Letran-Manaoag

Prepared by:
ANNALYNE J. PADRID, LPT
Instructor
 Colegio de San Juan de Letran-Manaoag

LITERARY CRITICISM
EL 117
 LITERARY CRITICISM
Literary criticism is the study, discussion, evaluation,
and interpretation of literature.
 LITERARY CRITICISM
Literary criticism is the evaluation of literary works.
This includes the classification by genre, analysis
of structure, and judgment of value."
 LITERARY CRITICISM
Literary criticism asks what literature is, what it
does, and what it is worth."
 LITERARY CRITICISM
In other words…
Literary criticism is the method used to interpret
any given work of literature. The different schools
of literary criticism provide us with lenses
which ultimately reveal important aspects of the
literary work.
Who are the critics?
Who decides?
 Who are the critics?
The world of literary criticism is diverse and
decentralized, so there’s no single answer to “who
are the critics?” and “who decides?” It depends on
the context and level of critique you’re interested in.
 Here are some different scenarios:

Formal Institutions:
• Academic Critics: These are professors,
researchers, and other scholars who analyze
literatures as part of their academic work. They
publish in academic journals, books, and other
scholarly publications. Their critiques are often
informed by specific theoretical frameworks and
contribute to ongoing academic discourse.
 Here are some different scenarios:

Formal Institutions:
• Professional Reviewers: Literary critics write
reviews for newspapers, magazines, websites,
and other publications. They offer assessments
of newly published books, plays, and other
works for a wider audience. Their impact can
influence public opinion and sales.
 Here are some different scenarios:

Informal Institutions:
• Readers: Everyone who reads literature can be
considered a critic in a sense. We all form our
own opinions and interpretations of what we
read. Sharing these personal interpretations
online or in discussions can contribute to the
overall critical landscape.
 Here are some different scenarios:

Informal Institutions:
• Online communities: Book clubs, online forums,
and social media groups dedicated to discussing
literature offer platforms for anyone to voice their
opinions and engage in critical dialogue. These
discussions can challenge established
perspectives and broaden the scope of critical
engagement.
 Who decides?
There's no single authority figure who dictates
what constitutes valid literary criticism. Instead,
the value of a critique often depends on its ability
to:
 Who decides?
• Be well-argued and insightful: Does the critique
offer a supported interpretation of the text and its
elements?
• Engage with existing scholarship: Does the
critique consider and contribute to the ongoing
dialogue about the work or author?
• Offer a unique perspective: Does the critique
present a fresh interpretation or raise new
questions about the text?
Why do we have to analyze everything?

Talking about experiences enhances

our enjoyment of them.
• Talking about experiences involves the search
for meaning which increases our understanding
of them.
• Because Socrates said so: "The life which
is unexamined is not worth living."
 To further explain

Literary criticism helps us to understand what

is important about the text
• its structure
• its context: social, economic, historical
• what is written
• how the text manipulates the reader
 And there’s more…

• Literary criticism helps us to understand the

relationship between authors, readers, and
texts.
•
The act of literary criticism ultimately enhances
the enjoyment of our reading of the literary
work.
 LITERARY CRITICISM
Literary criticism has two main functions:
• To analyze, study, and evaluate works of
literature.
• To form general principles for the examination
of works of literature.
 What is literary theory?
The capacity to generalize about phenomena and
to develop concepts that form the basis
for interpretation and analysis—in this instance, of
a “literary” text.
 We have here eight paradigms

1. Formalism
2. Marxism
3. Feminism
4. Psychoanalytic
5. Cultural Criticism
6. Structuralism
7. Post-structuralism
8. Archetypal
 But there are many more

• Author intention
• Reader Response
• Biological/Biographical
• Cognitive scientific
• Moralist
• Queer
• Socio-political
• Sociological
• And so many more …
The Four Critical Variables of Literary
Theory and Criticism
 Understanding the Map
• The work itself is placed in the center
because all approaches must deal, to some
extent or another, with the text itself.
 Understanding the Map
• Formalism and deconstruction are placed
here also because they deal primarily with the
text and not with any of the outside
considerations such as author, the real world,
audience, or other literature. Meaning, formalists
argue, is inherent in the text. Because meaning
is determinant, all other considerations
are irrelevant.
 Understanding the Map
• Deconstructionists also subject texts to
careful, formal analysis; however, they reach
an opposite conclusion: there is no meaning
in language.
 Understanding the Map
• A historical approach relies heavily on the author
and his world. In the historical view, it is important
to understand the author and his world in order to
understand his intent and to make sense of his
work. In this view, the work is informed by the
author's beliefs, prejudices, time, and history, and
to fully understand the work, we must understand
the author and his age.
 Understanding the Map
• An intertextual approach is concerned with
comparing the work in question to other
literature, to get a broader picture.
 Understanding the Map
• Reader-Response is concerned with how the
work is viewed by the audience. In this
approach, the reader creates meaning, not the
author or the work.
 Understanding the Map
• Mimetic criticism seeks to see how well a
work accords with the real world (is it accurate?
correct? moral? ).
 Understanding the Map
• Then, beyond the real world are approaches
dealing with the spiritual and the symbolic--the
images connecting people throughout time and
cultures (archetypes). This is mimetic in a
sense too, but the congruency looked for is not
so much with the real world as with something
beyond the real world-- something tying in all
the worlds/times/cultures inhabited by humans.
 Understanding the Map
• The Psychological approach is placed outside
these poles because it can fit in many places,
depending how it is applied:
1. Historical if diagnosing the author himself
2. Mimetic if considering if characters are acting
by "real world" standards and with
recognizable psychological motivations
4. Archetypal when the idea of the Jungian
collective unconscious is included
5. Reader-Response when the psychology of the
reader--why he sees what he sees in the text--
is examined.
• Likewise, Feminist, Minority, Marxist, and
other such approaches may fit in:
1. Historical if the author's attitudes are
being examined in relation to his times (i.e.
was Shakespeare a feminist for his times,
though he might not be considered so today?)
2. Mimetic- when asking how well characters
accord with the real world. Does a black character
act like a black person would, or is he a
stereotype? Are women being portrayed
accurately? Does the work show a realistic
economic picture of the world?
 There are so many possible answers…

What does this literary work mean?

• Different approaches or lenses help us
to discover rich and deeper meaning
• Each lens has its strengths and weaknesses
• Each lens is valuable
• Try to become a pluralist rather than
an inflexible supporter of one
Types of Literary
Theory
 Formalism

• Has the advantage of forcing writers to evaluate

a work on its own terms rather than to rely
on “accepted” notions of the writer’s work.
• Works best when applied to poetry and short
fiction.
 Formalism

• Attempts to discover meaning by close reading

of a work of literature. Focus is on:
* Form, organization, and structure
* Word choice and language
* Multiple meanings
 Formalism

• Considers the work in isolation,

disregarding author’s intent, author’s
background, context, and anything else outside
of the work itself.
 Formalism/ New Criticism

• The formalist movement began in England with

the publication of I.A. Richards’ Practical
Criticism (1929).
• American critics (such as John Crowe Ransom,
Robert Penn Warren, and Cleanth Brooks)
adapted formalism and termed their adaptation
“New Criticism.”
 Formalism/ New Criticism
• New Criticism varied from formalism in that New
Criticism focuses on image, symbol,
and meaning. Traditional formalists
often attacked New Critics for their lack
of attention to the form of the work.
 Formalism/ New Criticism
• Seminal works on New Criticism include John
Crowe Ransom’s The New Criticism (1941) and
Cleanth Brooks’ The Well Wrought Urn (1947).
 New Criticism
• Meaning resides in the text—not in reader, author,
or world.
• Texts may contain numerous messages, but
must have a unifying central theme created by the
perfect union of all artistic elements.
• Texts are artistic creations.
• Close reading is the basis of new critical analysis.
• The methodology for finding meaning is clear-cut;
the tools are unique to literary analysis.
 Reader-Response Criticism
• Sees the reader as essential to the interpretation of a
work.
* Each reader is unique, with different
educations, experiences, moral values,
opinions, tastes, etc.
*Therefore, each reader’s interaction with a work is
unique.
 Reader-Response Criticism
• Analyzes the features of the text that shape and guide
a reader’s reading.
• Emphasizes recursive reading—rereading for
new interpretations.
 Reader-Response Criticism
• Reader-response theory has been criticized as being
overly impressionistic and guilty of the affective fallacy
(too focused on the emotional effect of the work). Less
tactful critics have plainly said that it is not intellectual.
• These attacks resulted in an adaptation of reader-
response criticism called reception theory.
 Reader Response
Text has many interpretations—text & reader interact
to create meaning

Meaning ultimately resides in the reader’s mind

or the consensual “mind” of a community of readers (this
class, for example)
 Reader Response

A text’s truth is relative

Readers may reach the same conclusions about a work--

but approach the task quite differently
Reader-Response/Reception Theory
Reception theory is applied to the general reading public
rather than an individual reader.
• Each generation has different experiences,
values, issues, etc.
• Therefore, each generation will read a work differently.
 Structuralism
• Meaning resides in the structure of language, not in art
nor in the reader’s mind
• Scientific approach to literary analysis: structure of
language as a logical sign system determines meaning
• Interpret a text or part of a text by taking its
language apart (study word derivations, sentence
syntax, etc.)
 Biographical Criticism
• Analyzes an author’s life in regard to their work
• Can enhance the understanding of a work
 Sociological Criticism
Maintains that the literary work cannot be separated from
the social context in which it was created. In general,
sociological criticism examines one of these two aspects:
• Conditions of production, such as schools, magazines,
publishers, and fashions.
• The applicability of a given work—fiction especially—in
studying the dynamics of a given society.
 Types of Sociological Criticism
Sociological theory is so broad that it can be
subdivided in many different categories. Two dominant
theories we’ll study are
• Feminist criticism
• Marxist criticism
 Feminist Criticism
• Feminist criticism grew out of the women’s movement
that followed World War II.
• Feminist critics analyze the role of gender in works of
literature. Leading critic Elaine Showalter describes
two purposes of feminist criticism:
* Feminist critique: The analysis of works by
male authors, especially in the depiction of
women’s writing
*Gynocriticism: The study of women’s writing
 Feminist Criticism
Feminist critics have been responsible for recovering
neglected works by women authors through the ages and
creating a canon of women’s writing.

A case in point is Kate Chopin. She was fairly widely

published in the 1890s, but her work was largely
neglected by literary critics until the 1960s, when Chopin
was “rediscovered” by feminist critics.
 Marxist Criticism
Marxist criticism is based on the social and economic theories
of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Their beliefs include the
following:
• Value is based on labor.
• The working class will eventually overthrow the
capitalist middle class.
• In the meantime, the middle class exploits the
working class.
• Most institutions—religious, legal, educational, and
governmental—are corrupted by middle-class capitalists.
 Marxist Criticism
Marxist critics apply these economic and social theories
to literature by analyzing:
• Ideologies that support the elite and place the working
class at a disadvantage
• Class conflict

Marxism strongly influenced fiction, particularly American

fiction, in the 1930s.
 New Historicism
• New historicist critics view literature as part of history,
and furthermore, as an expression of forces on history.
• New historicism compares literary analysis to a
dynamic circle:
*The work tells us something about the surrounding
ideology (slavery, rights of women, etc.)
*Study of the ideology tells us something about the
work.
 New Historicism
• New historicism takes two forms:
* Analysis of the work in the context in which it was
created
* Analysis of the work in the context in which it
was critically evaluated.
• New historicists assert that literature “does not exist
outside time and place and cannot be interpreted
without reference to the era in which it was written”
(Kirszner and Mandell 2013).
 New Historicism

• Readers are influenced by their culture, so

no objective reading of a work is possible.
• Critics should consider how their own culture
affects their interpretation of the historical influence on
a work.
 New Historicism
• Literature is one among many socially constructed
texts. If there is a difference, it’s the intentional use of
the imagination to convey ideas.
• History is every bit as subjective as intentionally
imaginative texts
• Purpose of analyzing literature is to locate hidden
social messages, especially those that promote
oppression.
 New Historicism
• Texts have no final interpretation
• Language, though socially constructed, is stable
enough to be useful.
• Find a small intriguing or odd piece of the text and
interpret it by comparing it to contemporary sign
systems—magazines, newspapers, fads, laws. Try to
locate uses & abuses of power.
 Psychoanalytic Criticism
• Analyzes literature to reveal insights about the way the
human mind works.
• Is based on the work of Sigmund Freud and
his disciples.
• Works well as a method of analyzing characters’ actions
and motivations.
 Basic Freudian Concepts
• All actions are influenced by the unconscious.
• Human beings must repress many of their desires
to live peacefully with others.
• Repressed desires often surface in the unconscious,
motivating actions.
 Basic Freudian Concepts
• The mind has three major areas of activity:
* Id: Area in the unconscious that works
for gratification through the pleasure principle
* Superego: An internal censor bringing social
pressures to bear on the id.
*Ego: Area in the consciousness that
mediates among demands of social pressure, the id,
and the superego.
 Archetypal Approach
• Largely attributed to Carl Jung, a disciple of Sigmund
Freud
• Archetype: a model or pattern from which all
other things of a similar nature are made
 Archetypal Approach
• Collective Unconscious--there are certain basic and
central images and experiences that are inherent in
the human psyche
• Analyzes what in a work evokes a similar response in
people, regardless of culture
• Concerned with enduring patterns and how they are
reflected in literature
 Examples of Archetypes
Common Themes:
• Stories of quest and initiation
• Descents into the underworld
• Ascents into heaven
• Search for father/mother
• Fall from innocence
 Examples of Archetypes
Characters:
• Scapegoat
• Hero/ Villain
• Outcast
• Temptress
• Mother/Father
• Mentor
 What is Critiquing?
• A technique that aims to study, discuss, evaluate and
interpret literary works.

• A critique could be:

✓ A critical essay
✓ An article evaluating a literary piece
✓ Or a review
 Why do we need to critique a
literary work?
• To know its overall value
• To determine its strengths and weaknesses
 PARTS OF CRITIQUE
o INTRODUCTION
o SUMMARY
o ANALYSIS
o CONCLUSION
 PARTS OF CRITIQUE
INTRODUCTION
• State the title of the work and the author’s name
• Outline main ideas and identify the author’s thesis.
• State your own thesis statement and your main idea about
the work. (Your own conclusion)
 PARTS OF CRITIQUE
SUMMARY
• Summarize the text in your own words.
 PARTS OF CRITIQUE
ANALYSIS
• State what you like and do not like about the text.
• Interpret and evaluate the text based on:
✓ How the text is organized
✓ The style and rhetoric
✓ How effective the message is
✓ Whether or not the author did justice to the message
✓ How the text appealed to its target audience
 PARTS OF CRITIQUE
CONCLUSION
• Restate your thesis in new words
• Summarize your main ideas, if possible, with new and
stronger words
• Include a call to action.
Example Critique
Are your ready to compose a critique?
 Critical Approaches
• Sometimes called “lenses”, are the different perspectives we
can consider in analyzing or interpreting a text.
Example
Example
Example
Another example
Your Boyfriend/Girlfriend forget a
promised commitment.
"It was the best of times, it was the worst
of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was
the age of foolishness…“
“A Tale of Two Cities”- Charles Dickens
"To be, or not to be, that is the question.“
Hamlet’s soliloquy from William Shakespeare play
Are your ready to compose a critique?
 DEAD STAR
By Paz Marquez Benitez
 Prepared by:
ANNALYNE J. PADRID, LPT
Instructor