Literary Theories

Question 1

What are the 4 classifications of literary criticism?

Answer 1

Text Centered, Author Centered, Reader Centered, Context Centered

Question 2

What is the context centered approach to analyzing a text?

Answer 2

• looks at the societal aspect.
• generally focused on the world/society’s condition when text was written
• example: Marxism, Feminism, New Historicism

Question 3

What is the word that envelopes a persons “personal experiences” in which activates a meaning of a text? It is a reader’s background knowledge.

Answer 3

Schema

Question 4

What do you mean by “close reading”?

Answer 4

It is when readers pay attention to details and how the language was used to derive a message.

Question 5

Joelle starts looking through the text to answer a question or support a claim. What is this action called and what kind of approach is she using?

Answer 5

Textual evidence; Text-centered approach

Question 6

What defines a literary period?

Answer 6

1. Large Scale Event
2. Existing Institutions
3. Popular Movement
4. Representative Author
5. Entitled Backwards, periods are titled after they are finished.

Question 7

What was the first literary genre?

Answer 7

Rituals

Question 8

What is the most basic theory?

Answer 8

Formalism

Question 9

How does formalism see texts?

Answer 9

They see it as independent. It is not to be connected to the author, context, or even seen as a reflection of social reality.

Question 10

What is always involved when doing a formalist analysis?

Answer 10

Close Reading

Question 11

What is the formalist belief surrounding “Defamiliarization”?

Answer 11

Artistic vs Everyday Language; Literature’s role is to make the familiar unfamiliar

Question 12

What is the core principle of Postcolonialism Theory?

Answer 12

Literature reveals what happens when two cultures come into contact and when one culture is dominated by another.

Question 13

What are the central concepts in Postcolonialism Theory?

Answer 13

1. Cultural Colonization: strong culture aims to replace weaker culture
2. Double Vision: contrasts perspectives of both colonizer and colonized
3. Unhomeliness: culturally displaced; no sense of belonging to neither culture
4. Hybridity/Syncretism: mixture of native and colonial culture
5. Mimicry: colonized culture mimics the stronger culture

Question 14

What concept does ethnocentrism falls under? What exactly is it?

Answer 14

Mimicry; belief of one culture being better than the other

Question 15

Where is the term “Third world” derive from and why is it considered an effect of colonialism?

Answer 15

From the west; this idea of a “third world” came from the view of colonizers

Question 16

What is Humanism?

Answer 16

Literature that teaches moral and ethical values to enhance human life.

Question 17

Under Humanism there are 2 main concepts: moral value
and aesthetic value*. Explain the latter.

Answer 17

Aesthetic value incorporates reader’s own experience

Question 18

What is the Reader-Response Theory? What is its main principles?

Answer 18

That a literary text’s beauty* and meaning can only be activated or enhanced through transaction with the reader’s schema.

Question 19

According to Reader-Response Theory, we activate an analyze a text through our schema. So what are we looking for when we are using RRT?

Answer 19

1. Close relationship between text and reader
2. Effect of text to reader

note: Text isdeadif there is no reader

Question 20

What are the defining characteristics of Structuralism?

Answer 20

1. That there is only ONE definite truth.
2. text is not autonomous
3. there are conventional patterns/formulaic structure according to each genre
4. there should be 2 opposing forces → “binary thinking”

Question 21

Structuralism introduces the idea of “sign”, briefly explain what this means.

Answer 21

Language is composed of signifier and signified.
Signifier = concrete; written/spoken
Signified = abstract; reference/meaning of signifier

Question 22

Structuralism defines an object by what it is not. Make an example that illustrated this.

Answer 22

This is a cat because this is not water.

Question 23

What is the defining feature of Deconstruction Theory?

Answer 23

1. That there are multiple truths
2. Reversal of Binary Opposition; aims to find a middle ground
3. Difference: Defines something by what it lacks

Question 24

What is the main principle of New Historicism?

Answer 24

Literature reflects multiple perspectives and discourses about society at a given period in history.

1. literature isn’t a product of a single mind
2. acknowledges that their own criticism has biases

Question 25

New Historicism accounts for the history of the _____ and ____.

Answer 25

author; critic

Question 26

What are the concepts defined in New Historicism?

Answer 26

1. Self-Positioning: announcing one’s learnings and biases
2. Power/Knowledge: Power = persuasive dynamic that determines relationships with others
3. Discourse and Truth: differs from the norm
4. Silencing: forcefully removing the opinion of people
5. Episteme: “filter”
6. Carnival: culture behind mainstream; mocks authority

Question 27

What is common about episteme, patriarchy, and hegemony?

Answer 27

That it is, for the most part, silencing

Question 28

What is archetypal and myth criticism?

Answer 28

• representation of deepest instinctual life of a primary awareness of man
• concrete representation of a mind of a people

Question 29

How do toy understand archetypes or an otherwise abstract idea?

Answer 29

Though concretizing them in myths/literature

Question 30

What is the collective unconscious?

Answer 30

universal layer of our unconscious mind

Question 31

What is the psychoanalytic theory?

Answer 31

Literature expresses the unconscious mind (e.g. desires & anxieties) of an individual (i.e. the author).

Question 32

Explain the tripartite psyche?

Answer 32

Id: Pleasure principle
Ego: Reality principle
Superego: Morality Principle

Question 33

Give examples of core concepts in Psychoanalytic Theory.

Answer 33

1. Displacement: Feelings displaced on an object
2. Projection: Feelings are displaced to another person
3. Neurosis: results from repressed emotions

Question 34

What is feminist theory?

Answer 34

Literature reflects and/or challenges the position, behavior, and representation of men and, more importantly, women

Question 35

What do you mean by the phallic and yonic symbols?

Answer 35

1. Phallic: object that resembles male reproductive organs
2. Yonic: object that resembles female reproductive organs

Question 36

What is ecocentricism?

Answer 36

Literature raises awareness or consciousness of the environment (the natural world), the effects of human intervention on it, and humans’ responsibility to sustain it.

Question 37

What are the core concepts in ecocentricism?

Answer 37

1. pastoralism (rural vs. urban life)
2. all things are interrelated
3. raising awareness/consciousness
4. Old World vs. New World
5. bridges science and humanities

Question 38

What is Marxism? In terms of literary criticism.

Answer 38

Relationship of literature and social classes.

Question 39

What is material circumstance?

Answer 39

This is the economic aspects underlying a society, driving actions and decisions of a person (usually because of economic gains).

Question 40

What is hegemony?

Answer 40

When a class exerts cultural dominance over another consensually.

Question 41

What is the base-superstructure model?

Answer 41

Base: mode and forces of production; economy
Superstructure: culture, institutions, religion, etc.

Question 42

What is interpellation?

Answer 42

explains how ideas are acquired by individuals

Question 43

What is false consciousness?

Answer 43

When the working class start accepting ideas without question, not recognizing their oppression, inequality, or exploitation.

Question 44

What is commodification?

Answer 44

It is when we commodify and treat people as expendables, relating their worth to the economic value they can provide.