2. Which is Literary criticism and Literary theory? The study,
evaluation, and interpretationof literature. The systematic study
of the natureof literature and of the methods for
analyzingliterature. 3. Do you agree: Literary criticism is the
practical application ofliterary theory. Criticism deals directly
with particular literaryworks. Theory is more general or abstract.
Literary Theory is Old. Literary Theory is Modern. There is one
clear definition for literature. 4. Literary criticism is the
study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Some critics
consider literary criticism a practical application of literary
theory, because criticism always deals directly with particular
literary works, while theory may be more general or abstract. 5.
Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature
and of the methods for analyzing literature. The word "theory" has
become an umbrella term for a variety of scholarly approaches to
reading texts. 6. The practice of literary theory became a
professionin the 20th century, but it has historical roots thatrun
as far back as ancient Greece, ancientIndia, ancient Rome and
medieval Iraq. The modern sense of "literary theory,"however, dates
only to approximately the 1950s. 7. One of the fundamental
questions of literary theoryis "what is literature?" Many
contemporary theorists and literary scholarsbelieve either that
"literature" cannot be defined orthat it can refer to any use of
language. Specific theories are distinguished not only bytheir
methods and conclusions, but even by howthey define a "text". 8.
Differences among schools: 9. Schools and movements differ in
Countries. Political commitment. Moral Commitment. Religions.
People. Idea of Literature. Nature of literature 10. Do you agree:
The distinction between literary and non-literarytexts is clear.
The way we analyze Literary texts cannot be usedfor other texts and
phenomena. I cannot read a text without knowing the writer andwhy
he wrote it (intention). 11. Interpretive and Epistemological
perspectives.Literary and non-literary.Intentionality. 12. The
different interpretive and epistemological perspectives of
different schools of theory often arise from, and so give support
to, different moral and political commitments. 13. A New Critic
might read a poem by T. S. Eliot or GerardManley Hopkins for its
degree of honesty in expressingthe torment and contradiction of a
serious search forbelief in the modern world. A Marxist critic
might find such judgments merelyideological rather than critical. A
post-structuralist critic might simply avoid the issue
byunderstanding the religious meaning of a poem as anallegory of
meaning. A critic using Darwinian literary studies might
usearguments from the evolutionary psychology of religion. 14. For
some theories of literature (especially certain kindsof formalism),
the distinction between "literary" andother sorts of texts is of
paramount importance. Other schools (particularly
post-structuralism in itsvarious forms: new historicism,
deconstruction, somestrains of Marxism and feminism) have sought to
breakdown distinctions between the two and have appliedthe tools of
textual interpretation to a wide range of"texts", including film,
non-fiction, historicalwriting, and even cultural events. 15.
Another crucial distinction among the various theoriesof literary
interpretation is intentionality, the amount ofweight given to the
authors own opinions about andintentions for a work. For most
pre-20th century approaches, the authorsintentions are a guiding
factor and an importantdeterminer of the "correct" interpretation
of texts. The New Criticism was the first school to disavow therole
of the author in interpreting texts, preferring tofocus on "the
text itself" in a close reading. 16. The Main Cultural Movements in
the West: 17. THE RENAISSANCE.Age of
Enlightenment.Modernism.Postmodernism. 18. The Renaissance is a
French word which means re-birth, revival or re-awakening. The
Renaissance was both a revival of ancient classicalmythology,
literature and culture as well as a re-awakening of the human mind,
after the long sleep ofthe dark Middle Ages. It began in Italy as
early as the 14th century with theworks of Petrarch and others and
was greatlystimulated by the fall of Constantinople in 1453, by
theinvention of printing in Germany about this verytime, and the
great discoveries of scientists andnavigators which followed. 19.
The Age of Enlightenment (or simplythe Enlightenment or Age of
Reason) was a culturalmovement of intellectuals in 18th century
Europe andthe American colonies. Its purpose was to reform society
using reason (ratherthan tradition, faith and revelation) and
advanceknowledge through science. Originating about 1650 to 1700,
it was sparked byphilosophers Baruch Spinoza (16321677), JohnLocke
(16321704), Pierre Bayle(16471706), physicist Isaac Newton
(16431727), andphilosopher Voltaire (16941778). 20. Literary
Modernism has its origins in the late 19th andearly 20th centuries,
mainly in Europe and NorthAmerica. Modernism is characterized by a
self-conscious breakwith traditional styles of poetry and verse.
Modernists experimented with literary form andexpression, adhering
to the modernist maxim to "Makeit new." The modernist literary
movement was driven by adesire to overturn traditional modes of
representationand express the new sensibilities of their time. 21.
The term postmodern literature is used to describe certain
characteristics of postWorld War II literature (relying heavily,
for example, on fragmentation, paradox, questionable narrators,
etc.) and a reaction against Enlightenment ideas implicit in
Modernist literature.
