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Lesson 4-Literary Criticism

The document provides an overview of different approaches to reading and analyzing literary texts, including formalist, archetypal, historicist, Marxist, feminist, deconstructionist, and reader response criticism. It explains that literary criticism involves interpreting texts based on perspectives supported by evidence relating to themes, styles, settings, or historical/political contexts. Studying these theoretical lenses can help readers better understand why, how, and what they comprehend when interpreting literature.

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Kaye Placido
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159 views

Lesson 4-Literary Criticism

The document provides an overview of different approaches to reading and analyzing literary texts, including formalist, archetypal, historicist, Marxist, feminist, deconstructionist, and reader response criticism. It explains that literary criticism involves interpreting texts based on perspectives supported by evidence relating to themes, styles, settings, or historical/political contexts. Studying these theoretical lenses can help readers better understand why, how, and what they comprehend when interpreting literature.

Uploaded by

Kaye Placido
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Literary Criticism

Lesson 4
THROUGH YOUR LENS:
“Automat” by Edward Hopper

1. What does the person in the picture feel/do?

2. What is the gender of the person in the


picture?

3. Why do you think the person is there?

4. What do you think is the occupation of the


person?

5. What feeling does the picture evoke?


How to Read a
Literary Text
How to Read a Literary Text

A text requires meaning only in


the imagination of an actual
reader, which is you, with your
experience, memories, and
dreams. One of the ways you
can read a text is to look at
readings made by other people.
How to Read a Literary Text

A lot depends on
why you are
reading a text.
How to Read a Literary Text

You are not the first person to read a literary


text. There have been many others who have
asked the kinds of questions you now ask.
Literary history is the branch of knowledge that
deals with these questions.
How to Read a Literary Text

It is like the difference between someone who


plays the piano by ear and someone who has
taken music lessons; the former may appreciate
a musical piece, but the latter knows why a
musical piece is appealing.
How to Read a Literary Text

You can understand a novel, poem, or a play


even if you do not study literary theory, but if
you study literary theory or at least some
aspects of literary criticism, you will understand
why you understand, how you understand, and
maybe even what you understand.
How to Read a Literary Text

You can understand a novel, poem, or a play


even if you do not study literary theory, but if
you study literary theory or at least some
aspects of literary criticism, you will understand
why you understand, how you understand, and
maybe even what you understand.
Literary
Theories
LITERARY THEORIES
In “reading” and analysing
literature, literary theories
are needed to support the
reader in understanding the
texts. Generally, critics
clustered these theories or
approaches into five groups
(PNU Teachers Guide).
LITERARY THEORIES

1. Mimetic Theory suggests that literature


imitates and reflects the real world or the
world of ideal concepts or things from which
subject of literature is derived. The work and
the world that imitates is how others call this
theory.
LITERARY THEORIES
2. Authorial Theory holds that the author is the
sole source of meaning. One studies literature with
one eyes set on literary text and another eye on the
author’s biography. The work in relation to its
author insists in very private expression of the
writer’s feelings, imagination, inspiration, and
intention.
LITERARY THEORIES

3. Reader Response Theory is also called as


effective or pragmatic theory. Some call this as
the work and its readers. This theory permits
varied and numerous interpretations of the
literary texts from as many readers.
LITERARY THEORIES

4. Literary Tradition Theory relates the work


to its literary history by identifying the
tradition to which it belongs.
LITERARY THEORIES

5. Textual Analysis Theory is also known as


the work as an entity itself.
Literary
Criticism
LITERARY CRITICISM

 
Literary criticism is essentially how the reader
interprets and evaluates the literary texts
based on his/her perspectives, supported by
evidence, relating to theme, style, setting or
historical or political context.
LITERARY CRITICISM
1. Formalist Criticism seeks to make literary criticism a
scientific study. It insists that each literary work shows
function as a harmonious possessing a universal meaning,
which suggests that there is only one “correct” way of reading.
The meaning is revealed by “dissecting” the literary text, by
examining the literary elements and by determining how it
contributed to the essential unity of the literary piece.
LITERARY CRITICISM

2. Archetypal Criticism is influenced by Carl Gustav


Jung’s belief in the collective unconscious of all the
people of the world. It depends heavily on symbols
and patterns operating on a universal scale. Archetypes
are identified by simple repeated patterns or images of
human experience: the changing seasons, birth, death,
rebirth, and heroic quest.
LITERARY CRITICISM
3. Historicism examines the culture and society from which
literature is produce, and how these influences affect literature. It
considers the following questions:

-Who is the author, where did he/she come from, and what were
his/her objectives in writing?
-How did the political events influence what the writer wrote?
-How did the predominant social customs of the time influence
the writer’s outlook?
LITERARY CRITICISM

4. Marxist Criticism argues that literature is a


product of real, social and economic existence.
It views literature to be ideologically
determined of the existing class struggle,
usually of dominant social class.
LITERARY CRITICISM
5. Feminist Criticism combines several critical methods while
focusing on the questions on how gender affects a literary work,
writer, or reader. It considers the following questions:

-How are women portrayed in the work? As stereotypes? As


individuals?
-How is the woman’s point of view considered?
-Is the male superiority implied in the text?
-In what way is the work affected because it was written by a
woman?
LITERARY CRITICISM

6. Deconstructionism asserts multiple


conflicting interpretations to a text. It bases
interpretation on the philosophical, political or
social implications of the use of language in a
text rather than on the author’s intention.
LITERARY CRITICISM

7. Reader’s Response Criticism is at its most


basic level because it considers readers'
reactions to literature as vital to interpreting
the meaning of the text. The readers create the
meaning of the text through the act of reading
and interpreting.

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