Literary Criticism

Question 1

-a field of critical theory that emerged in the early 1990s out of queer studies (often, formerly, gay and lesbian studies) and women’s studies
-associated with the study and theorization of gender and sexual practices that exist outside of heterosexuality, and which challenge the notion that heterosexual desire is ‘normal’

Answer 1

QUEER

Question 2

-suggests that the larger purpose of literature is to teach morality and to probe philosophical questions
-believed that authors intend to instruct the audience in some way
-this approach forces readers to dig deeper, discover the discover the moral values, and ask questions instead of accepting things the way they seem

Answer 2

MORAL/PHILOSCHICAL

Question 3

-deals with a work of literature primarily as an expression, in fictional form, of the personality, state of mind, feelings, and desires of its author
-assumption of psychoanalytic critics is that a work of literature is correlated with its author’s mental traits

Answer 3

PSYCHOLOGICAL OR PSYCHOANALYTIC

Question 4

-requires that you apply to a text specific historical information about the time during which an author wrote
-history, in this case, refers to the social, political, economic, cultural, and/or intellectual climate of the time.

Answer 4

HISTORICAL

Question 5

-reads a text within social context
-analyzes textual representations from the woman’s perspective, such as those involve in stereotyping and “objectification of womanhood”
-feminist critic sees cultural and economic disabilities in a “patriarchal” society that have hindered or prevented women from realizing their creative possibilities and women’s cultural identification as a merely negative object, or “Other” to man as the defining and dominating “Subject”

Answer 5

FEMINISM

Question 6

-critical approach that relates the text to the larger, wider structure through inter-textual connections or repetitive pattern
-text is NOT autonomous but should be analyzed within wider social and cultural contexts
-structuralists believe in coherent, universal systems that may be probed using the “GRAMMAR” of a text

Answer 6

STRUCTURALISM

Question 7

-term is derived from Karl Marx
-German philosopher and scholar who theorized about society and history
-wrote literary pieces declaring that all of history has been a history of class struggles -school of critical theory focuses on power and money in works of literature

Answer 7

MARXISM

Question 8

-formulates on the idea that any literary text is autonomous-it should be read as something beyond the influence of culture or society
-rejects the perceived connection between the text and the author
-text should be critiqued based only on its inherent characteristics, including its form

Answer 8

FORMALISM

Question 9

-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

Answer 9

Scott James

Question 10

-in literature, we evaluate and interpret literary texts based on their intellectual, artistic and aesthetic value
-in short, we CRITIQUE them
-study, analysis, evaluation and interpretation of literature it judges the value of a work a body of work is evaluated aesthetic value, significance of the work, use according to its historical/cultural/social of language, and insights of the work

Answer 10

LITERARY CRITICISM

Question 11

Scott James’ qoute

Answer 11

“A true critic is an ally of the artist”