.
They question inequalities within power structures and seek
 to discover models for restructuring relationships among
dominant and "minority" or "subaltern" discourses.

3- Cultural studies denies the separation of "high' and "low" or

elite and popular culture.
Cultural critics argue that after World War II the distinctions
among high, low, and mass culture collapsed. Cultural critics
today work to transfer the term culture to include mass
culture.

4- Cultural studies analyzes not only the cultural work, but also
the means of production.
Cultural studies thus joins subjectivity-that is, culture in
relation to individual lives-with engagement, a direct
approach to attacking social ills.

TYPES OF CUTTURAL STUDIES:

1- British Cultural Materialism:

Note: Cultural studies is referred to as "cultural materialism" in

Britain, and it has a long tradition. Culture or civilization, taken in
its widest ethnographic sense, is a complex whole which includes
knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other
capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.

Note: In modern Britain, two trajectories for "culture" developed:

A- One led back to the past and the feudal hierarchies that
ordered community in the past

B- The other trajectory led toward a future, socialist utopia that

would annul the distinction between labor and leisure
classes and make transformation of status, not fixity, the
norm.

Note: Ideology was ultimately in control of the people, that "the

main function of ideology is to reproduce the society's existing
relations of production, and that that function is even carried out
in literary texts."

2- New Historicism:

Note: New historicism concerns itself with extra literary matters-

letters, diaries, films, paintings, medical treatises-looking to reveal
opposing historical tensions in a text.
Note: New historicists seek "surprising coincidences" that may
cross generic, historical, and cultural lines in borrowings of
metaphor, ceremony, or popular culture.

Note: New historians see such cross-cultural phenomena as texts

in themselves. they derived the importance of immersion in a
culture to understand its "deep" ways, as opposed to distanced
observation.

Note: New historicists developed the idea of a broad "totalizing"

function of culture observable in its literary texts.

3- American Multiculturalism:

Note: The evolving identities in the USA of racial and ethnic

groups have not only claimed a place in the mainstream of
American life, but have challenged the very notion of "race," more
and more seen by social scientists as a construct invented by
whites to assign social status and privilege, without scientific
relevance.

Note: Without biological criteria "race" is arbitrary.

Note: Race is still a critical feature of American life, full of
contradictions and ambiguities; it is at once the greatest source of
social conflict and the richest source of cultural development in
America.

4- African American Writers:

Note: African American studies is widely pursued in American

literary criticism.

Note: This seems too obvious to mention today, when American

arts, fashion, music, and so much besides is based upon African
American culture.

Note: African American writing often displays a folkloric

conception of humankind; a "double consciousness".

Note: The elevation of black folk culture to art is important, and it

led to divisions among black artists.
Postmodernism, Popular Culture, and Postcolonial
Studies:

1- Postmodernism:

Note: Postmodernism is defined as a critique of the aesthetics of

the preceding age, but besides mere critique, postmodernism
celebrates the very act of dismembering tradition.

Note: Postmodernism questions everything rationalist European

philosophy held to be true.

Note: Postmodernism borrows from modernism disillusionment

with the givens of society.

Note: Whereas modernism still seeks a rational meaning in a

work of art, postmodemism explores the provisionally and
irrationality of art.

Note: Postmodernism is characterized by "incredulity toward

metanarratives" that serve to mask the contradictions and
instabilities inherent social organization.
 2- Popular Culture:

Note: Critics examine such cultural media as pulp fiction, comic

books, television, film, advertising, popular music, and computer
cyber culture, and more. They assess how such factors as
ethnicity, race, gender, class, age, region, and sexuality are
shaped by and reshaped in popular culture.

Important Note: There are four main types of popular culture

analyses: (1) Production analysis, (2) Textual analysis, (3) Audience
analysis, and (4) Historical analysis. These analyses seek to get
beneath the surface (denotative) meanings and examine more
implicit (connotative) social meanings:

A- Production analysis asks the following kinds of questions:

Who owns the media? Who creates texts and why? Under
what constraints? How democratic or elitist is the
production of popular culture? What about works written
only for money?

B- Textual analysis examines how specific works of popular

culture create meanings.
 C- Audience analysis asks how different groups of popular
culture consumers, or users, make similar or different sense
of the same texts.

D- Historical analysis investigates how these other three

dimensions change over time.

3- Postcolonial Studies:

Note: Postcolonialism refers to a historical phase undergone by

Third World countries after the decline of colonialism.

Note: Many Third World writers focus on both colonialism and the
changes created in a postcolonial culture.

Note: Among the many challenges facing postcolonial writers are

the attempts both to (1) resurrect their culture and to (2)combat
the preconceptions about their culture.

Note: Postcolonial critics accordingly study diasporic texts outside

the usual Western genres, especially productions by aboriginal
authors, marginalized ethnicities, immigrants, and refugees.