LITERARY

CRITICISM
 Purpose of literary criticism
1.To help us resolve a difficulty in the
reading.
2.To help us choose the better of two
conflicting readings.
3.To enable us to form judgments about
literature.
 What is the
difference between
literary THEORY
from literary
CRITICISM?
 Literary Theory Literary Criticism

The philosophical The study,

discussion of the discussion,
methods and goals evaluation, and
of literary interpretation of
criticism. literature -
APPLICATION
1. Classical Literary Theory
2. Historical-Biographical
3. New Historicism Kaya ba ni tanan?
4. Moral-Philosophical
5. Mythological/Archetypal
6. American New Criticism
7. Reader-Response
8. Russian Formalism
9. Structuralism
10. Deconstruction
11. Postmodernism
12. Postcolonialism
13. Feminism
14. Marxism
Classical Literary
Theory
Classical Literary Theory

Literature is an imitation
of life.
 Classical Literary Theory
MIMESIS
- a literary work should imitate life.
(Plato)
FUNCTION - a literary work should either entertain
(Horace) (dulce) or teach (utile).
- a literary work to be sublime must have: grand
STYLE
thoughts, powerful emotions, figures of speech, nobility
(Longinus) of diction, and word arrangement.
CATHARSIS – a literary work should prompt emotional
(Aristotle) cleansing.
CENSORSHIP – a literary work that shows bad mimesis
(PLATO) should be censored.
 Historical-
Biographical
Approach
 Historical-Biographical
“sees a literary work chiefly, if not
exclusively, as a reflection of the author's
life and times or the life and times of the
characters in the work“
 Historical-Biographical
“sees a literary work chiefly, if not
exclusively, as a reflection of the author's
life and times or the life and times of the
characters in the work“
Depicts the real condition of the various aspects of Filipino
society under the Spanish regime.
a. CRISOSTOMO IBARRA – Small group of Filipinos who had a
chance to study abroad and dreamt of improving the country
b. PADRE DAMASO – Wicked but ironically respected priests
c. CAPITAN TIAGO –officials and friars just to Rich Filipinos who
became allies of Spanishpreserve their wealth
d. SISA AND HER SONS – Filipino families who were oppressed by
the Spanish authorities
A Tale of Two Cities takes before
and during the French Revolution.
Jarvis Lorry is traveling to Paris to
reunite Dr. Manette with his long-
lost daughter Lucie. When Darnay
returns to Paris to save a former
servant, he is arrested by the
revolutionaries and sentenced to
death.
New Historicism
 New Historicism
It is based on the idea that literature
should be studied and interpreted within
the context of both the history of the
author and the history of the critic.
 New Historicism
It is based on the idea that literature
should be studied and interpreted within
the context of both the history of the
author and the history of the critic.
 New Historicism
Historicism acknowledges not only that a work of
literature is influenced by its author's times and
circumstances, but that the critic's response to
that work is also influenced by his environment,
beliefs, and prejudices.
 New Historicism
Historicism acknowledges not only that a work of
literature is influenced by its author's times and
circumstances, but that the critic's response to
that work is also influenced by his environment,
beliefs, and prejudices.
 Twelfth Night
Stephen Greenblatt argues that the
homoerotic desire that’s all over
this play challenged Elizabethan
ideas about “heterosexual” norms.
The Elizabethans were a pretty
conservative bunch. It wasn’t
exactly okay for men to fall in love
with one another. So by reflecting
homoerotic desires, Shakespeare’s
play challenged those norms about
sexuality.
 Moral-
Philosophical
Approach
 Moral-Philosophical
Larger function is to teach
morality and to probe
philosophical issues.
 Moral-Philosophical
Larger function is to teach
morality and to probe
philosophical issues.
 Moral-Philosophical
Horace – “Literature should be
delightful and instructive.
Plato – “Literature must exhibit
moralism and utilitarianism.”
 Moral-Philosophical
Horace – “Literature should be
delightful and instructive.
Plato – “Literature must exhibit
moralism and utilitarianism.”
 The Lion Makers
(Panchatantara
Tales)

Moral:
“Scholarship is less than
sense.”
 The book is the tale of a young teenaged boy, Huck,
and his companion, a black slave named Jim, on their
quest for freedom. Along the way, Huck is faced with
a number of tough decisions that force him to test his
ability to decipher between right and wrong, despite
the typical conventions of the society he lived in.

Huck's dilemma is whether or not to turn Jim in, a

black slave that had ran off with Huck from Miss
Watson. ... He began developing this moral
dilemma after spending so much time getting to know
each other on Jackson's Island. Huck recognizes Jim
as a person that lives, breathes, thinks, and feels.
Mythological/Archety
pal Approach
 Mythological-Archetypal
This approach to literary study is based on Carl Jung’s
theory of the collective unconscious. Repeated or dominant
images or patterns of human experience are identified in the
text: the changing of seasons, the cycle of birth, death and
rebirth, the heroic quest, or immortality. Myths are
universal although every nation has its own distinctive
mythology.
 Mythological-Archetypal
This approach to literary study is based on Carl Jung’s
theory of the collective unconscious. Repeated or dominant
images or patterns of human experience are identified in the
text: the changing of seasons, the cycle of birth, death and
rebirth, the heroic quest, or immortality. Myths are
universal although every nation has its own distinctive
mythology.
 Mythological-Archetypal
This approach to literary study is based on Carl Jung’s
theory of the collective unconscious. Repeated or dominant
images or patterns of human experience are identified in the
text: the changing of seasons, the cycle of birth, death and
rebirth, the heroic quest, or immortality. Myths are
universal although every nation has its own distinctive
mythology.
Archetypal Symbols
According to Carl Jung, water is
most common symbol for the
unconscious.
a) The Sea:
- the mother of all life
- spiritual mystery and infinity
- unconscious.
b) Rivers:
- death and rebirth (baptism)
- the flowing of time into eternity
- transitional phases of the life
cycle
Archetypal Symbols
Sun (fire and sky are closely
related):
- father principle (moon and
earth tend to be associated
with the mother principle);
passage of time and life.
a) Rising sun: birth; creation;
enlightenment
b) Setting sun: death
Archetypal Symbols

a)Red: blood,
sacrifice, violent
passion,
disorder
Archetypal Symbols

Green: growth,
sensation, hope, fertility,
in ironical context may
be associated with death
and decay
Archetypal Symbols

c)Blue: usually highly

positive, associated with
truth, religious feeling,
spiritual purity, security
Archetypal Symbols
White, :
a. positive aspects: light,
purity, innocence, and
timelessness
b. negative aspects: death,
terror, the supernatural, and
the blinding truth of an
inscrutable cosmic mystery.
Archetypal Symbols
Serpent (snake or worm): -
symbol of energy and pure
force (cf. libido)
- evil, corruption,
sensuality
- destruction; mystery;
wisdom
Archetypal Symbols
a) The Good Mother (positive
aspects of the Earth
Mother):
- associated with the life
principle, birth, warmth,
nourishment, protection,
fertility, growth, abundance
(for example, Demeter, Ceres).
Archetypal Symbols

b) The Terrible Mother:

- the witch, sorceress,
siren, whore,– associated
with sensuality, fear,
danger, darkness, death
Archetypal Symbols
The Wise Old Man (savior,
redeemer, guru):
- personification of the spiritual
principle, the representing.
- The old man always appears
when the hero is in a hopeless
and desperate situation from
which only profound reflection
or a lucky idea can extricate
him.
Archetypal Motifs
1. Creation: perhaps the most
fundamental of all archetypal
motifs – virtually every
mythology is built on some
account of how the Cosmos,
Nature, and Man were brought
into existence by some
supernatural Being or Beings.
Archetypal Motifs
2. Immortality: another fundamental
archetype, generally taking one of two
basic narrative forms:
a) Escape from time: “Return to
Paradise, the state of timeless bliss
enjoyed by man before his tragic Fall
into corruption and mortality.
b) Mystical submersion into cyclical
time: the theme of endless death and
regeneration.
Archetypal Motifs
3. Hero archetypes:
a) The quest: the hero
undertakes some long journey
during which he must perform
impossible tasks, battle with
monsters, solve unanswerable
riddles, and overcome
insurmountable obstacles to save
the kingdom and, perhaps, marry
the princess.
Archetypal Motifs
3. Hero archetypes
b) Initiation: the hero undergoes a
series of excruciating ordeals in
passing from ignorance and
immaturity to social and spiritual
adulthood, that, is in achieving
maturity and becoming a full-fledged
member of his social group.
Archetypal Motifs
3. Hero archetypes
c) The sacrificial scapegoat:
the hero, with whom the
welfare of the tribe or nation
is identified, must die to
atone for the people’s sins
and restore the land to
fruitfulness.
American New
Criticism
American New Criticism
This school of criticism WORKS WITH
THE ELEMENTS OF A TEXT ONLY –
irony, paradox, metaphor, symbol, plot,
and so on – by engaging in extremely
close textual analysis.
 American New Criticism
A poem should be treated as primarily poetry and
should be regarded as an independent and self-
sufficient object.
 American New Criticism

A poem should be treated as primarily

poetry and should be regarded as an
independent and self-sufficient object.
 American New Criticism
The distinctive procedure of the New Critic is
explication or close reading:
The detailed and subtle analysis of the
complex interrelations and ambiguities of the
components within a work.
 American New Criticism
The principles of New Criticism are basically verbal. That
is, literature is conceived to be a special kind of language
whose attributes are defined by systematic opposition to
the language of science and of practical and logical
discourse. The key concepts of this criticism deal with the
meanings and interactions of words, figures of speech,
and symbols.
 American New Criticism
The principles of New Criticism are basically
VERBAL. The key concepts of this criticism
deal with the meanings and interactions of
words, figures of speech, and symbols. The
distinction between literary genres is not
essential.
 American New Criticism
To use this approach, one proceeds by looking into the following:
 Persona
 Addressee
 Situation (where & when)
 What the person says
 Central metaphor
 Central irony
 Multiple meaning of words
 Intentional Fallacy Affective Fallacy

We shouldn't let If we give in to

the author's our emotional
reputation taint reactions, we're
our evaluation less able to
of the text. evaluate the text
objectively.
Type of plot used: Circular
Plot device: Deus Ex Machina
Most common is dramatic irony. The
drama of Oedipus Rex is based upon the
psychological blindness of Oedipus who
issues punishments for the murderer of
King Laius, who ruled Thebes before
King Oedipus.

Another type of irony that Sophocles uses

is situational irony, which involves the
action in the play. Oedipus runs away
from his parents but ends up getting closer
to his real parents.
 Russian
Formalism
 Russian Formalism
Russian Formalism stressed
that what a piece of literature
"means" cannot be dismissed
from how it says it.
 Russian Formalism
Russian Formalism stressed
that what a piece of literature
"means" cannot be dismissed
from how it says it.
 Baring the Device
– 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
flashforward, and so on.
 Baring the Device
– 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
flashforward, and so on.
 Defamiliarization
- this means making strange. Everything must
be dwelt upon and described as if for the first
time. It simply confirms things as we know
them (e.g. the leaves are falling from the trees;
the leaves are green).
 Defamiliarization
- this means making strange. Everything must
be dwelt upon and described as if for the first
time. It simply confirms things as we know
them (e.g. the leaves are falling from the trees;
the leaves are green).
 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
slowed down, drawn out or interrupted.
Digressions, displacement of the parts of the book,
and extended descriptions are all devices to make
us attend to form.
 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
slowed down, drawn out or interrupted.
Digressions, displacement of the parts of the book,
and extended descriptions 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.
 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).
 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).
 Reader-
Response
 Reader-Response
- Asserts that both reader and text must work together to produce
meaning
- Shifts emphasis of textual analysis from text alone and views
readers and text as partners
- Purposive shift in emphasis away from the text as sole determiner
of meaning towards the significance of the reader as an essential
participant in the reading process and creation of meaning
- Reader - no longer passive
Structuralism
 Structuralism
Structuralism is a theory that concentrates completely on
the text, bringing nothing else to it. It depends, in large
part, on linguistic theory, so it is difficult to do without
some background.

Structuralism investigates the kinds of patterns that are

built up and broken down within a text and uses them to
get at an interpretation of that text.
 Structuralism
Structuralism is a theory that concentrates completely on
the text, bringing nothing else to it. It depends, in large
part, on linguistic theory, so it is difficult to do without
some background.

Structuralism investigates the kinds of patterns that are

built up and broken down within a text and uses them to
get at an interpretation of that text.
 Binary Oppositions
• a.k.a binary operations or conceptual oppositions
• for each center, there exists an opposing center

One concept is superior and

defines itself by its opposite or
inferior center
 Best found as a series of
binary oppositions
best pictured numerator
light (Top half)
as a fraction dark
denominator (bottom half)

Structuralism emphasizes form and

structure not the actual content of a text.

How text mean, not what text mean is

their chief interest.
Deconstruction/
Post
Structuralism
 Deconstruction
Advanced by Jacques Derrida, it suggests that language is not a
stable entity, and that we can never exactly say what we mean.
Therefore, literature cannot give a reader any one single
meaning, because the language itself is simply too ambiguous; a
text has many meanings and therefore no definitive
interpretation. We cannot say that we know what the "meaning"
of a story is because there is no way of knowing.
Psychoanaly
sis
 Psychoanalysis
The basis of this approach is the idea of the
existence of a human consciousness. Critics
use psychological approaches to explore the
motivations of characters and the symbolic
meanings of events.
 Psychoanalysis
The basis of this approach is the idea of the
existence of a human consciousness. Critics
use psychological approaches to explore the
motivations of characters and the symbolic
meanings of events.
 Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalytic criticism is similar to New Criticism in
not concerning itself with "what the author intended,”
but what the author never intended (that is, repressed)
is sought. The unconscious material has been distorted
by the censoring conscious mind.
 Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalytic criticism is similar to New Criticism in
not concerning itself with "what the author intended,”
but what the author never intended (that is, repressed)
is sought. The unconscious material has been distorted
by the censoring conscious mind.
 Psychoanalysis
- creative writing is like dreaming – it disguises
what cannot be confronted directly – the critic
must decode what is disguised.
Highlight of the roles of the id, ego, and supergego
– ideas of Freudian psychology
 Psychoanalysis
The assumption of psychoanalytic critics is that a work of literature
is correlated with its author's mental traits:
1. Reference to the author's personality is used to explain and
interpret a literary work.
2. Reference to literary works is made in order to establish,
biographically, the personality of the author.
3. The mode of reading a literary work itself is a way of experiencing
the distinctive subjectivity or consciousness of its author.
Psychoanalyzing Alice: Sexual
Symbolism
Alice in Wonderland practically begs
to be psychoanalyzed; it is easy to
treat it as a dream, because it IS a
dream. The first wave
of Alice psychoanalysts focused on
the sexual symbolism in the novel.
For instance, A. M. E. Goldschmidt 
interprets Alice’s ordeal in the
hallway of doors in Chapter 2 this
way:
Sexual symbolism
 Carroll’s own repressed sexuality
LOCK AND KEY  COITUS
DOORSREPRESENT ADULT WOMEN

little door, which

symbolizes a female child; the
curtain before it represents the
child’s clothes
 Goldschmidt

Certain events, such as Alice’s “penetrating”

the rabbit hole, the keys and the locks, and
the small door, are “colorful” symbols of the
act of sex, which he interprets as proof of the
“the presence, in [Lewis Carroll’s]
subconscious, of an abnormal emotion of
considerable strength”
 Schilder
interprets the extreme violence of
many of Wonderland’s
inhabitants as the representation
of Carroll’s frustrated sexual
urges
Marxism
 Marxism
Marx maintained that material production, or
economics, ultimately determines the course of
history, and in turn influences social structures.
Marxist criticism approaches literature as a
struggle with social realities and ideologies.
 Marxism
Marx maintained that material production, or
economics, ultimately determines the course of
history, and in turn influences social structures.
Marxist criticism approaches literature as a
struggle with social realities and ideologies.
The Hunger Games, which is a
trilogy by Suzanne Collins. In it,
various districts are struggling
economically and socially and
eventually rise up against their
government. The Marxist critique
would go as far as to say that it was
those conditions that caused the
series to unfold the way it did. It
was simply people rebelling against
an unfair way of life.
 Post-
modernism
 Post-modernism
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.
 Post-modernism
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.
Postcolonialism
 Postcolonialism
Refers to a historical phase undergone by THIRD WORLD
COUNTRIES after the decline of colonialism: Asia, Africa,
Latin America, and the Caribbean separated from the
European empires and were left to rebuild themselves.

Attempts to foreground the tension with imperial power and

by emphasizing their differences from the assumptions of the
imperial center.
 Postcolonialism
Refers to a historical phase undergone by THIRD WORLD
COUNTRIES after the decline of colonialism: Asia, Africa,
Latin America, and the Caribbean separated from the
European empires and were left to rebuild themselves.

Attempts to foreground the tension with imperial power and

by emphasizing their differences from the assumptions of the
imperial center.
 8/20/19
Things Fall Apart
By: Chinua Achebe

depicts a vivid picture of

Africa before the
colonization by the British.
 8/20/19
No Longer at Ease
By: Chinua Achebe

sequel to Things Fall Apart and the title of

which is alluded to Eliot’s The Journey of
the Magi: ‘We returned to our places, these
kingdoms, but no longer at ease here in the
old dispensation.
Feminism
 Feminism
Feminist critics draw attention to the ways in
which patriarchal social structures have
marginalized women and male authors have
exploited women in their portrayal of them.
 Feminism
Feminist critics draw attention to the ways in
which patriarchal social structures have
marginalized women and male authors have
exploited women in their portrayal of them.
Three Waves of
Feminism
 8/20/19
First Wave

late 1700s-early 1900's

a. Writers like Mary Wollstonecraft (A Vindication of the
Rights of Women, 1792) highlight the inequalities between the
sexes.
b. Activists like Susan B. Anthony and Victoria Woodhull
contribute to the women's suffrage movement, which leads to
National Universal Suffrage in 1920 (The Nineteenth
Amendment)
 8/20/19
Second Wave

early 1960s-late 1970s

a. Building on more equal working conditions necessary in
America during WW II, movements such as the National
Organization for Women (NOW), 1966, consolidate feminist
political activism.
b. Writers established the groundwork for the dissemination of
feminist theories; dove-tailed with the American Civil Rights
movement.
 8/20/19
Third Wave

early 1990s-present
a. Resisting the perceived over simplified ideologies (and the white,
heterosexual, middle class focus) of second wave feminism; expands on
marginalized populations' experiences.
b. Writers like Alice Walker work to "...reconcile it [feminism] with the
concerns of the black community...[and] the survival and wholeness of
her people, men and women both, and for the promotion of dialog and
community as well as for the valorization of women and of all the
varieties of work women perform"