LITERARY CRITICISM From https owl english purdue eduowlresource72201

LITERARY CRITICISM From https: //owl. english. purdue. edu/owl/resource/722/01/

Literary criticism is… ■ …different lenses critics use to view and talk about art, literature, and even culture. ■ These different lenses allow critics to consider works of art based on certain assumptions within that school of theory. ■ The different lenses also allow critics to focus on particular aspects of a work they consider important.

In the beginning… Plato ■ he believed that art was a mediocre reproduction of nature: ". . . what artists do. . . is hold the mirror up to nature: They copy the appearances of men, animals, and objects in the physical world. . . and the intelligence that went into its creation need involve nothing more than conjecture" (Richter 19). ■ So in short, if art does not teach morality and ethics, then it is damaging to its audience, and for Plato this damaged his Republic. Aristotle ■ Aristotle developed elements of organization and methods for writing effective poetry and drama known as the principles of dramatic construction (Richter 39). ■ Aristotle believed that elements like ". . . language, rhythm, and harmony. . . " as well as ". . . plot, character, thought, diction, song, and spectacle. . . " influence the audience's catharsis (pity and fear) or satisfaction with the work (Richter 39). ■ And so here we see one of the earliest attempts to explain what makes an effective or ineffective work of literature.

Formalist ■ Formalism attempts to treat each work as its own distinct piece, free from its environment, era, and even author. ■ Typical questions: ■ How does the work use imagery to develop its own symbols? (i. e. making a certain road stand for death by constant association) ■ What is the quality of the work's organic unity ". . . the working together of all the parts to make an inseparable whole. . . " (Tyson 121)? In other words, does how the work is put together reflect what it is? ■ How are the various parts of the work interconnected? ■ How do paradox, irony, ambiguity, and tension work in the text? ■ How do these parts and their collective whole contribute to or not contribute to the aesthetic quality of the work? ■ How does the author resolve apparent contradictions within the work? ■ What does the form of the work say about its content? ■ Is there a central or focal passage that can be said to sum up the entirety of the work? ■ How do the rhythms and/or rhyme schemes of a poem contribute to the meaning or effect of the piece?

Psychoanalytic ■ Freud ■ Based on this work, Freud asserted that people's behavior is affected by their unconscious: ". . . the notion that human beings are motivated, even driven, by desires, fears, needs, and conflicts of which they are unaware. . . " (Tyson 14 -15). ■ Freud maintained that our desires and our unconscious conflicts give rise to three areas of the mind that wrestle for dominance as we grow from infancy, to childhood, to adulthood: – id - ". . . the location of the drives" or libido – ego - ". . . one of the major defenses against the power of the drives. . . " and home of the defenses listed above – superego - the area of the unconscious that houses Judgment (of self and others) and ". . . which begins to form during childhood as a result of the Oedipus complex" (Richter 1015 -1016) – VIDEO ■ Jungian criticism attempts to explore the connection between literature and what Carl Jung (a student of Freud) called the “collective unconscious” of the human race: ". . . racial memory, through which the spirit of the whole human species manifests itself" (Richter 504). ■ Jungian criticism, closely related to Freudian theory because of its connection to psychoanalysis, assumes that all stories and symbols are based on mythic models from mankind’s past. ■ Jung developed archetypal myths, the Syzygy: ". . . a quaternion composing a whole, the unified self of which people are in search" (Richter 505). ■ These archetypes are the Shadow, the Anima, the Animus, and the Spirit: ". . . beneath. . . [the Shadow] is the Anima, the feminine side of the male Self, and the Animus, the corresponding masculine side of the female Self" (Richter 505).

Psychoanalytic ■ Freud ■ Typical questions: ■ How do the operations of repression structure or inform the work? ■ Are there any oedipal dynamics - or any other family dynamics - are work here? ■ ■ ■ Jung How can characters' behavior, narrative events, and/or images be explained in terms of psychoanalytic concepts of any kind (for example. . . fear or fascination with death, sexuality which includes love and romance as well as sexual behavior - as a primary indicator of psychological identity or the operations of ego-id-superego)? ■ Typical questions: ■ What connections can we make between elements of the text and the archetypes? (Mask, Shadow, Anima, Animus) ■ How do the characters in the text mirror the archetypal figures? (Great Mother or nurturing Mother, Whore, destroying Crone, Lover, Destroying Angel) ■ How does the text mirror the archetypal narrative patterns? (Quest, Night. Sea-Journey) What does the work suggest about the psychological being of its author? ■ How symbolic is the imagery in the work? ■ How does the protagonist reflect the hero of myth? What might a given interpretation of a literary work suggest about the psychological motives of the reader? ■ Does the “hero” embark on a journey in either a physical or spiritual sense? ■ Is there a journey to an underworld or land of the dead? ■ What trials or ordeals does the protagonist face? What is the reward for overcoming them? Are there prominent words in the piece that could have different or hidden meanings? Could there be a subconscious reason for the author using these "problem words"?

Feminist ■ Feminist 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" (Tyson). ■ Typical questions: ■ How is the relationship between men and women portrayed? ■ What are the power relationships between men and women (or characters assuming male/female roles)? ■ How are male and female roles defined? ■ What constitutes masculinity and femininity? ■ How do characters embody these traits? ■ Do characters take on traits from opposite genders? How so? How does this change others’ reactions to them? ■ What does the work reveal about the operations (economically, politically, socially, or psychologically) of patriarchy? ■ What does the work imply about the possibilities of sisterhood as a mode of resisting patriarchy? ■ What does the work say about women's creativity? ■ What does the history of the work's reception by the public and by the critics tell us about the operation of patriarchy? ■ What role the work play in terms of women's literary history and literary tradition? (Tyson)

Ecocriticism ■ “simply put, ecocriticism is the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment” ■ Ecocriticism asks us to examine ourselves and the world around us, critiquing the way that we represent, interact with, and construct the environment, both “natural” and manmade. ■ Tropes and Approaches ■ Pastoral Focuses on the dichotomy between urban and rural life, is “deeply entrenched in Western culture”(Gerrard 33). At the forefront of works which display pastoralism is a general idealization of the nature and the rural and the demonization of the urban. Often, such works show a “retreat” from city life to the country while romanticizing rural life, depicting an idealized rural existence that “obscures” the reality of the hard work living in such areas requires (Gerrard 33). Greg Gerrard identifies three branches of the pastoral: Classic Pastoral, “characterized by nostalgia” (37) and an appreciation of nature as a place for human relaxation and reflection; Romantic Pastoral, a period after the Industrial Revolution that saw “rural independence” as desirable against the expansion of the urban; and American Pastoralism, which “emphasize[d] agrarianism” (49) and represents land as a resource to be cultivated, with farmland often creating a boundary between the urban and the wilderness. ■ Wilderness This approach examines the ways in which wilderness is constructed, valued, and engaged. Representations of wilderness in British and American culture can be separated into a few main tropes. First, Old World wilderness displays wilderness as a place beyond the borders of civilization, wherein wilderness is treated as a “threat, ” a place of “exile” (Gerrard 62). This trope can be seen in Biblical tales of creation and early British culture. Old World wilderness is often conflated with demonic practices in early American literature (Gerrard 62). New World wilderness, seen in portrayals of wilderness in later American literature, applies the pastoral trope of the “retreat” to wilderness itself, seeing wilderness not as a place to fear, but as a place to find sanctuary. The New World wilderness trope has informed much of the “American identity, ” and often constructs encounters with the wilderness that lead to a more “authentic existence” (Gerrard 71). ■ Ecofeminism primarily “analyzes the interconnection of the oppression of women and nature” (Bressler 236). Drawing parallels between domination of land the domination of men over women, ecofeminists examine these hierarchical, gendered relationships, in which the land is often equated with the feminine, seen as a fertile resources and the property of man. The ecofeminism approach can be divided into two camps. The first, sometimes referred to as radical ecofeminism, reverses the patriarchal domination of man over woman and nature, “exalting nature, ” the non-human, and the emotional” (Gerrard 24). This approach embraces the idea that women are inherently closer to nature biologically, spiritually, and emotionally. The second camp, which followed the first historically, maintains that there is no such thing as a “feminine essence” that would make women more likely to connect with nature (Gerrard 25). Of course, ecofeminism is a highly diverse and complex branch, and many writers have undertaken the job of examining the hierarchical relationships structured in our cultural representations of nature and of women and other oppressed groups. In particular, studies regarding race have followed in this trend, identifying groups that have been historically seen as somehow closer to nature. The way Native Americans, for instance, have been described as “primitive” and portrayed as “dwelling in harmony with nature, ” despite facts to the contrary. Gerrard offers an examination of this trope, calling it the Ecological Indian (Gerrard 120). Similar studies regarding representations and oppression of aboriginals have surfaced, highlighting the misconceptions of these peoples as somehow “behind” Europeans, needing to progress from “a natural to a civilized state” (Gerrard 125).

Ecocriticism ■ Questions: ■ How is nature represented in this text? ■ How has the concept of nature changed over time? ■ How is the setting of the play/film/text related to the environment? ■ What is the influence on metaphors and representations of the land the environment on how we treat it? ■ How do we see issues of environmental disaster and crises reflected in popular culture and literary works? ■ How are animals represented in this text and what is their relationship to humans? ■ How do the roles or representations of men and women towards the environment differ in this play/film/text/etc. ■ Where is the environment placed in the power hierarchy? ■ How is nature empowered or oppressed in this work? ■ What parallels can be drawn between the sufferings and oppression of groups of people (women, minorities, immigrants, etc. ) and treatment of the land? ■ What rhetorical moves are used by environmentalists, and what can we learn from them about our cultural attitudes towards nature?

Critical Race Theory ■ Critical Race Theory, or CRT, is a theoretical and interpretive mode that examines the appearance of race and racism across dominant cultural modes of expression. -attempt to understand how victims of systemic racism are affected by cultural perceptions of race and how they are able to represent themselves to counter prejudice. ■ Important Terms ■ White privilege: Discussed by Lipsitz, Lee, Harris, Mc. Intosh, and other CRT scholars, white privilege refers to the various social, political, and economic advantages white individuals experience in contrast to non-white citizens based on their racial membership. These advantages can include both obvious and subtle differences in access to power, social status, experiences of prejudice, educational opportunities, and much more. For CRT scholars, the notion of white privilege offers a way to discuss dominant culture’s tendency to normalize white individuals’ experiences and ignore the experiences of non-whites. Fields such as CRT and whiteness studies have focused explicitly on the concept of white privilege to understand how racism influences white people. ■ Microaggressions: Microaggressions refer to the seemingly minute, often unconscious, quotidian instances of prejudice that collectively contribute to racism and the subordination of racialized individuals by dominant culture. Peggy Davis discusses how legal discourse participates in and can counteract the effects of microaggressions. ■ Institutionalized Racism: This concept, discussed extensively by Camara Phyllis Jones, refers to the systemic ways dominant society restricts a racialized individual or group’s access to opportunities. These inequalities, which include an individual’s access to material conditions and power, are not only deeply imbedded in legal institutions, but have been absorbed into American culture to such a degree that they are often invisible or easily overlooked. ■ Social construction: In the context of CRT, “social construction” refers to the notion that race is a product of social thought and relations. It suggests that race is a product of neither biology nor genetics, but is rather a social invention. ■ Intersectionality and anti-essentialism: These terms refer to the notion that one aspect of an individual’s identity does not necessarily determine other categories of membership. As Delgado and Stefancic explain, “Everyone has potentially conflicting, overlapping identities, loyalties, and allegiances” (CRT: An Introduction 10). In other words, we cannot predict an individual’s identity, beliefs, or values based on categories like race, gender, sexuality, religion, nationality, etc; instead, we must recognize that individuals are capable of claiming membership to a variety of different (and oftentimes seemingly contradictory) categories and belief systems regardless of the identities outsiders attempt to impose upon them.

CRT ■ Common Questions ■ What is the significance of race in contemporary American society? ■ Where, in what ways, and to what ends does race appear in dominant American culture and shape the ways we interact with one another? ■ What types of texts and other cultural artifacts reflect dominant culture’s perceptions of race? ■ How can scholars convey that racism is a concern that affects all members of society? ■ How does racism continue to function as a persistent force in American society? ■ How can we combat racism to ensure that all members of American society experience equal representation and access to fundamental rights? ■ How can we accurately reflect the experiences of victims of racism?