LITERARY CRITICISM

APPROACHES
 NEW CRITICISM

• emphasizes explication, or "close reading(textual

analysis)," of "the work itself“
• rejects old historicism's attention to biographical
and sociological matter
• objective determination as to "how a piece works"
can be found through close focus and analysis,
rather than through extraneous and erudite special
knowledge
• examines the relationships between a
text's ideas and its form, between what
a text says and the way it says it
• finds tension, irony, or paradox
usually resolving into unity and
coherence of meaning" (Biddle 100)
• Seeks the function and
appropriateness of the elements of a
work
• Meaning exists on the page.
 NEW CRITICISM TENDS TO FIND:

1. Tension – the conflict that needs to be resolved.

Refers to ambiguities, complexities, and ironies
2. Paradox – it might come in events, settings, or
characters
3. Irony – can either be dramatic, verbal, or situational
• Tensions refer to paradoxes,
ambiguities, complexities or ironies in
the text.
• Intentional fallacy happens when one
confuses the meaning of a work with
the author's purported intention
• Affective fallacy is the erroneous
practice of interpreting texts according
to the psychological or emotional
responses of readers, confusing the
text with its results.
• The heresy of paraphrase
A poem is complex and precise, and any
attempt to paraphrase it inevitably distorts or
reduces it. Thus, any attempt to say what a
poem means is “...heretical, because it is an
insult to the integrity of the complex structure
of meaning within the work.” (Brooks)
• External fallacy

Any external evidence to explain the

work, e.g., historical or social, because
they might be easily subsumed by other
disciplines
• Objective correlative: a set of objects,
a situation, a chain of events, or
reactions that can effectively awaken
in the reader the emotional response
the author desires without being a
direct statement of that emotion.
(THE LOVE SONG OF J ALFRED PRUFROCK AND OTHER POEMS.pptx)
The Methodology:
How to become a Formalist (New Critic)?

•Read the text many times.

•Associate the work’s title with the text itself.

•Carefully note the diction (word choice).

•Locate any possible allusions in the text and relate them to their original
sources.
• Search for images and symbols and relate them with each
other.

• Look for elements of prosody, such as: rhyme, rhythm,

stanzas, meter, language and style.

• Examine the tone, speaker (narrator), theme, setting and point

of view.
• Are there any paradoxes? Ambiguities?
Tensions? Ironies? Or conflicts?
• Put all the clues (elements), which helped
in developing the text, in front of you. Re-
associate them with the complexities of
the whole text. Explain the text’s
meaning, thus by resolving its tensions.
 FORMALISM & RUSSIAN FORMALISM
(SHKLOVSKY, TOMASHEVSKY, MUKAROVSKY, JAKOBSON)

• 1915
• Literature is not a 'reflection' of the world, Victor Shklovsky and his
Formalist followers saw it as a linguistic dislocation or a 'making strange‘.
• considers literature as a special use of language which deviates from and
distorts “practical” language
• Language is constructed in order to change our perceptions.
• To understand literature, one has to look at the form as well as the content
• Meaning is conveyed from the connotations of the form and only by looking
at the form can literary critics understand the text’s meaning
 SJUZET AND FABULA

• sjuzet (plot) – literary, events in the story, literary devices

• fabula (story) - raw material awaiting the organizing hand of a writer
• Tomashevsky’s motivation
• A motif is the smallest unit of the plot, a single statement of action.
• A bound motif is required by the story
• A free motif while not essential to the story is the literary point
of view of the text and its aesthetic quality.
• Literariness - the sum of 'devices' that distinguish literary
language from ordinary language(baring the device)
• Defamiliarization (Shklovsky)-
The distinctive effect achieved by literary works in
disrupting our habitual perception of the world, enabling
us to 'see' things afresh, according to the theories of some
English Romantic poets and of Russian formalism. [from:
Baldick, 1990] http://faculty.washington.edu/cbehler/glossary/glossary.html#defamiliarization
Carnival

• Carnival reflected the 'lived life' of medieval and early modern

peoples. (Bakhtin)

• In carnival, official authority and high culture were jostled 'from

below' by elements of satire, parody, irony, mimicry, bodily
humor, and grotesque display.

• This jostling from below served to keep society open, to liberate

it from deadening..." (Bressler 276)
http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Nugali/English%20461/Russian%20Formalism-S.pdf
Heteroglossia

• refers to the way in which every instance of language use –

every utterance - is embedded in a specific set of social
circumstances

• Refers to the way the meaning of each particular utterance is

shaped and influenced by the many-layered context in which
it occurs
(Sarah Willen,
"Dialogism and Heteroglossia")
THE BAKHTIN SCHOOL(RUSSIAN FORMALISM)
(MIKHAIL BAKHTIN, PAVLEV MEDVEDEV, AND VALENTINE
VOLOSHINOV)

• combined elements of Formalism and Marxism in their

accounts of verbal multi-accentuality - the ability of words
and other linguistic signs to carry more than one meaning
according to the contexts in which they are used - and of
the dialogic text
Monologism

• having one single voice, or representing one

single ideological stance or perspective
• In a monological form, all the characters'
voices are subordinated to the voice of the
author" (Malcolm Hayward).
Polyphony

• a term used to describe a dialogical text which, unlike a monological

text, does not depend on the centrality of a single authoritative
voice(Bakhtin)

• Such a text incorporates a rich plurality and multiplicity of voices,

styles, and points of view.

• It comprises a plurality of independent and unmerged voices and

consciousnesses, a genuine polyphony of fully valid voices" (Henderson
and Brown - Glossary of Literary Theory).
FOREGROUND AND BACKGROUND

• Foregrounding emphasizes an element or

aspect of the text at the expense of others,
which are automatically relinquished to the
background.
Final notes:
• Formalism’s main orientation is the code of literature that it employs.
• Formalism focuses on the formal aspects of literature.
• Literature is an aesthetic discipline that continues to reshapes itself through the
process of defamilarization.
• This constant defamiliarization happens through a consistent shift to the
function of devices-through the idea of difference (parallelism and
juxtaposition)
• Literature is a message primarily oriented towards itself.
 CONTEMPORARY CRITICAL APPROACHES

Basic principles of Marxism

• Marxism is a way of thinking critically.
• It is not a “system”.
• Marxism believes that the world is dominated
by a ruling class.
 CONTEMPORARY CRITICAL APPROACHES

Basic principles of Marxism

• All ideological systems are the products of real
social and economic existence.
• The materials interest of the ruling class
determine how individuals and people see
human existence.
 CONTEMPORARY CRITICAL APPROACHES

Basic principles of Marxism

• Class struggle is a necessity for progress.
Basic Terms

• Proletariat: that class of society which does not have

ownership of the means of production.

• Bourgeoisie: wealthy class that rules society

Three Principles of Socialist Realism

• Partinost – commitment to the working class is

caused by the Party
• Klassovost – the class nature of art (believes
that a writer is committed to class interest and
of social realism
• Narodnost – commitment to popular art
(massified)
• Power of the Base

• Marx believed that the economic means of production

in a society (the base) both creates and controls all
human institutions and ideologies (the superstructure).
• This superstructure includes all social and legal
institutions, all political and educational systems, all
religions, and all art.
• These ideologies develop as a result of the economic
means of production, not the reverse
Alienation

• Marx believed that capitalist society created four forms of alienation:

• First, the worker is alienated from what he produces.
• Second. The worker is alienated from productive activity, he is
producing only that which he is asked to do, no opportunity to be
creative.
• Third, the worker is alienated from himself; only when he is not
working does he feel truly himself.
• Finally, in capitalist society people are alienated from each other;
that is, in a competitive society people are set against other people.
Marxist critiques
1. Georg Lukács (1885-1971)

• Believed that a detailed analysis of symbols. Images and

other literary devices (formalism) would expose class conflict
and expose the relationship between the superstructure and
the base.
• Reflection Theory
Belief that texts directly reveal a society’s consciousness.
• Approach is largely didactic, emphasizing the negativity of
capitalism, seen in alienation.
2. Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937)

• Developed theory of cultural hegemony to explain why the

"inevitable" revolution of the proletariat predicted by
orthodox
Marxism had not occurred by the early 20th century.
• According to Gramsci, capitalism maintained control not just
through violence and political and economic coercion, but
also ideologically, through a hegemonic culture in which the
values of the bourgeoisie became the "common sense“
values of all.
• The working class needed to develop a "counter hegemonic"
culture, firstly overthrow the notion that
bourgeois values represented "natural" or "normal"
values for, and ultimately to succeed in overthrowing
capitalism.

• Literature is a tool of the privileged class, and cannot be used to

further Marxist revolutions

• Critics using Gramsci’s perspective look for the signs of

hegemonic thinking embedded in literary works
3. Louis Althusser (1918-1990)

• Rejected a basic assumption of most Marxist

critics before him—that the superstructure
directly reflects the base.
• His production theory asserts that literature
cannot be merely considered a part of the
superstructure at all.
• Art can inspire revolution
• the dominant hegemony,or prevailing ideology,
forms the attitudes
of people through a process called interpellation,
or “hailing the subject.”
• The worldview of the people is carefully
crafted through a complex series of messages
sent through the elements of the superstructure,
including the arts.
• The dominant class uses this Ideological State Apparatus
rather than political or military repression.

• Counter-hegemonies can emerge, if the people write their

own literature (poems, novels, and dramas), create their own
music, and create their own art.
Marxist Literary Analysis:Methology

• Proper critique of a text cannot be separated from

the cultural situation in which the text was created.
• Marxist approach deals with more than literary
devices and themes—focusing on historical
context and the author’s view of life.
• Focuses on exposing class conflict /indoctrination.
Questions for Analysis

•Is there an outright rejection of socialism in the work?

•Does the text raise fundamental criticism about the
emptiness of life in bourgeoisie society?
•In portraying society, what approximation of totality
does the author achieve? What is emphasized, what is
ignored? Why?
•How well is the fate of the individual linked
organically to the nature of societal forces?
• At what points are actions or solutions to problems forced or unreal?

• Are the characters from all social levels equally well sketched?
What are the values of each class in the work?

• What is valued most? Sacrifice? Assent? Resistance? Individuality?

• How clearly do narratives of disillusionment and defeat indicate that

bourgeoisie values—competition, acquisitiveness, chauvinism—are
incompatible with human happiness?
• Does the protagonist defend or defect from the
dominant values of society? Are those values in
ascendancy or decay?

• http://englishwithmaurno.pbworks.com/f/marxlitcrit-1%5B1%5D.pdf
STRUCTURALIST CRITICISM

• developed as an outgrowth of linguistic theories aiming to

understand the relationship between language and the human
experience
• used close reading
• Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913), language is the
foundational structure that informs all human experience—
our ways of knowing the world and, therefore, our reality.
STRUCTURALIST CRITICISM

• As an approach to reading literary texts, structuralism

emphasizes the importance of examining linguistic structural
elements as they manifest in a literary work and looking for
patterns that reveal the systematic nature of language and its
uses in literature.
• Saylor.org
NEW HISTORICISM

• examines a work’s historical and political context

• understand a literary work as dynamically engaged with
historical events
• approaches a text as a way of understanding how we interpret
historical moments (rather than simply recording them)
• New Historicism aims to unveil the subjective nature of our
understanding of history itself instead of emphasizing the
linguistic structure of a text (structuralism).
READER RESPONSE CRITICISM

• Considers the role a reader plays in producing the meaning

of a work
• not subjective impressionistic or free-for-all
• not a legitimizing of all half-baked, arbitrary, personal
comments on literary works
• emerged in the 1970s
• finds meaning in the act of reading itself
• examines the ways individual readers or communities of readers
experience texts
Critics:
• regards how reader joins with the author to help construct what the
text means
• determines what kind of reader or what community of readers the
work implies and helps to create
• examines the significance of the series of interpretations the reader
undergoes in the reading process
Theoretical Assumptions:

• Literature as a performative art.

• Literature exists only when it is read; meaning is an event.
• The literary text possesses no fixed and final meaning or
value; there is no one "correct" meaning.
• Literary meaning and value are "transactional," "dialogic,"
created by the interaction of the reader and the text.
 FORMALISM VS. READER RESPONSE

Formalism Reader Response

1. Texts are self- 1. Texts are “constructed in the reader’s
contained. mind

2. Texts are spatial. 2. Texts are temporal.

3. Focuses on the 3. Focuses on the process of reading
text.
“It is not that the presence of poetic qualities compels a certain
kind of attention but that the paying of a certain kind of
attention results in the emergence of poetic qualities. . . .
Interpretation is not the art of construing but the art of
constructing. Interpreters do not decode poems; they make
them“

-Stanley Fish
Key Terms:
1.Horizons of Expectations

- used to describe the criteria readers use to judge literary texts

in any given period
- text will change according to the time and place of the reader

2. The Implied Reader

- is established by the "response-inviting structures" of the text;
this type of reader is assumed and created by the work itself
3. The Actual Reader
- brings his/her own experiences and preoccupations to the text

4. Interpretive communities
-consist of a group of “informed readers”
- Readers write the text
- Driven by conventions
- Not an agreement about the text but on how the text is to be read
5. Transactional Analysis
- An analytical method where the text acts on the reader and the
reader interacts with the text
How Readers Read Literary Texts
1. Styles" or "identity themes" of readers are similar (Norman
Holland--psychoanalytic approach): cf. George Dillon's
classification of students' responses to Faulkner's "A Rose for
Emily":
"Character-Action-Moral Style" ("connected knowers")--
treat literature as coextensive with experience (Proairetic code)
"Diggers for Secrets"--find hidden meanings in literature,
psychoanalyze motives of characters, etc. (hermeneutic code)
"Anthropologists"--look for cultural patterns, norms, values
[e.g. feminists, New Historicists]. (referential code)
 FEMINISM

ELAINE SHOWALTER and the THREE PHASES of

DEVELOPMENT of WOMEN’S LITERATURE
I. Androgynist poetics
• relations and rooted in mid-Victorian women's writing of imitation
• contends that the creative mind is sexless,
• the very foundation of describing a female tradition in writing was
sexist
• Critics found gender as imprisoning, nor believed that gender had
a bearing in the content of writing
2. feminist critics
- 1970s
- reject the genderless mind
- Believe that gender is part of that culture-determination which
serves as inspiration
- emphasizes "the impossibility of separating the imagination from
a socially, sexually, and historically positioned self."
- allowed for a feminist critique as critics attacked the meaning of
sexual difference in a patriarchal society/ideology. Images of
male-wrought representations of women (stereotypes and
exclusions) came under fire, as was the "'division, oppression,
inequality, [and] interiorized inferiority for women.'"
3. The Female Aesthetic
• expresses a unique female consciousness and a feminine tradition in
literature
• celebrate an intuitive female approach in the interpretation of women's
texts.
• "spoke of a vanished nation, a lost motherland; of female vernacular or
Mother Tongue; and of a powerful but neglected women's culture."
• Virginia Woolf and Dorothy Richardson, emerging out of the Victorian
period and influenced by its writings were perhaps the first women to
recognize this. In "Professions for Women," Woolf discusses how a
woman writer seeks within herself "the pools, the depths, the dark places
where the largest fish slumber," inevitably colliding against her own
sexuality to confront "something about the body, about the passions."
• Female: A member of the sex that produces ova or bears
young.

• Feminine: Characterized by or possessing qualities generally

attributed to a woman.

• Feminism: Belief in the social, political, and economic

equality of the sexes.

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/local/scisoc/sports/s05/papers/kchen.html
 STRUCTURALISM/NEW CRITICISM

• Views text as existing independently.

• Focuses on the meanings and interactions of words, figures of
speech, and symbols.

• Looks for complex interrelations and ambiguities within a

text.

• Analyzes how parallels are established and create a unity

within the text
Structuralist Narratology (Tzvetan Todorov)

• Narratology/Archetypes: A form of Structuralism

that focuses on the structure of stories. Identifies 31
actions that a story can contain and claims all stories
pick from this list. Also focuses on the specific
character types that are repeated within all stories—
hero, villain, trickster, orphan, mentor etc.
POST STRUCTURALISM

• any of several theories of literary criticism, as

deconstruction or reader-response criticism, that use
structuralist methods but argues against the results of
structuralism and holds that there is no one true
reading of a text
• a reaction against structuralists' claims to "scientific
objectivity" and "universality."
Key Terms

1. Aporia- the tactic of deconstructive criticism, showing how

terms come to embarrass their own ruling systems of logic;
and deconstruction shows this by fastening on the
‘symptomatic’ points, the aporia or impasses of meaning,
where texts get into trouble, come unstuck, offer to contradict
themselves” (Eagleton 116).
2. logocentrism – (fr Greek ‘logos’ for speech, thought, law or
reason) idea that some ultimate signifier, which exists outside
the play of language, centers or acts as a foundation for all
thought, language, experience--e.g., God, the Idea, the Self,
etc.

3. Foregrounds theory- feels compelled to explain theory of

signification, the general conditions that determine meaning
4. TRANSCENDENTAL SIGNIFIER AND SIGNIFIED

- "transcendental signified,“- a concept that is universally true,

across cultures, that we can build a philosophy or an
intellectual system upon.(Derrida)
e.g. This might be, for example, masculinity.

- "transcendental signifier,“ - means basically something that

enables us to express or understand that concept, like, for
example, the phallus.
5. METAPHYSICS OF PRESENCE- (Jacques Derrida – any
science of presence)

• Term originally used by Heidegger to characterize the central

mistake of western metaphysics. In his vision, metaphysics
from Plato to Nietzsche postulates a self-knowing and self-
propelling autonomous agent, for whom nature exists only in
so far as it is present, which means useful.
 MODERNISM

• Modernist literature was a predominantly English genre of

fiction writing, popular from roughly the 1910s into the
1960s.
• Modernist literature came into its own due to increasing
industrialization and globalization.
• New technology and the horrifying events of both World
Wars (but specifically World War I) made many people
question the future of humanity: What was becoming of the
world?
• Modernist fiction spoke of the inner self and consciousness.
Instead of progress, the Modernist writer saw a decline of
civilization. Instead of new technology, the Modernist writer
saw cold machinery and increased capitalism, which
alienated the individual and led to loneliness. (Sounds like
the same arguments you hear about the Internet age, doesn't
it?)
Modernism vs Postmodernism
Modernism Postmodernism
romanticism/symbolism paraphysics/Dadaism
form (conjunctive, closed) antiform (disjunctive, open)
purpose play
design chance
hierarchy anarchy
mastery/logos exhaustion/silence
art object/finished work/logos process/performance/antithesis
centering absence
genre/boundary text/intertext
semantics rhetoric
metaphor metonymy
root/depth rhizome/surface
signified signifier
narrative/grande histoire anti-narrative/petite histoire
genital/phallic polymorphous/androgynous
paranoia schizophrenia
origin/cause difference-difference/trace
God the Father The Holy Ghost
determinacy interdeterminacy
transcendence immanence
 POST COLONIAL CRITICISM

• A type of cultural criticism, postcolonial criticism usually

involves the analysis of literary texts produced in countries
and cultures that have come under the control of European
colonial powers at some point in their history. Alternatively,
it can refer to the analysis of texts written about colonized
places by writers hailing from the colonizing culture
( Edward, 1978)