LITERATURE AND CRITICAL THEORY

THEORIES, THEORISTS, AND IMPORTANT TERMS By: K. Yegoryan

Critical Theory

 Greek {kritikos} = judgment – 18 th cent

In Literary studies

 Is a form of “hermeneutics”- the knowledge via interpretation to understand the meaning of human texts and symbolic expressions

Critical Theory

 As a term developed from “Frankfurt School” of theorists in 1923 in the meaning of understanding, criticizing and changing social thinking  1 st defined by Marx in 1937 in the essay “Traditional and Critical Theory” as a social

theory oriented toward critiquing and

changing society as a whole in contrast to traditional theory oriented to understanding and explaining

CRITICAL THEORY AND LITERATURE

 Focuses on analysis of texts  Originated in 1960s and has been influenced by European philosophy and social theories 

“A true critique ought to dwell rather upon excellences than implications to discover the concealed beauties of a writer and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observations”

Joseph Addison

Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism

         

Moral Criticism and Dramatic Construction (~360BC Formalism (1930s) Structuralism and Semiotics (1920s) Marxist Criticism (1930s) Psychoanalytic Criticism (1930s) Reader-Response Criticism (1960s) Post-Structuralism, Deconstruction, Postmodernism (1966) Post-Colonial Criticism (1990s) Feminist Criticism (1960s) Gender Studies and Queer Theory (1970s)

Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism

1. Moral Criticism and Dramatic Construction (~360 BC-present)

Plato

 Republic, Plato may have given us the first literary criticism through the dialog between Socrates and two of his associates

Aristotle

 In Poetics, Aristotle breaks with his teacher (Plato) in the consideration of art. Aristotle considers poetry and rhetoric  To help authors achieve their objectives, Aristotle developed elements of organization and methods for writing effective poetry and drama known as the principles of dramatic construction

Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism

2. Formalism (1930s-present)

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Russian Formalism



New Criticism (USA)



Neo-Aristotelianism (Chicago School of Criticism)

RUSSIAN FORMALISM and NEW CRITICISM

 Close reading of the work itself  Requires a close focus and analysis of the text

Russian Formalism and New Critics (American school of thought) claimed:

 Meaning exists in the text/on the page  No extra-textual sources to understand meaning ( no author’s intention, biography, hist. era should be considered for text’s meaning)

DEFAMILIZATION

 Term by V. Shklovsky ( Russian Formalist)  Instead of seeing Literature as a “reflection” of the world, the writer must explore new technique and devices for a renewed perception ( ex. the use of figurative, connotative meaning)  The readers should experience new meanings and perspectives when seeing the similar in a different way – “defamiliarized”

 3. Structuralism and Semiotics (1920s-

present)

STRUCTUALISM

 Method of Literary interpretation via structure (human activates are structured and constructed and so are texts)

Structuralism was affected by:

 Linguistics    Social ideology Psychology/anthropology Literary analysis

3. Structuralism and Semiotics (1920s-present)

SEMIOTIC – study of Signs  Studies the signs and types of representation used by humans to express feelings, ideas, thoughts and ideologies.

 • Study “texts” (can be images, words, or both)  • Text is an assemblage of signs (words, images, sounds) constructed and interpreted with reference to conventions of a genre and in particular medium.

SEMIOTICS

 Way to study/read text and images •Denotation & Connotation signifier & signified • Sign = – Depends on social, historical and cultural context – Depends on context of presentation – Depends on viewers reception  Hidden Meanings of famous LOGOS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_j6ARv10PY&feature=related

Linguistic Structuralism

SEMIOTIC – study of Signs

Ferdinand de Saussure

A Swiss in linguist linguistics and and semiotician semiology whose ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments both in the 20th century 

Language is based on a

word, sound, visual appearance of the word meaning, the underlying concept – Signifier : the – Signified : its 

Signs are largely arbitrary

Sign doesn't’t carry meaning, the meaning comes from the relation of difference (A is A because it’s not B) and nor reference

Charles Sanders Peirce

An American philosopher , logician , known for his contributions in semiotics and as "the father of pragmatism ".

SIGN and MEANING

There are three relationships between a sign (referent) and its meaning • Icon (resemblance to actual thing) (connection of facts: often cause-effect) • Symbol (depend on how interpreted) • Index

Representation= symbol: to stand for, to suggest an idea, visual image, belief, action

 Icon Index Symbol

SEMIOTICS

Semiotics: the study of signs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEgxTKUP_WI Semiotics Of The Tie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeefWS8YrDw

Roland Barthes

A French literary theorist , linguist , critic , and philosopher , semiotician .

‘The Death of the Author’

 Meaning exists not only in production but reception   The signifier “I” is a ‘shifter’; that moves from one speaker to the other speaker as each lays claim to it Linguistically, the author is never more than the instance writing’

Semiotics Barthes’ MYTH

 Hidden set of rules and conventions through which meanings, which are specific to certain groups, are made to seem universal and given for a whole society  Is a form of language that creates an alternative reality; is a tool to excess the reality  It converts history into nature. And the task of the mytholographer is to rediscover the element of history that motivates the myth, to elicit what is specific to a given time and place, asking what interests are served by the naturalization of particular convictions and values.

‘Myth Construction’

    Innoculation: Acknowledging a small detail to mask larger problem Prevention of History: Removing an object from its place and reality and thus its freedom Identification: sameness and the destruction of difference Neither-Norism: balance created by weighting 2 sides against each other (nihilism)

MEANING and NIHILISM

   Nihilism- philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more meaningful aspects of life Moral Nihilists- assert that morality doesn’t inherently exist, and that any established moral values are invented/ brought out by a plan

Nihilism is also associated with Anomia:

general mood of despair at the perceived pointlessness of existence that one may develop realizing there are no necessary norms, rules, and laws.

4.Marxist Criticism and Social

Ideology (1930s-present)

 one type of symbolic system among others  a set of doctrines, beliefs, or ideas that form the basis of a political, economic, or other system which attempts to put the experience of the world into some order. The result in Marxist thought is the distortion of reality to maintain authority over it.

Karl Marx

German philosopher , economist , sociologist ,

“Ruling Class/Ruling Ideas”

 Ideology is the ideas of the ruling class that are in any epoch the ruling idea; the class which is the ruling material force of society is at the same time its ruling intellectual force

Louis Althusser

a philosopher, known as “ structural Marxist ” was critical of many aspects of structuralism.

ISA and RSA

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ISA- Ideological State Apparatuses

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RSA Repressive State Apparatuses In order to produce its productive power, state applies control through ideologies/ rituals (ISA) and if needed through repression/violence (RSA)

Althusser’s Interpellation

   

A process by which ideology pre-defines individuals/ constructs them (recreation/birth) Secondary status of subject as mere effect of social relation Idealized future Identifiable characters

AT & T Ad with Interpellation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZb0avfQme8