EL110 Modules

EL109 LITERARY CRITICISM
CHAPTER 1: Literature and Literary Theory
Objectives:
a.) Differentiate literature to literary theory.

b.) Justify how it relates to each other.
 Traditionally, literature is
regarded as a homogenous
body of works with similar
characteristics which are
read in similar ways by an
undifferentiated audience.
 Today with the impact of
literary theory to the study of literature, the latter is seen as an area in a state of
flux.
 Literature, as a body of writing together with its moral and aesthetic qualities, can
be seen as a site of struggle where meanings are contested rather than regarded
as something possessing timeless and universal values and truths.
 Literary theories can offer various ways of reading, interpreting, and analyzing
literature.
 These theories do not offer any easy solutions as to what literature is, or what its
study should be, but this should not be taken as a negative feature.
 These theories aim to explain or demystify some of the assumptions or beliefs
implicit in literature and literary criticism.
Literary Criticism and Literary Theory
 Literary criticism involves the reading, interpretation, and commentary of a

specific text or texts which have been designated as literature.
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 Two conventions or assumptions which tend to be inherent in its practice

are: a.) that criticism is secondary to literature itself and dependent on it
and b.) That critical interpretations or judgments seem to assume that the
literary text which they are addressing is unquestionably literature.
 If literary criticism involves the reading , analysis , explication , and
interpretation of texts which are designated as literary , then literary theory
should do two things : a.) it ought to provide the readers with a range of
criteria for identifying literature in the first place , and an awareness of
these criteria should inform critical practice ; and b.) It should make us
aware of the methods and procedures which we employ in the practice of
literary criticism , so that we not only interrogate the text , but also the
ways in which we read and interpret the text .
 Literary criticism is best u as the application of a literary theory to specific
texts.
 Literary criticism also involves the understanding and appreciation of
literary texts.
 Two primary questions of literary criticism are: a.) why does a piece of
literature have the precise characteristics that it has? (How does it work?)
And b.) What is the value of literature?
 Any literary theory has to account for
a.) The nature of representation in the text;
b.) The nature of reality and its relation to
representation;
c.) How the representation of reality is
accomplished or subverted and denied; and
d.) What conventions or codes particular writers,
literary schools or periods might employ to
achieve representation.
 Literary theory also addresses questions of what
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makes literary language literary, as well as the structures of literary

language and literary texts, and how these work.
 Literary theory is also concerned with the study of the function of the
literary text in social and cultural terms, which in turn leads to a
construction of its value.
DEVELOPMENTAL IN LITERARY THEORY AND THE PRACTICE OF LITERARY

CRITISICM
Most criticism prior to the 1950's could be described as author-centered. In the
1950's, a number of critics argued that attention should be focused primary on the
literary work and not the author. They suggested that the critics’ main concern was with
the language and form of the text being read not with the author. More recently, a
number of theorists have introduced the literary theory known as' reader theory' or
'reception theory'. This focuses on the reader as the central figure in the reading and
critical process.
Schools of Literary Theory
Listed below are some of the most commonly

identified schools of literary theory, along with their
major authors. In many cases, such as those of the
historian and philosopher Michel Foucault and the
anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, the authors were
not primarily literary critics, but their work has been
broadly influential in literary theory.
Aestheticism – often associated with Romanticism, a philosophy defining aesthetic

value as the primary goal in understanding literature. This includes both literary critics
who have tried to understand and/or identify aesthetic values and those like Oscar
Wilde who have stressed art for art’s sake.
 Oscar Wilde, Walter Pater, Harold Bloom
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Cognitive Cultural Studies – applies research in cognitive neuroscience, cognitive

evolutionary psychology and anthropology, and philosophy of mind to the study of
literature and culture
 Frederick Luis Aldama, Mary Thomas Crane, Nancy Easterlin, William Flesch,
David Herman, Suzanne Keen, Patrick Colm Hogan, Alan Richardson, Ellen
Spolsky, Blakey Vermeule, Lisa Zunshine
Cultural studies – emphasizes the role of literature in everyday life
 Raymond Williams, Dick Hebdige, and Stuart Hall (British Cultural Studies); Max
Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno; Michel de Certeau; also Paul Gilroy, John
Guillory
Darwinian literary studies – situates literature in the context of evolution and natural
selection
Deconstruction – a strategy of “close” reading that elicits the ways that key terms and
concepts may be paradoxical or self-undermining, rendering their meaning undecidable.
 Jacques Derrida, Paul de Man, J. Hillis Miller, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Gayatri
Spivak, Avital Ronell
Gender (see feminist literary criticism) – which emphasizes themes of gender
relations
 Luce Irigaray, Judith Butler, Hélène Cixous, Elaine Showalter
Formalism – a school of literary criticism and literary theory having mainly to do with
structural purposes of a particular text
German hermeneutics and philology
 Friedrich Schleiermacher, Wilhelm Dilthey, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Erich
Auerbach, René Wellek
Marxism (see Marxist literary criticism) – which emphasizes themes of class conflict
 Georg Lukács, Valentin Voloshinov, Raymond Williams, Terry Eagleton, Fredric
Jameson, Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin
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Modernism
New Criticism – looks at literary works on
the basis of what is written, and not at the
goals of the author or biographical issues
 W. K. Wimsatt, F. R. Leavis, John
Crowe Ransom, Cleanth Brooks,
Robert Penn Warren
New Historicism – which examines the
work through its historical context and
seeks to understand cultural and intellectual history through literature
 Stephen Greenblatt, Louis Montrose, Jonathan Goldberg, H. Aram Veeser
Postcolonialism – focuses on the influences of colonialism in literature, especially
regarding the historical conflict resulting from the exploitation of less developed
countries and indigenous peoples by Western nations
 Edward Said, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Homi Bhabha and Declan Kiberd
Postmodernism – criticism of the conditions present in the twentieth century, often with
concern for those viewed as social deviants or the Other
 Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes, Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari and Maurice
Blanchot
Post-structuralism – a catch-all term for various theoretical approaches (such as
deconstruction) that criticize or go beyond Structuralism’s aspirations to create a
rational science of culture by extrapolating the model of linguistics to other discursive
and aesthetic formations
 Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva
Psychoanalysis– explores the role of consciousnesses and the unconscious in
literature including that of the author, reader, and characters in the text
 Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Harold Bloom, Slavoj Žižek, Viktor Tausk
Queer theory – examines, questions, and criticizes the role of gender identity and
sexuality in literature
 Judith Butler, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Michel Foucault
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Reader-response criticism – focuses upon the active response of the reader to a text
 Louise Rosenblatt, Wolfgang Iser, Norman Holland, Hans-Robert Jauss, Stuart
Hall
Structuralism and semiotics– examines the universal underlying structures in a text,
the linguistic units in a text and how the author conveys meaning through any structures
 Ferdinand de Saussure, Roman Jakobson, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Roland
Barthes, Mikhail Bakhtin, Yurii Lotman, Umberto Eco, Jacques Ehrmann,
Northrop Frye and morphology of folklore
Eco-criticism – explores cultural connections and human relationships to the natural
world
 Other theorists: Robert Graves, Alamgir Hashmi, John Sutherland, Leslie Fiedler,
Kenneth Burke, Paul Bénichou, Barbara Johnson, Blanca de Lizaur, Dr Seuss
For More Knowledge:. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEaVKFOac7E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKGcwY9TyNE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7ScmrdS068
Reference:
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/introliterature/chapter/introduction-to-critical-
theory/
https://iep.utm.edu/literary/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CLiterary%20theory%E2%80%9D%20is
%20the%20body,reveal%20what%20literature%20can%20mean.
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CHAPTER 2: SURVEY OF THE LITERARY THEORISTS/APPROACHES
Objectives:
a.) Analyze the components of classical literary theory.

b.) Evaluate literary texts on the context of the different approaches.
Classical Literary Theory - This theory is premised

in the idea that literature is an imitation of life. It is
interested in looking at literature based on:
 Mimesis (Plato) - Mimesis is the Greek word

for imitation. We try to see whether a piece of
literary work shows imitation of life or reality as
we know it. If it is, what is imitated? How is the
imitation done? Is it a good or bad imitation?
 Function (Horace) - Function refers to
whether a piece of literary work aims to entertain (Dulce) or to teach or to instruct
(utile).
 Style (Longinus) - Style refers to whether the literary work is written in a low,
middle, or high style. Longinus even suggested a fourth style which he called the
sublime.
 Catharsis (Aristotle) - Catharsis refers to purgation, purification, classification, or
structural kind of emotional cleansing. Aristotle’s view of catharsis involves
purging of negative emotions, like pity and fear.
 Censorship (Plato) - Censorship is an issue for Plato for literary works that show
bad mimesis. Literary works that show bad mimesis should be censored
according to Plato.
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Willy: ... The boys in?
Linda: They're sleeping. Happy took Biff on a date tonight.
Linda: It was so nice to see them shaving together, one behind the other, in the bathroom.
And going out together. You notice? The whole house smells of shaving lotion.
Willy: Figure it out. Work a lifetime to pay off a house. You finally own it, and there's nobody to
live in it.
Linda: Well, dear, life is a casting off. Its always that way.
Willy: No, no, some people accomplish something. Did biff say anything after I went this
morning?
Linda: You shoudn't have criticized him, Willy, especially after he just got of the train. You
mustn't lose your temper with him.
Willy: When the hell did I lose my temper? I simply asked him if he was making any money. Is
that a critisicm?
Linda: But, dear, how could he make any money.
Willy: (worried and angered) There's such an undercurrent in him. He became a moody man.
Fid he apologize when I left this morning?
Linda: He was crestfallen, Willy. You know how he admires you. I think if he finds himself,
then you'll be happier and not fight anymore.
Willy: How can he find himself on a farm? Is that a life? A farmhand? In the beginning when
he was young. I thought, well, a young man, its good for him to tramp around, take a lot of
different jobs. But its more than ten years now and he has yet to make thirty-five dollars a
week!
Linda: He's finding himself, Willy.
Willy: Not finding yourself at the age of thirty-four is a disgrace!
from Death of Salesman by Arthur Miller
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HISTORICAL-BIOGRAPHICAL AND MORAL- PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACHES
The Historical-Biographical Approach

sees a literary work chiefly, if not exclusively,
as a reflection of its author's life and times or
the life and times of the characters in the
work. A historical novel is likely to be more
meaningful when either its milieu or that of its
author is understood. James Fennimore
Coopers Last of the Mohicans Sir Walter
Scotts Ivanhoe, Charles Dickens's Tale of
Two Cities, and John Steinbeck’s Grapes of
Wrath are certainly better understood by readers familiar with respectively, the French
and Indian War (and the American frontier experience). Anglo-Norman Britain, the
French Revolution, and the American Depression.
The Moral Philosophical approach emphasizes that the larger function of the
literature is to teach morality and to probe philosophical issues. Literature is interpreted
within a context of philosophical thought of a period or group. Jean Paul Sartre and
Albert Camus can be read profitably only if one understands existentialism. Hawthorne's
Scarlet Letter is seen as a study of the effects of sin on human soul. Robert Frost's
"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" suggests that duty takes precedence over
beauty and pleasure.
This approach also uses Northrop Frye's assertion that literature consist of
variations on a great mythic theme that contains the following:
 the creation and life in paradise; garden
 displacement or banishment from paradise; alienation
 a time of trial and tribulation, usually a wandering; journey
 a self - discovery as a result of struggle; epiphany

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 a return to paradise; rebirth/resurrection
e.g.
Lam - ang - archetype of immortality
Superman in the movie Superman Returns - death and rebirth archetype
Ganoalf in The Lord of the Rings - wise old man archetype
Odysseus - hero of initiation
Aeneas - hero of the quest
Jesus Christ - sacrificial soupegoat
Structuralist Literary Theory- This theory draws from the linguistic theory of Ferdinand
de Saussaure. Language is a system or structure. Our perception of reality and hence
the ways we respond to it are dictated or constructed by the structure of the language
we speak.
This theory assumes that literature, as an artifact

or culture, is modeled on the structure of language. The
emphasis is on “how “a text means, instead of the "what"
of the American New Criticism. The structuralists argue
that the structure of language produces reality, and
meaning is no longer determined by the individual but by
the system which governs the individual. Structuralism
aims to identify the general principles of literary structure
and not to provide interpretations of individual texts
(Vladimir Propp and Tzvetan Todorov).
The structuralists approach to literature assumes three dimensions in the individual

literary texts:
 the text as a particular system or structure in itself ( naturalization of a text )
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 texts are unavoidably influenced by other texts , in terms of both their formal and
conceptual structures : part of the meaning of any text depends on its intertextual
relation to other texts
 the text is related to the culture as a whole ( binary oppositions )
Jabberwocky
Twas brillig , and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe ;
All mimsy were the borogoves ,
And the mome rathe outgrabe .
" Beware of the Jabberwock , my son !

The jaws that bite , the claws that catch !
Beware of the Jubjub bird ; and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch ! "
He took his vorpal sword in hand ;

Long time the manxome foe he sought
He rosted he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And , as in ultish thought he stood,

The Jabberwock , with eyes of flame ,
Came wniffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came !
One , two ! One , two ! And through and through

The vorpal blade want snicker - snack !
He left it dead , and with its head
He went galumphing back.
" And hast and slain the Jabberwock ?

Came to my arms , my beamish boy !
O frabjous d...y ! Callooh ! Callay ! "
He chorded in his joy
' Twas brillig , and the slithy toves "

Old gyre and gimble in the wabe ;
All mimsy were the borogoves ,
And the mome roths outgrabe .
- Lewis Carroll
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Deconstruction
This theory questions texts of all kinds and our common

practices in reading them∙ It exposes the gaps, the
incoherence, the contradictions in a discourse and how
a text undermines itself∙ the destructionist critic begins
by discerning a flaw in the discourse and the revealing
the hidden articulations∙
Destructing a text calls for careful reading and a bit of

creativity∙ The text says something other than what it appears to say∙ The belief is that
language always betrays its speaker(especially when there is a metaphor) ∙ A
deconstructive critic deals with the obviously major features ∙ The most important figure
in deconstruction is the
How to do deconstruction:
 Identify the oppositions in the text

 Determine which member appears to be favored or privileged and look for
evidence that contradicts that favoring or privileging∙
 Expose the text’s indeterminacy∙
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Prison
By Mila D. Aguilar
Prison is
a double wall
one of adobe
the other
so many layers
of barbed wire
both formidable.
The outer wall
is guarded
from watchtowers.
The other
is the prison
within,
where they will
hammer you
into the image
of their own likeness,
whoever they are.
For More Knowledge:. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjGHQmingfo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcEAPVFJS1M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDc8d8LiSwk
Reference:
theory/
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CHAPTER 3: LITERARY THEORIES
Objectives:
a.) Analyze the characteristics of literary theories mentioned.

b.) Criticize literary pieces based on the literary theories presented.
Russian Formalism
This theory stresses that art is

artificial and that a great deal of
acquired skill goes into it as
opposed to the old classical
maxim that true art conceals its
art∙ The Russian Formalists, led
by Viktor Shklovsky, aimed to establish a science of literature- a complete knowledge of
the formal effects (devices, techniques, etc.) Which together make up what is called
literature∙ The Formalists read literature to discover its literariness- to highlight the
devices and technical elements introduced by the writer in order to make language
literary∙
The key ideas in this theory are:
 Baring the device- this practice refers to the presentation of devices without any
realistic motivation- they are presented purely as devices∙ For example, fiction
operates by distorting time in various ways- foreshortening, skipping, expanding,
transposing, reversing, flashback and flash-forward, and so on∙
 Defamilairization- this means making strange∙ Everything must be dwell upon
and described as if for the first time∙ ordinary language encourages the
automatization of our perceptions and tends to diminish our awareness of reality∙
It simply confirms things as we know them (e.g. the leaves are fallings from the
trees; the leaves are green) ∙
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 Retardation of the narrative- the technique of delaying and protracting actions

Shklovsky draws attention to the ways in which familiar actions are
defamiliarized by being showed down, drawn out or interrupted∙ Digressions,
displacement of the parts or the book, and extended description are all devices to
make us attend to form∙
 Naturalization- refers to how we endlessly become inventive in finding ways of
making sense of the most random or chaotic utterances or discourse∙ We refuse
to allow a text to remain alien and stay outside our frames of reference- we insist
on naturalizing it∙
 Carnivalization-the term Mikhail Bakhtin uses to describe the shaping effect of
carnival on literary texts∙ The festivities associated with the Carnival are
collective and popular, hierarchies are turned on their heads(fools become wise,
kings become beggars); opposites are mingled (fact and fantasy, heaven and
hell); the sacred is profaned; the rigid or serious is subverted, mocked or
loosened∙
Marxist Literary Theory
This theory aims to explain literature in

relation to society- that literature can only be
properly understood within a larger framework
of social reality∙ Marxists believe that any
theory that treats in isolation (for instance, as
pure structure or as a product of the author’s
individual mental processes) and keeps it in
isolation, divorcing it from history and society,
will be deficient in its ability to explain what
literature is
Marxist literary critics start by looking at the structure of history and society and
than see whether the literary work reflects or distorts this structure∙ Literature must have
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a social dimensions- it exists in time and space; in history and society∙ A literary work
must speak to concerns that readers recognize as relevant to their lives∙
Marxist literary criticism maintains that a writer’s social class and its prevailing
‘Ideology’ outlook, values, tacit assumptions, etc∙) have a major bearing on what is
written by a member of the class∙ The writers are constantly formed by their social
contexts∙
Marxist Criticism
According to Marxists, and to other scholars in fact, literature reflects those social
institutions out of which it emerges and is itself a social institution with a particular
ideological function. Literature reflects class struggle and materialism: think how often
the quest for wealth traditionally defines characters. So Marxists generally view
literature "not as works created in accordance with timeless artistic criteria, but as
'products' of the economic and ideological determinants specific to that era" (Abrams
149). Literature reflects an author's own class or analysis of class relations, however
piercing or shallow that analysis may be.
The Marxist critic simply is a careful reader or viewer who keeps in mind issues of
power and money, and any of the following kinds of questions:
 What role does class play in the work; what is the author's analysis of class
relations?
 How do characters overcome oppression?
 In what ways does the work serve as propaganda for the status quo; or does it
try to undermine it?
 What does the work say about oppression; or are social conflicts ignored or
blamed elsewhere?
 Does the work propose some form of utopian vision as a solution to the problems
encountered in the work?
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The Farmer's Son
BY ALFREDO NAVARRO SALANGA
There is great power in reason

It comes like so much rain
Or like strong wind in a dry month
My father was bent

by work
his shoulders were bend
by words
in a contract
he never understood
While I was still

a young man
he send me off
to school
and bid me walk
with straight shoulders
Learn, he said
learn words
that you may pry off
these letters
that have made me
old and bent
I came back
many years later
with the words
I knew he wanted
but by then
it was too late
I listened to him
die with words:
you are lucky
to have learned words
they will keep you
from having bent shoulders
By his deathbed
I cried
and spat out
letter's while
my shoulders bent
with grief
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Feminist Criticism
This is a specific kind of political discourse;

a critical and theoretical practice committed to the
struggle against patriarchy and sexism∙ Broadly,
there are two kinds of feminist criticism: one is
concerned with unearthing, rediscovering or re-
evaluating women’s writing, and the other with re-
reading literature from the point of view of women∙
Feminist asks why women have played a subordinate role to men in the society It
is concerned with how women’s lives have changed throughout history and what about
women’s experience is different from men∙
Feminist literary criticism studies literature by women for how it addresses or

expresses the particularity of women’s lives and experience∙ It is also stories the male-
dominated canon in order to understand how men have used culture to further their
domination of women∙
Robert Herrick, 1591 - 1674
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,

Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.
The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.
That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.
Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry
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Postcolonial Criticism
Post colonialism refers to a

historical phase undergone by third
world countries after the decline of
colonialism: for example, when
countries in Asia, Africa, Latin
America, and the Caribbean separated
from the European empires and were
left to rebuild themselves∙ Many third
world writers focus on both colonialism and changes created in postcolonial culture∙
Among the many challenges facing postcolonial writers are the attempts both to
resurrect their culture and to combat the preconceptions about their culture∙
Postcolonial literatures emerged in their present form out experience of

colonization and asserted themselves by foregrounding the tension with the imperial
power and emphasizing their differences from the assumptions of the imperial center∙
Language became a site of struggle for postcolonial literatures since one of the main
features of imperial oppression is control over language∙
There is a need to escape from the implicit body of assumptions to which

English, the language of the colonizing power, was attached: its aesthetic and social
values, the formal and historically limited constraints of genre, and the oppressive
political and cultural assertion of metropolitan dominance- of center over margin∙
Postcolonial critics also study diasporic texts outside the usual Western genies,
especially productions by aboriginal authors, marginalized ethnicities, immigrants, and
refugees∙
Homi K∙ Bhabha’s postcolonial theory involves analysis of nationality, ethnicity,

and politics with poststructuralist ideas of identity and indeterminacy, defining
postcolonial identities as shifting, hybrid constructions∙
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Amamu sat in the living room, not exactly sober, and not exactly drunk ∙
He had been arranging his flower pots∙ His master had called him thrice∙
Yes sah, masa∙
You finish for outside?
No sah∙
Finish quick and come clean for inside∙ We get party tonight∙ Big people
they come∙ Clean for all the glass, plate, spoon, knife everything∙ You
hear?
Yes sah∙
Yaro shuffled off silent feet∙ Amamu stretched himself in the armchair,
covering his face with yesterday’s Daily Graphic
Awoonor, 1971:123
Postmodern Literary Theory
Postmodern is a term used to refer to the culture of advanced capitalist societies∙

This culture has undergone a profound shift in the structure of feeling∙ A whole new way
of thinking and being in the world emerged- a paradigm shift in the cultural, social, and
economic orders.
For More Knowledge:. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Yh3WLNL0gA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmIhEWiYE3o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ktiru9MrHQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG-0KCAwFBo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv1fgtkhhtA
Reference:
theory/
https://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/marxist.crit.html
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CHAPTER 4: LITERARY CRITICISM
Objectives:
a.) Define literary criticism.

b.) Analyze how it affects the reader’s interpretation of the text.
Literary Appreciation
- refers to the evaluation of work of

imaginative literature as an intellectual or
academic exercise. This process
interprets, evaluates or classifies a
literary work with a view to determining
the artistic merits or demerits or such a
work.
Donelson and Nilsen (2009)
- echo this sentiment and add that it is the process by which one gauges one's
interpretive response as a reader to a literary work. This means that the reader is able
to gain pleasure and understanding for the literature, understand its value and
importance and admire its complexity.
Nielsen and Donelson (2005)
- further determined that a main goal of teaching literature is to elicit a response from
students so they can explore their own lives and improve their logical thinking skills.
Therefore, the key to developing appreciation for reading is first selecting appropriate
adolescent literature in which students can identify and make connections. This can
foster love for reading and improve their language arts skill as well.
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Literary Appreciation- focuses on the adequate grasp of the definitions and

applications of traditional literary devices such as plot, character, metaphor, setting and
symbolism which may be encountered within texts. It is the ability to gain pleasure and
understanding for literature understand the value and importance of literature esteem,
honor, respect, and admire the beauty and complexity of literature.
According to Denelson and Nilsen (2009), literary appreciation occurs in seven

stages.
Level 1: Pleasure and Profit (literary appreciation is a social experience) (Ages 0-

5yrs)
It should be noted that development of literary appreciation
begins long before children learn to read. At this stage,
literary appreciation is a social one. The appreciation
develops with exposing the child to books and movies or
having them relate stories. As parents and teachers, we play
a vital role at this stage, supporting children and engaging
them in reading activities.
Students may then add-on to their stage of literary
appreciation, by becoming addicted to a particular book or
character. This addiction allows for the development of speed and skill.
Level 2: Decoding (literary is developed) (Ages 6-8yrs)
A note of caution: struggling students may no longer be searching for pleasure but focus
mainly on decoding information.
Children are developing literacy a process that is never-ending for anyone who is
intellectually active. One must not lose sight of those children who are struggling with
literacy and subsequently lose sight of the search for pleasure and enjoyment
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Those children who learn to read easily are undemanding and in a stage of
“unconscious enjoyment” becoming addicted to one particular book or character
(allowing for the development of speed and skill)
Level 3: Lose yourself (reading becomes a means of escaping) (Ages 9-11 yrs)
During this stage, reading becomes a form of

escape to readers. Children frequently read series
books, fantasies and animal stories (Carlsen et al
1974). For example, a child may indulge in reading
books such as The Secret Seven by Enid Blyton
and Archie Comics. Carlsen (1994) further claims
that it is vital that this stage occurs for everything
else in literature to be meaningful. As teachers we
need to surround our students with these materials to stimulate their interest and set a
foundation for this stage to occur.
Level 4: Find yourself (discovering identity)
(Ages 12-14)
During adolescence, our young people are self-searching and

making decisions about who they are. In most cases, they
tend to identify with characters in books and movies.
Therefore, they place preference on texts and films with
"real" stories that they can relate to in order for them to
receive pleasure. They become discriminatory and are
no longer satisfied with stereotype characters. They are
no longer living vicariously in character's experience but rather, adolescents are
searching to find themselves in the roles of these characters. Reading for these
young adults is aimed at discovering their own identity. Our role as the teacher,
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is to select material which is suitable enough to evoke students' interest, which

are relevant to their lives and provides a sense of hope for our youth.
Level 5: Venture beyond self (going beyond me, assessing the world around
them)
(15-18 yrs)
At this stage of literary appreciation, the adolescent’s egocentricism is no longer his sole
priority. His focus is on developing skills intellectually, emotionally and physically. Thus,
reading is not a central focus but rather places emphasis on the society.
Level 6: Variety in reading (reads widely and discusses experiences with peers)
Level 7: Aesthetic purposes (avid reader, appreciates the artistic value of reading)
(Ages 18-death)
Reading at this stage is for pleasure. Individuals read and share their experiences with
their peers during book talks and book clubs for example. Individuals read a variety of
genres at this stage and enjoy literary appreciation, having acquired all previous
stages.
Thus, as teachers and parents, we need to support our children at which ever they are
but ensuring that they keep adding to the previous stage which they already possess. In
our classes, we have students at various stages of literary appreciation, therefore, as
teachers, we must not only be familiar but also understand these stages to match each
reader's stage with materials which entertain them. These materials must also challenge
readers so they may add-on to their stage (Bushman and Haas, 2001)
At the college level, the young adult reads best-sellers and is involved in acclaimed
literary works such as novels, plays, and films, sharing these experiences with peers.
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Throughout adulthood, the avid reader who has developed the skills and attitudes
necessary to enjoy literary experiences at all the previous levels, is ready to embark on
a lifetime of aesthetic appreciation (understanding the beauty and artistic value).
What is the importance of understanding the different stages of literary

appreciation?
In order to appreciate literature, people at any stage must experience pleasure and
profit from their reading, viewing, and listening.
 As (future) teachers and parents, we must meet young people where they are and
help them feel comfortable before trying to move them on.
The Goal: A society of adults who are intellectually stimulated to read for personal
fulfillment and pleasure and understand that it is beneficial.
Margaret Earl’s Stages of Growth in Literary Appreciation
- determines that the personal attitudes, reading and observing skill are all part of
literary appreciation. Stages which readers go through added unto without dropping the
previous stages. Thus, literary appreciation is a lifelong process. However occasionally
students are ill-equipped to handle transition from childhood literature to adolescent
literature and fail at establishing literary appreciation. This may occur as a result of a
student's late or early cognitive maturity. As teacher, we must understand that in order
to appreciate literature student must experience pleasure from their reading.
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Transaction reading journals and literature circles can be helpful as students document
their progress and reflect on them. They should be provided in a forum to response to
literature in the classroom, discuss personal responses, ideas and deductions with other
students. This will also allow them to make text to text connections.
Literary Criticism and Interpretation: An Introduction
What is Interpretation?
- In general, to interpret something is to make it personally meaningful. Our brain takes

raw data from the senses and makes it meaningful by relating it to our previous
experiences. When we read or hear a sentence, we put the words together into a
meaningful whole, rather than just nothing their separate dictionary definitions. Most
everyday language is fairly straightforward and requires little interpretation. Because
literary presents us with more than one possible meaning, interpreting literature requires
more care attention.
Why should we interpret Literature?
- Authors of fiction, poetry, or drama choose

literature for their expression because they
believe that there are at least two valid sides to
any major issues not just a simple right and
wrong. Reading and interpreting literature then,
nourishes us with a sense of complexity of life's
deepest mysteries - love, hate, death, conflicts
between the individual and society, and so on,
so that when we approach these problems we
do so with greater self-awareness and greater
tolerance for the views of others.
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Literary Criticism
- is the study, evaluation and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often
informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and
goals.
History of Literary Criticism
Aristotle's Poetics clearly defines aspects of literature and introduces many literary
terms still use today.
The history of literary criticism dates back to Plato and Aristotle. Both philosophers
expressed ground breaking opinions about literature, specifically on the issues of
literary mimesis (imitation and representation) and didacticism. Literary nemesis asked
the question, "Does literature imitate life, or Does life imitate literature?" Didacticism in
literature asks the question, "How does the text lend itself as an instructional or moral
guide to life?"
Classical and Medieval Criticism
Literary Criticism has probably

existed for as long as literature.
In the 4th century BC Aristotle
wrote the Poetics, a typology and
description of literary forms with
many specific criticism of
contemporary works of art.
Poetics developed for the first time the concept of nemesis and catharsis, which are still
crucial in literary study. Plato's attack on piety as imitative, secondary and false were
formative as well. Around the same time, Bharata Muni, in his Natya Shastra, wrote
literary criticism on ancient Indian literature and Sanskrit drama. Later, classical and
medieval criticism often focused on religious texts, and the several long religious
traditions of hermeneutics and textual exegesis have had an profound influence on the
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study of secular texts. This was particularly the case for the literary tradition of the three
Abrahamic religion: Jewish Literature, Christian Literature and Islamic Literature.
Literary Criticism was also employed in other forms of medieval Arabic literature and
Arabic poetry from the 9th century, notably by Al-Jahiz in his al-Bayan wa-'l-tabyin and
al-Hayawan, and by Abdullah ion al-Mu'tazz in his Kitab al-Badi.
Definition of Literary Criticism
Literary Criticism is simply the attempt to explain a litrlerary work. A literary critic is
one who explains or interprets a literary work-its meaning, production, aestheticism and
historical value.
The Five Codes Rolando Barthes represent his theory of five codes to understand the
underlying structure of a text. He proposed that these five codes are the basic
underlying structures of all narratives. After a close scrutiny of literary text against these
codes, the text can be categorized for its form bad genre. In other words, through the
study of this codes we can either recognize that which genre the text belongs to,
recognize the characteristics of an already established genre. A brief description of
these codes is necessary before moving any further.
For More Knowledge:. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8zl6JiciIk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPe_qgWkZr8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSYw502dJNY
Reference:
theory/
Page 8
CHAPTER 5: POST STRUCTURALISTS
Objectives:
a.) Define the characteristics of post structuralists.

Roland Barthes (1915-1980)
- was a prolific French literary critic whose eclectic

interests led him to write on topics as diverse as
photography, advertising, film and even fashion. Although
regarded as a semiologist, Barthe's method goes far
beyond semiology and is difficult to categorize into
anyone trend of literary criticism. The analytical technique
with which the present study is concerned comes from his
large 1970 essay S/Z, an exhaustive analysis of Horone
de Balzac's novella Sarrasine. 4 Barthes sections the text
of the novella into 561 segments, or "lexias" which vary in length from one word ( as in
the case of the title) to several sentences. Barthes works with one lexia at a time but
creates a system of cross-references among different lexias.
Through this method, Barthes tracks linearly all of the various processes involved in the
reader's interpretation of a narrative text. After presenting each segment of text, Barthes
identifies which of the codes are operative in that segment, that is, by means of which
codes the reader processes the story to derive meaning from it. Barthes formulates five
codes, each of which has root in a different aspect of literary analysis. The first of these
codes is the
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Hermeneutic Code, which governs the

proposing, sustaining and resolution of enigmas.
Small enigmas might be solve quickly, while
major enigmas, those which are integral to
maintaining suspense in the text's plot, are
prolonged through various means.
The Semic Code is the code of the character.

Through it, the writers unfold the personalities of
the character of the story.
The Symbolic Code refers to the symbolic antithesis which is so prevalent in classical
literature: for example, references to life and death, hot and cold, youth and age, etc.
The Proairetic Code is the most basic of the codes: it is the sequence of the events
and actions that make up the plot of the story as it unfolds.
Hermeneutic Code (the voice of truth) - the code of enigmas or puzzles
Semic Code (the voice of a person) - The accumulation of connotations. Semes,

sequential thoughts, traits and actions constitute character. "The proper noun
surrounded by connotations."
Symbolic Code (the voice of empirics) - The code of actions. Any action initiated must
be completed. The cumulative actions constitute the plot events of the text.
Cultural Code (the voice of science or knowledge) - Though all codes are cultural we
reserve this designation for the storehouse of knowledge we use in interpreting
everyday experience.
Post-Structuralism
Rejects the idea of a literary text having a single purpose, a single meaning or
one single existence. Instead every individual reader creates a new and individual
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purpose, meaning, and existence for a given text. Hold that language is not a
transparent medium that connects one directly with a "truth" or "reality" outside it but
rather a structure of code, whose part derive their meaning from their contrast with one
another and not from any connection with an outside work. May we understood as a
critical response to the basic assumptions of structuralism but there are differences:
STRUCTURALIST POST- STRUCTURALIST
Origin derives ultimately from derives ultimately from

linguistic philosophy. Nietzsche- "
There are facts, only
interpretations."
Tone and Style Structuralist writings tend Post-structuralist writing by

towards abstraction and contrast, tends to be much
generalization: it aims for a more emotive. Often the
detached, scientific tone is urgent and euphoric,
coolness of tone. and the style flamboyant
and self-consciously showy.
Attitude to the language
Attitude to the language Structuralists accept that Post-structuralism is much

the world is constructed more fundamentalist in
through language in the insisting upon the
sense that we do not have consequences of the view
access to the reality other that, in effect, reality itself is
than through the linguistic textual. Post-structuralism
medium. develops what threaten to
become terminal anxieties
about the possibility of
achieving any knowledge
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through language.
Fundamental Aims Questions are way of It distrust the very notion of

structuring and categorizing reason, and the idea of the
reality and prompts us to human being as an
break free of habitual independent entity,
modes of perception or preferring the notion of the
categorization, but we "dissolved or constructed"
believes that we can subject, whereby what we
thereby attain a more may think of as the
reliable view of things. individual is really a product
of social social and
linguistic forces that is, not
an essence at all, merely a
tissue of textualities.
In the Post-structuralist approach to

textual analysis, the reader replaces the
author as the primary subject of inquiry and
without central fixation on the author. Post-
structuralist examine other sources for
meaning (e.g. readers, cututal norms, other
literature etc.) which are therforenever
authoritative, and promise no consistency. A
reader's culture and society, then, share at
least an equal part in the interpretation of a piece to the cultural and social
circumstances of the author. Writers whose work is often characterized as post-
structuralist include Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Judith Bulter,
Page 4
Jean Baudrillard and Julia Kristeva, although many theorist who have been called "post-
structuralist" have rejected the label.
Some Proponent of Post Structuralism
Jacques Derrida
- was one of the first to propose some theoretical

limitations to Structuralism, and identified as apparent de-
stabilizing or de-centring in intellectual life ( referring to
the displacement of the author of a text as having the
greatest effect on a text itself, in favour of the various
readers of the text), which came to be known as Post-
Structuralism. - argued that meaning has a performative,
practical dimension not associated with an originating
subjectivity. Meaning is renewed or transformed through
such performances.
Roland Barthes "The Death of the Author"
- assert, rhetorically, the independence of the literary text and it's immunity to have
possibility of being unified or limited by any notion of what the author might have
intended or crafted into the work. The death of the author is the birth of the reader.
Key Assumptions Underlying Post-Structuralism Include
- The concept of "self" as a singular and coherent entity is a fictional construct and an
individual rather comprises conflicting tensions and knowledge claims (e.g. gender,
class, profession etc.) The interpretation of meaning of a text is therefore dependent on
a reader's own personal concept of self.
Page 5
What Post-Structuralists Critics Do?
- The read the text against itself, where meanings are expressed which maybe directly
contrary to the surface meaning. - Gives importance to words similarities in sound, the
root meaning of words, added metaphor. - The text is characterized by disunity rather
than unity. Concentrated on a single passage and analyses it so intensively results into
multiplicities of meaning.
For More Knowledge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woQEXuH_0GA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aai-gKwtAsQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhOrLG0Fk_s
Reference:
theory/
Page 6
CHAPTER 6: Readerly and Writerly Text
Objectives:
a.) Differentiate readerly to writerly text.

Readerly Text
- Barthes argues that most text are readerly

texts. Such text are associated with classic text
that are presented in a familiar, linear, traditional
manner, adhering to the status quo in style and
content. Meaning is fixed and pre-determined so
that the readers is a site merely to receive
information. These text attempt, through the use
of standard representations and dominant signifying practices, to hide any elements that
would open up the text to multiple meaning. Readerly texts support the commercialized
values of the literary establishment and uphold the view of the texts as disposable
commodities.
- Readerly texts, by contrast, are anything but readerly; they are manifestations of The
Book. They do not locate the reader as a site of the production of meaning, but only as
the receiver of a fixed, pre-determined, reading. They are thus products rather than
productions and thus form the dominant mode of literature under capital.
Writerly Text
- By contrast, writerly texts reveal those elements that the readerly attempts to conceal.
The reader, now in a position of control, takes an active role in the construction of
meaning. The stable meaning, or metanarratives, of readerly texts is replaced by a
proliferation of meanings and a disregard of narrative structure. These is a multiplicity of
Page 1
cultural and other ideological indicators (codes) for a readers to uncover. What Barthes
describes as "ourselves writing" is a self-conscious expression aware of the
discrepancy between artifice and reality. The Writerly text destabilized the reader's
expectations. The reader approaches the text from an external position of subjectivity.
By turning the reader into the writer, writerly texts defy the commercialization and
commoditization of literature.
- The writerly text is a perpetual present, upon which

no consequent language (which would inevitably make it past)
can be superimposed; the writerly text is ourselves writing,
before the infinite play of the world (the world as function) is
traversed, intersected, stopped, plasticized by some singular
system (Ideology, Genus, Criticism) which reduces the plurality
of entrances, the opening of networks, the infinity of
languages. (S/Z 5)
Behind these distinctions lies Barthes' own aesthetic and political projects, the
championing of those texts which he sees as usefully challenging--often through the
method of self-reflexivity--traditional literary conventions such as the omniscient
narrator. For Barthes, the readerly text, like the commodity, disguises its status as a
fiction, as a literary product, and presents itself as a transparent window onto "reality."
The writerly text, however, self-consciously acknowledges its artifice by calling attention
to the various rhetorical techniques which produce the illusion of realism. In accord with
his proclamation of The Death of the Author, Barthes insists, "the goal of literary work
(of literature as work) is to make the reader no longer a consumer, but a producer of the
text" (S/Z 4).
Barthes and the Ideal Text
Barthes identifies the writerly text as a dominant mode in modern mythological culture in
which forms of representation seek to continually blur the division between the real and
Page 2
the artificial. He proposes that the Ideal text blurs the distinction between the reader and
writer: - The network are many and interact, without any one of them being able to
surpass the rest; this text is a galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of signifieds; it has no
beginning; it is reversible; we gain access to it by several entrances, none of which can
be authoritatively declared to be the main one; the codes it mobilizes extend as far as
the eye can reach, they are indeterminable... - The systems of meaning can take over
this absolutely plural text, but their number is never closed, based as it is on the infinity
of language (S/Z 5)
Hypertext
Possesses many of the qualities Barthes identifies in the

ideal text. In hypertext, the presentation of materials is
non-linear. It is text that branches, links, and connects,
allowing information to be understood in random
sequence. The nature or order of meaning is not pre-
determined by the author, but is rather an interactive
activity in which the reader is free to take any choosen
direction. Hypertext is composed of lexias. Lexias are
blocks of text connected via verbal and non-verbal links. It is a medium of information
that connects words (language) with external commentaries, related or contrary texts-
all towards determining the underlying conceptual and ideological structure of the text.
Intertextuality
- is the shaping of a rext's meaning by another text. Interrextual figures include:

allusion, quotation, calque, plagiarism, translation, pastiche and parody. Intertextuality is
a literary device that creates a interrelationship between texts' and generates related
understanding in separate works.
Page 3
- Intertextuality is a literary discourse strategy (Gadavanji) utilized by the writers in

novels, poetry, theatre and even in non-written texts (such as performances and digital
media)
Examples of Intertextuality
Are an author's borrowing and transformation of

a prior text, and s reader's referencing of one
text in reading another.
- Intertextuality does not require citing or

referencing punctuation (such as quotation
marks) and is often mistaken for plagiarism
(Ivanic, 1998)
- Intertextuality is not a literary or rhetorical

device, but rather a fact about literary texts –
the fact that they are all intimately interconnected. This applies to all texts: novels,
works of philosophy, newspaper articles, films, songs, paintings, etc. In order to
understand intertextuality, it’s crucial to understand this broad definition of the word
“text.”
Every text is affected by all the texts that came before it, since those texts influenced
the author’s thinking and aesthetic choices. Remember: every text (again in the
broadest sense) is intertextual.
However, intertextuality is not always intentional and can be utilized inadvertently this
term was developed by the post structuralists Julia Kristeva 1960's, and since then it's
been widely accepted by postmodern literary critics and theoreticians.
Julia Kristeva
- Contribution to the notion of intertextuality is immense. She not only coined the word
intertextuality but substantially stressed the importance of the potential dynamics that
Page 4
lay within the text. Text is not an unilinear entity but

heterogeneous combination of text. Any text is once
literary and social, creative and cultural. They ate
culturally and institutionally fashioned. Most of the
ideas that Kristeva puts toward is a rework or revision
of Bakhtinian notion of intertextuality. Bakhtin also held
the view point that the text cannot be detached from
socio-cultural textuality which is the backdrop in which
the text is created.
Coined the term intertextuality. Intertextuality, through

sufraced as a postructuralist concept, existed as a
universal phenomenon that elucidates the communicative interconnections between a
text and the other and text and context. Her invention was a response to Ferdinand de
Saussure's theory and his claim that signs gain their meaning through structure in a
particular text. She opposed his to her own, saying that reader's are always influenced
by other text, sifting through their archives, when reading a new one.
Basically, when writers borrow from previous texts, their work acquires layers of
meaning. In addition, when a text is read in the light of another text, all the assumptions
and effect of the other text given a new meaning and influence the way of interpreting
the original text. It serves a subtheme, and reminds us the double narratives in
allegories.
Types of Intertextuality
Obligatory Intertextuality
- Obligatory Intertextuality is when the writer deliberately invokes a comparison or

association between two (or more) texts. Without this pre-understanding of a prior hypo
text, before fill comprehension of the hypertext can be achieved (Jacobmeyer,1998)
Page 5
Some media texts can directly refer to others, such as 'remakes' of films, extra-diegetic
references to the media and society, etc. The interpretation of these references is
hugely influenced by the audiences' prior knowledge of the second text. By using
something familiar to the audience they may create both potential good associations
and new meanings.
Audience Pleasures
Audience Pleasure is a self-conscious form of Intertextuality in which it gives its

audience the necessary experience to make sense of the references and offers the
pleasure of recognition. By referring to other media texts or events in our society it can
make audiences believe in the on-going reality of the narrative present.
Intertextuality in Music Videos Example
Robert Palmer's 'Addicted to Love' recalls to fashion

photography and has been parodied many times for its use
of mannequin style females in the band fronted by a be
suited male.
Shania Twain copied it for her 'Man I Feel Like a Women' but
changed the gender roles around, changed the backdrop slightly and used other
instruments.
Optional Intertextuality
- Optional intertextuality has a less vital impact of a significance of the hypertext. It is a

possible, but not essential, intertextual relationship that if recognized, the connection will
slightly shift the understanding of the text (Fitzsimmons,2013)
- Optional Intertextuality means it is possible to find a connection to multiple texts of a

single phrase, or no connection at all (Ivanic,1998)
Page 6
Accidental intertextuality is when readers often connect a text with another text, cultural
practice or a personal experience even though the writer has no intention of making an
intertextual reference and it is completely upon the reader’s own prior knowledge that
these connections are made.
Examples: The use of optional Intertextuality may be something as simple as parallel

characters or plotlines.
For example, J.K Rowling's Harry Potter series shares many similarities with J. R. R.
Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. They both apply the use of an aging wizard mentor
(Proffesor Dumbledore and Gandalf) and a key friendship group is formed to assist the
protagonist (an innocent young boy) on their arduous quest to defeat a powerful wizard
and to destroy a powerful being (Keller,2013)
Accidental Intertextuality
- Accidental Intertextuality is when readers often connect a text with another text,
cultural practice or a personal experience, without there being any tangible anchor point
within the original text (John Fitzsimmons).
Examples: When reading Herman Melville's Mint Dick, a reader may use his or her
prior experiences to make a connection between the size of the whale and the size of
the ship.
For More Knowledge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VrfNe0D1r0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaEN4CusGx4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8yNPwaZhPA
Reference:
theory/
Page 7
CHAPTER 7: Freudian Literary Criticism
Objectives:
a.) Define Freudian criticism and its characteristics.

They pay close attention to unconscious motives and

feelings, whether these are those of the author or of the
characters depicted in the work.
They demonstrate the presence in the literary work of
classic psychoanalytic symptoms or conditions.
Theory of Neurosis
(Decade of the 1890’s) – When Freud used

hypnosis and Breuer’s cathartic method of
psychotherapy, gradually developing the psychoanalytic
methods of free association, dream interpretation, and
the analysis of transference.
Neurosis
Is a defense against intolerable memories of a traumatic experience- infantile

seduction at the hands of a close relative.
―Psychology for Neurologists‖ or (―Project for a scientific Psychology‖) – On 1895
Freud sending a comprehensive anatomical-physiological model of the nervous system
and its functioning in normal behavior, thought, and dreams, as well as in hysteria.
Page 1
Freud’s Topographic Model
The interpretation of Dreams (1900)
Was further elaborated in the

metapsychological papers (1915), conceptualizes
thought and behavior in terms of processes in three
psychological systems.
1st: Conscious
2nd: Preconscious
3rd: Unconscious
Three essays on the Theory of sexuality (1905)
Which advanced his theory of sexuality, in particular its relation to childhood. The
following are the three essays on the Theory of Sexuality
1st: The Sexual Aberrations
2nd: Infantile Sexuality
3rd: The Transformation of Puberty
“Contributions” Freud may be said to have made five major contributions.
1. Psychic determinism
The lawfulness of all psychological phenomena, even the most trivial, including
dreams, fantasies, and slips of the tongue
2. Psychic apparatus
That characterizes the unconscious id; indeed. It is the principal property by
means of which the latter is denned, cesses characterized by magical rather than
rational logic and by wish fullness-a seeking for immediate gratification of crude
sexual or aggressive impulses-are called primary. Freud emphasized the
concepts of displacement and condensation of psychic energy in his
conceptualization of the primary process and noted that it often makes use of
symbols, which differ from other types of displacement substitutes in having been
Page 2
shared by many persons for generations. These were the main theoretical
resources Freud called upon to explain dreams, neurotic symptoms, psychotic
thought and language, normal character traits, myths, creative thought, art, and
humor.
3. Of the many contributions Freud made to our understanding of sexuality,

the following seem to enjoy the most acceptance:
His stress on its great importance in human life generally; his broad definition,
which includes oral, anal, and other bodily pleasures and links them to the phallic
genital; his conception of its plasticity-it can be delayed, transformed, or fixated,
and interest can be shifted from one ―component drive‖ or ―partial instinct‖ to
another; his discovery that it appears early in human life (infants and young
children masturbate, have sexual curiosity, etc.) and follows a typical
developmental sequence; his insistence that bisexuality and ―polymorphous
perversity‖ are universal endowments or potentialities; his explanation of sexual
perversions as pathological developments, not (or not wholly) as constitutional
givens and not as sins; and his elaborations of many aspects of the Oedipus
complex-the fact of inevitable but tabooed incestuous attraction in families, the
associated phenomena of anxiety that castration (or, more generally, mutilation),
and of intra-familial jealousy, hatred, and envy, much of it unconscious.
4. Three of Freud’s concepts

Conflict, Anxiety, and Defense – are so interrelated that we may look on them
as constituting one major contribution. He saw the pervasive importance of
Page 3
conflict (not merely the traditional opposition of reason and passion, or ego
versus id, but also ego versus superego and superego versus id) in both normal
and abnormal behavior.
5. A number of Freud’s lasting discoveries and insights make up the genetic

point of view
He showed the necessity of knowing facts of development in order to understand
personality.
The importance of the events of the early life for the main features of character,
including the specific syndromes of the oral and anal character types as
outgrowths of events at the corresponding psychosexual stages;
The role of identification as the principle of learning and development; the
importance of drive delay and control in development; and the nature of
psychopathology as regression along a developmental path.
Freudian criticism takes many forms. The sexual

imagery can be analyzed, but sheds little light on this
poem. More useful is Freud's approach to dreams and
fantasies. The processes of condensation,
displacement, representation and secondary revision
disclose elements that would have escaped traditional
criticism.
Freud was a cultivated man and, while not entirely approving of artists, did take a
close interest in artistic production and appreciation. Psychic energy (libido) was sexual
at base, but was not channeled wholly into sexual activity. Amongst its expressions
were dreams, fantasies and the personality disorders that arose when instinctual drives
were constrained by exterior reality: the pleasure principle versus the reality principle.
Desire was the motivating force of the artist — an inordinate desire to win honour,
Page 4
power, wealth, fame and the love of women with a corresponding lack of means of
doing so. Notoriously, the artist was an introvert, and not far removed from a neurotic.
Nonetheless, Freud did not confuse daydreams and artistic creation, did not reduce
aesthetics to wish fulfillment, and admitted that psychoanalysis could not say how the
artist achieved his successes. Dreams and art both employed strategies to transform
primitive desires into the culturally acceptable, and indeed the artist masked and
sweetened his daydreams with aesthetic form. Even Freud's much-criticized
essay Leonardo and a memory of his childhood is more a psycho-biography than art
criticism.
Freudian literary analysis comes in various degrees of subtlety. At its most
elementary, the novel or poem may be analyzed simply in terms of phallic symbols: the
assertive male organ or receptive female organ. More usually there is some attempt to
see these as the secret embodiment of the author's unconscious desires.
Examples of Freudian Literary Criticism:
 Sigmund Freud's Leonardo da Vinci and a memory of his childhood (1910)
 Edmund Wilson's The Turn of the Screw (1948)
 Marie Bonaparte's The Life and Works of Edgar Allan Poe (1949)
 Henry Murray's In Nomine Diaboli (1951)
 Aubrey Williams's The 'Fall' of China in John Dixon Hunt's (Ed.) Pope: The Rape
of the Lock (1968)
 Maud Ellmann's Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism (1994)
For More Knowledge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA_bIwwg5xI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdGCDN9RRSk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2Qcmhsvcms
Reference:
http://www.textetc.com/criticism/freudian-criticism.html
Page 5
CHAPTER 8: Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism
Objectives:

b.) Analyze how it affects the reader‟s interpretation of the text.
Is literary criticism or literary theory which, in

method, concept, or form, is influenced by
the tradition of psychoanalysis begun by
Sigmund Freud.
Psychoanalytic and psychoanalytical

are used in English. The latter is the older
term, and at first simple meant “relating to
the human analysis of the human psyche”. But with the emergence of psychoanalysis
as a distinct clinical practice, both terms came to describe that. Although both are still
used, today, the normal adjective is psychoanalytic. Psychoanalysis is defined in the
oxford English Dictionary as
A therapeutic method, originated by Sigmund Freud, for treating mental disorders

by investigating the interaction of conscious and unconscious elements in the patient‟s
mind and bringing repressed fears and conflicts into the conscious mind, using
techniques such as dream interpretation and free association. Also a system of
psychological theory associated with this method.
Through the scope of a psychoanalytic lens, humans are described as having

sexual and aggressive drives. Psychoanalytic theorists believe that human behavior is
deterministic. It is governed by irrational forces, and the unconscious, as well as
instinctual and biological drives. Due to this deterministic nature, psychoanalytic
theorists do not believe in free will.
Page 1
The Beginnings
Freud first began his studies on psychoanalysis and in collaboration with Dr.
Josef Breuer, especially when it came to the study of Anna O. the relationship between
Freud and Breuer was a mix of admiration and competition, based on the fact that they
were working together on the Anna O. case and must balance two different ideas as to
her diagnosis and treatment. Today, Breuer can be considered the grandfather of
psychoanalysis. Anna O. was subject to both physical and psychological disturbances,
such as not being able to drink out of fear.
Breuer and Freud both found that hypnosis was a great help in discovering more
about Anna O. and her treatment. The research and ideas behind the study on Anna O.
was highly referenced in Freud‟s lectures on the origin and development of
psychoanalysis. These observations led Freud to theorize that the problems faced by
hysteria patients could be associated to painful childhood experiences that could not be
recalled. The influence of these lost memories shaped the feelings, thoughts and
behaviors of patients. These studies contributed to the development of the
psychoanalytic theory.
Page 2
The Id
The id acts in accordance with the

pleasure principle, in that it avoids pain and
seeks pleasure. Due to the instinctual
quality of the id, it is impulsive and often
unaware of implications of actions.
Id: Meeting basic needs
Examples:
1. Sally was thirsty. Rather than waiting for the server to refill her glass of water,
she reached across the table and drank from Mr. Smith‟s water glass, much to
his surprise.
2. A hungry baby cried until he was fed.
3. A toddler who wanted another helping of dessert whined incessantly until she
was given another serving.
4. Michael saw a $5 bill fall out of Nick‟s backpack as he pulled his books out of his
locker. As Nick walked away, Michael bent over, picked up the money, and
slipped it into his pocket, glancing around to make sure no one was looking.
5. On Black Friday, customers were obsessed with getting a good deal that they
shoved others out of their way and trampled them, not thinking twice about
hurting people if it meant they could get what they wanted.
The Ego
The ego is driven by reality principle. The ego works to balance both id and
superego. To balance these, it works to achieve the id‟s drive in the most realistic ways.
It seeks to rationalize the id‟s instinct and please the drives that benefit the individual in
the long term. It helps separate what is real, and realistic of our drives as well as being
realistic about the standards that the superego sets for the individual.
Page 3
Ego: Dealing with Reality
Examples:
1. Sally was thirsty. Rather than

waiting for the server to refill her
glass of water, she reached
across the table and drank from
Mr. Smith‟s water glass, much to
his surprise
2. Even though Michael needed
money, he decided not to steal
the money form the cash register
because he didn‟t want to get in trouble.
3. In line at the salad bar, Amy really wanted to shove a handful croutons into her
mouth. However, since her boss was there, she decided to wait another minute
or two until she sat down to eat.
4. Mary really wanted to borrow her mom‟s necklace, but knew her mom would be
angry if she took it without asking, so she asked for her mom if she could wear it.
5. Hillary was so sweaty after her workout that she wanted to change her clothes
right there by the car. However, she knew the other people around her would not
approve, so she waited until she was in the restroom to change.
The Superego
The superego is driven by morality principle. It acts in connection with the
morality of higher thought and action. Instead of instinctively acting like id, the superego
works to act in socially acceptable ways. It employs morality, judging our sense of
wrong and right and using guilt to encourage socially acceptable behavior.
Page 4
Superego: Adding Morals
Examples:
1. Sarah knew that she could steal the supplies

from work and no one would know about it.
However, she knew that stealing was wrong,
so she decided not to take anything even
though she would probably never get caught.
2. Maggie couldn‟t remember the answer to test
question #12, even though she have studied.
Nate was the smartest kid in the class, and
from where Maggie sat, she could see his answers if she turned her head
slightly. When Mrs. Archer turned her back, Maggie almost cheated, but her
conscience stopped her because she knew it was wrong. Instead, Maggie took a
guess at the answer and then turned in her paper
3. While away on business, Tom had many opportunities to be unfaithful to his wife,
however, he knew the damage such behavior would have on his family, so made
the decision to avoid the women who had expressed interest on him
4. When Michael saw the $5 bill lying on the floor with no one around it, he turned it
into the school office in case anyone came looking for it. He wouldn‟t want to lose
$5, and hoped that whoever had lost it would ask about it in the office
5. The cashier only charged the couple for one meal even though they had eaten
two. They could have gotten away with only paying for one, but they pointed out
the cashier‟s mistake and offered to pay for both meals. They wanted to be
honest and they knew that the restaurant owner and employees needed to make
a living
Page 5
The Unconscious
The unconscious is the portion of the mind of which

a person is not aware. Freud said that it is the unconscious
that exposed the true feeling, emotions, and thoughts of
the individual. There are variety of psychoanalytic
techniques used to access and understand the
unconscious, ranging from methods like hypnosis, free
association, and dream analysis. Dreams allow us to
explore the unconscious; according to Freud, they are “the
„royal road‟ to the unconscious”. Dreams are composed of
latent and manifest content. Whereas latent content is the
underlying meaning of a dream that may not be remembered when a person wakes up,
manifest content is the content from the dream that a person remembers upon waking
and can be analyzed by a psychoanalytic psychologist, exploring and understanding the
manifest content of dreams can inform the individual of complexes or disorders that may
be under the surface of their personality. Dreams can provide access to the
unconscious that is not easily accessible
Freudian slips (also known as paraphrases) occur when the ego and superego
do not work properly, exposing the id and internal drives or wants. They are considered
mistakes revealing the unconscious. Examples range from calling someone by the
wrong name, misinterpreting a spoken or written word, or simply saying the wrong thing.
Defense Mechanisms
The ego balances the id, superego, and reality to maintain a healthy state of
consciousness. It thus reacts to protect the individual from any stressors and anxiety by
distorting reality. This prevents threatening unconscious thoughts and material from
entering the consciousness, the different types of defense mechanisms are;
Repression, Reaction Formation, Denial, Projection, Displacement, Sublimation,
Regression, and Rationalization.
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
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Page 10
Psychoanalysis and Literature
When analyzing literary texts, the psychoanalytic theory could be utilized to

decipher or interpret the concealed meaning within a text, or to better understand the
author‟s intentions. Through the analysis of motives, Freud‟s theory can be used to help
clarify the meaning of the writing as well as the actions of the characters within the text.
The purpose of devices like condensation and displacement are two-fold:

primarily they disguise the repressed fears and desires contained in the dream, so that
they can get passed the censor which normally prevents their surfacing into the
conscious mind, and secondly, they fashion this material into something which can be
represented in a dream, i.e., images, symbols, metaphors. Freudian interpretation, then,
has always been of considerable interest to literary critics as the unconscious, like a
poem/ novel/play, cannot speak explicitly but does so through images, symbols,
metaphors, emblems.
The Freudian critics‟ analysis of Shakespeare‟s Hamlet is a commendable
attempt. Hamlet‟s procrastination is attributed to his Oedipus complex, i.e., Hamlet is
reluctant to avenge his father‟s murder as he is guilty of wishing to commit the same
crime himself. (The critics also make notice of the death of Shakespeare‟s father in
1601 and of his son Hamnet, a name identical with Hamlet).
For More Knowledge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81GWBfieHEA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5jl_S80UGQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bHm8_kq3DA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfeLzjqXemw
Reference:
https://literariness.org/2016/04/16/freudian-psychoanalysis/
Page 11
CHAPTER 9: Lacanian Criticism
Objectives:

Jacques Lacan
 French Psychoanalyst.
 He follows Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic

theory.
 According to him, literature and psychoanalysis

are merely two different types of discourse with
the same and that is to expose the discursive
dimension of knowledge, power and social
relations.
 His theory is by his own account a

development of systematic reading of Sigmund Freud’s own works, and in fact
his seminars, which are beginning to appear in transcription, are always based
around particular texts by Freud
The unconscious is the discourse of the other
Human subject is always split between a conscious side and unconscious side.
Symbol to figure the subject in its division. Lack desire, a desire that cannot be satisfied
even when our demands are met.
Unconscious is structured like a language
 Therefore, sexuality cannot be considered as a result of needs.

Page 1
 Sound or image is called the Signifier; the concept is signified.
 The position of signifier and signified in a sentence is important to produced

meaning.
Metaphor and Metonymy
Metonymy follows horizontal line of signifiers, which never cross the bar that
leads to be signified and to signification.
Metaphor is placed in a vertical relation. One signifier can substitute as the
signified another signifier.
Comparison between Freud, Saussure and Lacan’s formulation:
Freud Saussure Lacan

*Conscious Signified Signifier
*Unconscious Signifier Signified
Freud and Saussure believes that the concept or meaning is important over the image
while Lacan believes that the image is important than the concept.
Sexuality and Sexual difference
 Freud’s 3 essays on sexuality remains one of the key books on sexuality and
sexual difference both within and outside the institution of psychoanalysis
 Two striking aspects to Freud’s work on sexuality
Page 2
 1st is the mainstream professional views on his time; 2 nd is the evidence in the
relation to the professional views
Sexuality
Normal sexuality involves an exclusive sexual interest felt by men and women.
Both the implicit one way sign and the exclusive nature of the interest are present in the
traditional room.
For him, the evidence shows that sexuality is grounded in the condition where
there is no preexisting object and no defined aim. The pleasure principle is
unscrupulous.
Sexuality has the following related meaning:
The condition of being sexed; being male or female; having sexual

characteristics, feelings or desires to a specified degree. The condition of having sex.
Evidence against normativity
The distinction between the normal and the perverse is riddled with overlaps
 A great diversity of sexual perversion not only is exist but is common

 The diversity includes not only the choice of sexual object but also the type of
activity used to obtain satisfaction
 The normal type of sexual activity involved only in between members of the
opposite sexes with the aim of reproduction
Page 3
Sexual differences
Lacan was so taken by the

similarities between Freud’s theory of
the unconscious and the structural
linguistics that he was able to come up
with the same, fairly systematic
concordances.
Lacan first official contribution to
psychoanalysis was the mirror stage,
which he described as, “formative of the function”
I as revealed in psychoanalytic experience. By the early 1950’s, he came to the
regard the mirror stage as more than a moment in the life of the infant; instead it formed
part of the permanent structure of subjectivity.
Lacanianism
The study of, and development of, the ideas and theories of the dissident French
psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. Beginning as the commentary on the writings of Freud,
Lacanianism developed into a new psychoanalytic theory of humankind, and spawned a
world-wide movement of its own.
The Three key ideas of Lacan
1. The Real
The real differs from the symbolic because it’s the real is not accessible. The real
is series of expressions and emotions that are controlled by something we are not
aware of. The real is also a not accessible quality. We exist in the real, but we do not
know we exist in the real. There is a sense of anxiety that is associated with the real
because it cannot be controlled. The real is described as lying beyond the symbolic.
Hallucinations stems from feeling and emotions that were not integrated into the
Page 4
symbolic order are put into the real. We as human cannot distinguish between fiction
and reality so we interpret the real as reality. When in fact the real may not be a reality.
2. Symbolic Order
The symbolic order is one of three orders that things can go into. The symbolic
order is a realm in which our desires and emotions are stored and interpreted. Death
and absence is apart of the symbolic order because we can understand these terms,
but they might not be interpreted. If something is in the symbolic order, there is a sense
of understanding. If something that is symbolic transfers into another or the real, that
something becomes an allusion.
3. Mirror Stage
Lacan's "mirror stage" is probably the theory that is talked about the most. This theory
deals with infants and mirrors. When an infant looks his/or herself in the mirror, they
become fascinated with the image until they realize that the image is not real. This goes
back to the concept of the real infants cannot determine between the real. When the
realized whether or not the real is present or not, they lose interest. This theory shows
that we start to interpret what is real and what is imaginary based on looking in a mirror.
For More Knowledge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agTYUU4gTOo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA4qIuqiS0Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMAju-xHu7I
Reference:
https://literariness.org/2016/04/16/freudian-psychoanalysis/
Page 5

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EL109 LITERARY CRITICISM

CHAPTER 1: Literature and Literary Theory

a.) Differentiate literature to literary theory.

Literary Criticism and Literary Theory

 Literary criticism involves the reading, interpretation, and commentary of a

 Two conventions or assumptions which tend to be inherent in its practice

makes literary language literary, as well as the structures of literary

DEVELOPMENTAL IN LITERARY THEORY AND THE PRACTICE OF LITERARY

Schools of Literary Theory

Listed below are some of the most commonly

Aestheticism – often associated with Romanticism, a philosophy defining aesthetic

Cognitive Cultural Studies – applies research in cognitive neuroscience, cognitive

For More Knowledge:. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEaVKFOac7E

CHAPTER 2: SURVEY OF THE LITERARY THEORISTS/APPROACHES

a.) Analyze the components of classical literary theory.

Classical Literary Theory - This theory is premised

 Mimesis (Plato) - Mimesis is the Greek word

Willy: ... The boys in?

Linda: They're sleeping. Happy took Biff on a date tonight.

Linda: But, dear, how could he make any money.

HISTORICAL-BIOGRAPHICAL AND MORAL- PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACHES

The Historical-Biographical Approach

 the creation and life in paradise; garden

 displacement or banishment from paradise; alienation

 a time of trial and tribulation, usually a wandering; journey

 a self - discovery as a result of struggle; epiphany

 a return to paradise; rebirth/resurrection

This theory assumes that literature, as an artifact

The structuralists approach to literature assumes three dimensions in the individual

 the text as a particular system or structure in itself ( naturalization of a text )

 the text is related to the culture as a whole ( binary oppositions )

Twas brillig , and the slithy toves

" Beware of the Jabberwock , my son !

He took his vorpal sword in hand ;

And , as in ultish thought he stood,

One , two ! One , two ! And through and through

" And hast and slain the Jabberwock ?

' Twas brillig , and the slithy toves "

This theory questions texts of all kinds and our common

Destructing a text calls for careful reading and a bit of

 Identify the oppositions in the text

For More Knowledge:. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjGHQmingfo

CHAPTER 3: LITERARY THEORIES

a.) Analyze the characteristics of literary theories mentioned.

This theory stresses that art is

The key ideas in this theory are:

 Retardation of the narrative- the technique of delaying and protracting actions

Marxist Literary Theory

This theory aims to explain literature in

The Farmer's Son

BY ALFREDO NAVARRO SALANGA

There is great power in reason

My father was bent

While I was still

This is a specific kind of political discourse;

Feminist literary criticism studies literature by women for how it addresses or

Robert Herrick, 1591 - 1674

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,

Post colonialism refers to a

Postcolonial literatures emerged in their present form out experience of

There is a need to escape from the implicit body of assumptions to which

Homi K∙ Bhabha’s postcolonial theory involves analysis of nationality, ethnicity,

Postmodern Literary Theory

Postmodern is a term used to refer to the culture of advanced capitalist societies∙