307J literary criticism table II

Lit Crit Table II

Literary Tradition

Historicism

New Historicism

Freudian

Archetypal

Biographical

Feminist
Afro-Am./Ethnic

Marxist

Sociological

Approach

Literature is

its purpose

methodology

implications

Literary Tradition

To Top
grows out of previously written forms and works, especially in specific genre. Ex. Some Shakespeare sonnets parody earlier Petrarchan sonnets. See also Genre Criticism. Literature builds and improves on a great tradition. Reader appreciates literature in context of other great works. Identify and explain how a work uses traditional forms and materials and how it departs from them. View the work in terms of preceding and succeeding literature in similar style, genre and theme. fits in with historical, new historical, reader-reponse, genre criticism, and others. Opposes strictly formalist analysis. Best used in conjunction with other approaches.

Historicism

To Top
is not autonomous but is an expression of the powerful ideas and world view of the author's culture and era. Literature provides cultural and historical insight. Identify systems of thought and large historical forces that determine and inform literary expression in an era. Ex. great chain of being in the Renaissance found in many works. is basic in literary study--to see the work in terms of historical background. With the advent of literary theory, has given way to the more complex, political New Historicism.

New Historicism

To Top
exists in a complex relation with culture and is a communal product, a "systematic socio-cultural act" (GLCR 97). Works "show themselves to be bound by social codes and conventions, while they prove, in other ways, to subvert or undercut the dominant beliefs of their society" (Barton and Hudson, CGLT, 122). literature not just aesthetic or simply reflective of history and ideas. Gives a sense of how literature functions within culture to support and challenge its culture. Look at marginal texts as well as canonical: pamphlets, magazines, newspapers, odd stories and anecdotes. Look at sex, gender, class, colonialism. Look at interconnections among author's life and behavior, written texts, and the belief systems of the culture. criticized historicism for using history only as a background for author's life and work. Brought in "larger networks of meaning" to show how art functions within a culture. Ability of art to subvert dominant culture gives it political significance.

Freudian

To Top
is "a symbolic statement of unconscious fantasies that the artist [and reader] could not otherwise admit" (GLCR 108). to reveal unconscious fantasies of the author, reader, critic, and even fictional characters. Value is in how the reader can defend against or come to terms with a very disturbing fantasy by displacing it into less threatening symbolic terms. Authors work through unconscious fantasies through creating more manageable versions. Study the text as an expression of the author's unconscious fantasies. Ex. Analyzing the Oedipal Complex as worked out in Hamlet can reveal how Shakespeare worked that out. Reader and audience response reveals how the reader comes to terms with it. Can psychoanalyze characters and especially readers (see Reader Response criticism) suggests that misreadings of a text are as or more significant than an obviously correct one. Works on the assumption that authors, characters, and readers "may be unaware of the reasons for their behavior" (GLCR 106). Suggests profoundly personal reasons for writing and reading literature that has implications for the psychological health of writers and readers.

Archetypal

(Jung)

To Top
is an expression of universal experience across time and cultures found in consistent patterns, myths, and symbols called archetypes. Literature reveals the "collective unconscious," an inborn repository of universal images. Analysis of literature can reveal archetypes across cultures and help to discern their meaning. Unites all people. Can dredge up different quality of psychological depth not plumbed by Freudian approaches. Study patterns of myths, images, symbols, icons and other archetypes that appear in many cultures. View each literary work as an individual articulation of an underlying archetype. Ex. rebirth archetype in the Bible (Jonah and the Whale and in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. universalizes literature. Thought to be reductionist by some critics in its use of a few patterns to explain literature. Has spiritual implications in its metaphysical belief in the collective unconscious.

Biographical

To Top
Meaning of work is reflective of experiences of author. Knowledge of author's life can key insights into the work's purpose, author's choices. to provide insight into author's lives and thought and the intent of the work to better understand both Research author's life for connections and parallels in the work. Psychobiography looks at author's deep psychology and the work as expression or working out of deep-seated neuroses. can yield a greater understanding of the work. Reveals perspectives on the work that may not arise through other methods. But, Formalists criticized the 'intentional fallacy" of biographical criticism. Bottom line: many readers are interested in both the author's life and art.

Feminist

To Top
mirrors, resists, or reinforces patriarchal, male-centered culture, stereotypes and oppression of women. can reveal sexist constructions of women and challenge their inevitability. Can raise consciousness and promote change. Can reveal strengths of women repressed under partriarchy. Analyze traditional canon of male writers for sexist stereotyping (ex. madonna/whore opposition); focus on women writers, especially those ignored, on their creative processes, language freed from phallogocentrism. reinforces the idea that literature is a profound element in the maintenance of male power and privilege. Provides a new perspective on literature and the canon from the point of view of an oppressed, excluded minority (see also A-A Criticism). Has expanded the canon to include many previously excluded women authors and challenged and politicized criteria for evaluating literary merit. Uses many approaches.

African-American & Ethnic

To Top
includes minority literatures excluded from the canon. Establishes its relation to that tradition and its difference from it; is a celebration of difference from oppressive traditon. brings in alternative materials such as sermons, work songs, slave narratives, jazz, corridos, Aztec myths. Establishes minority traditions and builds pride in their sources. Protests oppression and reveals stereotyping. Look at tradition in terms of stages. Early stage is assimilationist and attempts to gain acceptance from the majority culture. Second stage is politically activist and separatist. Third stage sees works in terms of specific cultural and literary tradition and theorizes about the ways that traditional works. Analyze how work represents racial relationships, "double-consciousness," stereotypes. challenges traditional modes of evaluating great literature and opens a space for specifically Black, Chicano, etc. modes of signification and use of cultural materials. Uses many approaches but focuses on a specific set of texts and cultures. Has established the importance of minority literature and challenged racist stereotypes and critical blindness. Legitimizes literature as political action for justice.

Sociological

To Top
"a document of social phenomena or a product of those same phemonena" (GLCR 78). Literature illuminates the study of social phemonena and vice versa. Read from society into text or vice versa. Link individual to collective behavior, social groups, institutions, and forces. Look at relationship between authors and audiences (see also rhetorical criticism); the effect of the organization of the book trade; explicit and implicit political ideas in literary works. links individuals and texts to collective phenomena, like Feminist, Marxist, New Historicist, but tries to be more "objective" in its analysis. Does not apply a strong version of social structure, such as in Marxism.

Marxist

To Top
reflects the material forces operative at a specific time and promotes or impedes progress towards socialist utopia. Literature either reveals or mystifies the truth about class structure, class struggle, political economy, and ideology. Literature has great moral force, especially realist works that depict material conditions. Can raise consciousness about nature of capitalism and the plight of the workers. Analyze the ways in which the human subject is formed and socialized through a manufactured view of reality and truth. Analyze how ideology is expressed and demystified in a work. Analyse how a work reveals class structure as a political construct. In some cases, adheres to a rigid version of society and politics. Very frank in its political aims and a good antidote to formalist, anti-political criticism. Like Feminist, Sociological, New Historical, and African-American criticism, it views literature as part of the material conditions of culture, not just a reflection of them.

Literary Criticism Table I

Approach	Literature is	its purpose	methodology	implications
Literary Tradition To Top	grows out of previously written forms and works, especially in specific genre. Ex. Some Shakespeare sonnets parody earlier Petrarchan sonnets. See also Genre Criticism.	Literature builds and improves on a great tradition. Reader appreciates literature in context of other great works.	Identify and explain how a work uses traditional forms and materials and how it departs from them. View the work in terms of preceding and succeeding literature in similar style, genre and theme.	fits in with historical, new historical, reader-reponse, genre criticism, and others. Opposes strictly formalist analysis. Best used in conjunction with other approaches.
Historicism To Top	is not autonomous but is an expression of the powerful ideas and world view of the author's culture and era.	Literature provides cultural and historical insight.	Identify systems of thought and large historical forces that determine and inform literary expression in an era. Ex. great chain of being in the Renaissance found in many works.	is basic in literary study--to see the work in terms of historical background. With the advent of literary theory, has given way to the more complex, political New Historicism.
New Historicism To Top	exists in a complex relation with culture and is a communal product, a "systematic socio-cultural act" (GLCR 97). Works "show themselves to be bound by social codes and conventions, while they prove, in other ways, to subvert or undercut the dominant beliefs of their society" (Barton and Hudson, CGLT, 122).	literature not just aesthetic or simply reflective of history and ideas. Gives a sense of how literature functions within culture to support and challenge its culture.	Look at marginal texts as well as canonical: pamphlets, magazines, newspapers, odd stories and anecdotes. Look at sex, gender, class, colonialism. Look at interconnections among author's life and behavior, written texts, and the belief systems of the culture.	criticized historicism for using history only as a background for author's life and work. Brought in "larger networks of meaning" to show how art functions within a culture. Ability of art to subvert dominant culture gives it political significance.
Freudian To Top	is "a symbolic statement of unconscious fantasies that the artist [and reader] could not otherwise admit" (GLCR 108).	to reveal unconscious fantasies of the author, reader, critic, and even fictional characters. Value is in how the reader can defend against or come to terms with a very disturbing fantasy by displacing it into less threatening symbolic terms. Authors work through unconscious fantasies through creating more manageable versions.	Study the text as an expression of the author's unconscious fantasies. Ex. Analyzing the Oedipal Complex as worked out in Hamlet can reveal how Shakespeare worked that out. Reader and audience response reveals how the reader comes to terms with it. Can psychoanalyze characters and especially readers (see Reader Response criticism)	suggests that misreadings of a text are as or more significant than an obviously correct one. Works on the assumption that authors, characters, and readers "may be unaware of the reasons for their behavior" (GLCR 106). Suggests profoundly personal reasons for writing and reading literature that has implications for the psychological health of writers and readers.
Archetypal (Jung) To Top	is an expression of universal experience across time and cultures found in consistent patterns, myths, and symbols called archetypes. Literature reveals the "collective unconscious," an inborn repository of universal images.	Analysis of literature can reveal archetypes across cultures and help to discern their meaning. Unites all people. Can dredge up different quality of psychological depth not plumbed by Freudian approaches.	Study patterns of myths, images, symbols, icons and other archetypes that appear in many cultures. View each literary work as an individual articulation of an underlying archetype. Ex. rebirth archetype in the Bible (Jonah and the Whale and in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.	universalizes literature. Thought to be reductionist by some critics in its use of a few patterns to explain literature. Has spiritual implications in its metaphysical belief in the collective unconscious.
Biographical To Top	Meaning of work is reflective of experiences of author. Knowledge of author's life can key insights into the work's purpose, author's choices.	to provide insight into author's lives and thought and the intent of the work to better understand both	Research author's life for connections and parallels in the work. Psychobiography looks at author's deep psychology and the work as expression or working out of deep-seated neuroses.	can yield a greater understanding of the work. Reveals perspectives on the work that may not arise through other methods. But, Formalists criticized the 'intentional fallacy" of biographical criticism. Bottom line: many readers are interested in both the author's life and art.
Feminist To Top	mirrors, resists, or reinforces patriarchal, male-centered culture, stereotypes and oppression of women.	can reveal sexist constructions of women and challenge their inevitability. Can raise consciousness and promote change. Can reveal strengths of women repressed under partriarchy.	Analyze traditional canon of male writers for sexist stereotyping (ex. madonna/whore opposition); focus on women writers, especially those ignored, on their creative processes, language freed from phallogocentrism.	reinforces the idea that literature is a profound element in the maintenance of male power and privilege. Provides a new perspective on literature and the canon from the point of view of an oppressed, excluded minority (see also A-A Criticism). Has expanded the canon to include many previously excluded women authors and challenged and politicized criteria for evaluating literary merit. Uses many approaches.
African-American & Ethnic To Top	includes minority literatures excluded from the canon. Establishes its relation to that tradition and its difference from it; is a celebration of difference from oppressive traditon.	brings in alternative materials such as sermons, work songs, slave narratives, jazz, corridos, Aztec myths. Establishes minority traditions and builds pride in their sources. Protests oppression and reveals stereotyping.	Look at tradition in terms of stages. Early stage is assimilationist and attempts to gain acceptance from the majority culture. Second stage is politically activist and separatist. Third stage sees works in terms of specific cultural and literary tradition and theorizes about the ways that traditional works. Analyze how work represents racial relationships, "double-consciousness," stereotypes.	challenges traditional modes of evaluating great literature and opens a space for specifically Black, Chicano, etc. modes of signification and use of cultural materials. Uses many approaches but focuses on a specific set of texts and cultures. Has established the importance of minority literature and challenged racist stereotypes and critical blindness. Legitimizes literature as political action for justice.
Sociological To Top	"a document of social phenomena or a product of those same phemonena" (GLCR 78).	Literature illuminates the study of social phemonena and vice versa.	Read from society into text or vice versa. Link individual to collective behavior, social groups, institutions, and forces. Look at relationship between authors and audiences (see also rhetorical criticism); the effect of the organization of the book trade; explicit and implicit political ideas in literary works.	links individuals and texts to collective phenomena, like Feminist, Marxist, New Historicist, but tries to be more "objective" in its analysis. Does not apply a strong version of social structure, such as in Marxism.
Marxist To Top	reflects the material forces operative at a specific time and promotes or impedes progress towards socialist utopia. Literature either reveals or mystifies the truth about class structure, class struggle, political economy, and ideology.	Literature has great moral force, especially realist works that depict material conditions. Can raise consciousness about nature of capitalism and the plight of the workers.	Analyze the ways in which the human subject is formed and socialized through a manufactured view of reality and truth. Analyze how ideology is expressed and demystified in a work. Analyse how a work reveals class structure as a political construct.	In some cases, adheres to a rigid version of society and politics. Very frank in its political aims and a good antidote to formalist, anti-political criticism. Like Feminist, Sociological, New Historical, and African-American criticism, it views literature as part of the material conditions of culture, not just a reflection of them.