Literary Theories on Criticism

Question 1

______ theorists share two beliefs:

1) Role of reader cannot be omitted from our understanding of literature
2) Readers do not passively consume the meaning presented to them by an objective literary text; rather they actively make the meaning they find in literature

A. Formalism (1930-present)
B. Moral Criticism (360 BC - Present)
C. Reader-response (1960s-present)
D. Structuralism (1920s-present)

Answer 1

Reader-response (1960s-present)

Question 2

______ theorists are characterized by:

• Judge value of the literature on its moral lesson or ethical teaching
• Lit that is ethically sound\encourages virtue should be praised
• Lit that misguides\corrupts is condemned.
• Associated w/ Plato who argued that lit is capable of corrupting or influencing people to act or behave in various ways.

A. Formalism (1930-present)
B. Moral Criticism (360 BC - Present)
C. Reader-response (1960s-present)
D. Structuralism (1920s-present)

Answer 2

Moral Criticism (360 BC - Present)

Question 3

_____ theory attempts to treat each work as its own distinct piece, free from its environment, era, and even author.

A. Formalism (1930-present)
B. Moral Criticism (360 BC - Present)
C. Reader-response (1960s-present)
D. Structuralism (1920s-present)

Answer 3

Formalism (1930-present)

Question 4

__________ criticism builds on Freudian theories of psychology. Believe that we can read in this way to see which concepts are operating in the text in such a way as to enrich our understanding of the work and, if we plan to write a paper about it, to yield a meaningful, coherent interpretation.

Answer 4

Psychoanalytic (1930s-present)

Question 5

_____ theorists interested in answering: For whom does the it benefit? Interested in looking at how working classes are oppressed in literature.

Answer 5

Marxists (1930s-present)

Question 6

_______ theory:

• emerges from theories of language and linguistics.
• looks for underlying elements in culture and literature that can be connected so critics can develop general conclusions about the individual works and the systems from which they emerge.
• Maintains that everything we do that is specifically human is expressed in language

A. Formalism (1930-present)
B. Moral Criticism (360 BC - Present)
C. Reader-response (1960s-present)
D. Structuralism (1920s-present)

Answer 6

Structuralism (1920s-present)

Question 7

__________ theory:

• believes that there are many truths
• assert that if we cannot trust language systems to convey truth, the very bases of truth are unreliable and the universe

Asks Qs like:

• If we changed the point of view of the text how would the story change?
• Whose story is not told in the text?
• Who is left out and why might the author have omitted this character’s tale?

Answer 7

Post-modernism

Question 8

_______ theory seeks to reconnect a work with the time period in which it was produced and identify it with the cultural and political movements of the time

Answer 8

New Historicism

Question 9

______ criticism is concerned with “…the ways in which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women.

Answer 9

Feminist Criticism (1960s-present)

Question 10

_______ criticism is concerned with:

• literature produced by colonial powers and works produced by those who were/are colonized.
• issues of power, economics, politics, religion, and culture and how these elements work in relation to colonial hegemony

Answer 10

Post-colonial (1990s-present)

Question 11

______ theory explore issues of sexuality, power, and marginalized populations (woman as other) in literature and culture.

Answer 11

Gender/queer theory (1970s-present)