eappq2 Flashcards
these ideas act as different lenses that critics use to view and talk about art, literature, and even culture. These different lenses allow critics to consider works of art based on certain assumptions within that school of theory. The different lenses also allow critics to focus on particular aspects of a work they consider important
Literary Theories
We rely on mediators or models to help us understand who and what to desire.
An understanding about desire and blossomed into a grand theory of human relations. Based on the insights of great novelists and dramatists – Cervantes, Shakespeare, Stendhal, Proust, and Dostoevsky – Girard realized that human desire is not a linear process, as often thought, whereby a person autonomously desires an inherently desirable object
Rather, we desire according to the desire of the other
Mimetic Theory
the primary means for avoiding total escalation
scapegoat mechanism
This theory believes in the idea that the ultimate source of meaning is the author.
In the attempt to study the work, both the text and the author’s background (biography) are being examined and analyzed.
Authorial Theory
This theory allows you to
take your own personal feelings and your own perspective into account when you
analyze a literary text.
Reader Response Theory
The work of literature is linked to its literary history as it also considers the tradition that exists in a certain period. This is also familiar to many as the work in relation to other literary masterpieces. Here, other existing works in the same period are being used to examine the linkage of a certain text by closely comparing and analyzing the similar characteristics, style, ideas, and attitude that form the work
Literary Tradition
is a way for researchers to gather information about how other human beings make sense of the world. It is a methodology - a data-gathering process - for those researchers who want to understand the ways in which members of various cultures and subcultures make sense of who they are, and of how they fit into the world in which they live.
Textual Analysis Theory
Literary Theories:
Mimetic Theory, Authorial Theory, Reader Response Theory, Literary Tradition, Textual Analysis Theory
Literary Criticism:
Formalistic Approach, Philosophical, Historical/Biographical, Psychological, Mythological/Archetypal, Feminist Criticism, Marxist Criticism
Approach: This approach focuses on form. The analysis stresses items like symbols, images, and structure and how one part of the work relates to other parts and to the whole. that all information essential to the interpretation of a work must be found within the work itself; there is no need to bring in outside information about the history, politics, or society of the time, or about the author’s life.
Formalistic Approach
Formalistic Critical Questions:
how is the work organized?
asks about the plot
elements of the work
patterns
figures of speech
Note the writer’s use of paradox, irony, symbol, plot, characterization, and style of
narration.
tone and mood of the different parts of the work
This approach focuses on themes, view of the world, moral statements, author’s philosophy, etc. the larger purpose of literature is to teach morality and to probe philosophical issues.
Philosophical Approach
Moral/Didactic Questions
view of the world?
mankind’s relationship to God or universe?
moral statement of the work
concept of good and evil
human nature
reward and punishment
enduring truths
critics see works as the reflection of an author’s life and times (or of the characters’ life and times). This approach deems it necessary to know about the author and the political, economic, and sociological context of his times in order to truly understand the work(s).
Historical/Biographical Approach
Historical Critical Questions
when was the work published/written
how was it received by the critics and public?
standards of taste and value during that period of time
does the story contradict the prevailing values of the time
social attitudes and cultural practices
how can we understand the past reflected in the work
historical influences that can shape the work
how important is the historical context in understanding the work
Biographical Critical Questions
What influences—people, ideas, movements, events—evident in the writer’s life does
the work reflect?
what modification of actual events has the writer made in the literary work
what has the author revealed in the work about his/her characteristics
This approach focuses on the psychology of characters. critics view through the lens of psychology. psychological motivations of the character or the author. Applies Freudian an/or Jungian (archetype) psychology
Psychological Approach
this approach is pinpointing the influence of a character’s psyche (Greek for ‘soul’)
Freudian approach
Freudian approach consists of:
Id (libido or pleasure principle in the unconscious)
superego
ego
freudian critics steer towards the sexual implications of symbols and imagery
concave images:
ponds, flowers, cups, caves (female symbols)
convex images:
skyscrapers, submarines, obelisks (male symbol)
symbol of water in freudian approach
birth, the female principle, the maternal, the womb, and the death wish.
oedipus complex, and electra complex
a boy’s unconscious rivalry with his father for the love of his mother. a girl’s unconscious rivalry with her mother for the love of
her father. respectively
Psychological critics are generally concerned with his concept of the process of
individuation (the process of discovering what makes one different form everyone else).
Jungian Approach
Jungian Approach consists of:
Shadow, persona, animal/animus
Psychological critical questions:
connections between the author’s life and the behavior and motivations of the character in the work
understanding the character to better understand the mental world, and imaginative life of the author
can you employ the freudian psychoanalysis to understand the character? does any character correspond to the tripartite self?
approach to literature assumes that there is a collection of symbols, images, characters, and motifs (i.e., archetypes) that evokes a similar response in all people.
Mythological/Archetypal
According to this psychologist mankind possesses a “collective unconscious” (a cosmic reservoir of human experience) that contains these archetypes and that is common to all of humanity.
Carl Jung
Mythological/Archetypal critical questions:
incidents in the work that are common or familiar as the actions may be symbolic or archetypal
kinds of character types that appear in the work
What creatures, elements of nature, or man-made objects playing a role in the work
might be considered symbolic?
what changes does the characters undergo
how does the story resemble other stories in the plot and other elements
does the writer allude to mythological or biblical literature
Christ-like figure
universal experiences depicted
archetypal settings
archetypal characters
archetypal events
origin of man purpose and destiny of human beings
This approach examines images of women and concepts of the feminine in myth and literature and uses the psychological, archetypal, and sociological approaches. Concerned with the impact of gender on writing and reading.
Feminist Criticism
Feminist critical questions:
how does the representation of women (and men) reflect the time and place in which the work was written?
how is the relationship between men and women or those in between of the same sex presented
how are woman lives portrayed
marital and behavioral expectations on the characters
type of criticism in which literary works are
viewed as the product of work and whose practitioners emphasize the role of class
and ideology as they reflect, propagate, and even challenge the prevailing social
order.
Marxist criticism
that class of society, which does not have ownership of the means of production.
Proletariat
wealthy class that rules society
Bourgeoisie
three forms of alienation:
the worker is alienated from what he produces
the worker is alienated from himself; only when he is not working does he feel truly himself;
in a capitalist society people are alienated from each other; that is, in a competitive society people are set against other people.
marxist/cultural critical questions:
who are the powerful people and those powerless in the text?
is there class conflict and struggle
do the powerful suppress the powerless, and how?
economic status of the characters
are specialized forms of writing in which a reviewer or reader evaluates a scholarly work
reaction papers, review, critiques
The introduction of a critique includes:
5% of the paper
title of book/article/work
writers name
thesis statement
The summary of a critique includes:
10% of the paper
objective or purpose
methods used (if applicable)
major findings, claims, ideas or messages
The review/critique includes:
75% of the paper
a. Appropriateness of methodology to support the arguments (for books and articles) or appropriateness of mode of presentation (other works)
b. Theoretical soundness, coherence of ideas
c. Sufficiency and soundness of explanation in relation to other available information and experts
d. Other perspectives in explaining the concepts and ideas
The conclusion of a critique includes:
10% of the paper
overall impression of the work
scholarly or literary value of the reviewed, article, book or work
benefits to the intended audience or field
suggestion for future direction of research
