Int. to Literary Theory & Literary Criticism

By Belachew W/Gebriel

Jimma University

CSSH

Department of English language and Literature

EnLa 423

The Term ‘Criticism’ • The term ‘criticism’ is often understood to be:

• The act of finding fault; censure; disapproval

• The act of criticizing, especially adversely

• But the term ‘criticism’ as it is used in this course signifies:

• The act of interpreting, analyzing and making judgments of individual and comparative worth of works of art such as literature

• A critical comment, review, article, essay, etc expressing such analysis and judgment

• The art, principles, or methods of a critic or critics

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What is literary criticism? • Literary criticism is the interpretation, analysis,

classification and ultimately the judgment of literary works.

• It is usually in the form of a critical essay, but in-depth book reviews can sometimes be considered as literary criticism.

• Criticism may examine a particular literary work, or may look at an author's writings as a whole.

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A Critic

Etymology

• 1580s: Critic is "one who passes judgment," from M.Fr. critique (14c.), from L. criticus "a judge, literary critic," from Gk. kritikos "able to make judgments," from krinein "to separate, decide." Meaning "one who judges merits of books, plays, etc.“

• 17th and 18th centuries: the critic was considered a judge who finds the faults and merits of a literary work.

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A Literary Critic

• A literary critic is not someone who merely evaluates the worth or quality of a piece of

literature but, rather, is someone who argues on behalf of an interpretation or understanding of the particular meaning(s) of literary texts.

• The task of a literary critic is to explain and attempt to reach a critical understanding of what literary texts mean in terms of their aesthetic, as well as social, political, and cultural statements and suggestions.

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A Literary Critic

• A literary critic does more than simply discuss or evaluate the importance of a literary text; rather,

• a literary critic seeks to reach a logical and reasonable understanding of not only what a text’s author intends for it to mean but, also, what different cultures and ideologies render it capable of meaning

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Literary Theory

• A very basic way of thinking about literary theory is that these ideas act as different lenses critics use to view and talk about art, literature, and even culture.

• These different lenses allow critics to consider works of art based on certain assumptions within that school of theory.

• The different lenses also allow critics to focus on particular aspects of a work they consider important

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Literary Theory

• Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals.

• E.g. if a critic is working with certain Marxist theories, s/he might focus on how the characters in a story interact based on their economic situation.

• If a critic is working with post-colonial theories, s/he might consider the same story but look at how characters from colonial powers (Britain, France, and even America) treat characters from, say, Africa or the Caribbean.

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Literary Theory. . . • Literary theory proposes particular, systematic

approaches to literary texts that impose a particular line of intellectual reasoning to it.

• For example, a psychoanalytic literary theorist might take the psychological theories of Sigmund Freud or Carl Jung and seek to reach a critical understanding of a novel such as Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls.

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Literary Criticism vs. Lit Theory

• Literary criticism is the practice of interpreting and writing about literature as the latter, in turn, strives to make sense of the world.

• Literary theory is the study of the principles which inform how critics make sense of literary works.

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• There are many different approaches we can take to critical analysis

• Literary theories provide a framework for our discussion of a text

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Related terms • A critical analysis is an in-depth examination of

some aspect of the literary work

• you may examine any element of the text: character development, conflicts, narrative point of view, etc.

• Book review/Literary review

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Any Question?

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Types of Literary Criticism A broad division can be made between the types of

literary criticism: 1. Practical criticism 2. Theoretical criticism 3. Descriptive criticism 4. Prescriptive criticism These Four types can be grouped in to two

classes: 1. Practical and Theoretical criticism 2. Descriptive and Prescriptive criticism

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Practical and Theoretical Criticism:

• Practical criticism focuses on the examination

of individual text, while theoretical criticism

discusses the nature of literature, and the relation

between literature, critics and society.

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Descriptive and Prescriptive Criticism:

• Descriptive criticism tends to explain the piece of

literature as it is, in its original form, while

prescriptive criticism argues on how it ought

to be.

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The various theories of lit criticism are

categorized into four major classes.

1. Mimetic Theory

2. Pragmatic Theory

3. Expressive Theory

4. Objective Theory

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1. Mimetic Theory of Arts: • Mimetic theory sees a work of literature as if it is

reflecting the universe like a mirror.

• It regards literature as imitating or reflecting life, and therefore emphasizes on the truth and accuracy of its representation.

• That is why it is said that it is realism in general sense. (mimetic means imitation and the word is first used by Aristotle in 4th century B.C, where he states that tragedy is the imitation of an action).

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2. Pragmatic Theory of Arts:

• It sees literature as designed to achieve its effects on the audience (instructions, aesthetics, joy etc), and judge it according to the successful achievement of this assumed aim.

• Pragmatic theories emphasize on the reader’s relation to the work. The work is treated as something that is constructed to achieve certain effects on the audience.

• Effects may be for the aesthetic pleasure, instruction or any kind of emotion.

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3. Expressive Theory • Expressive theories center on the artist.

Wordsworth’s definition of the poetry as the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings is typical and nearly all Romantic and 19th Century criticism generally regards art as primarily concerned with expressing the poet’s feelings or psyche.

• It examines text as an expression of the writer’s feelings, imagination and personality. It tends to judge the work by its sincerity or the extent to which it has successfully revealed the author’s state of mind.

• Romantic Critics such as Coleridge and Wordsworth were expressive critics in this sense.

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4. Objective Theory

• focus more on the text without the influences of the writer or the reader.

• The text here is supreme and once this text is produced the writers fizzles out and the only interpretation to be gotten is what can be inferred from the text, the direct message which the text itself has which has to be inferred within the text.

• to them there is no correspondence between the universe and the work and we cannot know the true nature of either the audience or the author.

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The Four Theories

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Universe/World

Mimetic Theory

Audience

Pragmatic Theory

Text

Objective Theory

Author/Artist

Expressive Theory Works of

Literature

Any doubt? Question?

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Approaches to Literary Criticism

• Traditional Approaches

1. Historical/Biographical Approach

2. Moral/Philosophical Approach

• Modern approaches

Formalism/New Criticism

Psychoanalytical Approach

Feminism

Marxism, etc

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Historical/Biographical Approach

• views literature as the reflection of an author's life and times (or of the characters' life and times).

• it is necessary to know about the author and the political, economical, and sociological context of his times in order to truly understand his works.

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Historical/Biographical

Advantages: • works well for some which are obviously political

or biographical in nature. • places allusions in their proper classical,

political, or biblical background. Disadvantages: • "the intentional fallacy" • tends to reduce art to the level of biography and

make it relative (to the times) rather than universal.

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A Checklist of Historical Critical Questions:

• When was the work written? When was it published? How was it received by the critics and public and why?

• What does the work’s reception reveal about the standards of taste and value during the time it was published and reviewed?

• What social attitudes and cultural practices related to the action of the word were prevalent during the time the work was written and published?

• What kinds of power relationships does the word describe, reflect, or embody?

• How do the power relationships reflected in the literary work manifest themselves in the cultural practices and social institutions prevalent during the time the work was written and published?

• To what extent can we understand the past as it is reflected in the literary work? To what extent does the work reflect differences from the ideas and values of its time?

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Checklist of Biographical Critical Questions:

• What influences—people, ideas, movements, events—evident in the writer’s life does the work reflect?

• To what extent are the events described in the word a direct transfer of what happened in the writer’s actual life?

• What modifications of the actual events has the writer made in the literary work? For what possibly purposes?

• What are the effects of the differences between actual events and their literary transformation in the poem, story, play, or essay?

• What has the author revealed in the work about his/her characteristic modes of thought, perception, or emotion? What place does this work have in the artist’s literary development and career?

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Moral / Philosophical Approach:

• asserts that the larger purpose of literature is to teach morality and to probe philosophical issues

• authors intend to instruct the audience in some way

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Moral/Philosophical Advantages:

• useful for works which do present an obvious moral philosophy

• useful when considering the themes of works

• does not view literature merely as "art" isolated from all moral implications

• recognizes that literature can affect readers and that the message of a work is important.

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Moral/Philosophical Disadvantages:

• such an approach can be too "judgmental"

• Some believe literature should be judged primarily (if not solely) on its artistic merits, not its moral or philosophical content.

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Checklist of Moral/Didactic Critical Questions:

• What enduring truth is revealed in the theme of this work?

• How are the actions of the protagonist rewarded and the actions of the antagonist punished?

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Questions?

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