What and how does it influence

the literary work ?

 To define the term extrinsic.
 To enlist extrinsic element
 To discuss each element
 To elaborate the proponents of each element
 To analyze the significance of each extrinsic

element

 Extrinsic element is also known as extrinsic
factors influence the literary works

 It is usually becomes a ‘causal’ explanation

for some description, analysis, and evaluation
of a literary work.
 Thus, critics may use extrinsic factors as an
approach to make a criticism towards any
literary works.
 Extrinsic factors are the literary elements /
factors which can be found outside the
literary works

 It indirectly influences the structure of the

literary works
 Extrinsic approach is used by critics to
emphasize the importance of the context to
the text.
 It is focused on :-
I. Background

ii. History

iii. Social conditions

iv. Biography of the author.

 Sometimes, it connects literature to the social

context and psychology as well.
 According to Wellek & Warren (1956),
extrinsic elements are as follows:

Circumstances of individual subjectivity authors

who have attitudes, beliefs, and outlook on life
these things affect the making of literary works.
 Psychological state of the author,
psychological state of the readers, as well as
the application of psychological principles in
the work..
 Psychology can explain about the creative
process.
 A study of revisions, corrections, and the like

has more which is literarily profitable, since,

well used, it may help us perceive critically
relevant fissures, inconsistencies, turnings,
distortions, in a work of art
(Wellek and Warren, 1977: 91).
Author of circumstances, such as economic, social,
and political.
View of life of a nation, the various works of art,
religion, and so forth.
 Background of the author’s life as part of the
extrinsic elements affects works of literature.

 For example, the author of a particular area

of cultural backgrounds, are consciously or
unconsciously, will incorporate elements of
culture into literature
 For example : Thomas Hardy’s Novels
 The setting in his novel is the replication of

his own native town

 The traditions of the people
 Superstitions
 All such elements, Hardy took from his own

culture and background

 Wellek and Warren write that literature is ultimately
a social institution as several aspects of it are
created or influenced through social
conventions and norms.

 An author, for example, is a social being, raised

and shaped by society and is in a dialectic
relationship with the audience:

 the audience provides recognition and an income,

and the author shapes audiences' tastes and
behavior
 As an extrinsic element ,It can provide most
intrinsic knowledge about the author
 From a biography, we know the genius,

moral, intellectual and emotional

development of a man
 we may also learn the psychological

conditions
 author’s creative process.
• The biographical approach forgets that a work of
art is not only simply the embodiment of
experience but always the latest work in a series
of such works; it is in drama, a novel, a poem
determined, so far as it is determined at all, by
literary tradition and conventions. The
biographical approach actually obscures a proper
comprehension of the literary process, since it
breaks up the order of literary tradition to
substitute the life-circle of an individual
(Wellek and Warren, 1977:
78)
 The biographical approach ignores also quite
simple psychological facts. A work of art may
be the ‘mask’, the ‘anti-self’ behind which his
real person is hiding, or it may be a picture of
the life from which the author wants to
escape
(Wellek and Warren, 1977:
78).
• Author’s religious background or religiosity
also can affect the work of the author's life
back literature.
• John Milton’s religion is the vital extrinsic
factor without which understanding Miltonic
Trends would be partial.
• .
 Extrinsicelements become an integral part of
the building works of literature.

 Extrinsicelements give color and flavor to

literature, which in turn can be interpreted as
meaning.
 Extrinsicelements that affect the work can
also be used as a portrait of objective reality
at the time the work was produced.

 Sothat we as readers can understand the

psychological mood state of society and
author at the time.
 The use of extrinsic approach become the
important part of the literary theory
development.
 Criticism such as Feminist theory,
Psychoanalysis, and Marxist theory enhance the
extrinsic factors of the literary work to do any
literary criticism.
 The development of the extrinsic approach
brings positive impact to the development of
literature as author may criticize the social
condition through their literary works.
 Wellek Rene & Austin Warren. 1956. Theory of
Literature, (3rd Ed.). New York: Harcourt,
Brace & World
 Wellek Rene & Austin Warren. 1977. Theory of

Literature. New York: Harcourt Brace

Jovanovich