ELL 272:

ADVANCED LITERARY CRITICISM

Mark Lawrence A. Fernandez
Your thoughts?

There are no wrong answers in literature.

Your thoughts?

Poetry is difficult.
Your thoughts?

Literature does not have value in schools.

Your thoughts?

Old writers are better than new writers.

Your thoughts?

Literature is boring, dry and too academic.

What is Literature?
• How is literature regarded in the above text? What is its role
in developing national consciousness?
• Agree or disagree: “The decline of literature can be the
decline of a nation.”
• Establish the literariness of the piece. Examine the structure,
the literary techniques and devices used, the point of view of
the writer, and its impact on the reader.
• With the perspectives derived from this text, how do you
define literature?
What is Literature?
To Look at Any Thing by John Moffitt

To look at any thing,

If you would know that thing,
You must look at it long:
To look at this green and say,
“I have seen spring in these
Woods,” will not do—you must
Be the thing you see:
You must be the dark snakes of
Stems and ferny plumes of leaves,
You must enter in
To the small silences between
The leaves,
You must take your time
And touch the very peace
They issue from.
What is Literature?
• Latin littera, “a letter of the alphabet”
• mankind’s entire body of writing
• body of writing belonging to a given language or people
• individual pieces of writing
What is Literature?
• the word writing when describing literature is itself misleading
- oral literature” or “the literature of preliterate peoples”
- art of literature is not reducible to the words on the page
- literature is the organization of words to give pleasure
- it elevates and transforms experience
- it functions in society as a continuing symbolic criticism of
values
The Language of Literature
Dayta cruz a paoitda
Ibbatam man, O, bunga,
Ta siac pay met sublatanca.
Ay, ania, ta agbiagac pay ngata
Iti casasaadmo a casta.
The Language of Literature
1. Subject matter
2. Language
3. Style
What is Criticism?
• The term criticism derives from the term kritikos, which was
used in the 4 century B.C. It means a “judge of literature”.
th

 
• In the 2 century A.D., its place was taken by the term
nd

criticus, aimed at the interpretation of texts and words and

improvement of the works of writers in Greek or Latin.
What is Criticism?
• In English, Dryden used it in the modern sense in his preface
to The State of Innocence (1677). He writes: “Criticism, as it
was first instituted by Aristotle, was meant a standard of
judging well.”

• Today, the term literary criticism aims at the study of works

of literature with emphasis on their evaluation
What is Criticism?
• Traditionally, literature was considered homogeneous
• Criticism in modern times is classified in different ways

mimetic theory – the critic views art in terms of the universe

or what is imitated (classical)
pragmatic theory – the critic views art in terms of its effect on
the audience (18 century)
th
What is Criticism?
expressive theory – critic views art in terms of the artist
(19 century)
th

objective theory – critic views art basically in its own terms,

seeing the work as a self-contained entity (New Criticism, 20 th

century)
Studying Literature

Literary Study

Literary Theory Literary Criticism

THEORY & CRITICISM
Literary Theory – critical theory, theory, cultural theory
• set of concepts and intellectual assumptions
• a variety of scholarly approaches to evaluate a study
• study of general principles
• any principles derived from internal analysis of literary
texts or from knowledge external to the text
• the frame that supports literary criticism
THEORY & CRITICISM
Literary Criticism
• study, analysis, evaluation and interpretation of
literature
• it judges the value of a work
• a body of work is evaluated according to its aesthetic
value, historical/cultural/social significance of the work,
use of language, and insights of the work
THEORY & CRITICISM
The literary theorist/critic tries to understand the nature of
literature, the functions of literature and its relations to the
author, reader, language, society, and to history etc.
Studying Literature

Why the need for theory and criticism

in studying literature?

Why should we trouble ourselves about theory?

How does it affect our experience and understanding of
reading literary texts?
Studying Literature
Raman Selden, A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory (2005)
• some familiarity with theory tends to undermine reading as an
innocent activity.

If we begin to ask ourselves questions about the construction of meaning

in fiction, the presence of ideology in poetry, or how we measure the
value of a literary work, we can no longer naïvely accept the ‘realism’ of a
novel, the ‘sincerity’ of a poem,
or the ‘greatness’ of either”
Studying Literature
Raman Selden, A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory
(2005)

• new ways of seeing literature can revitalize the reader’s engagement

with texts; that if s/he is to be adventurous and exploratory s/he
must also be adventurous in his/her thinking about literature.
Communication & Literature
CONTEXT

ADDRESSER MESSAGE ADDRESSEE

CONTACT
CODE
Communication & Literature
CONTEXT

WRITER WRITING READER

CODE
Communication & Literature
MARXIST

BIOGRAPHICAL FORMALIST READER- RESPONSE

STRUCTURALIST
Literary Criticism

M.H. Abrams:
1) Work
2) Artist
3) Universe
4) Audience
NATURE OF CRITICISM
• To some people, criticism appears to be secondary,
parasitic, and inferior to creation.

• It is stated that the creative artist is personal and

subjective, whereas a critic is impersonal, dispassionate,
and detached.
 
NATURE OF CRITICISM
• According to Scott James, ‘The true critic is an ally of the
artist.” A good critic has the same interest at heart as the
artist possesses. His never failing sympathy and intuition
qualify him to speak on behalf of the artist.

 
FUNCTIONS OF A LITERARY CRITIC
JUDGMENT

• In its strict sense, criticism means judgment. The literary

critic, therefore, is primarily an expert who uses his special
faculty and training to examine the merits and defects of a
piece of literary art or the work of a given author and
pronounce a verdict upon it.
 
FUNCTIONS OF A LITERARY CRITIC
• The primary function of a literary critic is to arrive at and
pronounce a meaningful judgment of value.

• The function of a literary critic is the evaluation of what has

been written, in terms of aesthetic principles appropriate to
literature (T. G. Williams: English Literature, a Critical
Survey).
MAIN PURPOSES OF A CRITIC
1. To justify one’s own work or to explain it and its underlying
principles to an uncomprehending audience – Dryden,
Wordsworth, Henry James
2. To justify imaginative art in a world that tends to find its
value questionable – Sidney, Shelley, the new criticism
3. To prescribe rules for writers and to legislate taste for the
audience – Pope, Boileau, and the Marxists
MAIN PURPOSES OF A CRITIC
4. To interpret works to readers who might otherwise fail to
understand or appreciate them – Edmund Wilson, Matthew
Arnold
5. To judge works by clearly defined standards of evaluation –
Samuel Johnson, T.S. Eliot
6. To discover and to apply the principles that describe the
foundations of good art – Coleridge, Addison, I.A. Richards
PURPOSE/USE

Does literary criticism have any practical use?

PURPOSE/USE
• Improves general reading skills
• Expands awareness of difference approaches
• Supports the development of critical thinking skills

Literary criticism can help you develop your skills as an

independent thinker and reader.
PURPOSE OF LITERARY CRITICISM
1. To help us resolve a question, problem, or difficulty in the
reading.
2. To help us decide which is the better of two conflicting
readings.
3. To enable us to form judgments about literature.
Your thoughts

Write a critical paper on the place of literature in education

as well as the place of literary criticism in the
present academic set-up.
The Pearl: An Analysis

Write a paper on The Pearl using the traditional approaches

(classical theory, historical-biographical, and moral-
philosophical)
The Pearl: An Analysis
Classical:
On mimesis – identify characters, events and ideas in the novel that
accord with reality. Does the novel adequately represent reality?
On function (dulce & utile) – look into the aesthetic qualities or
artistic merits of the work
On censorship – identify elements of the work that do not conform
with your standards or standards of society
On catharsis – how does the work help in purging emotions?
The Pearl: An Analysis
Historical-Biographical
How can we situate the work in the life and times of the
author?
Research on the inspiration of the book or author in writing
this novel.
Investigate events in the life of the author as well as his own
philosophies/perspectives that contributed to the writing of
the Pearl.
The Pearl: An Analysis
Moral-Philosophical
Identify theme/s and look at evidence for that theme
Analyze characters and relationships (morality/immorality of
relationships)
Plot structure and the moral implications of the events.
Tone and symbol
Lines from the novel that reveal moral principles