LITERARY THEORIES toward these political structures/systems are

expressed in the work?

FORMALISM
MARXIST CRITICISM
• Text as a completely isolated unit
KARL MARX
• Study elements such as language, imagery, point of
view, plot structure, and/or character development and Karl Marx was a German philosopher during the 19th
motivation century. He worked primarily in the realm of political
philosophy and was a famous advocate for
• Pays no attention to either the authors or readers of
communism.
texts
Communism is a political and economic system that
• Readers should read neutrally or unemotionally
seeks to create a classless society in which the major
• No consideration to social and historical context means of production, such as mines and factories, are
owned and controlled by the public. There is no
• New Criticism (a type of formalism) focuses on the government or private property or currency, and the
elements of fiction and emphasizes how they work wealth is divided among citizens equally or according to
together to create, in a work of quality, a coherent individual need.
whole: a unity of plot, theme and character, through
use of tone, point of view, imagery, purposeful action, Marxist approach argues that the prevailing ideologies
dialogue, and description. and social status of the author has an impact on the way
he/she writes
• Often analyzed and written as a “close reading.”
Marxists generally view literature "not as works created
• The reader does not need additional knowledge, other in accordance with timeless artistic criteria, but as
than what’s in the text, to interpret the literary work. 'products' of the economic and ideological
• It ignores the author’s intentions. determinants specific to that era"

• It assumes that “good” literature is “coherent” and Literature reflects those social institutions out of which
that a text that is not coherent by its standards is not it emerges and is itself a social institution with a
“good” literature. This means many works don’t get particular ideological function
read or considered to be of value. Literature reflects class struggle and materialism: think
•It divorces literature from its larger cultural context. how often the quest for wealth traditionally defines
characters.
•It assumes that readers can refrain from investing
emotionally in their reading and can / should respond  What role does class play in the work; what is
objectively to texts. the author's analysis of class relations?
 How do characters overcome oppression?
SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH  In what ways does the work serve as
Concerned about societal problems or societal propaganda for the status quo; or does it try to
problems or social relationships as they find expression undermine it?
in a reading selection  What does the work say about oppression; or
are social conflicts ignored or blamed
Examines the problems affecting the society described elsewhere?
in the selection, its causes and its impact on the  Does the work propose some form of utopian
characters interacting in it. vision as a solution to the problems
encountered in the work?
 What is the relationship between the characters and
 Whom does it benefit if the work or effort is
their society?
accepted/successful/believed, etc.?
 Does the story address societal issues, such as race,
 What is the social class of the author?
gender, and class?
 Which class does the work claim to represent?
 How do social forces shape the power relationships
 What values does it reinforce?
between groups or classes of people in the story?
 What values does it subvert?
Who has the power, and who doesn’t? Why?
 What conflict can be seen between the values
 Can the protagonist’s struggle be seen as symbolic of
the work champions and those it portrays?
a larger class struggle?
 What social classes do the characters
 How does the microcosm (small world) of the story
represent?
reflect the macrocosm (large world) of the society in
 How do characters from different classes
which it was composed?
interact or conflict?
 Do any of the characters correspond to types of
government, such as a dictatorship, democracy,
communism, socialism, fascism, etc.? What attitudes
FEMINISM • Because the second wave of feminism found voice
amid so many other social movements, it was easily
Origin
marginalized and viewed as less pressing than, for
Grew out of the women’s movements following WWII. example, Black Power or efforts to end the war in
Vietnam. Feminists reacted by forming women-only
Two basic forms... organizations (such as NOW) and "consciousness
Feminist Criticism - analysis of the depiction of women raising" groups. In publications like "The BITCH
and their relation to the woman reader by male Manifesto" and "Sisterhood is Powerful," feminists
authors. advocated for their place in the sun.

Gynocriticism - the study of women’s writing • The second wave was increasingly theoretical, based
on a fusion of neo-Marxism and psycho-analytical
theory, and began to associate the subjugation of
First Wave of Feminism women with broader critiques of patriarchy, capitalism,
normative heterosexuality, and the woman's role as
• took place in the late nineteenth and early twentieth wife and mother.
centuries, emerging out of an environment of urban
industrialism and liberal, socialist politics.

• The goal of this wave was to open up opportunities for Third Wave
women, with a focus on suffrage. • The third wave of feminism began in the mid-90's and
• The wave formally began at the Seneca Falls was informed by post-colonial and post-modern
Convention in 1848 when three hundred men and thinking. In this phase many constructs were
women rallied to the cause of equality for women. destabilized, including the notions of "universal
womanhood," body, gender, sexuality and
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton (d.1902) drafted the Seneca heteronormativity.
Falls Declaration outlining the new movement's
ideology and political strategies. • “it's possible to have a push-up bra and a brain at the
same time.”
• Discussions about the vote and women's
participation in politics led to an examination of the • Grrl-feminism tends to be global, multi-cultural, and it
differences between men and women as they were shuns simple answers or artificial categories of identity,
then viewed. gender, and sexuality. Its transversal politics means that
differences such as those of ethnicity, class, sexual
• Some claimed that women were morally superior to orientation, etc. are celebrated and recognized as
men, and so their presence in the civic sphere would dynamic, situational, and provisional.
improve public behavior and the political process.
Concerned with the ways in which literature reinforce
or undermine the economic, political, social and
psychological oppression of women
Second Wave
• A type of literary criticism that critiques how females
• The second wave began in the 1960s and continued
are commonly represented in texts, and how
into the 90s. This wave unfolded in the context of the
insufficient these representations are as a categorizing
anti-war and civil rights movements and the growing
device. They focus on how femininity is represented as
self-consciousness of a variety of minority groups
being passive and emotional – the “caregiver,” and the
around the world.
male is associated with reason and action – the “doer.”
• In this phase, sexuality and reproductive rights were
• As an addition to the feminist movement in politics,
dominant issues, and much of the movement's energy
the feminist critique of literature seeks to raise the
was focused on passing the Equal Rights Amendment to
consciousness about the importance and unique nature
the Constitution guaranteeing social equality regardless
of women in literature, and to point out how language
of sex.
has been used to marginalize women.
• Feminists parodied what they held to be a degrading
This looks at how aspects of our culture are inherently
"cattle parade" that reduced women to objects of
PATRIARCHAL and aims to expose MISOGYNY in writing
beauty dominated by a patriarchy that sought to keep
about women, which can take explicit and implicit forms
them in the home or in dull, low- paying jobs.
Specifically, the feminist view attempts to:
• The radical New York group called the Redstockings
staged a counter pageant in which they crowned a 1. Show that writers of traditional literature have
sheep as Miss America and threw "oppressive" ignored women and have presented misguided and
feminine artifacts such as bras, girdles, high-heels, prejudiced views of them
makeup and false eyelashes into the trashcan.
2. Create a critical landscape that reflects a balanced Does the story reveal or contradict the prevailing values
view of the nature and value of women of the time it was written?

3. Expand the literary canon by recovering works of What historical events or movements might have
women of the past and publication of contemporary influenced the writer?
female writers
MORAL Criticism
4. Urge transformation in the language to eliminate
Moral critics believe that the larger purpose of
inequities and inequalities that result from linguistic
literature is to teach morality
distortions such as mankind (rather than humanity).
Critics working from a moral bent are not unaware of
form, figurative language and other purely aesthetic
1. To what extent does the representation of women considerations, but they consider them to be secondary
(and men) in the work reflect the time and place in
• The most important thing is the moral philosophy
which the work was written?
teaching
2. How are the relationships between men and women
• In the larger sense, all great literature teaches.
presented in the work?
• Ascertaining and stating WHAT is taught
3. Does the author present the work from within a
predominantly male or female perspective? Moral approach has become less popular and influential
during the last few decades.
4.How do the facts of the author’s life relate to the
presentation of men and women in the work? •Being too judgmental
5. How do other works by the author correspond to this •One difficulty with evaluating a text’s ideas from a
one in their depiction of the power relationships moral perspective is that it is not always easy to discern
between men and women? character intentions as good or bad—or both in
separate contexts.
HISTORICAL APPROACH
Judge the value of the literature on its moral lesson or
One of the most basic approach used in the analysis of
ethical teaching
literary work
A.Literature that that is ethically sound and
The critic interprets the work within the history or
encourages virtue is praised
contemporary frame of reference
B.B. Literature that misguides and/or corrupts is
Steps in Utilizing the approach
condemned
1. Discovering the time when the work was written,
Is the author and his/her treatment of subject (both
what happened in that time?
character and theme) mature, sincere, honest,
2.Analyzing whether the work is connected or not sensitive, or courageous? How so, and how does
between the content of the literary work and the knowing this help us approach the text in a meaningful
certain historical moments after finding out the basic way?
information about the when.
Does the text seek to corrupt or negatively influence the
3. Finding clues left by the author, usually in the forms reader? How so and/or why?
of special terms, symbols, or figurative language which
How do characters, settings, and plot events represent
are STRONGLY related to the moment of the past which
or allegorize moral or ethical principles?
become the inspiration of the literary piece.
Does the work in question pose a pragmatic or moral
4. Interpreting the literary work based on the moment
lesson or philosophical idea?
underlying the creation it by comprehending and
analyzing the content related to its historical content

A.How does it reflect the time that it was written? PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH
B.How accurately does the story depict the time in • Psychological criticism, or psychoanalytic criticism,
which it was set? emphasizes psychological issues in a literary text.
C.What historical influences helped to shape the form • Psychological criticism frequently addresses motives
and content of the work? —conscious or unconscious—of human behavior as
well as the development of characters through their
D.How does the story reflect the attitudes and beliefs of
actions.
the time in which it was written or set?

What other literary works influenced the writer?

• Drawing on theories and concepts of human approach literature from the perspective of the author’s
psychology developed by psychoanalysts, biography.
psychoanalytic criticism has also influenced other
schools of literary criticism, especially Post-colonial
criticism. A. What aspects of the author’s personal life are
relevant to this story?

B. Which of the author’s stated beliefs are reflected in

A. What forces are motivating the characters?
work?
B. Which behaviors of the characters are conscious
C. Does the writer challenge or support the values of
ones?
her contemporaries?
C. Which are unconscious?
D. What seem to be the author’s major concerns? Do
D. What conscious or unconscious conflicts exist they reflect any of the writer’s personal experiences?
between the characters?
E. Do any of the events in the story correspond to
E. Given their backgrounds, how plausible is the events experienced by the author?
characters’ behavior?
F. Do any of the characters in the story correspond to
F. Are the theories of Freud or other psychologists real people?
applicable to this work? To what degree?

G. Do any of the characters correspond to the parts of

Reader-Response Approach
the tripartite self? (Id, ego, superego)
Also called as impressionistic approach
H. What roles do psychological disorders and dreams
play in this story? This approach takes as a fundamental tenet that
“literature” exists not as an artifact upon a printed page
I. Are the characters recognizable psychological types?
but as a transaction between the physical text and the
mind of a reader

A.How might a psychological approach account for It attempts “to describe what happens in the reader’s
different responses in female and male readers? mind while interpreting a text” and reflects that
reading, like writing, is a creative process.
B.How does the work reflect the writer’s personal
psychology?

C.What do the characters’ emotions and behaviors What does the text have to do with you, personally, and
reveal about their psychological states? with your life (past, present or future)?

D.How does the work reflect the unconscious How much does the text agree or clash with your view
dimensions of the writer’s mind? of the world, and what you consider right and wrong?

E.How does the reader’s own psychology affect his What did you learn, and how much were your views and
response to the work? opinions challenged or changed by this text, if at all? Did
the text communicate with you? Why or why not?
BIOGRAPHICAL APPROACH
How well does the text address things that you,
• biographical criticism emphasizes the relationship
personally, care about and consider important to the
between the author and his or her literary work. Since
world? How does it address things that are important to
the premise of biographical criticism maintains that the
your family, your community, your ethnic group, to
author and his or her literary work cannot be separated,
people of your economic or social class or background,
critics look for glimpses of the author’s consciousness or
or your faith tradition?
life in the author’s work.
What can you praise about the text? What problems did
• Early childhood events, psychological illnesses,
you have with it?
relational conflicts, desires (fulfilled or unfulfilled),
among other things, may all arise in an author’s work. How well did you enjoy the text (or not) as
Biographical criticism is not a new approach to entertainment or as a work of art?
literature.

• The overlap of biographical criticism with cultural

studies, psychoanalytic criticism, and other schools of
criticism has encouraged students and critics to
Postcolonial criticism

• Postcolonial criticism concerns itself with literature

written by colonizers and those who were/are
colonized.

• In particular, it looks at issues of culture, religion,

politics, and economics within the text and how these
relate to colonial hegemony (the colonizer’s act of
controlling the colonized)

• Put simply, it addresses the problems, consequences,

and challenges that a decolonized country goes
through. Specifically, it looks at these countries’
struggles with political and cultural independence,
racism, and colonial mentality.

Queer Theory

• Queer theory explores the representation of gender

and sexuality in literature.

• It challenges the assumption that heterosexuality is

the preferred or normal mode of sexual orientation—a
notion that is reinforced by certain social institutions
such as marriage, employment, and adoption rights.

• It argues that sexuality is fluid and plural, not a fixed

identity. Thus, queer theory is interested in the
breakdown of binaries such as gay/straight,
masculine/feminine, and mother/father. Queer
theorists are then primarily concerned about those who
don’t fit in conventional categories such as intersex,
bisexuals, and trans people.

New Historicism

• New Historicism acknowledges that literature isn’t

only influenced by the history of the author, but also
that of the critic.

• Put simply, the writer’s circumstances shape their

writing, their work reflects their time, and the critic’s
circumstances and environment affect their criticism.

• This theory then reveals that literary criticism is

impermanent.

• Current criticisms are colored by current prejudices,

social environments, and beliefs much like literature
affects and is affected by its historical context.

• As times change, so will the understanding of a

particular work.