Literary Criticism Overview

What is Literary Criticism?

Literary criticism is the study, analysis, and evaluation of imaginative literature. Everyone who expresses an opinion about a book, a song, a play, or a movie is a critic, but not everyone's opinion is based upon thought, reflection, analysis, or consistently articulated principles. Literary criticism involves careful reflection and analysis of text. Literary criticism is reading the lines very carefully, in a disciplined and informed manner.

Traditionally, literary studies were conducted within the three humanistic disciplines of literature, history, and philosophy. In the twentieth century, the social sciences have been used to develop new approaches to criticism.

• Psychology has helped to illuminate the motivations of characters and the writers who create them.

• Sociology has revealed the relationships between the works the author produces and the society that consumes them.

• Anthropology has shown how ancient myths and rituals are alive and well in the plays, poems, and novels that are popular today.

*Written by Mark Lund, Carver Center for the Arts and Technology, Baltimore County Public Schools, 1996.

Questions Literary Critics Ask:

What is the biography of the author?

What is the history surrounding the story?

What do the characters’ names signify?

Is the story similar to ancient myths?

How are the women characters represented?

What do the dreams represent?

FORMALISM

Formalism assumes that a work of literary art is an organic unity in which every element contributes to the total meaning of the work. The formalist critic embraces an objective theory of art and examines plot, characterization, dialogue, and style to show how these elements contribute to the theme or unity of the literary work. Content and form in a work constitute a unity, and it is the task of the critic to examine and evaluate the integrity of the work. Paradox, irony, dynamic tension, and unity are the primary values of formalist criticism. The formalistic approach stresses the close reading of the text and insists that all

*Written by Mark Lund, Carver Center for the Arts and Technology, Baltimore County Public Schools, 1996.

statements about the work be supported by references to the text.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL

Historical criticism seeks to interpret the work of literature through understanding the times and culture in which the work was written. The historical critic is more interested in the meaning that the literary work had for its own time than in the meaning the work might have today. Biographical criticism investigates the life of an author using primary texts, such as letters, diaries, and other documents, that might reveal the experiences, thoughts, and feelings that led to the creation of a literary work.

The ARCHETYPAL APPROACH

The archetypal approach to literature evolved from studies in anthropology and psychology. Archetypal critics make the reasonable assumption that human beings all over the world have basic experiences in common and have developed similar stories and symbols to express these experiences. Literary critics, poets, and storytellers all use myths in the creation and interpretation of literature. This reflects their belief that the old myths, far from being falsehoods, reveal eternal truths about human nature.

The term archetype denotes plots, characters, and symbols that are found in

*Written by Mark Lund, Carver Center for the Arts and Technology, Baltimore County Public Schools, 1996.

literature, folk tales and dreams throughout the world. Archetypes include:

• the hero and the quest

• Death and rebirth pattern: Many myths from around the world reflect the cycle of the seasons. Sometimes mythic thought requires a sacrifice so that the seasons can continue. A sacrificial hero (in myth it is usually a god or king) accepts death or disgrace so that the community can flourish. Although the sacrifice is real, it is not necessarily to be regarded as final: the god who dies in the winter may be reborn in the spring. Characters like Oedipus and Hamlet, who sacrifice themselves to save their kingdoms, are based on the archetype of the dying god. Shirley Jackson's \"The Lottery\" reflects this archetypal pattern in a contemporary setting.

FEMINIST CRITICISM

Using psychological, archetypal, and sociological approaches, feminist criticism examines images of women and concepts of the feminine in myth and literature.

Feminist critics have shown that literature reflects a patriarchal, or male dominated, perspective of society. Feminist criticism is critical of society, as it is presently constituted. It is concerned with the lives of those oppressed or

*Written by Mark Lund, Carver Center for the Arts and Technology, Baltimore County Public Schools, 1996.

marginalized by the dominant culture, and with the representation of women’s condition in literature. It investigates literature as a means of bringing about changes in attitudes and, ultimately, in society.

THE PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACH

The philosophical (or moral) approach to literature evaluates the ethical content of literary works and concerns itself less with formal characteristics.

Philosophical criticism always assumes the seriousness of literary works as statements of values and criticisms of life, and the philosophical critic judges works on the basis of his or her articulated philosophy of life. Assuming that literature can have a good effect on human beings by increasing their compassion and moral sensitivity, this form of criticism acknowledges that books can have negative effects on people as well. For this reason, philosophical critics will sometimes attack authors for degenerate, decadent, or unethical writings.

While this description may make philosophical critics seem similar to censors, these critics rarely call for burning or banning of books. In the twentieth century, philosophical critics have tended toward a humanistic belief in reason, order, and restraint. This explains their reluctance to ban books despite their moral concerns: if human beings are rational, as the philosophical critic believes, they will listen to reason when it is spoken; and they will reject evil and embrace the good.

*Written by Mark Lund, Carver Center for the Arts and Technology, Baltimore County Public Schools, 1996.

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH

Poets, dreamers, and madmen all tap the fountainhead of the unconscious, the source not only of aggressions and desires but of the will to live. The psychological approach to literature delves into the symbolic fictions that arise from the primordial springs of the imagination and attempts to explain them to the rational, waking selves who inhabit the daylight world. Psychological criticism has led to new ideas about the nature of the creative process, the mind of the artist, and the motivations of characters. There are several ideas of Freud that are influential to this criticism:

• Unconscious: According to Freud, human beings are not conscious of all their feelings, urges, and desires because most of mental life is unconscious. Freud compared the mind to an iceberg: only a small portion is visible; the rest is below the waves of the sea. Thus, the mind consists of a small conscious portion and a vast unconscious portion.

• Repression: Freud claims society demands restraint, order, and respectability and that individuals are forced to repress some of their desires. These repressed desires, however, emerge in dreams and in art. But the lust and aggression may not be represented directly. This leads to the use of symbols and subtexts in dreams and literature.

*Written by Mark Lund, Carver Center for the Arts and Technology, Baltimore County Public Schools, 1996.

THE SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH

Sociological criticism focuses on the relationship between literature and society. Sociological criticism, then, reflects the way literature interacts with society. Sociological critics show us how literature can function as a mirror to reflect social realities and as a lamp to inspire social ideals. Literature is always produced in a social context. Writers may affirm or criticize the values of the society in which they live, but they write for an audience and that audience is society. The social function of literature is the domain of the sociological critic. The sociological critic is interested not only in the stated themes of literature, but also in the latent themes. Like the historical critic, the sociological critic attempts to understand the writer's environment as an important element in the writer's work. Like the moral critic, the sociological critic usually has certain values by which he or she judges literary work.

Marxist Criticism

Karl Marx (1818-1883) developed a theory of society, politics, and economics called dialectical materialism. Writing in the nineteenth century, Marx criticized the exploitation of the working classes, or proletariat, by the capitalist classes who owned the mines, factories, and other resources of national economies. Marx believed that history was the story of class struggles and that the goal of history was a classless society in which all people would share the *Written by Mark Lund, Carver Center for the Arts and Technology, Baltimore County Public Schools, 1996.

wealth equally. This classless society could only come about as a result of a revolution that would overthrow the capitalist domination of the economy. Central to Marx's understanding of society is the concept of ideology: a system of ideas and ideals, especially one that forms the basis of economic or political policy, proposed by the dominant class of a society to all members of this society. As an economic determinist, Marx thought that the system of production was the most basic fact in social life. Workers created the value of manufactured goods, but owners of the factories reaped most of the economic rewards. In order to justify and rationalize this inequity, a system of understandings

or

ideology

was

created,

for

the

most

part

unconsciously. Capitalists justified their taking the lion's share of the rewards by presenting themselves as better people, more intelligent, more refined, more ethical than the workers. Since literature is consumed, for the most part, by the middle classes, it tends to support capitalist ideology, at least in countries where that ideology is dominant.

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*Written by Mark Lund, Carver Center for the Arts and Technology, Baltimore County Public Schools, 1996.