English A: Language and LiteratureReading 1Miss Dermont

What is literature?Not just anything using letters

Meaning changes over time

Entertainment or instruction?

Definition: Highly developed use of language in that it is the stylized manipulation of language for larger effect (purpose) and/or affect (emotional response)

Not just so-called ¨high art¨Can also be tv shows, movies, graphic novels, etc

What is literature?

For the most part in this course…Poetry

Short stories

Novels

Graphic novels

Plays

Films

Nonfiction texts

Historical Literary Study

Greek philosophers Plato and Artistotle debated literature (poetry and drama)

These philosphers introduced the concept of systematic literary criticism

Debated philosophical concerns such as ¨truth¨, ¨beauty¨and ¨love¨ and literature as instruction on how to behave in civil society

18th and 19th century

18th century valued order, reason and appropriateness of literature

19th century literature begins to focus on the role of intuition and imagination, evolving better futures (result of political and social upheavels and revolutions)

19th century associated with Romanticism (beauty of nature, imaginitive encounters with the world)

19th century Romanticism

The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth

Behold her, single in the field,

Yon solitary Highland Lass!

Reaping and singing by herself;

Stop here, or gently pass!

Alone she cuts and binds the grain,

And sings a melancholy strain;

O listen! for the Vale profound

Is overflowing with the sound.

19th Century Romanticism

Late 19th century

Publications of Charles Darwin´s The Origin of Species in 1859 signals change from Romanticism to scientific determinism of the Victorian era

Science is the answer to all questions

Literary texts became objects of scientific study

New Criticism

20th century

Text itself becomes main focus

Focus on close reading with little to no concern for history, ideology, politics, or factors outside of the text

Text is self-contained object that exists independently from outside forces including author

Reader-response criticism

Becomes widely used in 1960s and 70s

¨Moves emphasis of textual analysis from a singular focus on the text to one where the reader works in concert with a text to produce an interpretation¨

The reader´s experience affects interpretation allowing for various readings that change over time and across cultures

Interpretive communities have general trends of interpretations.

DISCUSS: What is more valuable? New Criticism (focus purely on text) or Reader-response Criticism (readers experience affects interpretation)?

Review of Wed. ClassHighly developed use of language in that it is the stylized manipulation of language for larger effect (purpose) and/or affect (emotional response)

Poetry, short stories, novels, films, non-fiction, plays, etc.

Literature reflects social and political climate

1700s: Literature values rules, order and appropriateness

1800s: Literature values human experience, imagination and awe of nature

Early 1900s: New Criticism (focus on pure text)

Later 1900s: Reader response criticism (readers´experiences and input are important in analyzing a text)

Critical Approaches

Developed throughout 20th century as offsets of reader-response criticism

Structuralism

Post structuralism

Marxism

Feminism

Post-colonialism

Think of the critical approaches as LENSES through which you see literature

Structuralism

Ferdinand de Saussure

Before Saussure, it was commonly accepted that each word was related to a ¨thing¨

Saussaure claims all language is arbitrary and there is no inherent connection between a word and its referent

We see the world for how it has been organized through our systems of naming-our language

Poststructuralism

Continuing evolution of arbitrariness of language

Because language is so arbitrary, we must manipulate language through a complex understanding of differences to make ourselves understood

Language lacks absolute meaning

More focus on readers´different perspectives

Feminism, Marxism, Post-colonialism

Schools of literary criticism, lenses

Marxist criticism: assumption that all texts contain subtexts which are extensions of historical and ideological conflict

Root of conflict anchored in social class and economic differences

Feminist Criticism

Interpreting women´s experience through literature

Challenge patriarchical cultural values

Uncover essential differences between men and women using literature

Postcolonial Criticism

Approach to texts produces in colonized countries

Offer a perspective on the clashes between cultures and suggestion for a possibiity of reconciliation or working across cultures

Critical Lens Activity

Analyze the children´s book you are given using one of the following critical lenses:

Marxist Criticism

Feminist Criticism

Post-colonial Criticism

You will present your critical lens analysis to the class on Friday. You will have all of the class on Thursday to prepare your presentation. Presentations should be approximately 5 minutes long and all group members should participate.