LITERARY THEORIES

TUJUAN
• Mengembangkan kemampuan
mahasiswa untuk memahami
teori-teori sastra
• Mengasah kemampuan mhs
dalam memilih teori yang tepat
dalam mengalisis topik
 KOMPETENSI
• Mampu mengalisis karya sastra dari berbagai
aspek dengan memanfaatkan teori yang sudah
dipelajari.
• Mampu mengalisis karya sastra secara obyektif.
• Menggunakan kemampuan untuk menerapkan
teori yang tepat dalam pemecahan masalah yang
mungkin dihadapi dalam proses pembelajaran
mereka.
 KOMPETENSI

MENGGUNAKAN DAYA ANALISIS

YANG TAJAM DAN OBYEKTIF DALAM
BERKOMUNIKASI SECARA LISAN
MAUPUN TERTULIS BAIK DALAM
RANAH NASIONAL MAUPUN
INTERNASIONAL
 MATERI
• Pengertian teori sastra
• Kaitan teori sastra dengan Sifat dasar Sastra
• Kaitan antara teori dengan fungsi sastra
• Kaitan teori sastra dengan Sejarah Sastra
• Teori Sastra:
– Rene Wellek and Austin: Intrinsic & Extrinsic
– Abrams: Orientation ofCritical Theories
– Gender/Feminism
– Reader Response
What is Literary
Theory?
Literary theory is the set of concepts and intellectual
assumptions on which rests the work of explaining or
interpreting literary texts.
Literary theory refers to any principles derived from
internal analysis of literary texts or from knowledge
external to the text that can be applied in multiple
interpretive situations.
Literary theory is a description of the underlying
principles, one might say the tools, by which we
attempt to understand literature
Literary theory can be thought of as the general
theory of interpretation
(http://www.iep.utm.edu/literary)
I. Literary theory in a strict sense is
the systematic study of the nature
of literature and of the methods
for analyzing literature.
II. Literary theory is closely tied to
the function of literature
III. The theory and criticism of
literature are closely tied to the
history of literature
.
NATURE OF LITERATURE
• Literature is everything in print
• Literature is limited to “great books”
which whatever their subject are
notable for literary form or expression.
• Literature is limited to the imaginative
literature with language as the main
material
.
Primarily the language of literature differs from
ordinary language in three ways:
(1) language is concentrated and meaningful,  
(2) its purpose is not simply to explain, argue, or
make a point but rather to give a sense of
pleasure in the discovery of a new experience,
and
(3) it demands intense concentration from the
readers. It indicates that the language of
literature has originality, quality, creativity, and
pleasure.
imaginative and non-imaginative
• Literary text consists of textual meaning
and referential meaning
• Non-literary text only consists of referential
meaning.
• The textual meaning is the meaning that is
produced by the relationship of text itself.
• Referential meaning is meaning that is
produced by the relationship between
internal text and external text (world
beyond the text). 
THE FUNCTIONS OF LITERATURE

1. Social and political function

2. The cultivating culture
3. Ideological functions of
literature
 1. Social and political function
• A subject of instruction in the colonies of
British Empire and Early American the
greatness of England and America
REPRESENTATION
Literature is exemplary in its
characteristics  universality (telling
us about human condition in general)
 2. The cultivating culture
• since the late nineteenth century culture
has referred primarily to the arts: literature,
ballet, painting, theatre.
• Emerging capitalist economy  offers
alternative values
• The movement away from traditional
religion had positioned literature to be the
moral guardian of society
 3. Ideological functions of literature

• as an ideological instrument  seducing

readers into accepting the hierarchical
arrangements of society

• as a place where ideology is exposed 

revealing something that can be
questioned
THE FUNCTION OF LITERATURE
• Horatian formula :dulce and utile (sweet and
useful)
– Usefulness need not be thought to lie in the
enforcement of moral lessons but refers to “not a
waste of time,” not a form of “passing the time,”
something deserving of serious attention.
– Sweet is equivalent to “not to bore,” “not a duty,” “its
own reward.”→ great works
• Pop works : escape and amusement
• Entertainment and escapism
 Escapism and Entertainment
• Escape from real life : demonstrated in violent
thrillers, romance novels full of deceit and
betrayal, or stories of other dimensions and
magic
• The tales of ‘Narnia’ by C.S Lewis, tell the story
of children who find a route through a wardrobe
into another world and have dramatic
adventures there. It does however, begin with
the real life setting of evacuees during the
Second World War.
• Literature conveys knowledge.
• The novelists can teach you more about human
nature than the psychologists is familiar kind of
assertion.
• Literature provides catharsis for the writers and
the readers→ relief from the pressure of
emotions. To express emotions is to get free of
them
• Literature nourishes souls and enriches lives. A
society or people who give up on literature do
themselves a terrible harm.
http://www.iGuides.org
• literature is something that stands the test of time
and can entertain, inspire and educate for
eternity (Farooq, 2007).
• Literature that entertains aims to do so either
through humor or pathos. humor make us laugh
away our sorrows. Humor is sometimes based on
the comedy of manners. It rails at society’s
idiosyncrasies. Pathos gives rise to tragedy.
Tragedies give us a cathartic feeling so that we
go away from a book cleansed of emotions and
worries.
• Literature that inspires and educates aims to
make society a better place to live in.
• Aristotle the father of literary theory believed that
all good literature should do so, thus probably
starting off the eternal dialogue over ‘art for arts
sake’ vs. ‘art with a message’.
• The audience of a good work of literature should
feel uplifted in thought after completing the book.
• Literature gives a sense of fulfillment,
satisfaction and achievement.
- We recognize we are not alone in what we
feel and think, for literature is the depiction of
universal thoughts. We realize that men and
women have the same emotions and react
almost similarly cutting through time, space and
matter.
- Literature intrigues our minds with its
allusions, similes and metaphors. When we
decipher them we partake of the creative
process. This gives us a sense of
accomplishment.
Norm-fulfilling v. norm breaking function

Literature supports, restates and reinforces

the dominant cultural system and its values
→readers remain passive
Literature violates and breaks the familiar
social norms and codes→ great works: the
aesthetic quality of a work consists in the
defamiliarization and the automatization of
familiar traditional norms and codes
→ forming a new literary canon
(Kuenzli, Neohelicon.Vol 14.No2:169-181, pdf)
Literary theory- literary criticism
• Literary theory explores and
attempts to evaluate the bases of
criticism.
• Literary criticism itself is a
practical activity carried out in a
community of interests.
 LITERARY THEORIES
AND
HISTORY OF LITERATURE
• Literary theory offers varying approaches
for understanding the role of historical
context in interpretation as well as the
relevance of linguistic and unconscious
elements of the text.
• Literary theorists trace the history and
evolution of the different genres—narrative,
dramatic, lyric—in addition to the more
recent emergence of the novel and the
short story, while also investigating the
importance of formal elements of literary
structure
 PERIODS OF ENGLISH
LITERATURE
• 450-1066 : Old English Period
• 1066-1500 : Middle English Period
• 1500-1660 : Renaissance
– 1558-1603 : Elizabethan Age
– 1603-1625 : Jacobean Age
– 1625-1649 : Caroline Age
– 1649-1660 : Puritan Age
1660-1798 : Neoclassical Period
1660-1700 : The Restoration
1700-1745 : The Augustan Age /Age of
Pope
1745-1795 : The Age of Sensibility/
Age of Johnson
1798-1832 : The Romantic Period
1832- 1901 : The Victorian Period
1848-1860 : The Pre-Raphaelites
1880-1901 : Aestheticism and Decadence
1901-1914 : The Edwardian Period
1910-1936 : The Georgian Period
1914- : The Modern Period
1939 : Postmodernism
PERIODS OF AMERICAN LITERATURE

 1607-1775 Colonial Period

 1765-1790 Revolutionary Period
 1775-1828 The Early National Period
 1828-1865 Romantic Period/ American
Renaissance
 1865-1914 Realistic Period
 1900-1914 Naturalistic Period
 1914-1939 Modern Period
○ 1920s Jazz Age
Harlem Renaissance
 1939- Contemporary Period
Theory and History of Literature
 Different historical periods have emphasized various characteristics
of literature.
 Early works often had an overt or covert religious or didactic
purpose. Moralizing or prescriptive literature stems from such
sources.
 The exotic nature of romance flourished from the Middle Ages
onwards.
 The Age of reason manufactured nationalistic epics and
philosophical tracks
 Romanticism emphasized the popular folk literature and emotive
involvement, but gave way in the 19th-century West to a phase of
realism and naturalism, investigations into what is real.
 The 20th century brought demands for symbolism or psychological
insight in the delineation and development of character.
 TIMELINE OF THEORIES
 Moral Criticism, Dramatic Construction (~360 BC-present)
 Structuralism/Semiotics (1920s-present)
 Formalism, New Criticism, Neo-Aristotelian Criticism (1930s-
present)
 Psychoanalytic Criticism, Jungian Criticism(1930s-present)
 Marxist Criticism (1930s-present)
 Reader-Response Criticism (1960s-present)
 Feminist Criticism (1960s-present)
 Gender/Queer Studies (1970s-present)
 Post-Structuralism/Deconstruction (1966-present)
 New Historicism/Cultural Studies (1980s-present)
 Post-Colonial Criticism (1990s-present)
INTRINSIC AND EXTRINSIC
ELEMENTS OF LITERATURE
 Basic Intrinsic Elements
Setting
Atmosphere
Characters
Conflict
Plot
Theme
Summary of the Basic Intrinsic
Elements
 Setting is the "where" and 'when" of the story or
novel.
 Characters are the "who.
 Conflict is the "what." (What is the problem?)
 Plot is the "how." (How is the conflict developed
and resolved?)
 Theme is the "why." (The author's message
and one of the reasons why the author wrote
the story or novel.)
 LITERARY TECHNIQUES

 Point of View
 Style
 Figurative Language
 Parody
 satire
 stream of consciousness
 Basic Elements of Poetry 
 Imagery
 Figurative languages
 Tone and musical devices
 Rhythm and Meter

(Reuben, Paul P, Elements of

poetry /axf.html/2010)
 Basic Elements of Drama
 Narrator:  a character in some plays who speaks directly to
the audience, introducing the action and providing
commentary between scenes; may or may not be a character
in the action
 Dramatic Convention:  any dramatic device which is
accepted by the author and audience as a means of
representing reality
 Monologue:  a long speech by a character; allows characters
to express complicated thoughts or develop extensive
arguments; in fiction, one person speaks in a monologue
 Chorus:  a group of actors speaking or chanting in unison,
often while going through steps of elaborate, formalized
dance; usually used to express views and emotions of the
public; sometimes pose questions to characters or audience;
sometimes used as a narrator; a characteristic device of
Greek drama for conveying communal or group emotion
Extrinsic Elements of literature

Biography
Psychology
Society
Ideas
( Wellek and Austin, 1955)
 Literature and author

Literature is considered as the

product of an individual creator

It should be interpreted mainly

through biography and psychology of
the author
 Pendekatan Biografis
 merupakan studi yang sistematis mengenai
proses kreativitas pengarang yang dianggap
sebagai asal-usul karya sastra. Sebuah karya
sastra dianggap relatif sama dengan maksud,
niat, pesan, dan bahkan tujuan-tujuan tertentu
pengarang:
 → riwayat hidup pengarang menjadi pusat
kajian dengan mengaitkannya dengan karya
sastra yang dihasilkan.
 → Pengalaman dan perjalanan hidup
pengarang dari masa kecil hingga dewasa
menjadi bagian yang takterpisahkan dari proses
kreativitas untuk memproduksi karya sastra
 Pendekatan ini juga bs digunakan untuk
mengupas perjalanan hidup para tokoh dalam
cerita
Central biographical questions
What biographical facts has the
author used in the text?
What biogrphical facts has the author
changed? Why?
What insights do we acquire about
the author’s life by reading the text?
How do these facts and insights
increase or reduce our understanding
of the text?
 Pendekatan Psikologis
lebih memperhatikan aspek psikologis
pengarang.
Karya sastra dianggap sebagai hasil aktivitas
penulis, yang sering dikaitkan dengan gejala-
gejala kejiwaan, seperti: obsesi, kontemplasi,
kompensasi, sublimasi, bahkan sebagai
neurosis.
Sigmund Freud (1856—1939): semua gejala
mental bersifat tak sadar yang tertutup oleh
alam kesadaran. Dengan adanya
ketakseimbangan, ketaksadaran
menimbulkan dorongandorongan yang
memerlukan kenikmatan, yang disebut libido.
Karena proses kreatif dianggap sebuah
kenikmatan yang memerlukan pemuasan,
maka proses tersebut dianggap sejajar
dengan libido.
Central psychological questions
Are there any specific psychological
theories mentioned in the text?
What theories of human behavior
does the writer seems to believe?
How can you tell?
What theories of human behavior
does the writer seem to reject?
How do people’s minds work in the
text? How do people think? How are
their thoughts shown?
 Literature and Society/Universe

Literature represents a social reality

It has usually arisen in close
connection with particular social
institutions →(Economic, social and
political system)
Attempts are made to describe and define
the influence of society on literature and
to judge the position of literature on
society
 Pendekatan Sosiologis
lebihmengedepankan aspek masyarakat dalam
kajian karya sastra, dengan proses pemahaman
mulai dari masyarakat ke individu di mana karya
sastra dianggap sebagai milik masyarakat.
Pendekatan sosiologis didasari oleh hubungan
hakiki antara karya sastra dan masyarakat
dengan asumsi dasar, yakni:
a) karya sastra dihasilkan oleh pengarang;
b) pengarang itu sendiri adalah anggota
masyarakat;
c) pengarang memanfaatkan kekayaan yang ada
dalam masyarakat, dan
d) hasil karya sastra itu sendiri dimanfaatkan
kembali oleh masyarakat.
 Central sociological questions
What sort of society does the author
describe? How is it set up?what rules
are there? What happens to people
who break it? Who enforces the rules?
What does the author seem to like or
dislike about this society?What
changes do you think the author would
like to make in the society?
What pressures does the society put on
its member? How do they respond?
 Political questions
What political events are significant
in the text?
What political events were occuring
at the time the text was written?
What political beliefs does the author
seem to have? How are those beliefs
shown?
What political beliefs does the author
seem to dislike? How can you tell?
 Literature and ideas
Literature is thought of as a form
of philosophy; as ideas wrapped
in form and it is analyzed to yield
“leading ideas.”
Literature can be treated as a
document in the history of ideas
and philosophy
Literature reflects the history of
philosophy
 Philosophical questions
Are any ethical beliefs or
philosophies mentioned specifically n
the texts?
What ethical beliefs or philosophies
does the author seem to favor or
disfavor?
What behavior do the character
display that the author wants us to
think are “right” or wrong”?
 Analytical Diagram –Abrams
(1979)
UNIVERSE ob
j ec
tiv
e
mimetic

WORK
pragmatic

expressive

ARTIST AUDIENCE
 Mimetic theories
Art is essensially an imitation of
aspects of the universe.
The imitation is of not crude
everyday reality but of “la belle
nature” – all the perfection that is
able to receive.
Art is an imitation—but an imitation
which is only instrumental toward
producing effects upon an audience

pragmatic
 Pragmatic theories
Work of art is chiefly as a means to
an end, an instrument for getting
something done, and tends to judge
its values according to its success in
achieving the aim.
The tendency of the pragmatic critic
is to conceive a poem as something
made in order to effect requisite
responses in its readers.
 Sir Phillip Sidney:
poetry has a purpose to achieve
certain effects in an audience. It
imitates only as a means to proximate
end of pleasing and pleasant, it turns
out, only as a means to the ultimate
end of teaching
“the right poets are those who imitate
both to delight and teach, and delight
to move men to take that goodness in
handle,which without delight they
would flye as from a stranger...”
In order “ to teach and delight” poets
imitate not ‘what is, hath been, or
shall be,’ but only ‘what may be, and
should be.’so that the very objects of
imitation become such as to
guarantee the moral purpose.
(Bandingkan dengan konsep dari
Horace: Utile and sweet)
The pragmatic orientation, ordering
the aims of artist and the character
of the work to the nature, the need,
and the springs of pleasure in the
audience, characterized by far the
greatest part of criticism from the
time of Horace through the 18 th
century.
It has been the principal aesthetic
attitude of the western world.
The poet is strictly responsible for the
pleasure the audience -- he exerted his
creative ability
Gradually the stress was shifted more
and more to the poet’s natural genius,
creative imagination and emotional
spontaneity at the expense of the
opposing attributes of judgment,
learning and artful restraints
expressive theories
 Expressive theory
A work of art is essentially internal
made external,resulting from a
creative process operating under the
impulse of feeling, and embodying
the combined product of the poet’s
perceptions, thoughts and feelings
(Abrams, 1979:22)
Poetry is the spontaneous overflow
of powerful feelings (Wordword in
Abrams,1979:21)
 Objecive theories
The work of art is isolation fron all
external points of reference,
analyzes it as a self-sufficient entity
constituted by its parts in their
internal relations, and sets out to
judge it solely by criteria intrinsic to
its own mode of being.
It started to emerge in the late 18C
and the early19 C.
 Pendekatan Strukturalisme
Pendekatan ini diilhami oleh linguistik struralisme
yang memusatkan perhatian pada hubungan
sinkrouns bahasa Dalam kajian karya sastra, aspek
sintagmatik terwujud dalam upaya pemahaman kata
berdasarkan relasinya dengan kata-kata yang
muncul sebelum dan sesudahnya:
– relasi horizontal berupaya memaknai bahasa
berdasarkan hubungan antar unsur dalam
suatu unit bahasa, seperti kalimat, klausa, dan
frasa, sehingga dapat dipahami apa makna
yang sebenarnya.
– relasi vertikal terwujud dalam pemilihan
sinonim atau antonim suatu kata. Perbedaan
makna kata bisa dipahami bila kata yang
dimaksudkan diganti dengan antonim atau
sinominya.
– Jadi, relasi vertikal ini tidak terkait secara
langsung dengan aspek kaedah yang
mendasari unit bahasa tertentu, tetapi lebih
pada relasi makna.
Pendekatan Strukturalisme
– Selain unsur-unsur bahasa,
pendekatan strukturalisme juga
memperhatikan unsur-unsur
instrinsik lainnya, seperti plot,
setting, dan apa makna yang
terkandung dalam sebuah karya
sastra.
– pendekatan strukturalisme hanya
mencoba mengkaji karya sastra dari
sudut pandang unsur intrinsiknya
saja.
 Pendekatan Strukturalisme
Dinamik
 Pendekatan strukturalisme dinamik
merupakan penyempurnaan dan
pengembangan dari strukturalisme yang
lebih menekankan pada unsur-unsur
intrinsik karya sastra.
 Pendektan strukturalisme dinamik
membuka peluang untuk mengkaji aspek-
aspek ekstrinsik karya sastra, seperti aspek
sosiologis, antropologis, atau aspek-aspek
lain sehingga
 pemahaman karya sastra menjadi lebih
komprehensif.
 Pendekatan Strukturalisme Genetik

Pendekatan ini merupakan pengembangan

dari pendekatan strukturalisme dengan
menambahkan aspek-aspek sosial dan
bahkan antropologis dalam kajian karya
sastra.
Dalam pendekatan ini karya sastra
dianggap sebagai karya pengarang dan
sekaligus sebagai kenyataan sejarah yang
mengkondisikan munculnya karya
tersebut.
• analisis karya sastra tidak hanya terfokus
pada relasi sinkronik unsur-unsur bahasa
yang digunakan, tetapi juga mencakup
beberapa aspek lain, seperti unsur
instrinsik karya sastra, latarbelakang
pengarang, dan latar belakang sosial dan
sejarah masyarakat di mana penulis
berada.
• pendekatan strukturalisme genetik
mengkaji karya sastra dari aspek
intrinsik dan ektrinsiknya, sekaligus
aspek-aspek lain yang berhubungan
dengan asal-usul bagaimana karya sastra
dihasilkan.
 Michael Zeraffe (1973):
There is an interrelationship among works of
art, society and history. The form and the
content of the novel derive more closedly
from social phenomenon, and they seem
to bound up with particular moments in
the history of the society... The novel is
directly concerned with the nature of the
situation in history; and with the direction
confronts us openly with the issue of the
meaning and value of our ineluctable
historical and social condition
 Nelson Mandred Blakes (1969:1-2):
Novelists witness to history....the
conventional documents like reports,
speeches, treaties, proclamation,
orders, messages and statues are
not enough.... To be able to get
through understanding of our history
we need to rely upon literary works.
Literature cannot be separated from the
creator. Commenting on the style of the
works of Mark Twain, Henry Nash Smith
points out that “to speak of the otonomy
of a work of art ... is ridiculous. The
otonomy of a novel was impaired by forces
that were in large part internalized by the
author long before he sat down to write....
Many of the forces at work in the fiction
are clearly of social origin (Tate,
1973:50).”
Horton and Edwards (1974:1-2):
Literature tends to reflect the
dominant tendencies of its era and to
grow out of the moral, social, and
intellectual ferment impinging upon
the sensibilities of literary men
).” Literary source is believed to give
meaningful contribution to the historian
because the novelist’s imagination can
create the way people once thought and
acted, so ordering matters toward the
ethical veracity that the historian could
never achieve. Historian is dependent
upon written records,whereas feelings and
even the dramas of daily routine often
conveyed by gesture, look, or silence, or
words that no one saw fit to write down
(Wyatt-Brown, 1982:xi)