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Schools of Literary CriticismThe following is a general listing of the different approaches through which one can critique a piece of writing. We will make reference to these throughout the course of the year. Become familiar with them!_____________________DECONSTRUCTION:
- A work does not yield one fixed meaning.
- Language can never say exactly what we intend it to mean—focus on the ambiguous nature of language
- Focus is on language and how a variety of possible readings are generated by the elements of the text.
BIOGRAPHICAL:
- Knowledge of author’s life can aid in the understanding of the text
- Knowledge of the author can enrich the meaning of the text
- FORMALISTS disparage biographical info—can sometimes complicate a text by leading a reader to see things that might not really be there.
PSYCHOLOGICAL / PSYCHOANALYTICAL:
- Existence of the human unconscious mind
- Focus on impulses, desires, and feelings which a person is unaware but which influence emotions and behaviors
- Motivations of a character
- Symbolism found in the text
LITERARY HISTORY:
- Use of history as a tool to interpret literature
- Move beyond the text in order to look at social, political, philosophical, intellectual currents which the author composed the text
MARXIST:
- Focus on the ideological content of the text
- Values of the culture, race, class, power
- Argument that literature and literary criticism are political because they support or challenge economic oppression
- Focus more on content and theme rather than structure and form
NEW HISTORIAN:
- Interaction between historic context and a modern reader’s understanding
- Describe a culture or a period by reading outside texts and focusing specifically on culture (political, economic, social, aesthetic, etc)
- Not just a reflection of culture but also as a product of that culture playing active roles in social and political conflicts
CULTURAL:
- Focuses on social, political, economic, and historical contexts of a text
- Pop culture is elevated to the level of “high culture”
- The Simpsons can be elevated to the level of Hamlet
- Use of all forms of criticism schools to evaluate texts
- The word “texts” now incorporates all thingsàtext, radio talk shows, comic books / comic strips, art, commercials, baseball cards, TV shows, music, etc
GENDER:
- Ideas of men and women, masculine and feminine
- Expands categories of what is masculine and feminine and tends to regard sexuality as more complex than merely masculine and feminine or hetero and homo sexual.
- Looks at language and stigmas applied to what are considered masculine and feminine words (linguistics)
GAY / LESBIAN:
· Approach to literature that focuses on how homosexuals are represented in literature, how homosexuals read literature, and whether sexuality is culturally constructed on innate
· Looks closely at symbols and what they represent
· Usually this criticism is a stretch unless specially used with homosexual literature
· Homosexuality is normally hidden in older texts due to the fact homosexuality was illegal and punishable by jail time
FEMINIST:
- Approach that seeks to correct or supplement what may be regarded as a predominantly male-dominated critical perspective
- Places literature in to a social context
- Use of history, sociology, psychology, and linguistics to provide perspective sensitive to feminist issues
- Look at literature form a woman’s point of view
- Explain woman’s literature and writing within social connotations
READER RESPONSE:
- Focus on reader rather than author or the work itself
- What goes on in a reader’s mind during the reading of a text
- Not after the “correct” meaning of a text but rather focus on the reader’s individual experience with the text
- NOT a rationale for bizarre readings but rather an explanation of the possibilities for a plurality of readings
- Explores what the text reveals about ourselves
MYTHOLOGICAL / ARCHETYPICAL:
- Seeks to identify what in a work creates deep universal responses in readers
- Pays attention to hopes, fears, expectations of an entire culture
- Look for underlying, recurrent patterns in literature that reveal universal meanings and basic human truths / experiences
- Emphasis on the assumptions and values of a culture
- Looks at literary archetypes and why they exist throughout different cultures