Types of Lit Crit

Question 0

what is reader-response criticism?

Answer 0

• interested in role played by reader in creating meaning in lit. works
• also in way reader’s cultural values & attitudes can lead us to make assumptions about characters & ideas & “fill gaps” that are either ambiguous or contradictory - as a means to interpret & explain them

Question 1

what is feminist criticism?

Answer 1

• tends to read lit. in terms of gender, w/ particular emphasis on representation of women & female identity
• concerned w/ ways social & cultural attitudes towards women are expressed in texts
• also w/ issues arising from adoption of male/female narrative voices
• patriarchy = often an important consideration

Question 2

what is race/post colonial criticism?

Answer 2

• look in depth @ representation of ethnicity
• emphasis on way lit. deals w/ issues associated w/ race & injustice, w/ particular regard for works written/set in colonial places & periods
• recurring motif: power
• will often highlight western attitudes towards nationality & ethnicity as expressed w/in texts & also in terms of authorship & publication
• concerned w/ values encoded w/in language of literary works & assumption/associated paradigms expressed implicitly/explicitly by authors & their characters

Question 3

what is genre theory?

Answer 3

• seeks to organize works of lit. fiction into categories defined by various genres
• examine texts in terms of extent to which they embody characteristics & conventions associated w/ these particular categories

Question 4

what is cultural/historical criticism?

Answer 4

• tends to read lit. works as they portray aspects of periods & cultures they’re set in
• look at extent to which any lit. work expresses facts & opinions about periods of history & their associated cultural values & practices
• argues texts cannot be read/interpreted as if they “stand alone” but as products of times & places

Question 5

what is structuralist criticism?

Answer 5

• more concerned w/ way text is put together
• recognizes that writers present “constructions” of the world in the way they organize their ideas
• often find interest in way language & form of particular work might depend on such things as important oppositions or contrasts or key motifs (for ex.) around which work might find means to create patterns

Question 6

what is marxist criticism?

Answer 6

• interested in way lit. explores issues of social class & power, w/ particular emphasis on treatment of working class people & the poor
• highlights political, cultural, & social contexts, both in terms of way they’re embodied in writing of particular work & way our reading of it is affected by time & place

Question 7

what is psychoanalytic criticism?

Answer 7

• concerned w/ way lit. reflects operation of mind
• last 100 yrs…enormous development of interest in way aspects of human behavior are either completely or in part repressed by social & cultural ethical attitudes
• characteristics & relationships of literary texts = often reflective of complexity of human psychology
• tends to center on internal & external conflicts between & w/in characters