...polemical issues in the application of literary theories to the field of literature and literary criticism. Out of the several modern approaches to literary criticism as employed by the critics, four literary theories are strategically chosen for analysis in this paper; Formalism, Structuralism, Post-structuralism/Deconstruction and Marxism. This work is objectively carried out by consulting articles, journals and books written on the literary theories. The opportunity of information technology via the internet is also utilized. It is established in the course of writing this paper that literary theories are indispensable tools for literature to achieve its goal of sensitizing its audience towards literary awareness. The application of literary theories to literature, that enhance better and detail insight into text or literary works, would continue to be relevant and make literature more enjoyable and meaningful to its readers and users. Further research and enquiry into the relationship between the two (literature and literary theory) is open and should further be exploited. Keywords: literary theory, literary criticism, Marxism, Formalism, Structuralism, Post-structuralism Introduction Literary criticism is the study, evaluation and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals. Though the two activities are closely related, literary critics are not always, and have...
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...Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction ‘Jonathan Culler has always been about the best person around at explaining literary theory without oversimplifying it or treating it with polemical bias. Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction is an exemplary work in this genre.’ J. Hillis Miller, University of California, Irvine ‘An impressive and engaging feat of condensation . . . the avoidance of the usual plod through schools and approaches allows the reader to get straight to the heart of the crucial issue for many students, which is: why are they studying literary theory in the first place? . . . an engaging and lively book.’ Patricia Waugh, University of Durham Very Short Introductions are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in 15 languages worldwide. Very Short Introductions available from Oxford Paperbacks: ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Julia Annas THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE John Blair ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes Augustine Henry Chadwick THE BIBLE John Riches Buddha Michael Carrithers BUDDHISM Damien Keown CLASSICS Mary Beard and John Henderson Continental Philosophy Simon Critchley Darwin Jonathan Howard DESCARTES Tom Sorell EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN Paul Langford The European Union John Pinder Freud Anthony Storr Galileo Stillman Drake Gandhi Bhikhu Parekh HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood HINDUISM Kim Knott HISTORY John H. Arnold HUME A. J...
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...A study of reader-response theories, and some views on how the objectivity of the literary text is or is not distinguished from the subjectivity of the reader's response by Clarissa Lee Ai Ling In the academic study of literature very little attention has been paid to the ordinary reader, the subjective individual who reads a particular text. David S. Miall and Don Kuiken, in their paper The form of reading: Empirical studies of literariness state. Almost no professional attention is being paid to the ordinary reader, who continues to read for the pleasure of understanding the world of the text rather than for the development of a deconstructive or historicist perspective. The concerns that an ordinary reader seems likely to have about a literary text, such as its style, its narrative structure, or the reader's relation to the author, the impact on the reader's understanding or feelings - such concerns now seem of little interest. In this paper I should like to study a few kinds of reader and the subjectivity of their responses to the objectivity found within literary texts, quoting some views found within reader-response criticism. Before I begin, I should like to consider what is meant by the term 'literary text', and what is meant by the objectivity of it. According to Terry Eagleton, [1] the definition of 'literary', as advanced by the Russian formalists, (who included in their ranks are Viktor Shklovsky, Roman Jakobson, Osip Brik, Yury Tynyanov, Boris Eichenbaum...
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...Beginning theory An introduction to literary and cultural theory Second edition Peter Barry © Peter Barry 1995, 2002 ISBN: 0719062683 Contents Acknowledgements - page x Preface to the second edition - xii Introduction - 1 About this book - 1 Approaching theory - 6 Slop and think: reviewing your study of literature to date - 8 My own 'stock-taking' - 9 1 Theory before 'theory' - liberal humanism - 11 The history of English studies - 11 Stop and think - 11 Ten tenets of liberal humanism - 16 Literary theorising from Aristotle to Leavis some key moments - 21 Liberal humanism in practice - 31 The transition to 'theory' - 32 Some recurrent ideas in critical theory - 34 Selected reading - 36 2 Structuralism - 39 Structuralist chickens and liberal humanist eggs Signs of the fathers - Saussure - 41 Stop and think - 45 The scope of structuralism - 46 What structuralist critics do - 49 Structuralist criticism: examples - 50 Stop and think - 53 Stop and think - 55 39 Stop and think - 57 Selected reading - 60 3 Post-structuralism and deconstruction - 61 Some theoretical differences between structuralism and post-structuralism - 61 Post-structuralism - life on a decentred planet - 65 Stop and think - 68 Structuralism and post-structuralism - some practical differences - 70 What post-structuralist critics do - 73 Deconstruction: an example - 73 Selected reading - 79 4 Postmodernism - 81 What is postmodernism? What was modernism? -...
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...Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction ‘Jonathan Culler has always been about the best person around at explaining literary theory without oversimplifying it or treating it with polemical bias. Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction is an exemplary work in this genre.’ J. Hillis Miller, University of California, Irvine ‘An impressive and engaging feat of condensation . . . the avoidance of the usual plod through schools and approaches allows the reader to get straight to the heart of the crucial issue for many students, which is: why are they studying literary theory in the first place? . . . an engaging and lively book.’ Patricia Waugh, University of Durham Jonathan Culler LITERARY THEORY A Very Short Introduction 1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford o x2 6 d p Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogotá Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Paris São Paulo Shanghai Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw with associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Jonathan Culler 1997 The moral rights...
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...Prevailing Philosophies and Psychosocial Dimensions of Philippine Contemporary Novels in English Chapter I – Introduction Philippine contemporary novels or literature in general is an offshoot of the Philippine-American War or what is coined as the Philippine War of Independence which transpired from 1899 to 1902. As early as 1863, the Spanish colonizers have introduced the public elementary school system to the Philippines. During the American colonization, U.S. soldiers have started layering down the bricks as foundation of the public school system in the Philippines when they opened the first public school in the Philippines at Corregidor Island. On January 21, 1901, the Taft Commission headed by William Howard Taft, passed the Education Act No. 34 that incepted the Department of Public Instruction. William Howard Taft was also given the responsibility of expanding the public school system in and around the Philippines. On August 21, 1901; around 600 American educators or “Thomasites” were sent to the Philippines by the U.S Government aboard the USAT Thomas whose main purpose is to integrate a new and expanded public school system, to train and hone Filipino teachers with the use of English as the primary medium of instruction, and to inculcate basic education to Filipinos. The American educators taught an extensive curriculum which cover subjects on English, Grammar, Reading, Mathematics, Agriculture, Housekeeping and Related Arts (cooking, sewing, and crocheting),...
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...Fall 2010 ------------------------------------------------- Catalogue Description: This course examines the literary traditions of sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean through an intensive study of selected works. Negritude is explored in its own right but also in its relationship with the literature of Europe and the Harlem Renaissance. Particular emphasis is placed on the socio-cultural and political forces that shaped this literature as well as the mode of presentation. General Education Goals: ENG 232 is affirmed in the following General Education Foundation Categories: Humanistic Perspective and Global and Cultural Awareness of Diversity. The corresponding General Education Goals are respectively as follows: Students will analyze works in the field of art, music, or theater; literature; and philosophy and/or religious studies; and will gain competence in the use of a foreign language; and Students will understand the importance of global perspective and culturally diverse peoples. Course Goals: Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to do the following: 1. discuss the universality and the diversity of literary thought; 2. apply critical and analytical approaches to the study of African and Caribbean literature to compose critical and analytical essays about such literary works and, specifically, about literary elements; 3. write a fully documented, multiple...
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...William Egginton and Bernadette Wegenstein The Johns Hopkins University Keywords: media, media studies, media theory, history of media, new media, comparative literature Contents U SA NE M SC PL O E – C EO H AP LS TE S R S 1. Introduction 2. Current Media Theory and Media Studies 2.1. Origins of Discipline 2.2. New Media Theory 3. Historical Examples 3.1. Oral Transmission 3.2. Pictography 3.3. The Andean Khipu 3.4. Manuscript 3.5. Print 3.6. Theater 3.7. Photography 3.8. Moving Image 3.9. Radio and Television 3.10. The Digital 4. Conclusion Acknowledgements Glossary Bibliography Biographical Sketches Summary The growing consensus among literary scholars is that the meaning of literature cannot be properly studied or understood outside of the specific medium of its transmission and archival. This realization can be considered a revolution in literary studies, and its fundamental ramification is the confluence of literary studies and theory with media studies and theory. The fields of media studies and media theory are dedicated to the analysis and understanding of the myriad media through which information is communicated. Under the influence of these fields, the media through which literature is communicated is no longer considered secondary to the literary content or form, but deserving attention in its own right. Moreover, literary content and form can and often are deeply influenced by the media of their transmission, as well...
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...Student’s Name Professor’s Name Course Date Formalism The formalist movement heralded by the Russian Formalist movement and supported by the American New Criticism signaled the beginning of a new era in literary criticism (Rivkin and Ryan 1). Prior to the movement, literature was studied in a manner that was concerned with everything but the language used. However, the formalist movement chose to deviate from the norm. Formalism is concerned with the language used in literature only; the form of the literary piece (Rivkin and Ryan 1). For the formalists, literature is not perceived as a window to the world, but rather as something with specifically literary characteristics. Formalists did not agree with the conventional perceptions that were used to mark a piece of literature as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ (Purdue University). Formalism asserts that each work of literature has particular intrinsic features in the text and specifically looks at these literary qualities in the text. Prior to the formalist movement, literature has studied a means of gaining understanding about the world. Literature was studied in its historical context, philosophical and social implications of literature were considered in the study of literature. However, formalism abandons all these notions and looks at literature independent of the historical and social context but as an independent body of work. The main point of formalism is to put each work in its unique place, free from attachment or comparison to its...
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...Dryden, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Matthew Arnold, T.S. Eliot’s literary criticism informs his poetry just as his experiences as a poet shape his critical work. Though famous for insisting on “objectivity” in art, Eliot’s essays actually map a highly personal set of preoccupations, responses and ideas about specific authors and works of art, as well as formulate more general theories on the connections between poetry, culture and society. Perhaps his best-known essay, “Tradition and the Individual Talent” was first published in 1919 and soon after included in The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism (1920). Eliot attempts to do two things in this essay: he first redefines “tradition” by emphasizing the importance of history to writing and understanding poetry, and he then argues that poetry should be essentially “impersonal,” that is separate and distinct from the personality of its writer. Eliot’s idea of tradition is complex and unusual, involving something he describes as “the historical sense” which is a perception of “the pastness of the past” but also of its “presence.” For Eliot, past works of art form an order or “tradition”; however, that order is always being altered by a new work which modifies the “tradition” to make room for itself. This view, in which “the past should be altered by the present as much as the present is directed by the past,” requires that a poet be familiar with almost all literary history—not just the immediate past but the distant past and...
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...Theo Siggelakis Prof. T Dansdill February 20, 2012 Of Books Books either encompass my thinking or they stretch the limits of my imagination. Some of the most inspiring books are those which capture life, as I know it down to every specific detail. These books are similar to watching an HD TV; every detail is just so pronounced and accurate. Books that resemble this beautiful real life portrayal could be like J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in The Rye. Every emotion that Salinger delineates through his characterization of Holden Caulfield is so potent that those details resonate even more for someone dealing with a similar internal struggle. When I read the book at 15, every sensory detail that Salinger described helped better illuminate part of my own internal struggle. The over exaggeration of the resentment of society as being in genuine really captured my own internal resentment for molds that people contrive themselves to fit. The one scene with Caulfield sitting in the bathtub depressed after refusing sex from a hooker will always be infused into my constant sub consciousness. When I just feel worn out and pushed to my emotional limit, I see that image burned bright into my memory because that scene is the ultimate depiction of frustration and stress. Although, this style of writing may be beautiful, sometimes it is nice to escape the hyperrealism captured in a book like Catcher in The Rye, and instead read something that expands the mind’s imagination. The contrary to the...
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...In “Literary Film Adaptations as Educational Text” by Arne Engelstad, the main argument in this article is to discuss the process of turning novels into movies. This article is addressed to people who are interested in why so many different novels are inverted into to movies. The essay’s main focus is to determine how literary film adaptations are useful for educational texts. This essay relies on multiple pieces of evidence. As the essay states there are three major reasons for adaptation which are, the bestseller argument, which means it is a good profit to make a movie off of an already bestselling book. Also, the prestige involved in the film’s close relationship to literature. Last, is that the best story is often found between the covers of a novel. These three major reasons for adaptation are facts. Other pieces of evidence include, the four steps after you have read the novel and then seen the film adaptation of it. The first step is to compare the two discourses on a strictly narrative level. Second, is to study the results from verbal to visual representation. Third, to figure out if the film tried to developed similarities to the novel that we not transferable, and finally to collect all of the film’s main theme or themes compared to the novel. These four steps are an example of experimental data. The reason why you should study film adaptation in class is because it offers an insight into the nature of expression through words and pictures, as well as, to stimulate...
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...beginning is a good start. T.S. Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri and attended Harvard, and went overseas to England for graduate school. It was here that he settled down, becoming a banker, and more importantly, writing poetry (Nobelprize.org). In the early and mid-1920’s, Eliot suffered from numerous nervous breakdowns, and during one of these breakdowns in 1925 the poem The Hollow Men was written. Using the archetypal literary school of criticism we will magnify the archetypes of hopelessness, desperation, misery, and despair throughout the work. The archetypal school of literary criticism determines a text’s meaning using cultural and psychological myths. Commonly used symbols such as crucifixion or the snake serve as a marker to delve deeper into the reading. Carl Jung, whose theory of a “collective unconscious”, has been accredited with founding this school of literary criticism. This Jungian theory claims literature imitates the “dream of humanity”, not life. Archetypal criticism splinters from the Formalist or New Criticism schools of literary criticism by approaching the work in the context it is read in, instead of holding it aloof from other texts. Archetypal images, sounds, and symbols are used in all areas of the humanities and are tied to our fundamental thinking patterns (Delahoyde). Before the first line of the poem, the line “A penny for the Old Guy” (Eliot 79), is the first reference to Guy Fawkes Day, the English holiday where a celebration is held every...
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... Phenomenology of Reading A number of poststructuralist movements such as deconstruction had challenged the formalist and New Critical assertion of the objectivity of the text. But it was not until the 1970s that a number of critics at the University of Constance in Germany, the Constance School, began to formulate a systematic reader-response or “reception” theory. The leading members of this school were Wolfgang Iser and Hans Robert Jauss. Such phenomenological theories deal with the important role of the reader in the overall structure of any given literary text. The reader plays a great role in shaping how the work will be understood and what meanings it will have. Each new generation and each new group of readers in a new setting brings to a literary work different code for understanding it. Does writing require reading? What does reading do for writing that writing cannot do for itself? Different schools have different answers, but for phenomenology of literature, the answer is YES. Reading is ontological requirement for writing. Since writing in itself is not complete and indeterminate, it ontologically requires reading completement. So, reading, as prof.A.V.Ashok, from EFLU, defined, is “the compeletization of incomplete textured meaning into actualized meaning”. Text, for realistic theory of reading, is nearly getting written, the text exists as a body of complete meaning. In other...
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...Formalism The formalist approach to literature was developed at the beginning of the 20th century and remained the primary approach to literary study until the 1970s, when other literary theories began to gain popularity. As the name suggests, formalism is concerned primarily with form. Rather than INTERPRETING what a text means, the formalist ANALYZES how that that meaning is communicated. Formalists assert that each work is a separate entity—not dependent upon the author’s life, the culture in which it was created, or any other category to which it belongs. Three main areas of study: 1. FORM AND UNITY Cadence—how the words, phrases, and sentences sound. When a character or a narrator is speaking, the sound of what is being said, or how it is being said, can give clues as to who the character is and why he or she is in the work. Cadence also includes an examination of the formal and informal language patterns used by the author: • rhythm or meter, • rhyme, • sound devices like alliteration, onomatopoeia, etc. Repetition and recurrences—The author’s using the same word, phrase, or concept repeatedly is always a clue to its importance, as are instances of the same event happening more than once in a story. Formalists also note how the context of the motif or recurring event changes with each repetition, or how the motif or event itself changes. Structures—the story arc and character arcs are of great interest to formalists: • how and when is the conflict introduced? • what events...
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