Literary Criticism Overview
监管员-三年级体育教学计划
Literary Criticism Overview
What
is Literary Criticism?
Literary criticism is
the study, analysis, and evaluation of imaginative
literature. Everyone who expresses an opinion
about a book, a song, a play, or a
movie is a
critic, but not everyone's opinion is based upon
thought, reflection,
analysis, or consistently
articulated principles. Literary criticism
involves careful
reflection and analysis of
text. Literary criticism is reading the lines very
carefully, in a disciplined and informed
manner.
Traditionally, literary studies
were conducted within the three humanistic
disciplines of literature, history, and
philosophy. In the twentieth century, the
social sciences have been used to develop new
approaches to criticism.
Psychology has
helped to illuminate the motivations of characters
and the
writers who create them.
Sociology has revealed the relationships between
the works the author
produces and the society
that consumes them.
Anthropology has shown
how ancient myths and rituals are alive and
well in the plays, poems, and novels that are
popular today.
Questions Literary Critics
Ask:
What is the biography of the author?
What is the history surrounding the story?
What do the characters’ names signify?
Is
the story similar to ancient myths?
How are
the women characters represented?
What do the
dreams represent?
FORMALISM
Formalism
assumes that a work of literary art is an organic
unity in which every
element contributes to
the total meaning of the work. The formalist
critic
embraces an objective theory of art and
examines plot, characterization,
dialogue, and
style to show how these elements contribute to the
theme or unity
of the literary work. Content
and form in a work constitute a unity, and it is
the
task of the critic to examine and evaluate
the integrity of the work. Paradox,
irony,
dynamic tension, and unity are the primary values
of formalist criticism.
The formalistic
approach stresses the close reading of the text
and insists that all
statements about the work
be supported by references to the text.
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL
Historical
criticism seeks to interpret the work of
literature through
understanding the times and
culture in which the work was written. The
historical critic is more interested in the
meaning that the literary work had for
*
Written by Mark Lund, Carver Center for
the Arts and Technology, Baltimore County Public
Schools, 1996.
its own time than
in the meaning the work might have today.
Biographical
criticism investigates the life
of an author using primary texts, such as letters,
diaries, and other documents, that might
reveal the experiences, thoughts, and
feelings
that led to the creation of a literary work.
The ARCHETYPAL APPROACH
The
archetypal approach to literature evolved from
studies in anthropology and
psychology.
Archetypal critics make the reasonable assumption
that human
beings all over the world have
basic experiences in common and have developed
similar stories and symbols to express these
experiences. Literary critics, poets,
and
storytellers all use myths in the creation and
interpretation of literature. This
reflects
their belief that the old myths, far from being
falsehoods, reveal eternal
truths about human
nature.
The term archetype denotes plots,
characters, and symbols that are found in
literature, folk tales and dreams throughout
the world. Archetypes include:
the hero
and the quest
Death and rebirth pattern:
Many myths from around the world reflect the
cycle of the seasons. Sometimes mythic
thought requires a sacrifice so that
the
seasons can continue. A sacrificial hero (in myth
it is usually a god or
king) accepts death or
disgrace so that the community can
flourish.
Although the sacrifice is real, it is not
necessarily to be regarded
as final: the god
who dies in the winter may be reborn in the
spring. Characters like Oedipus and Hamlet,
who sacrifice themselves to
save their
kingdoms, are based on the archetype of the dying
god. Shirley
Jackson's
setting.
FEMINIST CRITICISM
Using psychological,
archetypal, and sociological approaches, feminist
criticism
examines images of women and
concepts of the feminine in myth and literature.
Feminist critics have shown that literature
reflects a patriarchal, or male
dominated,
perspective of society. Feminist criticism is
critical of society, as it is
presently
constituted. It is concerned with the lives of
those oppressed or
marginalized by the
dominant culture, and with the representation of
women’s
condition in literature. It
investigates literature as a means of bringing
about
changes in attitudes and, ultimately, in
society.
THE PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACH
The philosophical (or moral) approach to
literature evaluates the ethical content
of
literary works and concerns itself less with
formal characteristics.
Philosophical
criticism always assumes the seriousness of
literary works as
statements of values and
criticisms of life, and the philosophical critic
judges
*
Written by Mark Lund, Carver
Center for the Arts and Technology, Baltimore
County Public Schools, 1996.
works
on the basis of his or her articulated philosophy
of life. Assuming that
literature can have a
good effect on human beings by increasing their
compassion and moral sensitivity, this form of
criticism acknowledges that books
can have
negative effects on people as well. For this
reason, philosophical critics
will sometimes
attack authors for degenerate, decadent, or
unethical writings.
While this description
may make philosophical critics seem similar to
censors,
these critics rarely call for burning
or banning of books. In the twentieth century,
philosophical critics have tended toward a
humanistic belief in reason, order,
and
restraint. This explains their reluctance to ban
books despite their moral
concerns: if human
beings are rational, as the philosophical critic
believes, they
will listen to reason when it
is spoken; and they will reject evil and embrace
the
good.
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH
Poets, dreamers, and madmen all tap the
fountainhead of the unconscious, the
source
not only of aggressions and desires but of the
will to live. The
psychological approach to
literature delves into the symbolic fictions that
arise
from the primordial springs of the
imagination and attempts to explain them to
the rational, waking selves who inhabit the
daylight world. Psychological
criticism has
led to new ideas about the nature of the creative
process, the mind
of the artist, and the
motivations of characters. There are several ideas
of Freud
that are influential to this
criticism:
Unconscious: According to Freud,
human beings are not conscious of all
their
feelings, urges, and desires because most of
mental life is
unconscious. Freud compared
the mind to an iceberg: only a small
portion
is visible; the rest is below the waves of the
sea. Thus, the mind
consists of a small
conscious portion and a vast unconscious portion.
Repression: Freud claims society demands
restraint, order, and
respectability and that
individuals are forced to repress some of their
desires. These repressed desires, however,
emerge in dreams and in art.
But the lust and
aggression may not be represented directly. This
leads to
the use of symbols and subtexts in
dreams and literature.
THE SOCIOLOGICAL
APPROACH
Sociological criticism focuses on the
relationship between literature and
society.
Sociological criticism, then, reflects the way
literature interacts with
society.
Sociological critics show us how literature can
function as a mirror to
reflect social
realities and as a lamp to inspire social ideals.
Literature is always
produced in a social
context. Writers may affirm or criticize the
values of the
society in which they live, but
they write for an audience and that audience is
society. The social function of literature is
the domain of the sociological critic.
The
sociological critic is interested not only in the
stated themes of literature, but
also in the
latent themes. Like the historical critic, the
sociological critic attempts
*
Written by
Mark Lund, Carver Center for the Arts and
Technology, Baltimore County Public Schools, 1996.
to understand the writer's
environment as an important element in the
writer's
work. Like the moral critic, the
sociological critic usually has certain values by
which he or she judges literary work.
Marxist Criticism
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
developed a theory of society, politics, and
economics
called dialectical materialism.
Writing in the nineteenth century, Marx criticized
the exploitation of the working classes, or
proletariat, by the capitalist classes
who
owned the mines, factories, and other resources of
national
economies. Marx believed that
history was the story of class struggles and that
the goal of history was a classless society in
which all people would share the
wealth
equally. This classless society could only come
about as a result of a
revolution that would
overthrow the capitalist domination of the
economy.
Central to Marx's understanding of
society is the concept of ideology: a system
of ideas and ideals, especially one that forms
the basis of economic or political
policy,
proposed by the dominant class of a society to all
members of this society.
As an economic
determinist, Marx thought that the system of
production was the
most basic fact in social
life. Workers created the value of manufactured
goods,
but owners of the factories reaped most
of the economic rewards. In order to
justify
and rationalize this inequity, a system of
understandings or ideology was
created, for
the most part unconsciously. Capitalists justified
their taking the
lion's share of the rewards
by presenting themselves as better people, more
intelligent, more refined, more ethical than
the workers. Since literature is
consumed,
for the most part, by the middle classes, it tends
to support capitalist
ideology, at least in
countries where that ideology is dominant.
*
Written by Mark
Lund, Carver Center for the Arts and Technology,
Baltimore County Public Schools, 1996.