Lit 7: Literary Criticism

Types of Literary Criticism

Psychoanalytic criticism

Psychoanalytic criticism adopts the methods of "reading" employed by Freud and later

theorists to interpret texts. It argues that literary texts, like dreams, express the secret
unconscious desires and anxieties of the author, that a literary work is a manifestation of the
author's own neuroses. One may psychoanalyze a particular character within a literary work,
but it is usually assumed that all such characters are projections of the author's psyche.

One interesting facet of this approach is that it validates the importance of literature, as it is
built on a literary key for the decoding. Freud himself wrote, "The dream-thoughts which we
first come across as we proceed with our analysis often strike us by the unusual form in
which they are expressed; they are not clothed in the prosaic language usually employed by
our thoughts, but are on the contrary represented symbolically by means of similes and
metaphors, in images resembling those of poetic speech" (26).

Like psychoanalysis itself, this critical endeavor seeks evidence of unresolved emotions,
psychological conflicts, guilts, ambivalences, and so forth within what may well be a
disunified literary work. The author's own childhood traumas, family life, sexual conflicts,
fixations, and such will be traceable within the behavior of the characters in the literary work.
But psychological material will be expressed indirectly, disguised, or encoded (as in dreams)
through principles such as "symbolism" (the repressed object represented in disguise),
"condensation" (several thoughts or persons represented in a single image), and
"displacement" (anxiety located onto another image by means of association).

Despite the importance of the author here, psychoanalytic criticism is similar to New Criticism
in not concerning itself with "what the author intended." But what the author never intended
(that is, repressed) is sought. The unconscious material has been distorted by the censoring
conscious mind.

Psychoanalytic critics will ask such questions as, "What is Hamlet's problem?" or "Why can't
Brontë seem to portray any positive mother figures?"

Source: https://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/psycho.crit.html#:~:text=Psychoanalytic
%20criticism%20adopts%20the%20methods,of%20the%20author's%20own%20neuroses.

Marxist criticism

Marxist criticism places a literary work within the context of class and assumptions about
class. A premise of Marxist criticism is that literature can be viewed as ideological, and that it
can be analyzed in terms of a Base/Superstructure model. Karl Heinrich Marx argues that the
economic means of production within society account for the base. A base determines its
superstructure. Human institutions and ideologies—including those relevant to a patriarchy—
that produce art and literary texts comprise the superstructure. Marxist criticism thus
emphasizes class, socioeconomic status, power relations among various segments of society,
and the representation of those segments. Marxist literary criticism is valuable because it
enables readers to see the role that class plays in the plot of a text. Bressler notes that
“Marxist theory has its roots in the nineteenth-century writings of Karl Heinrich Marx, though
his ideas did not fully develop until the twentieth century” (183). Key figures in Marxist theory
include Bertolt Brecht, Georg Lukács, and Louis Althusser. Although these figures have
shaped the concepts and path of Marxist theory, Marxist literary criticism did not specifically
develop from Marxism itself. One who approaches a literary text from a Marxist perspective
may not necessarily support Marxist ideology. For example, a Marxist approach to Langston
Hughes’s poem “Advertisement for the Waldorf-Astoria” might examine how the
socioeconomic status of the speaker and other citizens of New York City affect the speaker’s
perspective. The Waldorf Astoria opened during the midst of the Great Depression. Thus, the
poem’s speaker uses sarcasm to declare, “Fine living . . . a la carte? / Come to the Waldorf-
Astoria! / LISTEN HUNGRY ONES! / Look! See what Vanity Fair says about the / new Waldorf-
Astoria” (lines 1-5). The speaker further expresses how class contributes to the conflict
described in the poem by contrasting the targeted audience of the hotel with the citizens of
its surrounding area: “So when you’ve no place else to go, homeless and hungry / ones,
choose the Waldorf as a background for your rags” (lines 15-16). Hughes’s poem invites
readers to consider how class restricts particular segments of society.

Foundational Questions of Marxist Criticism

 What classes, or socioeconomic statuses, are represented in the text?

 Are all the segments of society accounted for, or does the text exclude a particular class?
 Does class restrict or empower the characters in the text?
 How does the text depict a struggle between classes, or how does class contribute to the
conflict of the text?
 How does the text depict the relationship between the individual and the state? Does the
state view individuals as a means of production, or as ends in themselves?

Source: https://writingcommons.org/section/research/research-methods/textual-methods/
literary-criticism/marxist-criticism/#:~:text=Marxist%20criticism%20places%20a
%20literary,of%20a%20Base%2FSuperstructure%20model.

Feminist criticism

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 83). This school of theory looks at how aspects of our culture
are inherently patriarchal (male dominated) and aims to expose misogyny in writing about
women, which can take explicit and implicit forms. This misogyny, Tyson reminds us, can
extend into diverse areas of our culture: "Perhaps the most chilling example...is found in the
world of modern medicine, where drugs prescribed for both sexes often have been tested on
male subjects only" (85).
Feminist criticism is also concerned with less obvious forms of marginalization such as the
exclusion of women writers from the traditional literary canon: "...unless the critical or
historical point of view is feminist, there is a tendency to underrepresent the contribution of
women writers" (Tyson 84).
COMMON SPACE IN FEMINIST THEORIES
Though a number of different approaches exist in feminist criticism, there exist some areas of
commonality. This list is excerpted from Tyson (92):

1. Women are oppressed by patriarchy economically, politically, socially, and

psychologically; patriarchal ideology is the primary means by which women are
oppressed.
2. In every domain where patriarchy reigns, woman is other: she is marginalized,
defined only by her difference from male norms and values.
3. All of Western (Anglo-European) civilization is deeply rooted in patriarchal ideology,
for example, in the Biblical portrayal of Eve as the origin of sin and death in the
world.
4. While biology determines our sex (male or female), culture determines our gender
(scales of masculine and feminine).
 5. All feminist activity, including feminist theory and literary criticism, has as its ultimate
goal to change the world by prompting gender equality.
6. Gender issues play a part in every aspect of human production and experience,
including the production and experience of literature, whether we are consciously
aware of these issues or not.

Feminist criticism has, in many ways, followed what some theorists call the three waves of
feminism:

1. First Wave Feminism - late 1700s-early 1900's: writers like Mary Wollstonecraft (A
Vindication of the Rights of Women, 1792) highlight the inequalities between the
sexes. Activists like Susan B. Anthony and Victoria Woodhull contribute to the
women's suffrage movement, which leads to National Universal Suffrage in 1920 with
the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment.
2. Second Wave Feminism - early 1960s-late 1970s: building on more equal working
conditions necessary in America during World War II, movements such as the
National Organization for Women (NOW), formed in 1966, cohere feminist political
activism. Writers like Simone de Beauvoir ( Le Deuxième Sexe, 1949) and Elaine
Showalter established the groundwork for the dissemination of feminist theories
dove-tailed with the American Civil Rights movement.
3. Third Wave Feminism - early 1990s-present: resisting the perceived essentialist (over
generalized, over simplified) ideologies and a white, heterosexual, middle class focus
of second wave feminism, third wave feminism borrows from post-structural and
contemporary gender and race theories (see below) to expand on marginalized
populations' experiences. Writers like Alice Walker work to "...reconcile it [feminism]
with the concerns of the black community...[and] the survival and wholeness of her
people, men and women both, and for the promotion of dialog and community as
well as for the valorization of women and of all the varieties of work women perform"
(Tyson 107).

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 does the work play in terms of women's literary history and literary
tradition? (Tyson)

Here is a list of scholars we encourage you to explore to further your understanding of this
theory:

 Mary Wollstonecraft - A Vindication of the Rights of Women, 1792

 Simone de Beauvoir - Le Deuxième Sexe (The Second Sex), 1949
  Julia Kristeva - About Chinese Women, 1977
 Elaine Showalter - A Literature of Their Own, 1977; "Toward a Feminist Poetics,"
1979
 Deborah E. McDowell - "New Directions for Black Feminist Criticism," 1980
 Alice Walker - In Search of Our Mother's Gardens, 1983
 Lillian S. Robinson - "Treason out Text: Feminist Challenges to the Literary Canon,"
1983
 Camille Paglia - Sexual Personae: The Androgyne in Literature and Art, 1990

Here is the Tyson source referenced above:

 Lois Tyson - Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide, 2nd ed., 2006.

Source: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/writing_in_literature/
literary_theory_and_schools_of_criticism/feminist_criticism.html#:~:text=Feminist
%20criticism%20is%20concerned%20with,women%22%20(Tyson%2083).

New Criticism
New Criticism, in simple terms, is a critical movement that propagates the idea of ‘art for art’s
sake’.” In focusing on the text itself (“close reading“), New Critics intentionally ignore the
author, the reader, and the social context.

New Criticism is an approach to literature made popular in the 20th century that evolved out
of formalist criticism. New Criticism coined by John Crowe Ransom’s The New Criticism in
1941, came to be applied to theory and practice that was prominent in American literary
criticism until late in the 1960s.

Characteristics

 The movement derived in significant part from elements in Principles of Literary

Criticism (1924) and Practical Criticism (1929) by I.A. Richards and from the critical essays
of T.S. Eliot.
 It opposed the prevailing interest of scholars, critics, and teachers of that era in the
biographies of authors, the social context of literature, and literary history by insisting that
the proper concern of literary criticism is not with the external circumstances or effects or
historical position of a work, but with a detailed consideration of the work itself as an
independent entity.
 New Criticism is distinctly formalist in character.
 The method of New Criticism focuses on a close reading of rhythm, meter, theme,
imagery, metaphor, etc.
 According to the intentional fallacy, it’s impossible to determine an author’s reasons for
writing a text without directly asking him or her.
 Intentional Fallacy, a literary term, is coined by the American New Critics W. K. Wimsatt Jr
and Monroe C. Beardsley to describe the general assumption that an author’s assumed or
declared intention in writing a work is an appropriate basis for deciding upon the meaning
or value of a work.
 Even if we did determine the author’s intentions, they don’t matter, because the text itself
carries its own value. So, even if we’re reading a book by a renowned author like
Shakespeare, we shouldn’t let the author’s reputation taint our evaluation of the text.
 The affective fallacy is a literary term that refers to the supposed error of evaluating or
judging a work on the basis of its emotional effects on a reader.
 The new critics held that work should not have to be understood relative to the responses
of its readers; its merit (and meaning) must be inherent.
 The New Critics favoured poetry over other literary forms because for them poetry is the
purest exemplification of the literary values which they upheld. Still, the techniques like
 close reading and structural analysis of the works are also applied to drama, novel, and
other literary forms.
 The aesthetic qualities used by the New Critics were largely borrowed from the critical
writings of ST Coleridge. Coleridge was the first to describe poetry as a unified, organic
whole that reconciles its internal conflicts and reaches some final balance or harmony.
Examples

 Practical Criticism: a Study of Literary Judgement by IA Richard  (1929).

 The Well Wrought Urn by Cleanth Brooks  (1947).
 British Poetry Since 1960 by Michael Schmidt and Grevel Lindop (1972).
 Eight Contemporary Poets by Calvin Bendient (1974).
 Nine Contemporary Poets: A Critical Introduction by P.R. King (1979).
 The Force of Poetry by Christopher Ricks (1987).

Source: https://englishsummary.com/new-criticism/

Reader-response criticism

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

At its most basic level, reader-response criticism considers readers' reactions to literature as
vital to interpreting the meaning of the text. However, reader-response criticism can take a
number of different approaches. A critic deploying reader-response theory can use a
psychoanalytic lens, a feminist lens, or even a structuralist lens. What these different lenses
have in common when using a reader-response approach is they maintain "...that what a text
is cannot be separated from what it does" (Tyson 154).
Tyson explains that "...reader-response theorists share two beliefs: 1) that the role of the
reader cannot be omitted from our understanding of literature and 2) that readers do not
passively consume the meaning presented to them by an objective literary text; rather they
actively make the meaning they find in literature" (154). In this way, reader-response theory
shares common ground with some of the deconstructionists discussed in the Post-structural
area when they talk about "the death of the author," or her displacement as the
(author)itarian figure in the text.
Typical questions:

 How does the interaction of text and reader create meaning?

 What does a phrase-by-phrase analysis of a short literary text, or a key portion of a
longer text, tell us about the reading experience prestructured by (built into) that
text?
 Do the sounds/shapes of the words as they appear on the page or how they are
spoken by the reader enhance or change the meaning of the word/work?
 How might we interpret a literary text to show that the reader's response is, or is
analogous to, the topic of the story?
 What does the body of criticism published about a literary text suggest about the
critics who interpreted that text and/or about the reading experience produced by
that text? (Tyson 191)

Here is a list of scholars we encourage you to explore to further your understanding of this
theory:

 Peter Rabinowitz - Before Reading, 1987

 Stanley Fish - Is There a Text in This Class? The Authority of Interpretive
Communities, 1980
 Elizabeth Freund - The Return of the Reader: Reader-Response Criticism, 1987
 David Bleich
 Norman Holland - The Dynamics of Literary Response, 1968
 Louise Rosenblatt
  Wolfgang Iser - The Implied Reader: Patterns of Communication in Prose Fiction from
Bunyan to Beckett, 1974
 Hans Robert Jauss

Source: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/writing_in_literature/
literary_theory_and_schools_of_criticism/reader_response_criticism.html

Structuralist criticism

Structuralists believe that the structuring mechanisms of the human mind are the means by
which we make sense out of chaos, and literature is a fundamental means by which human
beings explain the world to themselves, that is, makes sense of chaos” (Tyson 208).

Description of Theory:
Structuralism wants to know ‘what is the big picture not stated?’ in a text.  It basis its
premise as everything is ‘textual’ composed of signs through language given meaning in a
series of patterns related to how other texts are presented.  This theory paved the way for
Deconstructive Criticism through the use of binary oppositions where one has privilege over
the other i.e. good/bad, sweet/bitter, etc.  Structuralism focuses on the privileged binary
patterns or repetition within literature genres and individual stories and how if they they are
mirrored in society.

Benefit of Theory:
By looking at the larger outcome towards society and how material is repeated the reader
can pattern tropes within society or a particular culture.

Disadvantage of Theory:
Language and meaning are cultural.  What a language sign means in one, may not be for
another so perceived repeated themes can be misinterpreted.

Questions of Structuralist Theorists to Interpret a Text:

These questions of Structuralism are important because they reveal that every piece of
literature reflects the reality of society.
 What themes or patterns are constantly repeated in literature?
 How does this relate to culture as a whole?

Source: https://sites.wp.odu.edu/tatum-fisherengl333/theory-7/

Structuralism is concerned not so much with what things mean, but how they mean; it is a
science designed to show that all elements of human culture, including literature, are
understandable as parts of a system of signs. This science of signs is called "semiotics" or
"semiology." The goal is to discover the codes, structures, and processes involved in the
production of meaning. "Structuralism claims that human culture itself is fundamentally a
language, a complex system of signifieds (concepts) and signifiers. These signifiers can be
verbal (like language itself or literature) or nonverbal (like face painting, advertising, or
fashion)" (Biddle 80). Thus, linguistics is to language as structuralism is to literature.

Structuralists often would break myths into their smallest units, and realign corresponding
ones. Opposite terms modulate until resolved or reconciled by an intermediary third term.

Structuralism was a reaction to modern alienation and despair; it sought to recover literature
from the isolation in which it had been studied, since laws governing it govern all sign
systems -- clothing, food, body 'language,' etc.
What quickly became apparent, though, was that signs and words don't have meaning in and
of themselves, only in relations to other signs and entire systems. Hence, post-structuralism.

Deconstructive criticism

Deconstructive criticism posits an undecidability of meaning for all texts. The text has
intertwined and contradictory discourses, gaps, and incoherencies, since language itself is
unstable and arbitrary. The critic doesn't undermine the text; the text already dismantles
itself. Its rhetoric subverts or undermines its ostensible meaning.

Jacques Derrida opposed the "metaphysics of presence, . . . the claim in literature or

philosophy that we can find some full, rich meaning outside of or prior to language itself."
The hierarchy of binaries on which this assertion rests is untenable. Privileging speech over
writing = logocentrism; spoken or written words have meaning only by "differance" from
other words. Deconstructive critics focus on the text like the formalists, but direct attention to
the opposite of the New Critical "unities." Instead, they view the "decentering" of texts and
point out incompatabilities, rhetorical grain-against-grain contradictions, undecidability within
texts. There is often a playfulness to deconstruction, but it can be daunting to read too.

Source: https://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/decon.html#:~:text=Deconstructive%20criticism
%20posits%20an%20undecidability,the%20text%20already%20dismantles%20itself.

New historical and cultural criticism

New Historicism, or Cultural Materialism, considers a literary work within the context of the
author’s historical milieu. A key premise of New Historicism is that art and literature are
integrated into the material practices of culture; consequently, literary and non-literary texts
circulate together in society. New Historicism may focus on the life of the author; the social,
economic, and political circumstances (and non-literary works) of that era; as well as the
cultural events of the author’s historical milieu. The cultural events with which a work
correlates may be big (social and cultural) or small. Scholars view Raymond Williams as a
major figure in the development of Cultural Materialism. American critic Stephen Greenblatt
coined the term “New Historicism” (5) in the Introduction of one of his collections of essays
about English Renaissance Drama, The Power of Forms in the English Renaissance. Many
New Historicist critics have studied Shakespeare’s The Tempest alongside The Bermuda
Pamphlets and various travel narratives from the early modern era, speculating about how
England’s colonial expeditions in the New World may have influenced Shakespeare’s decision
to set The Tempest on an island near Bermuda. Some critics also situate The Tempest during
the period of time during in which King James I ruled England and advocated the absolute
authority of Kings in both political and spiritual matters. Since Prospero maintains complete
authority on the island on which The Tempest is set, some New Historicist critics find a
parallel between King James I and Prospero in The Tempest. Additionally, Daniel
Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe can be interpreted in light of the true story of a shipwrecked man
named Alexander Selkirk. Analyzing a text alongside its historical milieu and relevant
documents can demonstrate how a text addresses the social or political concerns of its time
period.

Foundational Questions of New Historicist Criticism

 Does the text address the political or social concerns of its time period? If so, what issues
does the text examine? 
 What historical events or controversies does the text overtly address or allude to? Does
the text comment on those events?
  What types of historical documents (e.g., wills, laws, religious tracts, narratives, art, etc.)
might illuminate the meaning and the purpose of the literary text?
 How does the text relate to other literary texts of the same time period?

Online Example:Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress”: A New Historicist Reading

Discussion Questions and Activities: New Historical/Cultural Materialist Criticism

1. Identify and define key words that you would consider when approaching a text from a new
historical/cultural materialist position.
2. Discuss the significance of the fact that art and literature are integrated into the material
practices of culture.
3. Employ a New Historicist approach to demonstrate how a specific literary text addresses a
social topic of its historical milieu.
4. Using the Folger Digital Texts from the Folger Shakespeare Library, examine act one, scene
two, lines 385-450 of The Tempest. What political concerns, social controversies, or historical
events of this time period do you think The Tempest treats?
5. What research would you conduct to argue whether or not The Tempest addresses either
slavery or colonialism? Support your viewpoint with a few examples of sources that you
would explore and include in a research paper about the topic.

Source:
https://writingcommons.org/section/research/research-methods/textual-methods/literary-
criticism/new-historicist-criticism/#:~:text=its%20time%20period.-,New%20Historicism%2C
%20or%20Cultural%20Materialism%2C%20considers%20a%20literary%20work
%20within,texts%20circulate%20together%20in%20society.

Lesbian, gay, and queer criticism

African American criticism

Postcolonial criticism

Sociological criticism: Like historical criticism, sociological criticism examines literature in the
cultural, economic, and political context in which it is written or received. This type of
criticism may analyze the social content of a literary work the cultural, economic, or political
values a particular text implicitly or explicitly expresses:

Reader-response criticism: This type of criticism attempts to describe what happens in the
reader's mind while interpreting a text. A reader-response critic might also explore the impact
of a particular text on his or her own ideas or values. For example, one might reflect on how
a particular character seems admirable or unlikable and why. One might reflect on how one's
religious, culture, or social values affect readings. It also overlaps with gender criticisin in
exploring how men and women may read the same text with different assumptions.

Gender criticism: This type of criticism examines how sexual identity influences the creation
and reception of literary works. Gender studies originated during the feminist movement,
when critics began investigating the unexamined assumptions around gender in a piece of
literature, Feminist crittes explored how an author's gender might consciously or
unconsciously affect

Mythological criticism: Mythological critics explore the universal patterns underlying a literary
work. This type of criticism draws on the insights of anthropology, history, psychology, and
comparative religion to explore how a text uses myths and symbols drawn from different
cultures and epochs. A central concept in mythological criticism is the archetype, a symbol,
character. situation, or image that evokes a deep universal response. For example, critic
Joseph Campbell, in his books like The Hero with a Thousand Faces, demonstrates how
similar mythic characters and situations, like the hero's journey, appear in virtually every
culture.

Biographical criticism: Biographical critics explore how understanding an author's life can help
renders more thoroughly comprehend the literary work. Note: biographical critics are not
concerned with simply describing the author's life but instead with interpreting the literary
work wing the insights provided by know ledge of the author's life.

New Historicism: New historicist critics look at the impact of the politics, ideologies, and social
customs of the author's world on the themes, images, and characterizations of a text. This
type of critic considers the historical events or conditions during which the work was written

Psychoanalytic criticism: This type of criticism views the themes, conflicts, and
characterizations of a work primarily as a reflection of the needs, emotions, states of mind, or
subconscious desires of the author.

Formalist criticism: Formalist critics look closely at the work itself, analyzing the various
elements of the work as a way of explicating or interpreting a text.