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Literary
theories were developed as a means to understand the various ways people
read texts. The proponents of each theory believe their theory is
the theory, but most of us interpret texts according to the
"rules" of several different theories at a time. All literary theories
are lenses through which we can see texts. There is nothing to say
that one theory is better than another or that you should read according
to any of them, but it is sometimes fun to "decide" to read a text with
one in mind because you often end up with a whole new perspective on your
reading.
What follows is a summary
of some of the most common schools of literary theory. These
descriptions are extremely cursory, but it is enough to get the general
idea. I've left extra room for your own note-taking from the in-class
lecture. Enjoy!
Feminist Criticism:
A feminist critic sees cultural
and economic disabilities in a "patriarchal" society that have
hindered or prevented women from realizing their creative possibilities
and women's cultural identification as a merely negative object, or "Other,"
to the man as the defining and
dominating "Subject." There are several assumptions that are held
in common by most feminist critics:
1. Our civilization
is pervasively patriarchal.
2. The concepts of "gender"
are largely, if not entirely, cultural constructs, effected by the
omnipresent patriarchal biases of our civilization.
3. This patriarchal
ideology also pervades those writing that have been considered great
literature. Such works lack autonomous female role models, are implicitly
addressed to male readers,
and leave the woman reader an outsider or else solicit her to identify
against herself by assuming male values and ways of perceiving, feeling,
and acting.
UNDER THIS THEORY FOCUS UPON:
relationships between the genders, patterns of thought/behavior.
Reader Response:
This type of criticism does
not designate any one critical theory but focuses on the activity of reading
a work of literature. Reader response critics turn from the traditional
concept of a work as an achieved structure of meanings to the responses
of readers as their eyes follow a text. By this shift of perspective,
a literary work is shifted to an activity that goes on in a reader's mind,
and what had been features of the work (character, style, plot, etc.) are
less
important than the reader's
connections between experience and the text.
UNDER THIS THEORY FOCUS UPON:
relationships between the reader's experience and the text at hand.
**Literature has no objective meaning. |
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