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==Introduction== | ==Introduction== | ||
According to the Collins English Dictionary, literary theory is defined as "the systematic analysis and study of [[literature]] using general principles". A common misconception about literary theory is that it is focused on the meaning of a work of literature, whereas the actual study involves the tools by which people attempt to understand literature. <ref name=Ref1/> With different schools of theory critics of different literary works can focus on those works through different aspects they consider the most important(for example a Marxist theory may focus on how [[character|characters]] in a story react to an economic situation). <ref name=Ref2/> Critics use more than one school of literary theory when analyzing a work. | According to the Collins English Dictionary, literary theory is defined as "the systematic analysis and study of [[literature]] using general principles". A common misconception about literary theory is that it is focused on the meaning of a work of literature, whereas the actual study involves the tools by which people attempt to understand literature. <ref name=Ref1/> With different schools of theory critics of different literary works can focus on those works through different aspects they consider the most important(for example a Marxist theory may focus on how [[character|characters]] in a story react to an economic situation). <ref name=Ref2/> Critics use more than one school of literary theory when analyzing a work. | ||
==Types of Literary Theory== | ==Types of Literary Theory== | ||
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=== Archetypal/Myth Criticism === | === Archetypal/Myth Criticism === | ||
Archetypal/Myth critics, such as C.G. Jung and Joseph Campbell, view the genres and individual plot patterns of literature, including highly sophisticated and realistic works, as recurrences of certain archetypes and essential mythic formulae. <ref name=Ref10/> Archetypes are "repeated types of experience in lives of ancient ancestors which inherited the collective unconscious of the human race and are expressed in myths, dreams, religion, and private fantasies, also in the work of literature." - C.G. Jung | Archetypal/Myth critics, such as C.G. Jung and Joseph Campbell, view the genres and individual plot patterns of literature, including highly sophisticated and realistic works, as recurrences of certain archetypes and essential mythic formulae.<ref name=Ref10/> Archetypes are "repeated types of experience in lives of ancient ancestors which inherited the collective unconscious of the human race and are expressed in myths, dreams, religion, and private fantasies, also in the work of literature." - C.G. Jung | ||
Examples of Archetypes: the sun, the moon, circles, colors, Wise Old Man, the Great Mother, etc. Another archetype would be the color white, signifies death and is associated with innocence. | Examples of Archetypes: the sun, the moon, circles, colors, Wise Old Man, the Great Mother, etc. Another archetype would be the color white, signifies death and is associated with innocence. | ||
Archetypal/Myth Authors: | |||
*[[C.G. Jung]] | |||
*[[Joseph Campbell]] | |||
*[[Robert Graves]] | |||
===Psychoanalytic Criticism=== | ===Psychoanalytic Criticism=== | ||
Psychoanalytic criticism, is one of the initial approaches within the school of literary criticism. This concept is used by critics to analyze the unconsciousness of the mind; which consists of desires, fears, enjoyments or anything that causes human to be driven without knowledge of their actions. Psychoanalytic method was originally constructed by Sigmund Freud when he was studying patients in an asylum. | Psychoanalytic criticism, is one of the initial approaches within the school of literary criticism. This concept is used by critics to analyze the unconsciousness of the mind; which consists of desires, fears, enjoyments or anything that causes human to be driven without knowledge of their actions. Psychoanalytic method was originally constructed by [[Sigmund Freud 1856-1939|Sigmund Freud]], when he was studying patients in an asylum. | ||
The ''Introductory Guide to Critical Theory'' says, Freud began his researches into the workings of the human mind in 1881, after a century during which Europe and America saw the reform of the insane asylum and an ever-increasing interest in "abnormal" psychological states, especially the issue of "nervous diseases" (which was the first phenomenon that Freud studied, examining the nervous system of fish while gaining his medical degree at the University of Vienna from 1873 to 1881).<ref name=Ref3/> | The ''Introductory Guide to Critical Theory'' says, Freud began his researches into the workings of the human mind in 1881, after a century during which Europe and America saw the reform of the insane asylum and an ever-increasing interest in "abnormal" psychological states, especially the issue of "nervous diseases" (which was the first phenomenon that Freud studied, examining the nervous system of fish while gaining his medical degree at the University of Vienna from 1873 to 1881).<ref name=Ref3/> | ||
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*[[Julia Kristeva]] | *[[Julia Kristeva]] | ||
*[[Elaine Showalter]] | *[[Elaine Showalter]] | ||
===Marxist Criticism=== | ===Marxist Criticism=== | ||
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*[[David Daiches]] | *[[David Daiches]] | ||
*[[William Empson]] | *[[William Empson]] | ||
===Formalist Criticism=== | |||
Formalist criticism is an approach that emphasizes literary form and and studies the structural purposes or literary devices of a text. Formalism seeks to study literature on a scientific base using objective analysis from the motifs, devices, techniques, and other functions. The literariness of the text served the Formalists the most importance. It was what they considered to separate their literary aspects from all other types of writing. They cared most that their narrative had meaning and displayed the "hero function." | |||
<ref name=Ref11/> | |||
===Civic Criticism=== | |||
Civic Criticism looks into the social and political ideas and attitudes of literature. Those factors are determined whether it is progressive or not.<ref name=Ref12/> | |||
===Modernism/ Post-Modernism=== | |||
Modernism is the rejection of traditional forms of literature. It turns the work into a new experimental form. Modernism writing usually consists of several allusions. Modernism tends to focus around enlightenment ideas<ref name=Ref5/> | |||
Post-Modernism follows the same suit as modernism, but with a twist. It forms a new framework. Post-Modernism tends to consist of free-play and disclosure. Theorist, Ihab Hassan, created a list of to show some difference between the two.<ref name=Ref10/> | |||
<table style="width:300px"> | |||
<tr> | |||
<td>'''Modernism'''</td> | |||
<td>'''Post-Modernism'''</td> | |||
</tr> | |||
<tr> | |||
<td>Purpose</td> | |||
<td>Play</td> | |||
</tr> | |||
<tr> | |||
<td>Design</td> | |||
<td>Chance</td> | |||
</tr> | |||
<tr> | |||
<td>Hierarchy</td> | |||
<td>Anarchy</td> | |||
</tr> | |||
<tr> | |||
<td>Totalization</td> | |||
<td>Deconstruction</td> | |||
</tr> | |||
<tr> | |||
<td>Presence</td> | |||
<td>Absence</td> | |||
</tr> | |||
<tr> | |||
<td>Root/Depth</td> | |||
<td>Rhizome/Surface</td> | |||
</tr> | |||
</table> | |||
===Post-Colonialism=== | |||
Post-Colonialism is a collection of theoretical and critical strategies that is used to examine culture like in literature, politics, history, etc., and their relations with the world. Post-colonial writers want to resurrect both their culture and to combat preconceptions of their culture.<ref name=Ref10/> | |||
Major Post-Colonialism Figures: | |||
*[[Edward Said]] | |||
*[[Frantz Fanon]] | |||
===Existentialism=== | |||
Existentialism is a philosophy that views each person as an isolated being and who sees the world as no value or meaning. This philosophy was promoted by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. Sartre saw human beings as being free to choose whatever conscious decision that they wanted to. "Man/Women are condemned to be free," -Jean-Paul Sartre. Most defined existence as absurd and anguished because there would be a world without sense and people are free to do whatever they want.<ref name=Ref10/> | |||
Major Existentialism Figures: | |||
*[[Jean-Paul Sartre]] | |||
*[[Albert Camus]] | |||
===Structuralism=== | |||
Structuralism is the concern for descriptions and perceptions of structures. Human activity is constructed, not natural or essential, according to Structuralist. This means, in any situation has to have some reasoning/meaning behind it.<ref name=Ref10/> | |||
Major Structuralism Figures: | |||
*[[Terence Hawkes]] | |||
*[[ Roman Jakobson]] | |||
*[[ Claude Lévi-Strauss]] | |||
===Deconstruction=== | |||
Ross Murfin states that “deconstruction involves the close reading of texts in order to demonstrate that any given text has irreconcilably contradictory meanings, rather than being a unified, logical whole.”<ref name=Ref14/> J. Hillis Miller, the preeminent American deconstructor, also described how deconstruction does not involve the dismantling of a structure, but rather highlighting the fact that the text dismantles itself. | |||
Jacques Derrida, a French philosopher, first coined deconstruction. He demonstrates how in Western Culture, there is a heavy reliance on “binary oppositions”. This occurs when two concepts are given, one that is inherently superior, the other slightly inferior (even slightly). Some examples include black vs white, feminine vs masculine, beginning vs end, etc. Deconstruction is the method used by Derrida to break down these oppositions and display the inevitable hierarchies within them. | |||
===Reader Response=== | |||
Reader response criticism is a method through which authors are able to receive real feedback about how their work is experienced by readers. In essence, a reader is given a work, the reader actively experiences the work, and then they provide a response to the author. The advantage to this process, is that every reader will experience the work in their own way, influenced by their experiences and psychological needs. This provides the author with an authentic response every time, as no two readers will experience the work in the same way. | |||
Louise Rosenblatt is credited with the creation of this approach. In 1969, she defined reader response criticism as, “A poem is what the reader lives through under the guidance of the text and experiences as relevant to the text…the idea that a poem presupposes a reader actively involved with a text is particularly shocking to those seeking to emphasize the objectivity of their observations.” Opposition to this idea was very heavy. Formalists had no interest in what a reader goes through, and claimed the idea of a reader’s response being relevant to a work as a fallacy. | |||
In recent years, with the redefinition of literature into something the readers’ minds experience, the process of reader-response has been adapted. The most common form of response is done with college classes. The students read the work and describe their experiences at key points throughout the work. This can be done even while the work is still being written, which makes it particularly powerful.<ref name=Ref15/> | |||
==References== | ==References== | ||
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*<ref name=Ref10>"Introduction to Modern Literary Theory" by Dr. Kristi Siegel, | *<ref name=Ref10>"Introduction to Modern Literary Theory" by Dr. Kristi Siegel, | ||
<http://www.kristisiegel.com/theory.htm>, accessed 22 April 2014</ref> | <http://www.kristisiegel.com/theory.htm>, accessed 22 April 2014</ref> | ||
</ | *<ref name=Ref11>"Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy" by Vince Brewton, | ||
<http://www.iep.utm.edu/literary/#H3>, accessed 22 April 2014</ref> | |||
*<ref name=Ref12>Cuddon, J. A. (2013). "Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory."</ref> | |||
*<ref name=Ref14>“Critical Approaches” by Ross Murfin, ''VirtuaLit Interactive Poetry Tutorial'', | |||
<http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/virtualit/poetry/critical_define/crit_decons.html/>, accessed 23 April 2014 </ref> | |||
*<ref name=Ref15>“Critical Approaches” by Ross Murfin, ''VirtuaLit Interactive Poetry Tutorial'', | |||
<http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/virtualit/poetry/critical_define/crit_reader.html/>, accessed 23 April 2014 </ref> | |||
==External Links== | ==External Links== | ||
* http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/literary-theory - The Collins English Dictionary's definition page for Literary Theory. | * http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/literary-theory - The Collins English Dictionary's definition page for Literary Theory. | ||
[[Category:Literary Terms]] | [[Category:Literary Terms]] | ||