Literary Theory

A l’intention du niveau Master 1 spécialité: Littérature et Civilisation

by Dr. Belfar Boubaaya Naciera MCB Department of English Language and Literature Mohamed Lamine Debaghine University, Setif 2.

2018- 2019

1

Table of Contents

General Introduction to the course presentation…………………...………...... p. 3 Introduction to Literary theories ………………………………….….…………...... p. 9 Part I. Traditional Theories …………………………………....…………………...p.14 1. Biographical literary theory ………………………………………...... p. 15 2. Historical literary theory…………………………..……...... p. 22 3. The Mimetic literary theory ………….…………………………… p. 27

Part II. Linguistics and Literary Theories ………….…………………………………p. 32

1. Russian Formalism …….……………………………..………………p. 33 2. The New Criticism………………………………………….……...... p. 43 3. Structuralism and Semiotics...... p. 52 4. Deconstruction ……………………………………………...... p. 59

Part III. The Reader and the Text ……………………………...... ………………….p. 65

1. Reader-Response Theories ………...…………...………………...…. p. 66 2. Hermeneutics and the Reader Response Theories...…………………. p. 79

Part IV. Social Issues and Literary theories …………………………….………...... p. 84

1. Marxist Literary theory………………………………….………...... p. 85 2. Feminist Literary theory ……………………………….……...... p. 93 3. Postcolonial Literary Theory………………..………………...... p. 102 4. Psychoanalytical Literary Theory …………………………...... …p. 109 5. Archetypal and Myth Literary Theory……………………….…….…..p. 120 6. The New Historicism ……………………………………………….....p. 127

Part V. A Brief Outlook at a Wide Range of Literary Theories with Other Names...... p. 134

Conclusion …………………………………………………………..….…...... p. 137

Works Cited ………………………………………………………………………...... p. 140

Annex: Samples of open book exam questions

2

General Introduction ‘It is obvious [from all this] that literary criticism has come a long way from the days when we had to do little more than thrill to the beauty of the imagery’ (Eagleton 103). ‘What we need in criticism are limits, guidelines, ways of focusing our work so that we avoid duplication and enlarge our knowledge of the whole system of literature.’(Scholes 167)

3

The course entitled’ Literary Theory’ refers to a discipline which is quite young. Stephen Bonnycastle explains, in his book entitled In Search of Authority, An Introductory Guide to Literary Theory ( 2007), that in the 1970s, literary theory was marginal, avant-garde, and felt radically new ; and it was strongly opposed by many senior figures in the world of literary criticism and scholarship. By the 1990s it had become institutionalized, and central, in this same world. … And by 2005 a major anthology of articles could be appropriately entitled Theory’s Empire ’ (9).A radical change was applied in approaching literary texts. At the Algerian University and under the LMD system, Master Students who specialize in literary studies at Mohamed Lamine Debaghine University, Sétif 2, and at most universities across the country, attend classes that focus on both literature and Civilization. They take in their first semester of studies and among other subjects, two classes of literary theory that are main courses and that are quite new as compared with other subjects; in fact, ‘[F]rom time to time various academic disciplines have been the subject to periods of introspection and self-doubt, their practitioners anxious to define what is being studied and the effectiveness of the tools being used for the study’ (Stephen 351). In the official ‘canevas ministeriel’, this subject is a component of the Fundamental Teaching Unit (Unité d’enseignement fondamentale) and is described as follows:

Volume horaire Mode d’évaluation Matières hebdomadaire VHS 14 Aut Intitulés cours TD T Contrôle Examen

Unités Crédits semaines re d’enseignement coefficients P continu Unit Literary Theory 04 02 3 42 100% Enseignement (Lit T) Fondamentale Literary 04 02 3 42 100% Code UEF 2 Criticism (Lit C) Crédits : 12 Coefficients : 09

Consequently, I have devised lessons that cover a wide range of literary theories that can conveniently adapt to fourteen teaching weeks so as to cover 42 teaching hours as the students take three hours a week. The distribution can be done as illustrated in the following table:

4

Week Part to cover Title of lessons to cover Number part I. Traditional Theories Introduction to Literary theories + Biographical 1 literary theory part I. Traditional Theories Historical literary theory + The Mimetic literary theory 2 Part II. Linguistics and Russian Formalism 3 Literary Theories Part II. Linguistics and The New Criticism 4 Literary Theories Part II. Linguistics and Structuralism and Semiotics + Deconstruction 5 Literary Theories Part III. The Reader and the Reader-Response Theories 6 text Part III. The Reader and the Reader-Response Theories continued and 7 Text Hermeneutics and the Reader Response Theories part IV. Social Issues and Marxist Literary theory 8 Literary Theories. part IV. Social Issues and Feminist Literary theory 9 Literary Theories. Part V. Social Issues and Postcolonial Literary Theory 10 Literary Theories. Part V. Social Issues and Psychoanalytical Literary Theory 11 Literary Theories. Part V. Social Issues and Archetypal and Myth Literary Theory 12 Literary Theories. Part VI. Social Issues and The New Historicism 13 Literary Theories. Part VII. A brief outlook at a A brief Outlook at a Wide Range of Literary 14 Wide range of literary Theories with Other Names and conclusion theories with other names and conclusion

Though the class is described as a main course, students get to interact with the theories. Students are exposed to examples that are selected so as to best illustrate the main points that each theory is about. They can ask questions and give their own examples. It is important to take into consideration the fact that the theories dealt with are suggestive rather than exhaustive. Many new 5

theories such as Islamic Feminism or Gynocriticism are not dealt with in these lessons. The students can find out about these theories by following the mode of approach suggested in the lessons that they take which cover the main approaches in literary theory. The experience in teaching this subject for four years has enabled to operate many changes. Improvements in the proposed contents have been achieved by taking into consideration another course also dealt with in the first semester of Master 1 studies and entitled Literary Criticism. Taking literary criticism into account has contributed to enabling the students to master and put in application the major literary theories. The examples that are dealt with as well as the most important concepts for each theory have been carefully selected. In addition, the full practice that the class of Literary criticism enables to achieve as it is a TD class and as it offers full practice guided by the lecturer for an amount of three hours per week has proved familiar ground for the practice of these theories in literary criticism. Students learn about the theories and they are trained to correlate their personal responses to a literary text with necessary theoretical background so as to produce literary criticism. Though fourteen teaching weeks may seem to offer a wide range of knowledge, the aim is really concerned with basic knowledge only. Such basic knowledge can widen easily with the students who are encouraged to read about the major critical interpretative perspectives that they use in major literary works through examples of well known literary works by famous writers. Students quickly realise that they can appreciate works from many perspectives.

What does the course of Literary Theories hope to achieve? Because the course is about theories, students are constantly reminded of the fact that there is no didactic teaching in this course. It is rather a necessary familiarization with the most dominant theories and the theorists that adhere to particular claims which become the centre of focus. Thus, within the aims of this course, to familiarize Master students to literary theories and terminology that pertains to scientific analysis of literary texts is an ongoing concern. Master 1 students constantly use these literary theories in their class of literary criticism as they practice tools that give perspectives and approaches of different literary works and they develop critical minds for analysis. These students are later exposed to post colonial literature and comparative literature. They are requested to write a dissertation in their Master 2 class and the knowledge of literary theories is of prime necessity to support their arguments in the criticism that they will engage in. Students should be able to identify different possible approaches of the same text and they should be able to support the arguments of their analysis by backing them up with substantial theories. Students are constantly made aware of the different possibilities to respond to texts. These responses are classified under specific theories that sometimes overlap; the lessons included in this guide book point to some of the parallels that many theories hold. These lessons also point to detail 6

divergence for students to sharply distinguish different areas of comparison in the theories. The experience acquired through the exposition to the responses of the students when they read literary texts has driven these lessons to favour five major parts divided as follows: Part I. Traditional Theories Part II. Linguistics and Literary Theories Part III. The Reader and the Text Part IV. Social Issues and Literary Theories. Part V. A brief outlook at a Wide range of literary theories with other names

The methodology chosen in these lessons favours the presentation of the theory’s name with quotes to illustrate some main concerns. These quotes can be checked again at the end of the lessons in class so as to strengthen the contents covered. Then, twelve main concerns for almost each lesson are covered (some lessons need more as used in this guide book). The theories are first presented in an introduction so as to situate what the lesson intends to cover. Some key words used as a kind of focus for students to concentrate on basic vocabulary specific to the theory are cited. These key words are discussed and thus, they support familiarization with main concepts. The other concerns are mostly presented in the form of questions which are not always worded in the same way throughout the lessons but which cover parallel concerns starting with the third component which gives the definition of the theory followed by its historical development that displays how the theory came to be, how schools of criticism have developed and whether they are still of actuality. After that, the students get to concentrate on three aspects closely related which are what the theory deals with, what it relies on, and what steps are recommended to be followed to apply the theory to a literary text. For students to judge and decide which theories respond more conveniently to the analysis of a text, some of the strengths and the shortcomings of the theory are mentioned. Towards the end of each lesson, some guiding questions to implement the use of the theory are suggested. These questions that can be applied for the analysis of the literary text and they are followed by practical examples. The examples are brief and they enable students to follow suggested methods of analysis but they are in no way didactic. These examples are also to be considered as suggested further reading that can develop critical analysis to other works that students may add to each theory. They strengthen the different aspects of the theories under study. In the end, whenever available, the name of additional scholars and writers not mentioned in the lesson but who are related to the theory are mentioned to encourage students to look for who the scholars are and consequently acquire more theoretical knowledge as well as further examples of theoretical use in literary texts. In class, this situation is discussed orally as students mention writers and theorist that they have learnt about in their previous studies and in another language, mainly

7

Arabic and sometimes French and German. The views of more scholars and critics of literary productions are informed; reinforcement of basic knowledge is acquired. By keeping these twelve fundamental aspects for most of the theories, students develop expectations that relate to what is basic. In addition, due to specificity, different details are pointed to and stressed for students to consider how paradoxically parallel and divergent all the literary theories are. Students become progressively aware of the importance of getting to know more about literary theories and their necessity to enable literary criticism based upon scientific references. Literary theories can lead to wider interpretations and analysis of works and thus open the door to more appreciation in literary studies. With the course of literary theories, students will be able to go into further sections of division such as the war novel, the biographical one or different types of drama, comedies, tragedies and others, and the same can be mentioned for poetry. In the end, the students can provide their own examples of texts that they have read and that could be appropriate examples for the theory under practice. Depending on time limitations, excerpts can be discussed in class or assigned for further practice of the theory under mastery. Owing to the fact that the students take another course entitled Literary Criticism, these lessons have to remain theoretical to a great extent. Practical examples are provided for students to be guided towards implementing these theories; yet students are not asked to produce critical analysis of texts as they keep this type of training for the class of literary Criticism which is also, as mentioned earlier, a three hour weekly class often mostly n the form of workshops (TD). Students are required to take a written assessment at the end of the semester. The evaluation time recommended for the exam is a three hour open book composition. The students should be able to produce an essay on the importance and usefulness of theories in literary criticism by giving clear examples that match their explanations. The objective is to show that there is an acquisition of extensive knowledge about these theories and that it is no rote learning but practical usage. Students should explain how these theories can be applied by choosing two or three of them and reflecting on how they contribute to better understanding a literary text. Scholars and critics as well as major works need to be referred to so as to illustrate the full grasping of the materials which are necessary to conduct literary criticism. This study guide (polycopié) includes an annex in which samples of open book exam questions that have been administered to students are provided. Opting for open book exams is an illustration of how to refer to materials that have been studied but cannot be memorized as it is analysis that is the target.

8

Week 0ne Introduction to Literary Theories ‘ … [w]ithout some kind of theory, however unreflective and implicit, we would not know what a ‘literary work’ was in the first place, or how we were to read it … If there is such a thing as literary theory, then it would seem obvious that there is something called literature which it is the theory of’ (Eagleton preface and p.1). ‘… [t]he most striking element … to these theoretical ideas was relief. …the key ideas were complex, but they were also very liberating. … knowing about literary theory: it can help you to understand some aspects of literature, or your response to it, which without the theory, is opaque’ (Bonnycastle 26).

9

When Master students of literature are confronted with the content of the subject entitled Literary Theory, it becomes the task of the instructor, an important, noble and valuable one, to draw these Master students’ attention to the numerous features that these theories are going to display. All what can be presented in one semester might seem quite large; yet it is only a small portion and a basis for what students will need to master Literary Theories. Without personal reading and research about these theories, students will feel that they do know enough in order to apply and practice what they have learnt. Theories are of prime importance in applying ‘critical analysis’ and cannot be done without in literature criticism. Theories are claims that need to be proven to be ‘workable’ in a specific environment provided by text. Criticism cannot be performed without knowledge of theories unless it is done ‘unscientifically’ that is without references to any theory or knowledgeable scholar. At the same time, literary theories cannot be enforced upon literary texts. Authors did not write with a theory in mind, trying to display its features. This is clearly explained by Terry Eagleton who states that ‘a literary work can be seen as constructing what have been called ‘subject positions’. Homer did not anticipate that I personally would read his poems, but his language, by virtue of the ways it is constructed, unavoidably offers certain ‘positions’ for a reader, certain vantage-points from which it can be interpreted’(Eagleton 120). It is the literary critic who uses subtleness to recognize patterns and ideas and thus provides a specific analysis called structuralist, formalist, feminist, postcolonial or else of a work. Plato and Aristotle were among the first to question literary forms, expressions and ideas; their concern is still of prime importance. A major difficulty when approaching literary theories exists in the notions of features which are not always clearly delimited. Many theories overlap. Martin Stephen states that ‘[T]here is much interest and stimulus in literary theory and criticism, but also much obfuscation, much confusion and a fair number of red herrings’(Stephen 352). There are theories that deal with language in different ways and which also involve other theories simultaneously which are not about language. For instance, Jacques Lacan deals with language and psychology at the same time. Other theories may involve both feminist and post colonial perspectives when texts deal with double oppression of women under colonialism in terms of patriarchal oppression and oppression of the colonizer in male and female dominators. Thus, students may feel puzzled at certain points; by paying close attention and keeping track of what theories are about, clarification is reached and the overlapping theories become clear as to what characterizes them and what is shared with other theories. Students do not have to be obsessed with finding theories in texts. These theories, once mastered appear clearly when approaching a text. In fact writers scarcely wrote with a theory in mind that they wanted to apply, develop and illustrate. It is criticism that allows for analysis and the recognition of certain 10

features of feminism, structuralism, formalism or psychological issues in a text. In practice, literary theories reveal that ‘[P]hilosophy, ideological content, in its proper context, seems to enhance artistic value because it corroborates several important artistic values: those of complexity and coherence. A theoretical insight may increase the artist’s depth of penetration and scope of reach. But it need not be so. … Sometimes in the history of literature however there are cases, confessedly rare, when ideas incandesce, when figures and scenes not merely represent but actually embody ideas, when some identification of philosophy and art seems to take place. Image becomes concept and concept image. But these are necessarily the summits of art; as many philosophically inclined critics assume them to be’ (Wellek and Warren 123)? Would it be then, the preoccupation of the literary critic to identify those ‘summits’ of art? Literary theories enable, in their practice, to appreciate literary texts more. By unveiling specific approaches, readers can discover points they did not notice at once. Readers can marvel at the use of words which create assumptions and display forms and ideas that are reinforced by the application of a certain theoretical analysis. The students are made aware of a fundamental distinction between narrating or summarizing happenings and presenting an argument. Though literary theories may appear difficult to fully grasp, they unfold more pleasure than the hardship of mastering them. These theories enable evaluation, analysis, making sense and interpreting texts among other critical purposes. In order to compose the following lessons, the works cited in this guide book have been used as a necessary basis. In addition, much help and orientation has been obtained by consulting different websites with recommended references. Whenever online examples are cited, the corresponding website is indicated for students to retrieve the information easily. The titles of the references and the websites for terminology and technical support for the theories are: 1. Introduction to Literature by Michael Delahoyde (https://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/lit.html) 2. Skylar Hamilton Burris ( https://www.amazon.com/Skylar-Hamilton-Burris/.../B002BLLWY... ) have enabled the consideration of specific terminology. 3. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia’s Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama , Sixth Edition (New York: HarperCollins, 1995), pages 1790-1818. https://www.amazon.com/Literature- Introduction-Fiction-Poetry-D.. 4. Critical Encounters in Secondary English by Deborah Appleman (https://www.amazon.com/Critical-Encounters-Secondary-English...). There are hardships that literary theories may make the students go through. These can be overcome with time and knowledge acquisition. They have been lessened by taking other instructors’ recommendations into consideration. Divisions and grouping of these literary theories are proposed and can be found as explained in the general introduction and the table of contents.

11

Terry Eagleton brings some light to the development of literary theories as he states that: ‘[I]ndeed one might very roughly periodize the history of modern literary theory in three stages: a preoccupation with the author (Romanticism and the nineteenth century); an exclusive concern with the text (New Criticism); and a marked shift of attention to the reader over recent years’ (Eagleton 74). Such a classification intends to clarify three main categories. At the same time, other categories seem not to fit. For instance, post colonial studies would be difficult to fit any of these categories. This is remindful of subjectivity in the approach of theories. Despite the scientific intent of literary theories, literary perspectives (or literary theories) help the critic and students explain why people might interpret the same text in a variety of ways. Some critics refer to the idea of analysing a literary text with the use of different lenses to view and talk about it. These different lenses allow to consider works on the basis of certain assumptions or to focus on particular aspects considered important. It is of great value to realise that the different theories covered in this course are in any way sectarian. When considering feminism for example, aspects of post colonialism may appear as well as Marxist influences. When approaching a text from a historical perspective, psychoanalytical elements may be taken into consideration. The theories are lenses that the reader uses to approach texts, to interpret and analyse them. In essence, Ann Jefferson and David Robey explain that ‘[L]iterary theory is not something that has developed in a vacuum, but has risen for the most part in response to the problems encountered by readers, critics and scholars in their practical contact with texts’( Jefferson and Robey 13). Another important reminder comes from the influence of time on theories. ‘Critical theories are not like tablets of stone, unaffected by the passage of time. Marxist thought, for example, has continued to sharpen and renew the insights of the founding fathers in the light of new knowledge. Influential revisions of Marxist and Freudian theories draw upon structuralist linguistics’ (Selden 5).

What are the difficulties of learning about literary theories? The students are informed of numerous schools of thought. They may already, without fully realising it, have used theories to analyze texts. What is important is to raise the awareness of students to different points in analysis. The reader or the listener of a text will react to what is listened to or to what is read. Such a reaction may be analysed through different theories. Sometimes the reader needs more explanation for his reaction. He may obtain it by getting to know the biography of the writer or the historical context of the text itself. At other points, some terms in a text need to be further investigated for the meaning they cover. It is also possible that philosophical or psychological precepts enlighten meaning. All these considerations are classified under terminology that different theories carry. 12

For example, if a critic is working with certain Marxist theories, she/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, she/he might consider the same story but look at how characters from colonial powers (Britain, France, and America) treat characters from, say, Africa or the Caribbean. Hopefully, after reading through and working with the lessons presented in this guidebook, literary theory will become a little easier to understand and use. Students need to keep in mind that theories are not final truths. They are only concepts that claim certain facts. These facts can be rendered through the reading methodology recommended by the theories. These theories can be synonymous with ‘approach’ , ‘lens’ , ‘interpretation ‘and ‘concepts’. The final goal of these lessons is that in the end, students should be able to conduct an analysis of a literary text from any of the theoretical perspectives covered in the first semester of their Master 1 studies. Students should also be able to refer to literary critics who represent these theories and point to specific works that can be analysed through any specific theory. At the end of each lesson, it is recommended that students practice by suggesting examples of their own taken from texts that they have read during their studies. They should use arguments that display their thorough grasp of theories for literary criticism based on the elements they have studied. Ultimately, students should be able to use literary theories in their research career. No Guided Reading is included but the students should consult the works cited in these lessons. In addition to the theoretical works cited at the end of this guide book, students are encouraged to read the works, novels, short stories, plays and poems cited in the various examples used as illustration for better comprehension.

13

Week 0ne Part I. Traditional Theories ‘Suffice it to say that today when the traditional approaches of biographical and historical interest are invoked, they are contrasted to a more nuanced, politicized, and socially aware sense of history and literature in our postmodernist times’(Guerin 17).

14

Week One I.1. Biographical literary theory ‘In any event, if literature is primarily art, art does not exist in a vacuum. It is the creation by someone at some time in history, and it is intended to speak to other human beings about some idea or issue that has human relevance’ (Guerin 21).

15

This lesson deals with the biographical literary theory which is one of the theories that is classified among the traditional approaches of texts. It is also a theory recommended to start with as it is one of the most manageable for beginners alongside the historical theoretical one. This is due to the fact that students are informed of how knowledge about the author’s life can contribute to a better understanding and analysis of a literary text. René Wellek and Austin Warren state that: [T]he most obvious cause of a work of art is its creator, the author; and hence an explanation in terms of the personality and the life of the writer has been one of the oldest and best-established methods of literary study’( Wellek and Warren 75). To find information about the author’s life is not difficult with the use of encyclopaedias and anthologies.

Key words: biography, race, ethnicity, gender, experience, assumptions, religious belief, political stance, art favouring, education. After tackling the content of the biographical theoretical analysis and what it requires to be applied, this course comprehends in its last part some examples with possible questioning pertaining to the practical application of the biographical theory in the approach of any text. But let’s start with what is meant by the biographical theory.

What is the Biographical literary theory ? It is a traditional approach of analysis of literary texts. Because authors typically write about things they care deeply about and know well, biographical elements may be used and reflected in their production. These include events and circumstances of their lives which they blend within the narratives they create. Consequently, while constructing the plot, using a particular tone, sending messages and creating characters, the author may reflect his life. The author’s life may be related to influences from the times when the author lived in. Several elements may be taken into consideration. They include social class, race, ethnicity, gender, experience, assumptions, religious belief, political stance, art favouring and education. Depending on the knowledge that the literary critic may have of the experience of an author in his life, the analysis of literary texts may be enlightened by knowing about special circumstances.

How did the biographical theory develop in history? The work entitled Lives of the Poets (1779–81) by Samuel Johnson is considered to be the first thorough-going analysis in biographical criticism. This work attempts to relate a writer's

16

background and life to his works. The New critics of the 1920s disapproved of taking the author’s life into consideration and called biographical criticism ‘biographical fallacy’ as their prime concern was the text rather than its author’s life and influence on production. Yet there is no objection to considering who an author is as it can clearly help understanding some features in the literary production of such an author. Stephen Bonnycastle assumes that together with the Historical literary approach, that is the subject matter of the next lesson, this theory was most prominent in the 1950s ( 17).

What does the Biographical literary theory deal with? Biographical criticism cannot be performed without knowledge of the biographical theory unless it happens by chance. Because literature is written by actual people, one way to understand what they write about would be to approach the author’s biography for a better understanding and a more thorough comprehension of the work under analysis. Students therefore need to be aware of how studies of an author's life and thoughts have influenced a work that he has written. This approach is particularly useful when a work is a reflection of the life of the writer as the characters are based on real people who existed in the social surroundings of the writer. It is also of importance when a work is considered to display themes ahead of the author’s time or when it seems to breach two historical periods that the author lived in. It is important to differentiate between works called autobiographies and biographies and other works that may use biographical elements that are blended with other elements from different fields in a fictional work.

What does the theory rely on ? In order to look for a better understanding of a work with the sustainability of the biography of its author, the critic and student as well may pay attention to materials directly related to the author, written by the author or family members as well as friends. For instance, the study of letters, memoirs, journals, diaries, educational grade sheets among other possible documents may illustrate some parts of the life of the writer. It is also useful to know of the different jobs an author may have had. The family life may also enlighten some parts of texts with clarification as to the reasons an author deals with a specific topic in a particular way. William Wordsworth and Coleridge speak about the author’s life, imagination and emotions which are reflected in a literary text. Life and writing are narrowly related.

17

What are the steps to undertake a biographical literary study? It is of prime importance to investigate the author’s life using biographies, autobiographies, letters, and other documents that inform of the author’s biography. -Students should consider whether the information is relevant to give supplementary understanding to the literary text under study. -It is important to take into account the beliefs and values of the author in terms of reflection of the values of his or her time.

Strengths of the biographical approach Taking biographical elements into account may inform the text of elements related to the experience of the writer. A black writer may explain the experience of his colour in his work. A woman writer may be better understood if she has married or not, if she has had children or not, if she has been allowed education or not. Depending on past experiences as a factory worker, a politics or a teacher, the biography of the writer may illuminate the understanding of themes as well as some issues developed in a work. The biographical approach can also provide insights into historical references related to the life of the author, social oppositions or movements that existed and in which the author might have participated. The creation of fictional characters can be based on the people the writer knew; the treatment might reveal some truths about these people. The setting that the author deals with might be a faithful replication of the place where the writer has lived or where he has ended up living after moving in his late life. All the issues related to the life of the author might have an impact on the way a literary work has been written. Though this theory is classified as being traditional, the modern assumptions of Freudian analysis can be used by literary biographers. Traditional theories can be employed together with more modern ones. As Ann Jefferson and David Robey have pointed to, ‘[T]o see a literary work as the expression of the personality of the author leads inevitably to biography and psychology’ (Jefferson and Robey 27). In addition, literary works that can be approached from the biographical stand are often related to the time when the author lived and give social and historical aspects of a period in history.

Shortcomings of this theory Critics may be so attached to biographical elements that have been fictionalised that they forget the text under study is not a real document. Focusing on biographical elements mainly may be at the expense of the study of techniques and language.

18

The biographical elements of a text may be fictionalised with a small percentage of reliability while the critic and students try to give these elements some consideration beyond the limits of fiction. Texts that are highly biographical should be approached from perspectives that delineate the fictional dimension and reveal the artistic product as well. Biographical criticism is not the attempt to draw parallels between the author's life and his fiction, though this is inevitable as the term biographical leads to the biography of the author, but rather a study of the author's intention and the effect on the audience. Biographical criticism should intend to enlighten the deeper meaning of plot development, themes, characters, settings and literary techniques based on the author's own concerns and style. Another downside to this approach is the dependence of source material that may be inaccurate or incomplete. How reliable is the biography should be considered or how scientific is the autobiography must be taken into consideration. Irrelevant material should not be enforced on the fictional work to justify arguments or illustrate analyses.

Possible questions to approach a text from the Biographical theory What aspects of the author’s personal life are relevant to this story? Which of the author’s stated beliefs are reflected in the work? Does the writer challenge or support the values of contemporaries? What seem to be the author’s major concerns? Do they reflect any of the writer’s personal experiences? Do any of the events in the story correspond to events directly experienced by the author? Do any of the characters in the story correspond to real people? Do places where the author grew up and lived appear in the text? Are any relationships with relatives reported in the work under study?

Some examples among other possible ones The impact of Richard Wright’s life (1908 – 1960) on his novel entitled Native Son (1940) and Black Boy (1945) - It is relevant to notice that Black Boy is not an autobiography but an autobiographical novel. - Violence: The author was beaten as a child for causing a fire and this is the same for the protagonist in the novel. - Father’s absence: Richard Wright’s father abandoned his family and this is projected in the novel. - Motherhood: The image of the mother who struggles as a teacher who supported her family is from the life of the author. 19

- Ghettos: The image of the ghetto in Chicago where the characters are reunited is where the author lived with his mother and brother. - Politics: communism and the writer’s political views are reflected in the hero’s approach of this political movement. - Racial segregation: experience of personal segregation, separation and racism are what Wright personally experienced and projected in his novel. - Self-made people: self realisation is shared by the writer and the protagonist. James Joyce (1882-1941), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916). James Joyce as the author projects his experience in the protagonist of his work that is Stephen Dedalus. The other characters are direct reflections of James Joyce’s family members and they occupy the same relationship to the protagonist. Conducting an analysis from the biographical approach leads to the concluding aspect of direct links between the author’s life and the protagonist’s one. However, rather than focusing on such an aspect alone, the reader has to be aware of the intentions of the writer which are far from being purely autobiographical ones. As the title suggests, the artist is the core issue of the work. Modernism is at the centre of questioning art and its form. Assia Djebar’s (1936-2015) novel entitled Nulle Part Dans la Maison de Mon Père ( 2007) The novel is about the life of a little girl named like the author that is Fatima; Assia Djebar is the pseudonym of Fatima-Zohra Imalayène. The author is analogous to the main character as the only girl who goes to public school unlike her female cousins. The father of the protagonist is a teacher just like the father of Assia Djebar was. Though the novel is not an autobiography, the elements of the author’s life are connected to the life of the author. To know Assia Djebar’s life enables to understand better the projection of her native town Cherchell , the main setting in the novel. Students are guided towards looking for more parallels and explaining how the biographical approach enables them to better understand the novel. Arthur Miller (1915-2005) McCarthyism, suspicion of being a communist, and The Crucible (1953). Both Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) and John Dos Passos (1896-1970) have used their experience as an ambulance driver during World War I. Both wrote novels about the war and they have used their experience that they have projected in their works. Their first hand knowledge created strong personal feelings about the horrors that they witnessed. They reflected elements of their life in their works of fiction and these can be better understood when the readers know the biography of the authors. An author whose ancestors have experienced slavery may reflect on the knowledge of being subdued and exploited as in the novel entitled Roots: the Saga of an American Family (1976) by

20

Alexander Murray Palmer Haley (1921 – 1992).The author based his narrative on his family's history. He went back to slavery days and Africa, more specifically to Gambia. A famous case is how Francis Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) used his experience in The Great Gatsby (1925). Numerous analogies are observable in Fitzgerald’s attempt at getting rich in order to marry his wife to be and Gatsby’s attempt at getting a better social standard to get Daisy to admire him and eventually live with him. Other parallels can be investigated and analysed. Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1925) and the difficulties he faced in his marriage can be valuable for research too. His problems are reflected in his famous poem entitled The Waste Land (1922). In addition to the marital problems, psychological instances, deteriorating emotional condition, his nervous breakdown, and the Geneva asylum are all referred to in the long poem. An additional example is Charles Dickens (1812-1870) who uses the first letters of his name that is D and C for another name in his novel entitled David Copperfield (1850). His childhood experiences and the hard working conditions of child labour that he went through are used in the novel. He also uses the experience of his father in jail in Little Dorrit (1855). To know about Charles Dickens’ life is an additional attribute that enables to better understand what he wrote about and why he did so. The experience of sailing by Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) and its projection in his novella entitled Heart of Darkness (1899) provide exploitable resources. The technical aspects of the steam boat are familiar to the author who was in an association of a Belgian trading company i for three years. His service included being the captain of a steam boat on the Congo River. Consequently, the elements of the novella are directly taken from his experience and they are reported with accuracy. Many more examples can be analysed and the students can feel how enlightening it can be to know about the biography of an author so as to understand some subtle instances in a literary work that would be perceived differently without such knowledge. As a conclusion, while conducting a close study of a text, to know about the author’s life is going to enrich the reading of literary texts.

More Figures to consider William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Walt Whitman (1819-1892) John Steinbeck (1902-1968) Virginia Wolf (1882-1941) Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855) This theory is closely related to the historical theory as will be discussed in the next lesson.

21

Week Two I.2. Historical literary theory ‘Detailed historical examination allows us to see the ‘discourses’ that underpin the writing of the time, and which the author is often unaware of as an influence on his or her work’(Stephen 366). ‘It is not a question of debating whether ‘literature’ should be related to ‘history’ or not: it is a question of different readings of history itself’ (Eagleton 209).

22

Historical criticism is a traditional approach of analysis. It is often paired with the biographical theory as the life of an author can be closely related to the events of the times in which that author lived. At the same time, historical facts that are independent from an author’s life can be used in the creation of a work; therefore it is necessary to inform students of both interdependence and complete lack of connectedness of biography and history when approaching a text for analysis. This is the reason why historical criticism is approached as a lesson on its own. What is the vocabulary that pertains to that theory? The following key words focus on the elements considered essential. Key words : history, dates, events, change, race, religion, politics, gender, society, philosophy, major events.

What is the historical Literary theory? The historical theory seeks to enlighten critics and students in giving the historical background and milieu of a work. It is not criticism in the sense of disapproval or the examination of faults. It is the consideration of history, its events, significant dates and change in order to conduct a better analysis of a text in the hope of better understanding it. Though this theory focuses on the historical milieu of a literary text, it is inevitably related to biographical elements. As a matter of fact the social, cultural and intellectual context in which a text was written is also an influence on the life of the writer. Thus historical and biographical theories often blend to reveal how a writer’s life is affected by history and how this influence reflects on a literary text. Historical influences may include race, religion, politics, gender, society, philosophy, and even psychology. As mentioned in the previous lesson, Stephen Bonnycastle holds the assumption that the Biographical literary Theory, together with the Historical literary approach, was most prominent in the 1950s (17). The events in the life of an author can be closely related to the historical time of the place where such an author has lived.

What does Historical Criticism deal with? When applying this perspective, critics and students view a literary text within its historical context. Specific historical information is of key interest. It can be: - About the time during which an author wrote. 23

- About the time in which the text is set. - About the ways in which people of the period saw and thought about the world in which they lived. History, in this case, refers to the social, political, economic, cultural, and/or intellectual climate of the time of the production of the literary text.

What does it rely on? Context can provide valuable elements to understand a text. The goal of historical criticism, traditionally, has been to seek the understanding of a text’s meaning in its original context. It is also used to inquire about answers to the mysterious issue of the intent of the author. Literary historians attempt to connect the historical background of the work to specific aspects of the work.

What are the Methods and steps to apply for Historical Criticism? Scholars use a variety of methods in attempting to answer questions which draw on other fields of scholarship, such as linguistics and archaeology. Three of the most widely used methods are: 1. Source criticism. Source criticism questions whether texts came from a singular source, author, or historical context. It seeks to untangle the sources present within any given text. 2. Form criticism. Form criticism seeks to understand the claims of a text by analyzing its linguistic patterns. 3. Redaction criticism. Redaction criticism analyzes how redactors (i.e., editors) wove together various traditions into one whole .

Strengths of the historical literary theory Such a theory enables to consider the text within the values of the times when it was written. Some aspects, when considered from the perspective of the time when the work is read and analysed might interfere with the intentions of the writer. Literary works can document times that are not known for what the literary works display. To realise the evolution of texts may open analysis to the consideration of the effect of time on writing. This theory may open up for more understanding regarding the influence of time and history on different people and what their values were. Some texts can be considered to be an exact record of social truth. A historical approach may bring more meaning to a work which milieu is not familiar to the reader.

24

Shortcomings of the historical literary theory Scholes warns that ‘The traditional literary-historical system was forged without regard to the fundamental distinction between the concepts of genesis and evolution, these having been taken instead for synonyms. Likewise, it made do without attempting to establish what was meant by a literary-historical fact. The consequence was a naïve theory about ‘lineal descent’ and ‘influence,’ and an equally naïve psychological biographism’ ( 81). A clear distinction is important as literary works are not scientific historical records and can comprehend alternative events.

Guiding questions to apply historical criticism -Who wrote the literary text and when was it written? - How does the text reflect the time in which it was written? -What important events were taking place at the time of its writing? -How did it come to be in the form we read it today? -What did it mean to the people who first read or heard of it? - How does the story reflect the attitudes and beliefs of the time in which it was written or set? -How accurately does the story depict the time in which it is set? -What literary or historical influences helped to shape the form and content of the work? -What other literary works may have influenced the writer -What historical events or movements might have influenced this writer? -How could characters and events in this story have been viewed by the writer’s contemporaries? -Does the story reveal or contradict the prevailing values of the time in which it was written? -Does it provide an opposing view of the period’s prevailing values? -How important is it the historical context (the work’s and the reader’s) to interpreting the work?

Examples of works which historical approach could benefit The literary works of William Faulkner frequently reflect the history of the American South, the Civil War and its aftermath, as well as the birth and death of a nation known as The Confederate States of America. The short story entitled A Rose for Emily clearly shows the struggle of the old South to fight modernization. Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) and Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) . The effect of knowledge about the plight of slaves as described emotionally by Stowe has had an effect on people’s opinion about the civil war. The historical context of the story has impacted the narrative. Charles Dickens(1812-1870) and A Tale of Two Cities (1793)

25

John Steinbeck (1902-1968) and The grapes of Wrath (1939). The setting, both place and time, is particularly relevant. Alice Walker (1944- still alive) and Everyday Use (1973).

More figures to consider Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) Longinus (born and dead 1st c BC) Al-Jahiz (776, 868-9) Ibn al-Mu'tazz (847-869) Bharata Muni (2nd or 3rd century BC)

26

Week Two I.3. The Mimetic literary theory ‘Mimetic criticism … sees literature as an imitation of reality’ (Stephen 360). ‘Leon Trosky held that mimesis in literature should give us a ‘slice of life’ without necessarily commenting on it’ (Guerin 126).

27

In this lesson, it becomes clear that, as we get acquainted with various literary works, we recognise basic concepts of production. Beyond the categorising of works that belong to the same genre, as readers we feel that some plots or heroes or themes in a particular work bear resemblance with other works. How can literary works resemble one another? Could there be some imitating of tragic incidences or happy endings? What could influence imitations in different works, in different periods and in different writers from different countries? A whole theoretical approach called mimetic theory sheds light on such resemblances or imitations. Mimetic theory is one of four primary theories of criticism and was well in practice up until the 18 th century. This theory is still useful as parallels can be recognised among various literary texts.

Key words : mimicry, imitation, parallels, comparison

What are the four primary theories of literary criticism? Four primary literary theories are the expressive, the pragmatic, the objective and the mimetic theory. In the expressive literary theory there is special emphasis on the ways in which a work expresses its author’s personal concerns. In the pragmatic theory, the emphasis is on the utility of art as literary works provide readings that must affect the reader in a positive way. In the objective theory of literary criticism, criticism emphasizes the fact that the work’s value has no required reliance on any external factors. A work must be independent and must rise from its own formal structure. Mimetic theory is different as explained in the following sections of this lecture.

Where does the name ‘Mimetic’ come from ? The word "mimetic" comes from the Greek word "mimesis». Mimesis means the act of imitation or mimicry. The mimetic theory of literary criticism lays crucial importance on how a literary work imitates life. Comparison may lead to noticing parallels with other texts.

When did it appear? Mimesis was a widely used rhetorical device in earliest times. It undoubtedly started from Plato and run through a great many theorists of the Renaissance up until the 18th century. Then, it was rejected as the romantics believed in new dimensions for art; Romantics also emphasized originality and this caused

28

mimesis to decline gradually. New ideas made it so that creativity could not always depend on imitation. In terms of literary criticism, analogies can be pointed to and analyzed.

What is the Mimetic theory and what does it claim? The method of Mimesis criticism seeks to interpret literary texts in relation to their literariness as well as their cultural models. The identification of inter-textual relationships between two texts that go beyond simple literary techniques is particularly attention-grabbing in mimetic criticism. The imitations may be basic ones only in terms of necessary plot unity or gothic settings for horror stories. It appears that imitations are unavoidable when there is a tragic hero or a pathetic one. What about imitations of heroic actions or didactic teaching. Where could imitations come from or what could be common sources of influence? The method of mimesis criticism can point to the origin of works in terms of mythological influences, religious teachings and cultural values. By paying attention to imitations, works can reveal more than what they were first written for.

Who has pioneered the Mimetic literary theory? Dennis MacDonald (born 1946) is considered to be a founding father of Mimeticism. He proposes a theory called Mimeticism criticism as he studied the imitations of the New Testament that he claimed to reveal responses to the Homeric Epics. He was also interested in early Christian narratives that imitated the so called ‘canonical’ works of Classical Greek literature. By ‘canonical’ that comes from the word ‘canon’, a large inclusion of works is considered. Thus, both the meaning of biblical writings that are accepted as authorized and that of an author’s work that is considered genuine are included.

What does Mimeticism deal with? The mimetic theoretical approach considers all inter-textual instances that can be found between two texts. Comparative studies point to imitations and influences. All genres of literary texts can be interpreted through Mimeticism.

Strengths of this theory The display of positive moral values may affect the reader and drive him to implement them. Idealistic approaches of real life may provide optimism in readers. Models of positive behaviour might encourage imitation. Many authors intend to help define the true meaning of humanity and life.

29

Shortcomings of this theory The values that a text conveys cannot always be regarded as positive for application in real life. The writer’s subjectivity of a text may affect readers in trying to imitate what the writer presents. When texts deal with problematic issues of racism or violence for instance, the readers need to think deeply about what the text displays. Imitations lead to limitations as authors who intend to define the true meaning of humanity and life may repeat what other writers claim.

Typical questions to apply in order to achieve Mimetic criticism To which extent can the literary text be said to convey truth? Does the text teach positive moral values and modes of personal conduct needed in real life? What are the parallels between a literary work and a biblical text or the great work of another writer? What analogies are used in the treatment of language or themes in considering two different texts among which one is recognized as a genuine work? Are the characters created in imitation of actual human responses to a variety of situations?

Great figures of Mimeticism and their point of view. The following opinions can enlighten students as to what Mimeticism may point to. Plato (427-347 B. C) considered Poetic creation to be a copy of a copy. For him, poetic creation imitates or copies external objects which are copies of nature, and then the artist creates a copy of such a copy. Aristotle (384-322 B. C) was a Greek rhetorician. He claimed that it is the author’s copying of nature rather than biblical texts or others that needs to be considered when analyzing a text. For him, artistic pursuits, more exactly in tragic drama, imitate the people, the places, and the conditions that exist in the real world. His claim is that a writer takes what he needs from nature and then gives it another shape. Thus the artist is an imitator but also a creator and his final result in imitating is an improvement of what he first sought to imitate, an artistic product. Philodemus of Gadara (1st century b.c.e.), an Epicurean philosopher and poet, was also one of Virgil's teachers. He affirmed that writers used literary models in their prose histories and fictions. Philodemus of Gadara also referred to the imitation of Homeric poems in writing prose. His work entitled On Poetry supports such an opinion. Dionysius of Halicarnassus was A Greek historian and rhetorician. He belonged to the late first century b.c.e. and the early first century c.e. He represented a change from the Aristotelian

30

rhetorical notion of mimesis. Rather than imitation of nature, he dealt with to imitation of literature. Most of his work dealt with the appropriate choice of literary models for imitation. The Roman rhetorician M.Fabius Quintilianus ( 35-100AD) believed that exemplary models can be imitated without physical consultation of these latter. According to him, empowerment to imitate these models should be done with more dexterity and delicacy. An exemplary model for him is Homer. The act of imitating Homer is in fact imitating the inventiveness of a great and successful writer. He does not object to the willingness of imitating and copying what people approve of in other people’s art. He also believed in encouraging improvement of the imitated object, thus producing an imitation that was much inspired by a great example and also improved. He also recommended consulting several models for imitation so as to be inspired by a variety of qualities and thus creating in imitation an improved product. Cicero disagreed with consulting several models as he felt that only one author was enough. Plotinus (204-270) emphasized intellectual beauty. for him, imitation involves expressiveness. The artist enforces his art on the material he uses and thus he creates valuable spiritual insights. Art for him is in fact an inspiration that first comes from God. Thus the final product is related to an imitation that has been reshaped through the artist’s perceptiveness.

Examples of works to be approached through the Mimetic literary approach The Grapes of Wrath and its parallels with the biblical exodus. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer The Crucible by Arthur Miller and its evocation of the Salem Witch trial

More figures that can be approached through Critical Mimeticism Sir Francis Bacon (1561- 1626) Henry Reynolds (1564-1632) John Dryden (1631-1700) Alexander Pope (1688-1744) Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

31

Week Three

Part II. Linguistics and literary Theories ‘ The hallmark of the ‘linguistic revolution’ of the twentieth century, from Saussure and Wittgenstein to contemporary literary theory, is the recognition that meaning is not simply something ‘expressed’ or ‘reflected’ in language : it is actually produced by it’ (Eagleton 60). ‘All literary theories have to account for meaning, whether as that which is communicated directly from author to reader (I.A.richards), or that which is inherent in the words of a text (New Critics), or that which arises from its structure (structuralism)’ (Jefferson and Robey 122).

32

Week Three II.1. Russian Formalism ‘What the formalist wants to maintain is that the poem is not only a cause, a potential cause, of the reader’s poetic experience but a specific, highly-organized control of the reader’s experience, so that the experience is most fittingly described as an experience of the poem’ (Wellek and Warren 249). ‘In literary criticism the Russian Formalists and their structuralist descendants have worked toward discovering the universal principles that govern the literary use of language, from the syntax of fictional construction to the paradigms of poetry’ (Scholes 6).

33

This lesson is among the most varied in terms of differences in opinions. Though general attributes are shared by all formalists, detail differences are focused upon. Though different names are used for different groups of Formalists, the general concept of form as a focus of analysis remains dominant.

Key words: Literariness, Poetics, Form, Devices, Prague Circle, Moscow School, fabula

What does ‘Formalism’ mean? The word formalism comes from the word formal that has two related meanings, both of which apply within the perspective of formalist literary theory. They are: 1. The meaning related to the root word ‘form’ meaning a shape of structure that we can recognize and use to make associations. 2. The second relates to a set of conventions or accepted practices. Formal poetry, for example, has meter, rhyme, stanza, and other predictable features that it shares with poems of the same type. The formalist perspective pays particular attention to these issues of form and convention. Terry Eagleton explains that ‘[F]ormalism was essentially the application of linguistics to the study o literature; and because the linguistics in question were of a formal kind, concerned with the structures of language rather than with what one might actually say, the Formalists passed over the analysis of literary ‘content’ (where one might always be tempted into psychology or sociology) for the study of literary forms’ ( Eagleton 3).

What is Formalism as a literary theory? Formalism is a general term covering several similar types of literary criticism that arose in the 1920s and 1930s, flourished during the 1940s and 1950s, and are still in evidence today. Formalists held the opinion that ‘[C]riticism should dissociate art from mystery and concern itself with how literary texts actually worked out: literature was not pseudo-religion or psychology but a particular organization of language’ (Eagleton 3). Among the most prominent are the Russian Formalism, The Prague circle and the Moscow School.

What is Russian Formalism? Russian Formalism originated in Russia. It is one of the first schools of literary theory. It was prominent in the 1920s but ceased to be so in the 1930s. It attempted to systematize literary

34

analysis. Its focus is to analyze, interpret, and evaluate the inherent features of a text. Both grammar and syntax are important. In addition, literary devices such as meter and tropes need to be taken into account. It deals primarily with the Study of Poetic Language (which can be found on the level of form rather than content). According to this literary theory, a text is the form and content (fabula (story) and siuzhet (plot)). What a work of literature says cannot be separated from how the literary work says it, and therefore the form or structure of a work, far from being merely the decorative devices of the content, is in fact an integral part of the content of the work. So, for the formalists, only form mattered since content, such as ideas, feelings or human experience, was just an excuse to organize language in a literary way. That is why, Formalists pay special attention to the formal features of the text: the style, structure, imagery, tone, word choice among other interests because the way something is said is more important than what is said. They insisted on the fact that everyday language is different from language used in a literary way. The formalist approach diminishes the importance of a text’s context whether historical, biographical or cultural. Russian Formalism paved the way for the American New Criticism and Structuralist movements with its scientific, detached approach to literary analysis. What is The Prague Circle? As the name indicates, it is a group of linguistic and literary theorists who settled in Prague. Jakobson had brought the principles of Russian Formalism from Moscow and further developed them in Prague. The Prague Circle was influential from 1926 to about 1948. The Prague Circle contributed to the development of Structuralism as it influenced its principles. Famous scholars are Jan Mukarovsky, René Wellek, and Felix Vodicka. What is The Chicago School? The Chicago School also referred to as Neo-Aristotelianism has also been classified as formalist, insofar as the Chicago critics examined and analyzed works on an individual basis. The prefix “Neo” refers to the modifications that Crane made to Aristotle’s original theories in Poetics . A distinction needs to be pointed to as their interest in historical material, on the other hand, was clearly not formalist. The Chicago Critics also called attention to a requirement of multiple theories of criticism .

What is the historical development of Formalism? Although the Formalists based their assumptions partly on the linguistic theory of Ferdinand de Saussure and partly on Symbolist notions concerning the autonomy of the text and the discontinuity between literary and other uses of language, the Formalists sought to make their 35

critical discourse more objective and scientific than that of Symbolist criticism. They began in two groups. The first is known as OPOYAZ, an acronym meaning Society for the Study of Poetic Language, founded in 1916 at St. Petersburg that was called Petrograd and led by Viktor Shklovsky. The second is the Moscow Linguistic Circle that was founded in 1914 by Roman Jakobson. It was more directly concerned with recent developments in linguistics than Eichenbaum's group. Other members of the groups included Osip Brik, Boris Eikhenbaum, Yury Tynyanov, Vladimir Propp, and Boris Tomashevsky. According to Eichenbaum, one of the theory’s most outspoken advocates and prominent theorists, Viktor Shklovsky was the lead critic of the group. Shklovsky contributed two of the most well-known concepts of Russian Formalism which are defamiliarization and the plot/story distinction, terms that are explained in a sub section of this lesson. Jakobson left Moscow for Prague in 1920 and in 1926 co-founded the Prague Linguistic Circle, cited earlier, which embodied similar interests, especially in the work of Ferdinand de Saussure. Formalism rose to prominence in the early twentieth century. It occurred as a radical break in the traditional ways of interpretation and as a reaction against Romanticist theories of literature, which centred on the artist and individual creative genius, and instead placed the text itself back into the spotlight, to show how the text was indebted to forms and other works that had preceded it. The Formalists were accused of being politically reactionary in their neglect of their country’s influence on their works and their creativity. The leaders of the movement suffered political persecution beginning in the 1920s, when Joseph Stalin came to power. Their inquiries came to an end but their ideas continued to influence subsequent thinkers, partly due to Tzvetan Todorov's translations of their works in the 1960s and 1970s, including Todorov himself, Barthes, Genette and Jauss.

What did the Formalists assume? Their aim was to produce a science of literature. They wanted it to be independent and factual. They used the term poetics for that. They articulated a set of interpretive principles: 1- They excluded the biographical, historical contexts. 2- The formalists emphasized the autonomous nature of literature (art for art’s sake) Two schools of formalist literary criticism developed, Russian Formalism, and soon after Anglo-American New Criticism. Formalism was the dominant mode of academic literary study in the US at least from the end of the Second World War through the 1970s. They use some similar terminology.

36

Beginning in the late 1970s, formalism was substantially displaced by various approaches (often with political aims or assumptions) that were suspicious of the idea that a literary work could be separated from its origins or uses. What does the Formalist Perspective focus upon? The Russian Formalists stress the aspect of the Literariness of the text. This approach focuses on form. At the same time, what a work of literature says cannot be separated from how it says it. In the end, the form and structure of a work are not to be considered as the decorative wrapping of content but as the content itself. Russian Formalists centre on the difference between Practical language versus poetic language. For Formalists there is a kind of deformation of ordinary language in a literary text. Thus, ‘Practical Language’ is used for the act of communication whereas ‘Poetic language’ or ‘Literary Language’ has no practical function at all, it is impractical. The analysis stresses items like symbols, images, and structure and how one part of the work relates to other parts and to the whole. Poetic devices that the formalists point to are forms of repetition that one does not find in ordinary language such as rhyme, meter, or rhythm (phonic texture).The prominent recurrences of key words or images are equally considered. Two well known concepts of Russian Formalism: defamiliarization ( ostraneniye, more literally, 'estrangement') and the plot/story distinction ( syuzhet/fabula ), the terms introduced by Shklovsky. What are they about? 1- Defamiliarization To make the common language strange, is one of the fundamental ways in which literary language distinguishes itself from ordinary, communicative language. The technique of art is to make objects unfamiliar, to make forms difficult, to increase the difficulty and length of perception by presenting the world in a strange and new way that allows us to see things differently.. Art is a way of experiencing the artfulness of an object: the object is not important. They make use of language in such a way that it becomes strange and unfamiliar in a given context 2. Narrative construction .The plot/story structure. In prose fiction, the central formalist distinction is that between the “story” (the simple chronological sequence of events) and a plot. An author is said to transform the raw material of a story into a literary plot by the use of a variety of devices that violate and defamiliarize the story elements. these concepts are attempts to describe the significance of the form of a literary work in order to define its "literariness."

What is the methodology used in Formalism? Formalists do not look at the world in which a poem exists. For them, a poem should be treated as an independent and self-sufficient object. The methods used are those of close reading, a detailed 37

and subtle analysis of the formal components that make up the literary work, such as the meanings and interactions of words, figures of speech, and symbols. Robert Scholes states that ‘[O]ne of the great problems in the theory of fiction from Aristotle to Auerbach has been the relationship between fictional art and life: the problem of mimesis. The formalist approach to this problem, far from being a lapse into pure aestheticism, or a denial of the mimetic component in fiction, is an attempt to discover exactly what verbal art does to life and for life’ (Scholes 83).

Strengths of the theory Formalists distinguished ‘literature’ from ‘literariness’ in the sense that they considered the fact that it is not all texts that can be considered pieces of artful use of language. By focusing on special types of language and discourse, they point to the originality of texts that come out of ordinary language to become special and specific uses of language. The study of language that may seem strange can be enlightened by this theory. What writers have been willing to convey acquires originality as language becomes an individual experienced that is shared with the reader. Unusual uses of language give way to artistic works which in their turn confront imaginative interpretations. Poetical language finds a full devotion to its specificity through this theory. Consequently, poetry responds more to formalist studies than other works. This is due to the fact that most poetry is a selection of language that differs from the function of ordinary language used in everyday communication. At the same time any poetical form in novels, short storie, plays and other literary texts can be approached through Formalism.

Shortcomings of the theory Language which is the basis of writing is categorised. Ordinary language necessary for literature is rejected altogether. ‘Formalist theory rigorously and systematically excludes the non- literary, so that where the Anglo-American tradition devotes much of its effort to exploring the different relations between life and art, the Russian Formalists see the two as mutual opposites’ (Jefferson and Robey 26). Thus, in other words, according to the Formalists, ‘what constitutes literature is simply its difference from other orders of facts… a set of differences, and the science will consist in ‘the study of those specifics which distinguishes it [i.e.literature] from any other material’ (Eikhenbaum 1965:107) ’(Jefferson and Robey 27). Several aspects regarding language used in literary texts at the expense of the content are expressed as shortcomings. For instance, the emphasis on form, at the expense of thematic content, was not well-received. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Leon Trotsky‘s (1879-1940)

38

Literature and Revolution (1924) critiqued some aspects of the Formalist approach of texts. The neglect of the social world was felt to be unacceptable. Though the form of art may be independent, the artist and the spectator are living people. The artist creates art that is enjoyed by people and they make unity for the text rather than being unconnected. Another aspect deals with the notion expressed by Ann Jefferson and David Robey in that ‘The formalists have no developed theory of language and no theory of culture and society, and this lack poses certain limitations on their theory of literature’(42). The fact that non literary texts are not the concern of Russian Formalists reduces the scope to apply Formalist theoretical linguistic views on a wide range of social and historical texts that could lead to the development of issues that would in their turn contribute to literary criticism. Ann Jefferson and David Robey express the view that ‘Although formalist theory was devised as a means of providing a more rigorous alternative to what Jakobson called ‘subjective chit chat’ about literature, the concept of defamiliarization does implicitly presuppose a reader or a reading public whose expectations are jolted or subverted by the defamiliarizing devices of the literary text’(45).

Possible questions to approach the analysis of texts through Formalism How are the various parts of the work interconnected? What is the effect of the plot, and what parts specifically produce that effect? What figures of speech are used? (Metaphors, similes, and others) How do paradox, irony, ambiguity, and tension work in the text? How do these parts and their collective whole contribute, or do not, to the aesthetic quality of the work? What does the form of the work say about its content? Is there a central or focal passage that can be said to sum up the entirety of the work? How is the work’s structure unified? What recurring patterns (repeated or related words, images, etc.) can you find? How do patterns of repetition reinforce the theme(s)? How does the writer’s diction reveal or reflect the work’s meaning? Note the writer’s use of paradox, irony, symbol, plot, characterization, and style of narration. What effects are produced? Do any of these relate to one another or to the theme? Is there a relationship between the beginning and the end of the story? How does the author create tone and mood? What relationship is there between tone and mood and the effect of the story? How do the various elements, in addition to structure as informed in the first question, interact to create a unified whole? How does the author resolve apparent contradictions within the work? 39

How does the work use imagery to develop its own symbols? How do the rhythms and/or rhyme schemes of a poem contribute to the meaning or effect of the piece?

Some Examples of the Perspectives of Formalism applied to literary works 1. A Formalist Perspective of George Orwell’s (1903-1950) Animal Farm (1945). ‘Animal Farm for the Formalists would not be an allegory of Stalinism; on the contrary, Stalinism would simply provide a useful opportunity for the construction of an allegory’ (Eagleton 3). At the same time, critics and students need to consider that ‘it would probably have come as a surprise to George Orwell to hear that his essays were to be read as though the topics he discussed were less important than the way he discussed them’ (Eagleton 8). 2. A Formalist Perspective of "The Use of Force" a short story by William Carlos Williams, by Stephenson Chea, April 2nd, 2010. available online. https://sites.google.com/site/.../what-is- biographical-criticism Summary In "The Use of Force," the Olsons ask the narrator to examine their daughter, Mathilda. The narrator, a doctor, knows that Mathilda must be very ill if her parents are willing to pay him for a house call. Knowing that there has been a diphtheria outbreak at Mathilda's school, the doctor suspects that she has contracted the disease. (Diphtheria causes a thick covering in the back of the throat leading to difficulty breathing, heart failure, paralysis, and even death.) In order to determine the exact cause of her illness, the doctor must secure a throat culture from Mathilda but she refuses to open her mouth for a throat swab and makes this exceedingly difficult. The doctor's cajoling and stern rebukes fail. The doctor must resort to force. Mathilda does indeed have diphtheria. Analysis: A formalist critic reading William Carlos Williams's "The Use of Force" might consider how the story begins and ends, contrasting its opening matter-of-fact objective description with its concluding shift of perspective and heightening of language. A formalist perspective would typically include observations about the relations among the characters, particularly with the doctor, who is clearly an outsider, invited in among them only because of the sick daughter. Character relations are of paramount interest in Williams’ story since a conflict occurs between the doctor and his patient. Unable to softly convince the little girl, the conflict is resolved only through the use of force. The relations between the doctor and the parents are equally interesting since their surface behaviour contrasts with their feelings about each other. Other aspects of the story of interest from a formalist perspective would include The writer's use of the first person narration, especially the way the narrator's thoughts are made known to readers. A formalist critic might ask what difference it would make if the story were 40

told in the third person, or if the narrator's ideas were to be voiced in direct dialogue. At a key moment – a climactic one, in fact - the story shifts from internal report of the doctor's thoughts to direct dialogue. A formalist would be interested in the effects of this shift, especially in its artistic effectiveness. 3. A formalist critic reading of Emily Dickinson's "I'm 'wife'" available on line at https://sites.google.com/site/.../what-is-biographical-criticism

Im “wife”— I’ve finished that— That other state— I’m Czar—I’m “Woman” now—— It’s safer so-

How odd the Girl’s life looks Behind this soft Eclipse-— I think that Earth feels so To folks in Heaven—now—

This being comfort--then That other kind-~was pain~— But why compare? I’m “Wife”! Stop there!

Book: The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson A formalist critic reading Emily Dickinson's "I'm 'wife"' would note its neat division into three stanzas and consider the focus of each. A formalist perspective would consider why, in fact, the poem is cast in three stanzas and not one or two, four, or six. A consideration of the relationship between form and meaning might help readers notice how the poem's rhyme scheme and its sentence patterns reinforce or subvert its stanza organization. Other considerations formalist critics would be likely to raise about the poem might include the connotations of "Czar" for the speaker. Of particular importance in this regard would be the language used to describe the "Girl's life in the second stanza, especially how it is described as existing behind a "soft Eclipse." Readers following a formalist agenda might also question how the slant rhymes of the poem contribute to its idea and its effect. Famous scholars in Neo-Aristotelianism (Chicago School of Criticism) Ronald Salmon Crane: literary critic, historian, bibliographer, and professor. He is credited with the founding of the Chicago School of Literary Criticism. - Critics and Criticism: Ancient and Modern, 1952. Crane emphasized Form and Matter in his writings as inseparable entities within poetry . He uses references to Aristotle and more precisely to his distinction between imitative and non-imitative poetry. Elder Olson, Norman Maclean, W.R. Keast, Wayne C. Booth - The Rhetoric of Fiction, 1961, Richard McKeon and Bernard Weinberg are also closely related to Neo-Aristotelianism.

41

More Figures to consider Victor Erlich Mikhaïl Bakhtine

42

Week Four II.2. The New Criticism ‘New critics were very aware of ambiguity and the ironies that existed within a text, the potential of language to hold several, sometimes opposed ideas within itself’ (Stephen 357). ‘Interpretations, especially in American criticism, are usually ‘readings’ (though not in Todorov’s sense) of particular texts. Each reading is in some way a reduction of the text to a particular meaning that may be drawn out of it’( Scholes 151). ‘The New Critics believed that the literary critic’s task is to discover the principle of unity which integrates the disparate elements of a text’ (Selden 109).

43

The objective of this lesson is to familiarize students with the concept of New Criticism and to clearly make them differentiate New Criticism from Formalism. In addition to the methodology announced in the introduction to these lessons, the lesson about New Criticism gives students the opportunity to check and revise many literary devices that New Criticism pays attention to. In parallel to the former lessons, New Criticism starts with the key words.

Key words : close reading, aesthetic object, ambivalences and paradoxes, literariness, devices, Intentional Fallacy, Affective Fallacy, Romantic Fallacy, intrinsic approach

What is New Criticism? New Criticism attempts to be a science of literature. It refers to a formalist movement in literary theory. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, in order to discover how a work of literature functioned as a self-contained, self-referential aesthetic object. That aspect is remindful of the object of study for Formalism. New criticism is embodied in René Wellek and Austin Warren's Theory of Literature (1962). It rejects old historicism's attention to biographical and sociological matters. Instead, the objective determination as to "how a piece works" can be found through close focus and analysis, rather than through extraneous and erudite special knowledge. Though both Russian Formalism and New Criticism use the same terminology, some differences exist and will be pointed to further in this lesson.

Where does the term New Criticism come from and Who is the father of New Criticism? The term New Criticism was first coined in the nineteenth century. It was first introduced in the early 20 th Century in America by John Crowe Ransom with his work entitled The New Criticism (1941) and it dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. The roots can be traced back to 12 ‘southern intellectuals’ (Eagleton 46) also agrarians. The ‘nature of the New Criticism is that it developed outside the ambit of the main university graduate schools, in small colleges mainly in the South’ (Jefferson and Robey 81). Thus, professors and poets reacted against modern approaches that denaturated the world. The movement did not have a name until American critic and poet John Crowe Ransom, founder of the Kenyon Review wrote a book titled The New Criticism (1941), a work that loosely organized the principles of this basically linguistic approach to literature. Thus, New Criticism became established in common academic and literary usage. It was first widely used in American schools and universities and quickly spread to England and other countries.

44

Another scholar, Ivon Amstrong Richards (1893 – 1979), was the first in Britain, to promote the demand for close reading of texts.: He was a Cambridge scholar. His works, especially The Meaning of Meaning: A Study of the Influence of Language upon Thought and of the Science of Symbolism (1923) co-written with C. K. Ogden offered an empirical scientific approach. Practical Criticism: A Study of Literary Judgment (1929), Principles of Literary Criticism (1924), and The Philosophy of Rhetoric (1936) were also important to the development of New Critical methodology, and led to calling Richards the father of New Criticism. He was one of the first to study literary interpretation as a kind of science. T.S.Eliot also contributed to the New Criticism and was a very influential scholar. His Critical Essays greatly influenced the formation of the New Critical canon. In Tradition and the Individual Talent and Hamlet and His Problems , Eliot developed his notion of the ‘objective correlative’ and his evaluative judgments, such as his condemnation of Milton and Shelley. He liked the so-called metaphysical poets and insisted that poetry must be impersonal. Ann Jefferson and David Robey state that ‘[t]he point is frequently made, quite rightly, that the American New Criticism is a development of Richards’s and Eliot’s work fused together’ (Jefferson and Robey 80). New Criticism lost its impact as the dominant mode of Anglo-American literary criticism by the 1970s. Yet many aspects of its research method are still in use today under different theoretical namings. Due to the focus on the objective structural relationships within the work, New Criticism influenced the later schools of structuralism, post-structuralism and deconstruction.

What did New Critics rely on? New Criticism was created out of the formalist movement. New critics felt that elements such as the reader’s response, the author’s intention, historical and cultural contexts, political context, and moralistic bias should not be factors to take into consideration in analyzing literature but that they should rather be excluded altogether. ‘The new critics were the first group in Britain and the United States to claim that literary criticism could be a completely self-sufficient discipline, without relying upon an extra-literary apparatus of linguistic and historical skills, and that this could be achieved by concentrating on the close study of literary texts’(Selden 3).The autonomy of the text is stressed. New Criticism focuses on "objectively" evaluating the text, identifying its underlying form and examining the relationships between a text's ideas and its form, between the message of the text and the way that message is formulated. It may study, for example, a text's use of imagery, metaphor, or symbolism. For new criticism, the concern is with the text itself, its language and its and organization. ; a text’s meaning is not the priority but how it speaks itself through specific devices. New Criticism did not insist on the separation of form and content. Instead, both form and content are important and they are inseparable. The New critics took the concern of the Romantics 45

in terms of literature’s unity in imagination and they added the scientific aspect needed for the analysis of texts. Consequently, the quality of a text’s moral aspects becomes inseparable from its quality in its form, its imagery and style.

What are some of the textual features that New Criticism takes into consideration? The process of Interpretation (steps to undertake with this theory) considers the analysis of parts of speech in a text and then moves to their contribution to an organic whole. (Students should note that other theoretical approaches that overlap with this theoretical approach also focus on the analysis of figures of speech; Formalism for example. ) 1. Parts as Connotative, Denotative and associative values of words The New Critics argued that literary language is connotative and thus it has multiple meanings. The connotation may directly conflict with the denotation and sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between the different connotations. Example: 3 lines from Robert Frost’s poem “Out, Out” As he swung toward them holding up the hand Half in appeal, but half as if to keep The life from spilling The word “life” connotes “blood” 2. Parts as Poetics Elements Figures of Speech such as Irony: paradoxical events, ideas, or attitudes that are played off against each other Example: 2 lines from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Water, water everywhere Nor any drop to drink Metaphor: brief or extended comparison of something with something else. Example: A sea of troubles Personification: comparing inanimate things to people Example: the fire swallowed the entire forest Simile: something or someone is "as" or “like” something else. Example: she is like a rose. Symbolism: using inanimate or imagined things to stand for real situations. Imagery: specific details used to describe characters, situations, things, ideas, or events Hearing: images that make you hear sounds in your mind; onomatopoeia for instance. Seeing: images that draw mental pictures; clichés for instance. Smelling: images that bring the memories of odours and aromas to mind

46

Tasting: images that make you recall or imagine how something might taste Touching: images that help you imagine how something might feel on your skin 3. Narrative Elements Characters: creation and representation of fictional persons and entities. Three types exist which are: a. Totally fictional and thus entirely invented. b. Based on true people and thus half fictional and half real. c. Totally real with their real name or may be disguised under other names. Protagonist: the main character with whom the audience is expected to sympathize Antagonist: the main villain, adversary, opponent Dynamic character: changing, growing, active Static character: not growing or changing, an inactive personality Flat: not well-developed Round: well-developed Plot: a series of events or happenings that organize a text. The plot can be: Simple: arranged with few twists and turns Complicated: characterized by many twists and turns Plausible: believable, everyday plots Implausible: fantastic plots which are not acceptable in the everyday sense of reality Chronological: linear telling of events Backward: starting at the end and working toward the beginning Circular: a reflection that begins anywhere, goes to the end, works its way to the beginning, and eventually gets back to where it started Flashbacks: looking back into time Conflict: plot features that demonstrate human rivalries and difficulties, whether internal or external. Internal: conflicts which are passive, perhaps mental or covertly expressed External: conflicts which are active, perhaps physical or overtly expressed Climax: the point of highest dramatic tension in a text Denouement: final part of a play, movie, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved. Setting: atmosphere, historical period, physical setting, or mood of text Place: physical or psychical locations of events. Time: physical or psychical progression of events Historical: grounded in a "real" historical time period A historical: not grounded in any "real" historical period; it is imaginary or fantastic 47

Theme: a major idea or message in the text. Point of view: perspective of the controlling narrative voice First person: narrative voice that speaks with "I/we/us" pronouns and perspective Third person: narrative voice that uses "he/she/they" pronouns Subjective: narrator whose personal viewpoint has skewed the telling of the story Objective: narrator who tries to tell the story from an impersonal point of view Omniscient: narrator who presumes to know the ultimate truth of the story Limited omniscience: narrator who doesn't know everything Reliable: narrator who can be trusted to tell the truth and be objective Unreliable: narrator who cannot be trusted to tell the truth or be objective

4. Whole : what is the text about? After understanding how the different elements of analysis interrelate, the critics can then declare what the text means. It is all the parts that have contributed to the whole text and its meaning. How can these parts be used in approaching a text? The following section suggests some possible ways to approach a text by suggesting some questioning.

Strengths of the New Criticism literary theory In the analysis of a literary text, there is no need to know the biography of the author or to situate the text in a historical background since it is the content of the text that matters in terms of words used in a specific way to render a specific piece of literature. Consequently, ‘what counts from the viewpoint of criticism is only what is embodied in the text, and that is wholly accessible to anyone with the knowledge of the language and culture to which the text belongs’ (Jefferson and Robey 81). Because the New Critics focus on the text itself, it is within the text that explanations for interpretation are to be found. New Criticism pays attention to all ambivalences and paradoxes that exist in the text and that contribute to the full meaning of that text. New Criticism isn’t concerned with matters outside the text. Consequently, the text turns to be an object of art on its own. Such a definition fits that of Formalism; yet some differences exist in the intentions of the two theories. Literary texts hold a special position as texts worth studying as ‘the New Critics [also] held that literary texts are texts of a special kind and that the task of criticism is to give an account of this special character’ (Jefferson and Robey 82). The central argument is that the text is “la raison d’être”. So, the reader has to avoid three types of errors. Two of these errors have been discussed in two essays written by the New Critics William

48

K. Wimsatt and Monroe C. Beardsley. They are entitled The Intentional Fallacy and The Affective Fallacy. The third kind can be called Romantic Fallacy. What are these fallacies about? 1. The Intentional Fallacy as the name indicates comes from the fact that an error might occur through the reference of the author’s intentions in a text, when one confuses the meaning of a work with the author's purported intention (expressed in letters, diaries, interviews, for example). Thus the student and the critic should not aim at interpreting a text according to the writer’s intention (the text as an object which can be appreciated and decoded without resource to authorial intention). David Carter reports that ‘[I]n his book Practical Criticism (1929) Richards included examples of work by his students, in which they attempted to analyze short unidentified poems. ….It included the ruthless exclusion of any consideration of context, historical or social, and of biography of the author, its scope was limited but it did have one positive effect. It nurtured the close reading of texts.’(25) What about the other type of error? 2. The Affective Fallacy refers to the interpretation of a text according to its affect on the reader from a linguistic point of view. The word here is ‘affect’, not to be mistaken for ‘effect’. It concerns how language has been used to produce particular effects in the text not to be mistaken with the erroneous practice of interpreting texts according to the psychological or emotional responses of readers, confusing the text with its results. Thus, once more, the meaning resides in the text and not in the reader This is why paraphrasing a text may alter its meaning and rewording should be avoided altogether. It is the words of the author that matter rather than an interpretation by the reader as the reader might be affected to interpret language according to his perception. The text is once more the focus and its language is what matters. 3. The Romantic Fallacy : New Critics, especially American ones in the 1940s and 1950s, attacked the standard notion of "expressive realism," the romantic fallacy that literature is the efflux of a noble soul, that for example love pours out onto the page in rhyming lines. The goal then is not the pursuit of sincerity or authenticity, but subtlety, unity, and integrity--and these are properties of the text, not the author. The work is not the author's; it was detached at birth. The author's intentions are "neither available nor desirable" (nor even to be taken at face value when supposedly found in direct statements by authors). Meaning exists on the page. The reader, however, has to follow an intrinsic approach. He has to “enter” the text in order to unlock its meaning from the inside. It is not necessary to consider external factors. Thus, New Critics insist that the meaning of a text is intrinsic. It should not be confused with the author's intentions nor the work's affective dimension, which are its impressionistic effects on the reader as discussed in the coming section for the essays entitled Intentional Fallacy and Affective Fallacy.

49

Shortcomings of the New Criticism literary theory Jefferson and Robey point to the fact that ‘Stylistic analysts are likely to hold that the New Critics paid insufficient attention to the linguistic form of texts since … they were really only interested in certain kinds of structures of meaning…’ (88). Jefferson and Robey warn the reader and critic that ‘Interpreting the meaning of a text is not just a matter of adding together cumulatively the individual meanings of the words of which it is composed’ (89). These scholars have also stated that ‘The only history that the critic must master is the history of words…’ (81-82).

Suggested Guiding Questions in New Criticism -How does this piece of literature work? -What are the complexities in the text? (Paradoxes, ironies, ambiguities) -Is there a unifying idea or theme which resolves tensions created by paradoxes, ironies, or ambiguities? -How does the character evolve during the story? -What is unique or interesting about a character? -Is the character a stereotypical action hero, a tragic hero, a patriarchal father figure, or Madonna? -How does a character interact with other characters? -How does the setting enhance tension within the work? -Do any elements in the setting foreshadow the conclusion of the piece? -What is the conflict? -How do scenes lead to a suspenseful resolution? -What scenes make the plot unusual, unexpected, and suspenseful? -Who is telling the story? -Is the narrator omniscient (all knowing) or does the narrator have limited understanding? -Does the text contain words that interact with one another? -Are there any figures of speech and symbols in the text? What do they mean? -Are there interrelations and ambiguities in the text? -Is there the establishment of parallels in the text? Do they create any unity?

Examples of texts approached through New Criticism W.H.Auden’s poem In memory of W.B.Yeats is recommended for reading because it has given unintentional support to the school of New Criticism. W.H.Auden ‘wrote of a poem being an object cast upon the waves, totally divorced and separate from its author once it has been written, forced to exist as a poem regardless of why or when it had been written’ ( Stephen 357).

50

William Empson, Seven Types of Ambiguity . Sandra Cisneros, Woman Hollering Creek

Additional Notable figures R. P. Blackmur Cleanth Brooks Allen Tate Robert Penn Warren F.R.Leavis

How to differentiate between Russian Formalism and New Criticism ? In terms of parallels: Both approaches focus exclusively on the text itself. Both approaches insist on the necessity to undertake an attentive close reading (focus on the verbal qualities of the text) What about differences ? It is important to notice that both schools developed in different times and places. Russian Formalism originated in Russia around 1915 and New Criticism flourished in USA by the late 1930s, and thereby it extended to England. (This will be stressed in the lesson about New Criticism) For new criticism, "A poem must not mean/But be". The New Critic is concerned with the text itself, "with its language and organization; it does not seek a text meaning, but how it speaks itself." New Criticism does not insist on the separation of form and content. Instead, both form and content are important and they are inseparable as they are the two faces of the same aspect). David Carter states in Literary Theory that: ‘…New Criticism did not consider the poem to be cut off completely from reality. It was not, in other words, an entirely formalist approach, which would involve examining only the form of an isolated entity’ (Carter 27). The analysis of poems takes into consideration the outside world that it incorporates within the poem. But this should not be confused with the elements to be excluded as mentioned earlier. The New Critics ‘were not much interested in the ideas of difference, defamiliarization or deviance to which the Formalists and their successors attached so much weight. What New Critics emphasized was convergence within the text rather than deviation from an external standard. As a result, they were far less interested in literary innovation than the Formalists tended to be’ (Jefferson and Robey 83).

51

Week Five II. 3. Structuralism and Semiotics ‘Structuralism is arguably the most difficult of modern theories of criticism and the most divorced from normal, everyday thought’ (Stephen 359). ‘Structuralism broke with conventional literary criticism in many ways, while remaining mortgaged to it in many others’ (Eagleton 111 ).

52

This lesson deals with structuralism which is a method of intellectual analysis. In the first place, it is a movement of thought in the human sciences. Stephen Bonnycastle considers that ‘[T]he development of structuralist literary criticism was the most important change in ways of dealing with literature in the twentieth century; indeed, some scholars think that the rise of structuralism in general constituted one of the major turning points in western intellectual history’ (Bonnycastle 93). Structuralism is shared by various scholars in different fields of knowledge such as anthropology, philosophy, and psychology. ‘At its heart, Structuralism proposes that there is no such thing as objective reality in literature. The basic element of all literature, the phonemes or elementary speech sounds of language, do not have a permanent or obvious meaning’ (Stephen 360). The structure adopted by an author is conveyed to the reader through technical devices. Because structuralism is closely related to Semiotics, this lesson differs in the methodology from the other lessons. It constantly refers to semiotics, its representatives and its method of analysis. The purpose in so doing is to enable students to differentiate between the various possibilities that structuralism and semiotics offer in approaching literary texts for analysis. ‘In literary Criticism, the Russian Formalists and their structuralist descendants have worked toward discovering the universal principles that govern the literary use of language, from the syntax of fictional construction to the paradigms of poetry’ (Scholes 6). In this lesson, more precisions about the parallels and differences between structuralism,Semiotics, Formalism , and New Criticism are given.

Key words : structure, linguistics, language, signs, meaning, context, signifier, signified

What is the literary theory of Structuralism and Semiotics? Structuralism has attempted to create a new science and in terms of literary studies, Structuralism and Semiotics focus on literature as a system of signs where meaning is constructed in a context. It considers that words are inscribed with a particular meaning by being compared to other words and structures. It challenges the belief held by tradition that a literary text reflects reality. Stucturalists hold the opinion that texts are constituted of conventions. Thus the language in the text is not related to its author or sociological factors . Structuralism rejects mimetic criticism as there can be no imitation of reality according to Structuralists; likewise, it rejects expressive criticism as a literary text cannot be related to the feelings and the views of its author.

How did Structuralism develop? Structuralism originated in the early 1900s and was a dominant theory in its literary critical form from the 1960s into the 1970s. It was inaugurated in the 1950s by anthropologist Claude Lévi-

53

Strauss in France and in addition, it arose out of the fields of sociology and psychology. In literary criticism, the concern with “structure” can be traced back to Aristotle’s Poetics. In recent years, Ferdinand de Saussure, the Swiss “father of modern linguistics,” has influenced contemporary structuralists. Cours de Linguistique Général (1913) is a posthumous reconstruction of his lectures from his students’ notes. It reveals that language is considered to be a system of signs, a study called semiology. His studies have impacted literary theory. According to the Swiss scholar, language is a system of signs. It is arbitrary and culturally determined. There is no “intrinsic” or natural relationship to outside reality. The argument is that if a word were to determine the object that it refers to, then such a word would be common to all languages, which is not the case. For structuralists, a word consists of a fusion of the Signifier, what is pronounced and heard when naming an object and the Signified which is the concept. A book is named a book but it could have been named differently since it is not the word ‘book’ that designates the same object in another language. Consequently, language is considered to be instrumental. It is signs that give meanings to things rather than things to signs. De Saussure distinguishes ‘langue’, the system of signs from ‘parole’, which are the individual utterances that the system of language makes one use. Terry Eagleton states that ‘[I]t is in fact, the literary movement of modernism which brought structuralist and post-structuralist criticism to birth in the first place. Some of the later works of Barthes and Derrida are modernist literary texts in themselves, experimental, enigmatic and richly ambiguous.’ ( Eagleton 139). Jefferson and Robey indicate that Jacques Derrida’s writing, mostly related to the theory of Deconstruction which is explained in the next lesson, ‘…is both a continuation and a critique of structuralism’ (Jefferson and Robey 112). This opinion is remindful of Stephen Martin’s statement mentioned at the beginning of this lesson in the sense that Structuralism is one of the most difficult literary theories to master. Structuralism also relates to Roman Jakobson who developed the concept of binary opposition. His major concern was the opposition of metaphor and metonymy. For him binary opposition affects the analysis of realism and symbolism.

What does Structuralism deal with in literary texts? In the study of literature, structuralists have examined a whole variety of texts, such as fairy tales and myths and have employed linguistic analysis to reveal how structures are formed. The work of French theorists Roland Barthes (1915-1980) and Michel Foucault (1926-1984) contributed to the field of literary criticism based on structuralism. Roland Barthes’ work entitled The Death of the Author (1967) illustrates that there is no intention from the author who is erased from the analysis of the text just as the reader is dismissed.

54

In 1975, a branch of structuralism detached its opinion and started considering the place of the reader in the analysis of the text. This is illustrated in what Robert Scholes states regarding ‘what Barthes and Genette have in common and what they share with all good readers or interpreters of texts,[which] is a strong sense of how the text depends on the reader’s activity for its completion. Since this is precisely what was missing in linguistic structuralism and descriptive stylistics, this emphasis on the role of the reader is of immense importance for the future of structuralist activity’ (Scholes 162). The reader cannot be totally put aside. Structuralists examine the structures that are formed grammatically, prosodically, phonetically, and semantically. They determine the functions of sound, rhyme, rhythm, and meaning as these interact and form patterns. As opposed to traditional criticism which is involved not only with meaning but also with value in literature, Structuralism does not focus on the “meaning” of a literary work. It gives importance to its basic linguistic structure more than with the uniqueness of literary works as aesthetic objects. The text represents a closed system of signifiers and signified with no relation to any external influence.

Why is the term Semiotics associated to Structuralism? In fact, the concept of language as a sign had its core development with its founder, the American Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914). Semiotics is also known as semiology, the name proposed by Ferdinand De Saussure. It deals with how humans communicate with each other through signs. It concentrates on language and linguistics and has become associated with structuralism. It is concerned with detailed readings.

What is the relationship of Structuralism, Semiotics and Formalism? All these literary theories focus on formal elements of the text (structuralism to a different degree than formalism). They all reject biographical examinations to analyze a text. They seek to find underlying elements that they clarify. De Saussure’s ideas were developed by the Prague Linguistic Circle mentioned in the lesson entitled Russian Formalism and Structuralism.

What are the main differences between Formalism and Structuralism? While formalism seeks out irony and paradox to find meaning through tensions and ambiguity, which are unique to a particular text under analysis, structuralism examines deeper units in the text and deals with abstract elements like the plot structure. Formalists work with one single work while Structuralism doesn’t always stay within the confines of a single literary work as it explores concepts in works of the same genre. Structuralists

55

seek common points with smaller units like plot, language, and others that are common throughout literature and its genres. They look for commonality within various texts.

What are the strengths of Structuralism ? Structuralism, ‘may claim a privileged place in literary study because it seeks to establish a model of the system of literature itself as the external reference for the individual works it considers’ (Scholes 10). ‘In the structuralist vision of man, a new awareness of the nature of language and the processes of thought has led to a new awareness of human universality. Structuralism. with its necessary adjunct, transformationalism, has worked against nationalism and against egotism in general’ (Scholes 190). There is no set of procedures that must be applied when approaching a text. It is the reader’s development of empathy towards the consciousness of the author, that is reflected in the text, that is analysed through the set of technical devices that are used.

What are the shortcomings of Structuralism ? The relation between literature in general and individual texts is seen by Barthes in a rather different way from that implied by poetics. He questions the structuralist practice of reducing individual texts to a microcosm of a general poetics, of using ‘the different gaze of science’ to enforce them to ‘rejoin, inductively, the Copy from which we will then make them derive’ (1975 :3) (Jefferson and Robey 108). Too detailed an analysis may be reductive as expressed by ‘… Poulet [who] would accuse structuralism of treating literary texts reductively, X raying them in search of their bone structure while missing their substance’ (Scholes 8). To pay attention to a systematic use of language is not applicable to meaning that can derive infinite interpretations. Thus, ‘For literary structuralism one of the great challenges is to discriminate accurately between the tendency toward system – especially at the level of the individual work- and the failure to achieve it. Genette, in particular, has been eloquent in pointing out the danger of regarding literary works as ‘closed’ and ‘finished’ objects in order to treat them systematically’ (Scholes 10). Gérard ‘Genette’s largest contribution to structuralist narrative theory is his Narrative Discourse. This is a remarkable study for a number of reasons, but chief amongst these must be its comprehensiveness’ (Jefferson and Robey 102) Another danger for structuralism has been what we might call the ‘Formalistic Fallacy’ – for it is related to a reproach usually leveled against Formalism, and which the Russian Formalists, especially in their earliest enthusiasm, sometimes deserved. The formalistic fallacy is a lack of concern for the ‘meaning’ or ‘content’ of literary works, and it is a charge frequently brought against that criticism which refuses to acknowledge the presence of a cultural world beyond the literary work and a cultural system beyond the literary system. (Scholes 11).

56

To analyse a text systematically by paying attention to its mechanisms may be reductive of its artistic production. Creativity needs to be valued and ‘Every aspect of literature that can be reduced to rules threatens to sink, as Coleridge said, ‘into a mechanical art’’ (Scholes 169). Each text possesses its own characteristics and systems may be grouping individual specificities rather than giving them individual expressions. Consequently, ‘[P]erhaps the reproach most frequently addressed to structuralist literary criticism is that it fails at the level of the individual text’ (Scholes 142). To look for collective and shared attributes is not an advantage in artistic productions as such an approach suppresses originality since no text can be exactly parallel to another text.

Differences between Structuralism and New Criticism For Roland Barthes, ‘criticism consists in actively constructing a meaning for a text and not in passively deciphering the meaning; for in the structuralist view there is no single meaning in literary works. This insistence on the plurality of meanings in a text is the logical consequence of the absence of any authorial intention in literature. In structuralist theory this absence is far more radical than it is in the case of the New Critics’ (Jefferson and Robey 97-98). Terry eagleton states that ‘[L]anguage is Barthes’s theme from beginning to end, and in particular the Saussurean insight that the sign is always a matter of historical and cultural convention’ (135). In addition, Roland ‘Barthes’ typology is based on his distinction between the lisible (the readerly) and the scriptable ( the writerly)’ (Jefferson and Robey 118).

How can Structuralism be related to other literary theories ? Stephen Bonnycastle points to how structuralism can be related to psychoanalysis. For him, ‘if language structures our world and our perceptions without our being aware of it, there is a possibility of understanding ourselves much better if we can raise this system to consciousness. … Structuralism has influenced some kinds of psychoanalysis by focusing on the verbal qualities of the unconscious mind, and on how our unconscious knowledge of language affects our conscious activities’ (Bonnycastle 100). In the consideration of language, it appears that other theories are also related to structuralism. The questioning of the use of the words ‘doctor, director or writer’ could lead to questioning the feminine of these words. Feminism is thus related to structuralism. The same concepts are available for Marxism and Post Colonialism, because language reveals the relationship of people; all literary theories can be related to structuralism as they claim some findings and are lenses through which different texts can be interpreted.

57

Examples of works with possible use of Structuralism David Lodge, Nice Work (1988) The Codes of Roland Barthes and the Figures of Gerard Genette. Todorov’s Grammaire du Décaméron , despite the reference to a particular text in the title, deals primarily with ‘the structure of narrative in general and not with that one book (1969:10). Its aim is to establish ‘the science of narrative’ which Todorov baptizes ‘narratology’ (Jefferson and Robey 99). Structralism in Literature, An Introduction, Robert Scholes, Yale University Press, 1975, pp. 148- 167

Additional Major figures Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002) Roman Ingarden (1893-1970) Algirdas Julien Greimas (1917 -1992) Jonathan Culler (1944- ) Vladimir Propp (1895-1970) Terence Hawkes (1932-2014) Wolfgang Iser (1926-2007)

58

Week Five II. 4. Deconstruction ‘once structuralism had become established, the French thinker Jacques Derrida took Saussurian linguistic concepts and some of the ideas of Structuralism to create Deconstruction, a term which is almost interchangeable with Poststructuralism’(Stephen 361). ‘… whereas Structuralism finds order and meaning in the text as in the sentence, Deconstruction finds disorder and a constant tendency of the language to refute its apparent sense ‘(Guerin 176)

59

In a parallel analysis to Formalism, New Criticism and Structuralism, Deconstruction is a text based approach. The text is considered once again as the only provider of meaning and Deconstruction involves close reading. However, deconstruction challenges the structuralist’s assumption that a text’s meaning can be discovered through an examination of its structure. Guerin states that ‘[L]ike Structuralism, Deconstruction identifies textual features but, unlike Structuralism, concentrates on the rhetorical rather than the grammatical’(176). Deconstruction considers the ambiguities in signifiers and signified meanings; there can be many different signified meanings for a single signifier. A text may end up having an almost infinite number of possible interpretations.

Key words: Signifier, signified, binary opposition, deconstruct, difference

What is Deconstruction and who is the founding father of that literary theory? Jacques Derrida coined the term deconstruction and the concept of Difference. Derrida redefines writing and questions the fundamental conceptual distinctions, or “oppositions,” in Western philosophy . He stressed the fact that people tend to express their thoughts in terms of binary oppositions. Something is white but not black through a close examination of the language and logic of philosophical and literary texts. Derrida suggests that there is difference as these oppositions contain one term that Western culture views as positive or superior and another considered negative or inferior. Derrida’s aims are to erase the boundary between binary oppositions. He questions what is implied and criticizes Western logic through deconstruction as a response to structuralism and formalism.

What is the historical development of Deconstruction? Deconstruction started as a form of philosophical analysis and then as a literary one. Stephen Bonnycastle states that ‘Deconstruction, which is both a method of analyzing literature and a set of assumptions about language, emerged in France (and was taken up in the United States) as a response to the development of structuralism’ (Bonnycastle119). The term ‘deconstruction’ originates ‘in the German word ‘abbawen’, which simply means ‘to take apart’ or ‘to unbuild’ (Bonnycastle 119). René Descartes (1596-1650) and Fredrick Nietzsche (1844-1900) were pioneers in Deconstruction. They started to question the objective truth of language. This is also known as Post- structuralism as it took place after Structuralism. In the 1970s the term was applied to works by J. Hillis Miller, and Barbara Johnson, among other scholars.

60

During the 1980s and into the 1990s, ‘Jacques Derrida took Saussurian linguistic concepts and some ideas of Structuralism to create Deconstruction, a term which is almost interchangeable with Poststructuralism. Derrida took the structuralist fondness for coining new words several stages further’ (Stephen 361). Jacques Derrida and Paul de Man, dominated academic criticism (Bonnycastle 124). In the late 20th-century, Deconstruction connotated pejoratively to suggest nihilism and frivolous skepticism. In fashionable usage the expression has come to mean a critical dismantling of tradition and its modes of thought.

What does it deal with? What are binary oppositions? Deconstruction attempts to demonstrate that any given text cannot be a unified logical whole. Rather, it has got irreconcilably contradictory meanings. The approach does not dismantle the structure of the literary text. It analyses how the elements of the text already give way to inherent multiple meanings. It shows that different understandings take place in the same text depending on the elements themselves as they deconstruct an apparent obvious meaning. There are binary oppositions which are terms used in pairs and which can obtain a meaning that they first did not possess. A term that was in a subdued position ends up acquiring the domination of a term that used to dominate its meaning. Thus there is a deconstruction of what used to be in order to get a different meaning altogether. Examples such as man/woman, strength/weakness, black/white, young/old, beautiful/ugly are binary oppositions.

What does Deconstruction focus on? This theoretical approach rejects the traditional supposition that language represents reality. Deconstructionists consider language to be unstable as the same word may conjure different images depending on the reader. Since literary texts are made of words, different meanings can be obtained. Therefore rather than emphasizing what is said in a literary text, deconstructionists emphasize how language is used to say something. This approach is close to the Formalists’ approach but it differs in the sense that formalists’ goal is to locate unity within a text and deconstructionists attempt to show how the text deconstructs itself. They also challenge the notion of authors’ “ownership” of texts they create. The author fails to control meaning as words may mean different significations for different readers and these differ from the author’s first intention. Thus there is not one truth about the text but several ones. The language used in the text acquires power that the author did not suspect. Two important terms that pertain to deconstruction are Signifier and signified. The Signifier refers to the written and sound construction that makes up a word.

61

The Signified refers to the meaning and the concept that a signifier denotes. A single signifier can generate several signified meanings. Deconstruction considers the ambiguities that result from one single signifier and many different signified meanings. According to the Deconstructive approach, language is not static but dynamic. It can be ambiguous and also unstable. One of the most important concepts in the deconstruction theory is Binary oppositions. The word ‘binary’ refers as its name indicates to two terms or concepts, that is a pair, and as the word ‘opposition ‘ indicates that these two terms or concepts are opposite in meaning. For instance, the body is opposed to the mind, Day is opposed to night, Human to animal, Spirit to body, Conscious to unconscious, Male to female, Good to evil, child to adult and more examples can be found in literary texts. In the pair of the binary opposition, there is an aspect of domination carried by one part over the other that ends up being dominated. The deconstructive literary approach reverses the positions of the two parts in terms of making the dominant part become the dominated one and consequently, the once dominated part is now in control and no more oppressed in occupying the position of the dominant, a privileged status . The reader and critic of a literary text uncover meaning by looking at what is not in the text. Through binary oppositions, Deconstruction opens new ways of analysis as the reader and the critic have to think differently and realize that meaning is undecidable. Deconstruction offers a new reading strategy as will be seen in the examples provided in this lesson .

What are the strengths of Deconstruction? Meanings which are excluded or undervalued in texts can be rediscovered by readers. Writers and readers are open to more creativity. There is not one single meaning to be reached but possibility for multiple understandings.

What are the shortcomings of Deconstruction? To reach truth or knowledge become difficult as the literary text can be deconstructed in terms of various meanings. What is understood from the text becomes relative and even subjective. This meaning is close to the reader’s response to the text in the sense that the reader is going to give a subjective meaning.

Possible guiding questions to discover new meanings through Deconstruction Is there a possibility for the text to deconstruct itself? Identify the binaries and check how they are opposed 62

Comment on the values and the ideas that these binaries carry. Identify which part of the binary or pair is privileged by dominating the other. Reverse the position of the parts that form these binaries. Decide and observe the different possible meanings of the text. Do they oppose previously held meaning? Is meaning ambiguous and un-decidable? Does meaning oppose worldviews?

Examples of the Deconstruction theoretical approach of a literary text available online at : https://fr.slideshare.net/.../literary-criticism-deconstruction 1st example : Frederick Seidel’s Song to the moon You're born that way—or else you're not . It's snowing —or else it's hot . It's like the strangeness , that's also natural , The poem deconstructs itself. Or, explore the binary oppositions that govern a text.

2nd Example : Frederick Seidel’s Snow Snow is what it does. It falls and it stays and it goes. It melts and it is here somewhere. We all will get there. (Snow here symbolizes death so the opposite could be life, birth or rebirth. So, this poem then could be talking about Birth or Rebirth)

What are the differences held by Deconstruction, Structuralism, Formalism and New Criticism? Structuralists and formalists believe that all texts have centres of meaning and that they are unified from beginning to end. The Formalist and the New Critics assume that a work of literature is a self-contained object. Its meaning can be found in the complex relations between its parts such as allusions, images, rhythms, sounds, and other elements. In contrast, Deconstructors see works in terms of undecidability. When texts present ambiguities, Formalists make sense of them and they argue that every ambiguity serves a meaningful literary function that can be demonstrated. Deconstruction rejects such an aspect and decides that there is Undecidability. The ambiguities for deconstruction make it impossible for the reader to find unity and thus the meaning is undecided.

63

Additional Famous Figures to consider Richard Rorty (1931-2007) John D. Caputo (1940- ) Paul Ricœur (1913-2005) Richard Ellmann(1918-1987)

64

Week Six Part III. The Reader and the Text ‘A book involves the coming together of two consciousnesses – the writer’s and the reader’s. … the reader is made to think the thoughts of another’ (Selden 104 ). ‘Literary texts do not exist on bookshelves: they are processes of signification materialized only in the practice of reading. For literature to happen, the reader is quite as vital as the author’ (Eagleton 74).

65

Week Six III. 1. Reader Response Theories

‘Where, the critic must ask, is the locus of aesthetic values? Is it the poem, or the reader of the poem, or the relation between the two?’ (Wellek and Warren 249) ‘… with the distrust of authority that typifies so many modern critical theories, Reader Response criticism argues that there is no single ‘correct’ meaning for a work of literature’ (Stephen 363).

66

This lesson deals with how the Reader Response Theory challenges many concepts held by Formalism and The New Criticism. It explains how the reader is an important part in the reading process and how the interaction with the text can give way to different interpretations. Martin Stephen states that‘… Reader Response critics [who] rebelled against the New Critics’ belief that the proper object of critical study was the work’s intrinsic literary properties’ (126 ). Thus the rejection of the part that a reader plays in approaching a text is privileged as opposed to text oriented criticism which is privileged in Formalism and New Criticism as seen in previous lessons. Terry Eagleton points to what Jean Paul Sartres’ book entitled What is Literature? (1948) ‘makes clear … the fact that a work’s reception is never just an ‘‘external’’ fact about it, a contingent matter of book reviews and bookshop sales. … Every literary text is built out of a sense of its potential audience, includes an image of whom it is written for: every work encodes within itself what Iser calls an ‘implied reader’ intimates in its every gesture the kind of ‘addressee’ it anticipates’ ( Eagleton 84). The response of the reader to a text has called for various interpretative cases as shown in the following lessons which deal with the Reader Response Theory, Jauss’ Reception Theory, Jauss’ Horizons of Expectation, Rosenblatt’s transactional theory, the subjective reader-response theory associated with David Bleich, and the psychological reader-response theory as well as Hermeneutics which are all theories concerned with the role of the reader. The display of the sub sections of this lesson differs somehow from the other lessons; yet the major concerns remain in the same importance and are devoted full exploration.

Key words : reader, interaction, interpretation, reception, expectation, subjectivity

What is the Reader-Response approach? This type of perspective focuses on the activity of reading a work of literature. Reader-response critics turn away from the traditional idea that a literary work is an artifact (relic, objet d'art, manufactured article, object, piece, work of art) that has meaning built within it; they turn their attention instead to the responses of individual readers. By this shift of perspective, a literary work is converted into an activity that goes on in a reader’s mind. It is through this interaction that meaning is made. The real process of experiencing art is when the text and the reader interact. The features of the work itself—including narrator, plot, characters, style, and structure—are less important than the interplay between a reader’s experience and the text. Advocates of this perspective believe that literature has no inherent or intrinsic meaning waiting to be discovered. Instead, meaning is constructed by readers as they bring their own thoughts, moods, and experiences to whatever text they are reading. In turn, what readers get out of a text depends upon their own expectations and ideas.

67

When and why did the Reader Response Theory appear? It appeared in the late 1930s but didn’t really get effective until the 1970s. . According to Stephen Bonnycastle, ‘Interest in reader-response criticism has increased greatly…. partly as a result of the attempt to connect literary theory to what actually occurs in the classroom’ (Bonnycastle 182). It was a reaction to new Criticism in the sense that the text cannot be the centre of attention.( In the lesson about New Criticism, we stressed the fact that New Criticism lost much of its domination by the 1970’s).

What does The Reader Response Theory deal with? It is a theory that devotes attention to the function of the reader in analyzing a literary text. The reactions of the reader matter as it is the reader that participates in the meaning of the text. It is the reader that holds the most important role and thus the result is a different understanding of the meaning with each reader. The experience of the reader, the psychological responses, the political beliefs, the educational background are components that the theory deals with as reactions to a text can be conditioned by former beliefs that interact with the text while the reading process takes place. An important notion is that the literary text on its own does not give any interpretation. It is the active reader that gives the text its meaning. There is, according to Reader Response, no “correct” reading that exists for a literary work. Different readers give different permissible ways of reading. In his work entitled Five Readers Reading (1975), Norman Holland ‘explores how readers adapt their identities in the course of interpreting a text and discover a new unity within themselves’ (Carter 76). This theory stresses the fact that ‘a work of literature does not exist as ‘‘words on a page’’ (Bonnycastle 182). Thus this theory assumes that meaning is created by a reader's or interpretive community's personal interaction with a text. It assumes no single, correct, universal meaning exists because meaning resides in the minds of readers. All readers read differently from one another. The same reader can read differently at two separate periods of his or her life. The reader may respond one way as a young person and a different way much later at a more advanced age. Two (or more) different readers may develop completely different interpretations of the same literary text. Literary texts do not have an objective existence but a subjective one as the reader interacts with the text. Literary texts do not enclose one meaning only. Meaning develops from the act of individual readings and sometimes re-readings. A text enters the mind of the reader and interacts with what already exist there. The reader’s personal history, experience in life and in reading affect and may influence the perception of a text.

68

It gives space to a subjective perspective of a text. It welcomes different interpretations of the same text. It considers changing points of view at different times by the same reader. It is the reader that matters. It turns a passive experience of objective reality in an active interaction between reader and author through the written word. Raman Selden explains that ‘During the 1960s a reaction … developed. A wide range of reader-response theories evolved which were based on different theoretical foundations but which all shared a conviction that a text’s meaning and significance was intimately bound up with the activity of the reader’ (Selden 121 ).

What are the elements that the Reader Response critics rely on? The reader, in the interaction with the text, is the primary basis in this theory As explained in the previous section, all of the experience of the reader as well as psychological responses, the political beliefs, and the educational background hold a part with the reader in the encounter with the text. The reader’s intellectual and emotional reactions to the work are paid attention to. The basic method in this approach is based on the reader’s interpretation of the literary text. It is influenced by his or her personal background. I.A.Richards’ position as a Formalist differs in the fact that he recognizes the interaction of reader and text as an important experience. He ‘ is interested in above all [is] analyzing the process of reading, and formulating criteria by which to evaluate the experience that reading produces’ (Jefferson and Robey 74). Unlike other Formalists, ‘his position is an essentially humanist one, in that it stresses the relevance of art to life. The critic is ‘‘as closely occupied with the health of the mind as the doctor with the health of the body (Richards, Science and Poetry , 1967:25. Moreover, poetry [general use for literary texts] can do for us what religion and philosophy no longer can, that is tell us ‘what to feel’ and ‘what to do’ Poetry, Science and Poetry concludes (p.82), is ‘capable of saving us’. It is this view of the experience produced by literature that causes Richards to emphasize the role of the reader rather than the author or the text’’ (Jefferson and Robey 76). For Richards, ‘much of his early writing is concerned with the theory of valuation, with the result that his view of the author-text-reader relationship is placed within an elaborate and sophisticated theoretical framework’ (Jefferson and Robey 77).

What are the steps to follow to approach a literary text from this perspective? Read the text at different moments and check whether your mood or emotions of the moment make you perceive the text differently. If so point to your response at different moments and relate to how differently you respond to the same text. Compare your response with that of other students.

69

Discuss your findings in a group so as to share the reasons that have driven you to a particular analysis.

What are the strengths of the Reader Response Theory ? Reader-response criticism gives emphasis to how aspects and influences of religious, cultural, and social values affect readings. It may also explore how men and women read the same text with different suppositions. It rejects the reduction of the reader’s responses to mere "affective fallacy." The reader acquires importance through the affective fallacy, a term that has been covered in the lesson entitled The New Criticism. Thus in the possible misconception that arises from judging a literary text by the emotional effect that it produces, a direct attack on impressionistic criticism is created as it argues that the reader’s response to a poem is the ultimate indication of its value. Winsatt and Beardsley ‘accepted that readers do experience emotional responses to what they read, but they added that the emotional impact of a literary work is always determined by objective features in the text’ (Selden 121). Text-oriented critics claim that one can understand a text while remaining immune to one’s own culture, status, personality, and so on, and hence "objectively." Reading regarded by Reader Response theorists is always both subjective and objective. Some reader-response critics, considered to be uniformists, assume a bi-active model of reading: the literary work controls part of the response and the reader controls part. Others, who see that position as internally contradictory, claim that the reader controls the whole transaction. In such a reader-active model, readers and audiences use amateur or professional procedures for reading (shared by many others) as well as their personal issues and values. Reader Response criticism fails to account for the text being able to expand the reader's understanding beyond one’s own. While readers put their own ideas and experiences into a work, they are not at the same time gaining new understanding through the text. Expanding one’s knowledge at the expense of gaining new knowledge is generally overlooked or missed in reader-response criticism.

What are the shortcomings of the Reader Response Theory? In case only individual experience is taken into account, the communal basis of literature might be put aside. The fact that there is unity in literature should not be fragmented to various interpretations that cannot hold together. It must be within a set of codes that readers give different interpretations as readers are first influenced and then affected by the same text in order to produce a response to their approach in reading that same text. It is important that “Each text creates limits to its possible interpretations.” (X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia’s Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama , Sixth Edition, New York: HarperCollins, 1995, pages 1790-1818.)

70

When reading for leisure, there are no dangers and no limitations. Participating to debates, class discussions or literary criticism is doomed to set limitations and orientations. Though readers respond differently to the same texts, classification into types with general terms is necessary. Guidelines are necessary for reading and participating in a group discussion. Readers cannot simply choose what matters to them and discard the rest. Text-oriented schools, such as formalism, often think of reader-response criticism as an anarchic subjectivism, allowing readers to interpret a text any way they want.

Guiding questions pertaining to Reader-Response Criticism How does the text make you feel? Do you respond to the text because it is great or because it relates to something great in you? or a combination of the two? (Holland) Why is a text appreciated by one reader and not by another one? Are you involved? Does the text remind you of something you have previously experienced? What memories or experiences come to mind when you read specific words or expressions or descriptions? How do you react to the characters’ acts and thoughts? If you were the central protagonist, would you have behaved differently? Why? What values or ethics do you believe are suggested by the story? As your reading of a text progresses, what surprises you, inspires you? How would you wish the text to be different though you have no effect in changing it? Why?

Examples 1. For example, if you read “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin and you have your own troubled younger brother or sister, the story will have meaning for you that it wouldn’t have for, say, an only child. https://jessiejeanwrites.wordpress.com/.../a-reader-response-to-sonn. 2. Online example of My papa’s waltz. This example is a direct experiment in class. It clearly shows the different responses that the same text creates. It points to some reasons why the text is analyzed and interpreted in various ways. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/.../reader-response-to- my-papas... 3. Terry Eagleton gives the example of the opening lines of a novel entitled Couple s (1968) by John Hoyer Updike and how the interpretation by various readers could lead to various understandings (Eagleton 74-76). 4. The following inscription was one of four composed by Valery for the Palais de Chaillot, which was built in Paris in 1937 to house museums and a theatre. It is an eloquent statement of one of the principles of Reader Response criticism (Bonnycastle 194).

71

Il dépend de celui qui passé Que je sois tombe ou trésor Que je parle ou me taise Ceci ne tient qu’à toi (Bonnycastle 182). Ami n’entre pas sans désir by Paul Valery and translated in English as: The person who passes here determines whether I am tomb or a treasure, whether I speak or am silent. This concerns only you; friend, do not enter this building without desire.

What to expect after the Reader Response Theory? It is clear that the reader, the student and the critic need to base their reading on arguments to defend their position in experiencing a text. Raman Selden states that: ‘Texts are full of gaps, blanks, ambiguities, indeterminacies, which the reader must fill, close up, or develop. Some reader- response critics place an emphasis on the reader’s contribution to a text’s meaning, while others recognize that there are ‘triggers’ in the text which direct the reader’s interpretative activity’(Selden 121 ). In the end each reader should be able to consider what made him or her understand a text in a particular way. As announced in the introduction, this lesson would be missing some general knowledge about other approaches without taking into consideration various interpretative cases such as Jauss’ Reception Theory, Jauss’ Horizons of Expectation , Rosenblatt’s transactional theory , the subjective reader-response theory associated with David Bleich, and the psychological reader- response theory. These five approaches of the Reader Response Literary Theory are focused upon in the following sequels to the main lesson.

1. Reception Theory With attention given to the reader and not the text only, there exist several theories. Hans Robert Jauss' Reception Theory is one of the Reader Response theories about how the reader reacts to a text. The phrase "Horizons of Expectation" is a term fundamental to German academic Hans Robert Jauss. It is also related to ‘Horizon of change’. Key words : reader, reception, expectation, horizon What is the Reception Theory? It is a theory, first proposed by Hans Robert Jauss in 1971. It is still seen as primarily a German movement. For Jauss and his followers, a literary text needs the active participation of the reader in order to exist. Whenever a text displays any type of indeterminacy, the reader comes into action so as to provide meaning for possible gaps or incompleteness. The reader can apply different types of

72

knowledge that are provided by the awareness of his or her own culture and background in education as well as reading and life in a more general way. Such behaviour in seeking responses to indeterminacy displayed by texts and by consulting previously acquired experience with texts is called the Horizon of expectation. Martin Stephen states that ‘These horizons change in different historical periods, and so each age or generation will produce a different interpretation of text. Reception Theory is distinguished from Reader Response criticism in general by its awareness of history and changing perspectives’ (Stephen 363). Jauss’ proposition is much in use in literary criticism.

How did this theory develop and Who is Hans Robert Jauss ? Hans Robert Jauss (1921–97) is a German academic, notable for his work in reception theory . He is also well known for his contribution to the field of medieval and modern French literature. His approach was derived from the hermeneutics (19 th century theory) of Hans-Georg Gadamer. What matters to Jauss is not literary history as the relationship of literary facts. He considers rather the chain of the reception of different readers in time through history.

What does the History of Reception assume? Jauss claims that for any narrative to be correctly examined, the horizons of expectations of the earliest ‘audience’ need to be re-established. This process is based on the way in which the past text was produced and then embraced by its audience. By discovering the 'questions' which the text answered, it allows the analyst to determine how the readers perceived and comprehended the work at that time. When an author of a past work is unknown and his purpose therefore difficult to identify, the most appropriate function to understand how the work is to be comprehended is to consider the text in comparison to the backdrop (background environment conditions setting milieu) of other texts of which the modern reader may hold implied as well as overt knowledge. This 'history of reception' works to determine the inter-textuality and 'historical expectation of readers' as variances in readings and emphasizes Jauss's primary concern of making the 'new and challenging' become 'familiar and effortless'.

What are the Key ideas of his theory? Reception continually actualises the meaning potential of the work. The reception of a work establishes the horizon of expectation of the first readership. Such reception reconstitutes the question to which the work originally gave an answer, the reasons why it was appealing, provocative or original.

73

2. Jauss’ Horizons of Expectation The every reader is aware of cultural norms and assumptions about a text. When these aspects are expected because the reader is used to finding them, expectation is met. There are cases however for which these expectations fail to satisfy the reader’s anticipations. Then, there occurs a horizon of change that can be satisfactory or deceitful for the reader.

Key words : horizon, expectation, reception, shift, aesthetic experience, reader

What is the ‘Horizon of expectations’ ? According to Jauss, the reader approaches a text armed with the knowledge and experience gained from interactions with other texts. These earlier texts arouse familiarity for the reader and are based on expectations and rules of genre and style. Readers expect certain endings and plot developments from their experience and familiarity with a similar type of reading. Jauss describes the reader as a functioning participant of the 'triangle' of text, writer and audience and that it is only the 'communication' between reader and text that will result in a shifting horizon of expectation. Interaction with a text can be emotive for the readers as their acquaintance with familiar features of genre can produce expectations for the 'middle and end' after the 'beginning' has provoked such anticipation. The horizons of expectations invoked for a reader from previous texts will be aroused by a new text and are adjusted, transformed or merely replicated depending on the boundaries of the genre. In other words, "Horizons of Expectation’ is a concept where Jauss’ intention is to minimize the gulf between the schools of literature and history which have previously relegated the reader to play only a minor role in the interpretation of literature. Specifically, it is the structure by which a person comprehends, decodes and appraises any text based on cultural codes and conventions particular to their time in history. These horizons are therefore historically flexible meanings. Readers may interpret and value a text differently from a previous generation.

What is a ‘Horizon of change’? A 'horizon of change' occurs when a reader's interaction with a new text results in invalidation of a 'familiar experience' or provides a new encounter. A text of which no horizon of change occurs and fulfils all of the expectations of the reader can be considered 'light reading'. If a composition challenges a reader's expectation, it can do so either with a positive result in the way of a new perception, or a negative one as in an unpleasant new experience. These expectations however may dissolve (melt disintegrate), or a negative aspect of a new text may

74

become explicit (clear unambiguous unequivocal), and thus form its own familiar expectation and become 'part of the horizon of future aesthetic experience'.

What is aesthetic experience? A person's interaction and response to a piece of work, including its visual, literal and expressive qualities constitute an experience with a literary text. The impression that takes place when reading the text and the effect of not encountering what was expected contribute to a change in the appreciation of the elements provided in the text. The 'distance' between the horizon of expectation and the horizon of change is called the 'aesthetic distance’.

What is Impressionistic criticism? A kind of criticism that tries to convey what the critic subjectively feels and thinks about a work of art. Literary critics who support the affective criterion for judging poetry subjectively refer to its long and respectable history, beginning with Aristotle’s dictum that the purpose of tragedy is to evoke “terror and pity.” Edgar Allan Poe stated that “a poem deserves its title only inasmuch as it excites, by elevating the soul.” Emily Dickinson said, “If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.” Many modern critics continue to assert that emotional communication and response cannot be separated from the evaluation of a poem.

Possible guiding questions (horizon of expectation) Does the text’s beginning make the reader foresee the conclusion and then reach an unexpected one? Do the interactions with the text satisfy the reader's sense of familiarity in the way of 'beauty', romanticism and the expected happy ending? What are the elements involved in such an experience? What does a phrase-by-phrase analysis of a short literary text or a key portion of a longer text, tell us about the reading experience pre-structured by that text? What are the details or situations that make you respond in different ways?

3. Rosenblatt’s transactional theory Within the Reader Response approach, attention needs to be devoted to the Transactional Theory led by Louise Rosenblatt and supported by Wolfgang Iser, Rosenblatt first mentioned this term in her work entitled Literature as Exploration (1933). In The Reader, the Text, the Poem (1978), Rosenblatt notes that the term ‘transaction’ was selected over the term ‘interaction’. Her argument is that any act of reading involves a transaction between the reader, influenced by their

75

personal emotions and knowledge, and the text's inferred meaning. Thus the meaning is not in the text but in the process of close reading. In addition, because each reader is an individual with a specific background, the text acquires different meanings. The danger is that some readings may lose their accuracy in taking subjective interpretations. Rosenblatt distinguished between two kinds of reading. A. "efferent" reading is the most common kind in which the reader seeks to derive information from the text. Such a reader does not care about how the text is worded and applies his subjective approach. B. "aesthetic" reading is when a reader approaches a text seeking to enjoy its formal characteristics and figures of speech such as the rhythms, the words, the images, and other literary techniques intended by the author. There is a respectful approach of the aesthetic aspect and a communion with the intentions of the writer. In the end, the reader is at the centre of the reading process in both the efferent reading and the aesthetic one. Rifaterre also supports the transactional theory. Affective stylistics, established by Fish is also related to the transactional theory. Stanley Fish shares the assumption that a text can only come into existence as it is read; therefore, a text cannot have meaning independently of the reader. In addition, a Social reader-response theory is Fish's extension of his earlier work, stating that any individual interpretation of a text is created in an interpretive community of minds consisting of participants who share a specific reading and interpretation strategy. In all interpretive communities, readers become ‘uniformists’ as they are predisposed to a fairly uniform response though it is a particular response.

4. Subjective reader-response theory, associated with David Bleich This is ‘individualism’ as the focus is on the reader and his or her individual experience of a text. Bleich’s pedagogically inspired literary theory looks at individual ‘written responses to a text and compares them to other individual interpretations to find continuity of meaning. Bleich’s theory entailed that the text is the reader’s interpretation of it as it exists in their mind, and that an objective reading is not possible due to the symbolization and resymbolization process (how an individual’s personal emotions, needs and life experiences affect how a reader engages with a text; marginally altering the meaning). David Bleich argues that ‘knowledge in the humanities has its roots in subjective experience, and that this is especially so in the study of literature’ (Bonnycastle 188). In his opinion there can be no transmission of objective knowledge given to a literary text. Such a subjective experience can get to be discussed in a group in order to become ‘knowledge’. For the scholar, ‘to know anything at all is to have assigned a part of oneself to a group of others who claim to know the same thing’ (qtd in Bonnycastle 296). David Bleich puts a particular emphasis on what he calls

76

the ‘communal or collective’ meaning of a literary work. For him, it is only when a group of readers work together to find a text’s meaning that a text is alive. Other scholars who share this view are Michael Steig and Walter Slatoff.

5. Psychological reader-response theory This approach, employed by Norman Holland is perceived as having readers who become ‘experimenters’. Holland believes that readers’ motives heavily affect how they read. Holland considers a primary identity that all people receive from their mother. This identity is the lens through which a person sees the world and it has been shaped by life experiences. Such an identity is going to affect the way a reader interprets a literary text. Norman Holland distinguishes three different views of readership. A. Emphasis on the individual Reader (Subjective Criticism) An individual reader can be an individual student and subjectivity is involved. The material is processed through a single mind. Each person has got according to Holland an individual structure of his personality which he calls ‘an identity theme’. While reading, the individual reader projects such a structure on the text. When failure to do so occurs, frustration results and dislike of the text takes place with defence mechanisms oriented against the admission of the text by the reader’s mind. Holland claims that readers should move past this dislike and that therefore the reading process should get past one’s mechanism defences in order to admit the work. In the end, after admitting the text, the reader’s mind may build fantasies based on the materials available in the text provided. Transformation of the text in a private world may take place as a psychological experience. Such a case can be approached from the reader-response perspective but also from psychoanalytical literary approaches and that will be studied later in the following lessons. B. Readers in a classroom. Several responses are examined and analyzed so as to form a homogenous whole. Knowledge is created as a group is able to form a consensus about what a work of literature means. C. The literary criticism of the world of literary criticism. It involves specialists of literature. This revolves around whether the text controls the reader by dominating and imposing meaning on readers or whether it is readers who are in power over the text and impose what meaning they favour on the text. In that concern, Stanley fish provides an interesting answer that is useful. ‘He says that there is a basic error in thinking of reading as a battle between text and reader for power, because they are not two independent entities‘(Bonnycastle 192). In fact texts are evaluated as being good for the corpus of university studies and agreed upon by members of the literary community. Then they trigger different responses as students analyze them. A consensus needs to be established in that approach of texts. Several Reader Response scholars participate in opinions about texts and 77

their readership as well as their reception in literary communities. This aspect seems to pertain more to university studies and conferences as the problem does not give way to the same debate for common readers.

More figures to consider in using this theory Walker Gibson (1919-2009) Gerald Joseph Prince (1942- ) Lois Tyson (1950- ) Roger Serruton (1944- )

Reader Response Theory Conclusion with claims from other literary theories Both the structuralist literary theory and the deconstruction literary theory take the reader into account but in a specific way. For the structuralist, the reader is an active participant in reading the text and may contribute to the meaning that the text possesses inasmuch as the ‘reader approaches a work of literature with preconceived structures of language in his or her head’ (Stephen 363). As for the Deconstructionists’ opinion, the reader participates in the text’s meaning and ‘reads any writing as a collection of differences that spawn contradictory meanings…’ (Stephen 363). It is obvious that for all of these theories, the text and the reader are complementary, to different extents, in their contribution to the text’s meaning. What is additional with Hermeneutics? This is the subject of the following lesson.

78

Week Seven III.2. Hermeneutics and the Reader Response Theories ‘The term Hermeneutics described a different kind of knowledge, one of communal assent with no final answer, a contingent, interpretive knowledge that leaves knowledge open’9guerin 344-345) ‘whereas phenomenology leaves history out of account in its approach to the problems of textual meaning, hermeneutics makes it integral to its enterprise, to the extent that nearly all hermeneutical studies begin by giving a history of hermeneutics itself (Jefferson and Robey 132)

79

In the first place, Hermeneutics was associated with theology and mainly concerned with the interpretation of religious texts and more precisely with the Bible. Theologists sought to find the spiritual truth in the Bible. The principle was that biblical texts could be better understood by first approaching texts as a whole and then paying attention to details that would then be put back together to better understand the whole texts in the end. Such an analysis was directed towards ‘higher criticism’ of the Bible in the nineteenth-century with the application of hermeneutics. Hermeneutics later opened to the interpretation and understanding of human action in terms of what they do, what they say and what they create. This explains how texts created by artists came to be the subject of hermeneutics literary criticism as explained in the present lesson. This aspect of literary theory is closely related to the Reader Response theory. Therefore, the concerns, what the theory relies on and how to apply it to literary texts are not included as they are analogous to the previous lesson. many of the concerns in this lesson are parallel to the Reader Response literary theory.

Key Words : interpretation, reader, parts, whole

What is Hermeneutics theory? Hermeneutics can be defined as a general theory of interpretation. It possesses its methods and principles which are necessary in the extraction of meanings. Jefferson and Robey explain that ‘[I]t embodies the belief that part and whole are interdependent, and have some necessary organic relationship’ (124). Hermeneutics as a theoretical approach focuses on the way textual meaning is interpreted through its communicative competence. The reader occupies a major place and this theory is much related to the Reader Response Theory as well as to the Reception Theory and The Horizon of Expectation.

Historical development of the Hermeneutic literary theory The Hermeneutic literary theory results from interpretations as a consequence of German ‘higher criticism’ of the Bible and the Romantic Period’. ‘Most modern historians of hermeneutics recognize the work of Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834) to mark a second phase, the so-called ‘romantic’ hermeneutics, which set itself as its principal task the achievement of ‘congeniality’, that is, the re-experiencing by the critic or his reader of the psychical event of meaning undergone by the author in the first place’ (Jefferson and Robey 124). The German philosopher and historian Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911) imported the term ‘hermeneutics’ from theology to philosophy. His aim was to give more importance to philosophy as

80

a science. Dilthey’s concern was with meaning, essence and understanding. He profoundly influenced scholarly interpretations with his methods that had a lasting impact on the interpretation of texts. The development of literary and critical theories soon followed under hermeneutic influence. In the twentieth century, hermeneutics considerably influenced phenomenology, Reader Response theory and reception theory with the importance of the reader and his or her interpretation of a text. Regarding the advance of Hermeneutics, ‘[T]he most recent developments of Hermeneutics in Germany is known as ‘reception aesthetics’ or ‘reception theory’, and unlike Gadamer’s main concern, it does not concentrate exclusively on works of the past’ (Eagleton 74). The importance of the reader is taken into account. Psychoanalysis which is the topic of the next lesson is deeply related to Reader Response theories as shown with Norman Holland’s assumptions.

How to apply the Hermeneutic literary theory to a text? All the elements of a literary text need to be taken into consideration and put together to form a whole. That whole contributes to understanding the text and sends back to the reinforcement of the understanding of the elements that build the text. Terry Eagleton explains that ‘[T]he hermeneutical method seeks to fit each element of a text into a complete whole, in a process commonly known as the ‘hermeneutical circle’: individual features are intelligible in terms of the entire context, and the entire context becomes intelligible through the intelligible features’ (Eagleton 74). The reader is important as he ‘makes implicit connections, fills in gaps, draws inferences and tests out hunches; and to do this means to drawing on a tacit knowledge of the world in general and of literary conventions in particular’ (Eagleton 76).

What are the strengths of Hermeneutics? Hermeneutics results in various interpretations from different readers at different times. All that readers possess in terms of knowledge, assumptions, cultural background, experience, insight and sensitivity can be used in the interpretation and analysis of a literary text. Another advantage is that the reader becomes important as he or she is in a position to create the meaning of the text. It is through personal approach that is not dictated but which results from subjectivity in touch with the objective text as first material to be analysed that interpretation results.

81

What are the shortcomings of Hermeneutics literary theory? Susan Sontag in Against Interpretation explains that interpretations of texts may reduce the pleasure of reading a text for its representation of a work of art in the first place (13-23) (qtd in Guerin, 1). In her opinion, literary criticism becomes as dry as dust in its intellectual performance. The control and management of art in valuing its content and interpretation at the expense of pleasure is obvious in her pronouncement that ‘in place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of art’ (qtd in Wilfred, Guerin, 2). Though she did not condemn all forms of critical commentary and adviced critics to pay attention to the form of texts, she felt that interpretation could contribute to the impoverishment of texts. Professor Leslie Fielder is in a position of agreement with Susan Sontag in terms of advocating ‘‘ecstatics’ as a response to literature’ (qtd in Wilfred, Guerin, 2). His opinion is clearly stated in the following terms: ’Once we have made ekstasis rather than instruction or delight the centre of critical evaluation, we will be freed from the necessity of ranking mass-produced and mass-distributed books in a hierarchal order’ (qtd in Wilfred, Guerin, 2). The drawback of interpretation and analysis which is focused upon in hermeneutics is clearly stated in that ‘Sontag and Fielder express in intellectualized terms what many a student has simply asserted, ‘All this criticism and analysis take all the fun out of reading’’ (qtd in Wilfred, Guerin, 2). There is a clear confrontation of pleasure in reading and pleasure in interpretation.

Who are prominent theorists related to Hermeneutics? Wolfgang Iser: he argues, in The Act of Reading (1978), that ‘the reader’s communication with the text is a dynamic process of self-correction, as he formulates signifieds which he must then continually modify’ (qtd in Selden 124 ). Iser also explains that whenever texts leave questions unanswered, each reader fills the gap in an individual way. ‘Iser’s ‘reception theory’ is an attempt to integrate textual analysis with ‘affective’ criticism. Its strength lies in its dynamic approach to the process of reading: the text ceases to be treated as a static object and becomes a changing ‘gestalt’. A text, no longer a timeless aesthetic object, is experienced as an unfolding temporal sequence. Even though Iser tends to play down the ideological questions which arise when we examine the different ways in which readers fill gaps, his account of reading at the micro-level is unsurpassed’ (Selden 125 ). Hans-Georg Gadamer: German philosopher. For him, ‘the meaning of a literary work is never exhausted by the intentions of its author; as the work passes from one cultural or historical context to another, new meanings may be culled from it which were perhaps never anticipated by its author or contemporary audience… all interpretation of a past work consists in a dialogue between past and present’ (Eagleton 71).

82

E.D.Hirsh: American hermeneuticist.’Meaning is something which the author wills: it is a ghostly, wordless mental act which is then ‘fixed’ for all time in a particular set of material signs. It is an affair of consciousness, rather than of words’ (Eagleton 67). Stanley Fish (1938- ) Paul Ricœur (1913-2005)

83

Week Eight Part IV. Social Issues and Literary Theories ‘The value of literary theory is that it helps us in our quest for maturity and in our attempts to move beyond the locale where we grew up. It helps us to enter into dialogue with others, and to recognize when dialogue is impossible. It helps us to see that authority is a social construction, that we all play a part in establishing it, and that it is potentially accessible to us all’(Bonnycastle 253)

84

Week Eight IV.1. Marxist Literary theory ‘Marxists believe that literature can only be understood by being viewed in context with history and society, both of which are and have been dominated by the class struggle and by the ownership of the means of production.’ (Stephen 355)

‘Despite their diversity, all Marxist theories of literature have a simple premise in common : that literature can only be properly understood within a larger framework of social reality’(Jefferson and Robey 167).

85

Sociological Criticism and Marxism are closely related as Marxism is about a conflict of classes in society. Wellek and Warren state that ‘[Q]uestions are asked about the relations of literature to a given social situation, to an economic, social, and political system. Attempts are made to describe and define the influence of society on literature and to prescribe and judge the position of literature in society. This sociological approach to literature is particularly cultivated by those who profess a specific social philosophy. Marxist critics….. tell us not only what were and are the social relations and implications of an author’s work but what they should have been or ought to be’ (Wellek and Warren 94-95). It is relevant to consider that Marxist criticism is ‘anti-Formalist, and relatively little interested in linguistics’ (Stephen 355).It can deal with political issues and attack capitalism. This lesson includes in addition to the concerns of the other lessons, a question and answer section.

Key words: Sociological, Marxism, exploit, class struggle, power relation

What is sociological criticism? Sociological Criticism examines literary productions within a context of cultural, economic and political values. It pays attention to both how the work is written and how the public receives it. Thus the relationship between the artist, his work and his society are of first interest. Criticism that focuses on the economic and political impact on art, paying particular interest to the ideological content, is called the Marxist school of literary analysis. Marxist criticism argues that all art is affected by the political impact of the society in which it is produced; thus it is based on class relations, social conflict, and other ideological issues that can challenge or support the status quo. Marxism literary criticism evaluates and judges works in terms of display of class struggle reflected in the piece of literature. It focuses on ways texts reflect, reinforce, or challenge the effects of class, power relations, and social roles.

Why is this theory’s name derived from the figure of Marx? Karl Marx was primarily concerned with class struggle. The Marxists’ point of view is that the capitalists exploit the working classes. He criticized the rich that got richer at the expense of the poor. He denounced classes that laboured under difficult conditions when the rich people would make use of the efforts of others to live comfortably. Economic, political and economical issues were observed in terms of capitalism and its mode of production. Friedrich Engels shared Marx’ belief: unfairness derived from capitalism. Though these two friends were not primarily concerned with the aesthetics of art, their opinions were reported on the contents of texts that displayed class

86

struggle, poor people working for the rich and what Marxism considered exploitation in capitalistic politics. Thus the development of Marxist views was applied to the analysis of texts. Who is Karl Marx ( 1818 – 1883) ? - Born to a middle-class German family, he became a revolutionary socialist. - His name has been used as an adjective, a noun and a school of social theory as he was historian, political theorist, sociologist, and journalist - He studied law and Hegelian philosophy which contributed to making him a philosopher and an economist. -He became stateless and lived in exile in London, due to his publications among which the best- known titles are the 1848 pamphlets, The Communist Manifesto , and the three-volume Das Kapital . Who is Friedrich Engles (1820-1895) ? -German philosopher, social scientist, journalist and businessman. - born to a father who was an owner of a large textile factory in Salford, England. -founded Marxist theory together with Karl Marx - supported Marx financially to do research and write Das Kapital . - best-known titles:1845 The Condition of the Working Class in England , based on personal observations and research in Manchester. In1848, co-authored The Communist Manifesto with Marx . After Marx's death, Engels edited the second and third volumes and organised Marx's notes on the Theories of Surplus Value , which he later published as the "fourth volume" of Capital . What did Marx and Engles believe in? These two philosophers held that societies develop through class struggle . They contrasted the ruling classes, called the bourgeoisie, with the working classes called the proletariat. According to them, the bourgeoisie is better off than the proletariat because it controls the means of production. The bourgeoisie earns money and power by selling what the proletariat produces in exchange for wages.

Where does the problem that Marxism points to come from? Aware of the difference in status, the proletariat asks for better wages. The bourgeoisie is often reluctant to raise wages as the earnings for them will be diminished. Consequently, strikes take place. They involve threatening of loss of position as well as firing workers altogether. The proletariat is often caught in between refusing to be exploited at low wages and losing salaries altogether. Families get to be homeless and starve to death. Such a socio-economic system produces tensions.

87

What is the Marxist literary theory concerned with? It is concerned with the examination of the literary text in its reflection of the clash that can be produced by conflicting social classes in society. It is more particularly considering the ruling class or bourgeoisie and the working class or proletariat. A similarity in terms of structure with feminism is the clash between male and female which is here parallel to ruling and working class. ‘Marxists hold that any theory which treats literature in isolation (for instance as pure structure, or as a product of a writer’s individual mental processes) and keeps it in isolation, divorcing it from society and history, will be deficient in its ability to explain what literature really is’ (Jefferson and Robey 167). Writers can use their status to denounce unfair practices in their art. Marxist literary theory and criticism view a piece of literature as a projected field of battles between social classes and institutions. According to Marxists, literature can be viewed as a social institution and can have a specific ideological function that is going to affect the reader. The author may have certain intentions that he can pass on to the reader through the way of writing and the ideas used in his literary production.

What does the theory rely on? Reflection of any type of social conflict. Revelation of social oppression. Sugested types of social modification. Propositions of solutions for the issues displayed. Display of possession of the power and money. Pathos for the characters that do not have power and money. Equality in roles, power, and money.

Some possible steps to follow when applying the Marxist literary theory Consider what the author illustrates in terms of social and economic classes in the work. Think about the extent of faithfulness observed by the author in the manner he or she has pictured the period displayed in the text. Look for the technique used by the author in the depiction of social classes and their problems. Evaluate the specific role of social classes in the work. Analyse all social levels reflected through various characters in the work. Examine the use of individual and collective issues.

88

Strengths of the Marxist literary theory ‘Marxist critical writing can enhance one’s perception of a text regardless of one’s political views, just as feminist criticism can do the same without the reader being in any meaningful sense a feminist. These are not political or doctrinal labels, but simply offer different perspectives on literature’ (Stephen 355-356). ‘Marxist criticism is at its best when it exposes the implied, or latent, social implications of a writer’s work’ (Wellek and Warren 107). The values that influence business and societies may be enlightened. The reality of life and the influences of capitalism can be better understood. Literary texts can approach oppression of the working class in a fictional but direct way.

Shortcomings of the Marxist literary theory Wellek and Warren warn that ‘… Marxism, preoccupied with an irrationalistic explanation …is unable to provide a rational foundation for aesthetics and hence criticism and evaluation’ (108). They add that ‘…literature is no substitute for sociology or politics. It has its own justification and aim’ (Wellek and Warren 109). Literary texts need to be studied in terms of enjoyment rather than seeking to claim assumptions and condemn individual beliefs. Some texts cannot separate from the class struggle they take as a background setting; rather than focusing only on that aspect, the reader should also pay attention to the author’s art at writing. Selden cautions that tat in terms of Marxism, ‘…some Marxist explanations of literature’s relationship with ideology [are highly ‘reductive’; they treat literary texts as the direct expression of the writer’s ideology or of the class whom the writer represents’ (154). Raman Selden gives the example of Engel’s discussion of realism in the novels by the French novelist Honoré de Balzac. Engel explains that despite the fact that the writer is a Royalist, he depicts the rise of the Bourgeoisie in French society with fairness and accuracy. (Selden, 154) By focusing on class struggle, the literary text may be reduced to a political tool. The Marxist literary theory can be formulaic with the extremes of searching to make things fit. Some questions and answers to approach what the Marxist literary theory claims. Question 1: What do Marxist literary theories tend to focus on? Answer 1: They tend to focus on the representation of class conflict as well as the reinforcement of class distinctions through the medium of literature.

Question 2: Which techniques do Marxist theorists use? Answer 2: They use traditional techniques of literary analysis but subordinate aesthetic concerns to the final social and political meanings of literature.

89

Question 3: Who do Marxist theorists support? Answer 3: They often champion authors sympathetic to the working classes and authors whose work challenges economic equalities found in capitalist societies.

Question 4: What is the spirit of Marxism? Answer 4: In keeping with the totalizing spirit of Marxism, literary theories have not only sought new ways of understanding the relationship between economic production and literature, but all cultural production as well.

Question 5: What is the relationship between Marxism and literature? Answer 5: Marxist analyses have had a profound effect on literary theory, most notably in the development of "New Historicism" and "Cultural Materialism."

Question 6: Who are Georg Lukács and Walter Benjamin? Answer 6: Georg Lukács is a Hungarian theorist who contributed to an understanding of the relationship between historical materialism and literary form, in particular with realism and the historical novel. Walter Benjamin broke new ground in his work in his study of aesthetics and the reproduction of the work of art.

Question 7: How did Marxism relate to literary theory development? Answer 7: The Frankfurt School of philosophers, including most notably Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, and Herbert Marcuse—after their emigration to the United States—played a key role in introducing Marxist assessments of culture into the mainstream of American academic life.

Question 8: What was the place of «Critical theory"? Answer 8: It held to a distinction between the high cultural heritage of Europe and the mass culture produced by capitalist societies as an instrument of domination. "Critical theory" sees in the structure of mass cultural forms—jazz, Hollywood film, advertising—a replication of the structure of the factory and the workplace. Creativity and cultural production in advanced capitalist societies were always already co-opted by the entertainment needs of an economic system that requires sensory stimulation and recognizable cliché and suppressed the tendency for sustained deliberation.

Question 9: What are the major Marxist influences on literary theory since the Frankfurt School? Answer 9: Raymond Williams and Terry Eagleton in Great Britain and Frank Lentricchia and Fredric Jameson in the United States are major figures.

Question 10: Who is Raymond Williams? Answer 10: Raymond Williams is associated with the New Left political movement in Great Britain and the development of "Cultural Materialism" and the Cultural Studies Movement, originating in the 1960s at Birmingham University's Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies.

Question 11: Who is Terry Eagleton? Answer 11: Terry Eagleton is known both as a Marxist theorist and as a popularizer of theory by means of his widely read overview, Literary Theory .

Question 12: Who is Frank Lentricchia? Answer 12: Frank Lentricchia became influential through his account of trends in theory entitled After the New Criticism .

90

Question 13: Who is Fredric Jameson? Answer 13: Jameson is a more diverse theorist, known both for his impact on Marxist theories of culture and for his position as one of the leading figures in theoretical postmodernism. Fredric Jameson’s work on consumer culture, architecture, film, literature and other areas, typifies the collapse of disciplinary boundaries taking place in the realm of Marxist and postmodern cultural theory. Jameson’s work investigates the way the structural features of late capitalism—particularly the transformation of all culture into commodity form—are now deeply embedded in all of our ways of communicating.

Examples of works that can be approached through the Marxist literary theory William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair provides analysis in Marxist criticism. ‘ The Marxist interpretation of the novel sees it as showing a society in which large numbers of parasites live and feed off the work of others’ (Stephen 244). Animal Farm (1945) by George Orwell The Grapes of Wrath (1939) by Steinbeck The Time Machine (1895) by H.G.Wells Charles Dickens’ Hard Times (1854) is a novel about the working class and the bourgeois employers. ‘Dickens’ close involvement with post-industrial, urban society makes his work a rich ground for Marxist critics’ (Stephen 231). Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South (1854) Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley (1849) Richard Wright’s Black Boy (1945) Online Example: A Marxist Reading of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" by Peter Kosenko https://ivypanda.com/essays/marxist-criticism-on-the-lottery-by-shirley-jackson/

Other Famous figures to approach in the Marxist literary theory Louis Althusser (1918-1990) Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002)

Concluding opinion Raman Selden’s opinion is that ‘At their best, Marxist studies in literature and ideology…create a sense of critical liberation. The reader is able to escape the stifling rigidities of Formalism or Romantic individualism, and to understand texts as complex re-workings of socially marked discourses. No longer is it necessary to evaluate the literary work as an expression of personal genius. Instead, the reader can engage in a delicate study of the artistic transformations of ideological representations’ (Selden 157). Marxist theories and criticism is not merely sociology of literature that is concerned with literary works that get published and with the mentioning of working classes through themes and characters. Marxist literary theories intend to explain works by paying attention to the themes and the characters as well as to the style, the vocabulary, the forms and meaning through the lens of Marxist beliefs. 91

Week Nine IV.2. Feminist Literary Theory ‘For the student dipping her or his toe into critical and literary theory for the first time Feminist criticism is arguably the best place to start. It has a huge variety of works to choose from, it is often very well written and provocative and it preaches a clear and logical message, in the process managing to add significantly to scholarly and academic understanding of many major and minor works’ (Stephen 362). ‘Indeed, feminism has often focused upon what is absent rather than what is present, reflecting concern with the silencing and marginalization of women in a patriarchal culture, a culture organized in favour of men’(Guerin 253).

92

This lesson differs from the other lesson as some additional aspects have been deemed necessary. To introduce what the concept of Feminism is about, important anti feminist quotes reflect what the strong points that have always preoccupied writers, scholars, and people in general. These quotes enable to better grasp of the full meaning of feminist literary theory. Quotes: "The male, unless constituted in some respect contrary to nature, is by nature more expert at leading than the female, and the elder and complete than the younger and incomplete."(Aristotle , Politics ) "[T]he relation of male to female is by nature a relation of superior to inferior and ruler to ruled." (Plato, Republic , Aristotle Politics)

"as regards the sexes, the male is by nature superior and the female inferior, the male ruler and the female subject"( Aristotle believed women were inferior to men. For example, in his work Politics (1254b13–14), Aristotle states ( Smith, Nicholas D. (1983). "Plato and Aristotle on the Nature of Women". Journal of the History of Philosophy. 21 (4): 467–478 ). “There you have women,” put in M.de Renal, with a coarse laugh, “There’s always something wrong with their machinery.” (Stendhal Marie Henri Beyle, French novelist and essayist; 1783- 1842, Le Rouge et le Noir (1831). "The souls of women are so small, Some believe they have none at all."(John Donne British Poet 1573-1631) Due to the consideration of women as second class citizens, the political movement called feminism emerged. It gave way to discussing assumptions about the position and status of women as represented in literary texts by applying the Feminist literary theory.

Key words Patriarchy, gender role, empowerment, power-relationships, gender equality, gender inequality, stereotyping , objectification , oppression, misogyny, marginalization

What is Feminism? It is a diverse collection of social theories. It comprehends in its targets a political movement and moral philosophies that focus on studying inequality based on gender. Feminism deals with the role and the treatment of women in society. It views society in terms of its patriarchal cultural background. It considers what has hindered women in the realisation of their true potential. It bases its claims on the assumption that women have been considered as inferior to men and thus Feminism intends to promote gender equality.

93

These considerations can be dealt with in literary texts that attempt to change the undignified state of women. Some literary texts contribute to making men and women realize that women are significant. The same privileges and rights as every man are sought. Texts also encourage women to define their voices, to assess and value equally with the male voice.

What is the Feminist literary theory? In the first place, the feminist theory sought to work towards resurrecting, rediscovering, and reconsidering women’s contribution to literature; many works of great value had never been judged seriously and had been left aside altogether. Some had even been erased over time. Examples of these works are Charlotte Perkins Gilman which was quite prominent in the early 20th century but was virtually unknown until her work was "re-discovered" later in the century. Since the 1960s the writings of many women have been collected in large anthologies. The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women is n example of re-consideration of serious literary texts produced by women. Then, the feminist literary theory attempted and still attempts to examine women’s experience in how female characters are portrayed in literature. Feminism pays attention to power-relationships and more specifically to the plight of women as depicted in the text under study. It claims that women are considered as inferior to men and marginalization of women takes place as they are the victims of stereotyping, objectification, oppression, and misogyny. Consequently, it intends to re- establish equality and sometimes superiority. It also exposes the patriarchal ideology that has hindered women in the realisation of their true potential and seeks to increase awareness of sexual politics in language. As expressed by Guerin in the beginning of this lesson, it is in terms of what is lacking that Feminist literary Theory is expressed and its concern is defined.

How did some Feminist women answer to male writers’ hegemony? Raman Selden explains how some women writers have used the style of men to appear just as good at writing as men are. Women stress the feminine aspect of women in a parallel way to men. Raman Selden explains that ‘[I]n modern poetry women writers are fond of turning the tables on men, of inverting the stereotypes, and of foregrounding women’s experience without accepting a male valuation of that experience. In order to privilege women’s experience or women’s priorities, they must produce a recognisably feminine discourse. However, there is always a danger that the attempt to write as a woman will result in the apparent acceptance of sexist stereotypes. If ‘feeling’ or ‘intuition’ or ‘the small-scale’ are given prominence, the writer risks being consigned to a female ghetto – a safe sanctuary where women are permitted to let off steam and do their own thing. In this scenario men may still be seen to be setting the agenda. Some French feminist writings, for example Helene Cixous’ famous ‘The Laugh of the Medusa’ (in New French Feminism, ed. Marks and de

94

Courtivron, 1981, pp.245-64), are open to this charge. Their emphasis on the specificities of the female body – writing ‘concentric’ ( cunt-centric) as opposed to the ‘phallic’ discourse- threatens to produce a gender polarity which is hard to distinguish from the male chauvinist version’(Selden 149-150 ). It clearly appears that women were aware of the status of ‘lower’ writers and that they fought in several ways to change public opinions. Another strategy has been the use of pseudonyms. Mary Ann Evans chose to be George Eliot, Charlotte Bronte chose to be Currer Bell while she chose the male names of Ellis Bell for her sister Emily and the one of Acton Bell for her sister Ann. many of Louisa May Alcott’s works were written under A.M. Barnard. Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin is better known as George Sand. The author Vernon Lee was in fact born Violet Paget. J. K. Rowling is a woman who also used the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

Why is the question of gender stressed in Feminism ? It is the definition of how women have been constructed in relation to men that is the focus. Feminism attempts to find out how women writers across the ages have perceived themselves. The female tradition of writing may be exposed and old texts may be rediscovered. The feminist school of literary theory examines the outcomes of the construction of gender reflected in literary works, and it questions the issues of gender role , empowerment , gender equality, and gender inequality as well as how genders are contradicted by texts, how dominance and submission play out, and how gender roles evolve in texts. to use the term gendered implies a social process that determines what is masculine and what is feminine. This theory’s concerns are remindful of some post-colonial studies in terms of inequality and second-citizen status in artistic outputs. Women would be in the position of subdued people and men would be in the position of the dominants. It also reminds of Marxism as Marxism seeks to explore the inequalities between classes; feminism seeks to explore the inequalities between man and woman. The female gender would be in many ways but not all, parallel to the working class, and the male gender would be analogous to the dominant rich people who ignore the needs of the classes other than theirs.

Historical development of Feminism Feminism emerged in the late 18 th century. Pro-women opinions expressed in texts have given way to feminist literary criticism. Within feminism, groups consider feminists of colour, third wave feminists, and postcolonial feminists. In fact most theorists distinguish three waves of feminism: The First Wave Feminism started roughly in the late 1700s and lasted up to the early 1900's. It is concerned with writers like Mary Wollstonecraft ( A Vindication of the Rights of Women , 1792) who highlighted the inequalities between the sexes especially at a time when only a few women had 95

access to education. It is also about early contributions to giving women equal political rights with men. For instance, activists like Susan B. Anthony and Victoria Woodhull have contributed to the women's suffrage movement. Their activities led to National Universal Suffrage in 1920 and also with the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment for the recognition of women’s rights. Men were also concerned about the plight of women. For instance, in 1869, John Stuart Mill wrote The Subjection of Women . The Second Wave Feminism started in the early 1960s and lasted up to the late 1970s. It sought to build on more equal working conditions which were necessary in America during World War II. For instance, movements such as the National Organization for Women (NOW), formed in 1966 in order to cohere feminist political activism Among the famous writers of those times, Simone de Beauvoir wrote Le deuxième sexe in 1972. Another famous feminist called Elaine Showalter established the groundwork for the dissemination of feminist theories dove-tailed with the American Civil Rights movement. The third Wave Feminism took place in the early 1990s up to the present. This feminism borrows from post-structural and contemporary gender as well as race theories. It seeks to expand on marginalized populations' experiences. It includes writers like Alice Walker. She has worked on feminism and its concern of the black community. The term Black Feminism coined by Walker, argues that race, class, and gender are inextricably bound together.

What does Feminism rely upon? Feminist claims can vary depending on social class, level of education, type of country and society, relation to religion and skin colour. The demands of different women differ and there is no general rule to question patriarchy. The Vocabulary pertaining to the feminist literary theory needs to be used with precision so as to avoid confusion. According to Ann Jefferson and David Robey there is a necessary distinction of the terms: female, feminist, and feminine, as explained here: female; writing by women feminist; writing which takes a discernible anti-patriarchal and anti-sexist position feminine: writing which seems to be marginalised ( repressed, silenced) by the ruling social/linguistic order (Jefferson and Robey 220). ‘Feminist critics have also sought to redefine the accepted list of great works, rescuing large numbers of female writers from obscurity, and establishing quite large numbers of female writers as worthy of the attention hitherto denied them. French feminists have tended to follow the pattern of most French exploration of literary and critical theory, and gone to critic-to-critic exploration of the ‘theory’ of gender in writing’ (Stephen 362).

96

Strengths of the Feminist literary theory The traditional marginalisation of women is re-considered. Feminist literary theory questions the long dominant male interpretations in literature by providing space for women to expose their opinions. It criticises male notions of values and male representations in literature. In literary criticism, applying such a theory enables women and their role to be given importance. An attempt to re-evaluate female characters and focusing upon their identity, their role and importance is given priority. It privileges the nature of women in exposing how they think, act, and feel. ‘Like socialists, feminists can in a sense afford to be tolerantly pluralistic in their choice of literary methods and theories, precisely because any approach that can be successfully appropriated to their political ends must be welcome’ (Jefferson and Robey 205).

Shortcomings of the Feminist literary theory The challenges of male made images by female criticism reside in the text under study and cannot be exported to real life. Literary productions should not be mistaken for political battlefields. The merit of literary texts is that they are pieces of art in the first place and that they that should be esteemed as such. To uncover patriarchal structures in a text should lead to their analysis within the text and without subjectiveness that may call to the consideration of real conditions. Feminine writing styles, though they have been undervalued for a long time, should be approached in the same way as other writings. Many writers and critics are considered to be overall feminists. They tend to write and approach literary texts with a focus on male/female oppositions, dichotomies, and binary oppositions barely. They do not open to explanations of texts from other perspectives and they enclose texts within strict feminist boundaries while other approaches could reveal extra dimensions of literariness. ‘Gilbert and Gubar’s monumental study, the Madwoman in the Attic , furnishes an instructive example of the consequences of the confusion, not only of femaleness with feminity, but also of this amalgamated femaleness/feminity with feminism…. One of their central arguments is that nineteenth-century women writers chose to express their own female anger in a series of duplicitous textual strategies whereby both the angel and the monster, the sweet heroine and the raging madwoman, are aspects of the author’s self image, as well as elements of her treacherous anti- patriarchal strategies’ (Jefferson and Robey 216).

97

Typical questions to ask in approaching a text from the Feminist perspective What do feminists expose? Some of their concerns can be considered in the following questions pertaining to feminist theories applied in literary criticism. How are male and female roles and lives defined in the work under study? Does the work challenge or affirm traditional views of women? Are women isolated? Is there any form of sisterhood? How is the relationship between men and women portrayed? What are the power relationships? Are these relationships sources of conflict or tension? Are these conflicts resolved? Is there any form of patriarchy with empowerment of women? Are there male or female characters who assume the role of the other gender? Do characters' gender roles evolve over the course of the narrative? What constitutes masculinity and femininity? and How do characters embody these traits? Are there recurrent patterns of traditional gender roles? For example, are the male characters in "supremacy positions" while the women are in "inferiority positions"? (men prone to action, decisiveness, and leadership while the female characters are passive, subordinate) What does the work say about women's creativity? What does the history of the work's reception by the public and by the critics tell us about patriarchy? How do the images of women in the story reflect patriarchal social forces? Is any type of oppression suggested? If yes, is oppression resisted? Is the form and content of the work influenced by the writer’s gender? What matrimonial prospects are enforced on the characters? How do family responsibilities reflect in male and female characters? How does the married status of a character affect his or her decisions or happiness?

Some examples of works that deal with feminism or which could be analysed from a feminist theoretical perspective Online Example: "The Yellow Wall-Paper": A Twist on Conventional Symbols, Subverting the French Androcentric Influence by Jane Le Marquand , https://courses.lumenlearning.com/.../reading- literary-criticism/ George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda (1876) : ‘Feminist criticism has tended to see George Eliot as one of the ‘first phase’ of women writers, where an attempt is made to imitate the dominant male culture of writing and fiction’ (Stephen 244-245). Charlotte Brontë ’s Jane Eyre (1847) : ‘Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre in particular has become a favoured text of Anglo-American feminism, though modern critical work on the Brontë’s is far from restricted to feminist critics’ (Stephen 195).

98

Shakespeare’s [T]he winter’s Tale (1623) has a plot that is split into two by a fifteen-year gap. It is a play that is particularly challenged by feminist theories, focusing as it does on a man’s irrational jealousy that seems to destroy his wife, and issues of forgiveness’ (Stephen 134). William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair (1848) offers good ground for feminist criticism. Alice Walker - In Search of Our Mother's Gardens , 1983 Camile Paglia - Sexual Personae: The Androgyne in Literature and Art , 1990 Deborah E. McDowell - "New Directions for Black Feminist Criticism," 1980 Elaine Showalter - A Literature of Their Own , 1977; "Toward a Feminist Poetics," 1979 Julia Kristeva - About Chinese Women , 1977 Lillian S. Robinson - "Treason out Text: Feminist Challenges to the Literary Canon," 1983 Mary Wollstonecraft - A Vindication of the Rights of Women , 1792

Some famous Feminist writers Who is Virginia Wolf? She is a famous feminist well remembered for her work entitled A Room of One’s Own,” in which she explains the necessary prerequisites for a woman to produce good writing. Her claims are that a woman with enough financial resources and a place where to write, that is a room of her own, could produce literary creations of good quality just like men are capable of. Thus women need some space of their own and financial support. In her opinion, women writers suffer from economic and cultural disadvantages. Who is Simone de Beauvoir? She questioned the woman’s cultural identification in her famous work entitled Le deuxieme Sexe (1972) translated as The Second Sex . Her opinion is that the whole question of women’s role is a position that needs to be re-considered and De Beauvoir questioned the "othering" of women by western philosophy. She is a pioneer in analysing how male writers depict women in literature. She addressed such a point in Stendhal and D.H.Lawrence’representations of women. Who is Elaine Showalter? A well known feminist, she generally criticizes the notion of woman as a construct through literature. She calls gynocriticism the criticism concerned with the writings of women that unveil their interpretation of their gender. Her work entitled A literature of their Own; British Women Novelists from Brontë to Lessing ( 1977), is reflective of what she intends to discuss in a female process of writing. More famous Feminist figures to consider Tony Morrison, Rebecca West, Isobel Armstrong, Nancy Armstrong, Barbara Bowen, Jennifer DeVere Brody, Laura Brown, Margaret Anne Doody, Eva Figes, Kate Millet, Gayatri Spivak,

99

Dorothy Richardson, Judith Butler, Toril Moi, Patricia Meyer, Ellen Moers, Luce Irigaray, and Lisa Tuttle.

The Feminist literary theory and its relation to other theories As explained earlier in this lesson, feminism is not an isolated theory and it can relate to the structure of Marxism or Post-colonialism. Terry Eagleton states that ‘’[T]here are modes of ‘radical’ feminism which emphasize plurality, difference and sexual separatism ; there are also forms of socialist feminism which, while refusing to view the women’s struggle as a mere element or sub-sector of a movement which might then dominate and engulf it, hold that the liberation of other oppressed groups and classes in society is not only a moral and political imperative in itself, but a necessary ( though by no means sufficient) condition for the emancipation of women’ (Eagleton 150). Men and feminism are present in figures such as Oscar Wilde and F.R.Lewis. There are also theories about Eco Feminism that could be used to approach literary texts. Students can do further research in these areas.

Conclusion Martin Stephen states that ‘There is no single voice of Feminist Criticism. Feminist critics can write from a structuralist, Marxist or any other stance, though under the general umbrella of Feminist criticism’ (361). Other forms of Feminism appear with Hélène Cixous and what she calls ‘ Ēcriture Feminine’. New trends in Feminism pay attention to religious influences such as Islamic Feminism.

100

Week Ten IV. 3. Postcolonial Literary Theory ‘Postcolonial theory, where it has any unity starts from the assumption that colonised nations in using the language of the colonial power began to share and form that language partially in their own image and to their own usage’ (Stephen 365). ‘Among the many challenges facing post colonial writers are the attempts both to resurrect their culture and to combat the preconceptions about their culture’(Guerin 361).

101

This lesson focuses upon Post-colonial literary theories which deal with the texts about nations that were colonised by dominant countries and that had to re-build their economy, education and political system after they were set free. Literary works that are attached to the treatment of any issue related to such a situation belong and share in post colonial criticism. Algerian students can find a wide field of investigation, research and analysis as Algeria has got many great writers who deal with the effects of colonialism in their works. Two main opposing forces may appear in post colonial literature as many works display attempts to ‘resurrect their culture and to combat the preconceptions about their culture’ (Guerin 361). The term post-colonial itself is problematic and Bill Ashcroft notes that ‘Post-colonial critics and theorists should consider the full implications of restricting the meaning of the term to ‘after-colonialism’ or after independence’ (qtd in Guerin 361). What remains consistent in different post colonial approaches of literary texts lies in the reference to a dominant and a dominated population. This lesson clarifies many aspects about the field of post colonial literature. It is a wide one with different types of reactions attached to different types of colonialism and different spans of time that all deserve and need to be considered.

Key words : colonial, imperialism, hybridity, exploitation, power, cultural clash, inequality, centre, margin

What does Post colonialism mean? From the formation of the word post colonialism, post means after and colonialism means the act of being colonies to a mother country or turning a place into a colony. Thus the occupation of territories that were not originally part of the motherland but were considered to be part of it after being colonised are concerned with post colonialism, the period that starts with independence. Thus it refers to the period after colonialism when countries are free or independent or about to become so.

How did the theory emerge? The emergence of Post-modernism caused a disruption to traditional methods of literary interpretation. Soon after that, Post Colonialism appeared. The founding father is often considered to be Edward Said. He wrote critiques of Western Imperialism. In his book entitled Orientalism (1978), Edward said pointed to the cultural ramifications of colonialism; this gave birth to post- colonial criticism. The principal target of post-colonial literary studies is to examine how literature has been affected by the effects of the exploitation of indigenous civilizations by the Western imperial powers. the main imperialist powers were the US and UK but it soon dealt with all

102

colonizing powers. Post colonial criticism deals with both the colonizing and the colonized nations’ literatures. Who is Edward Said? Edward Said (1935-2003) was a Palestinian intellectual who was born in Jerusalem and who died in exile in America. He wrote a book entitled Orientalism (1978) that became very famous. Orientalism is one of the most useful structural analyses of Post-Colonial theory. Said’s approach is characterised as one which is impersonal, intellectual, in the tradition of engaged research. Edward Said uses the word Orientalism to describe the discourse about the East constructed by the West. Edward Said pointed out that the Western representation of the East is done on the assertion that the East cannot represent itself; therefore the West takes the task in hands and produces a cultural discourse adapted to its exterior position. The consequence is that the exterior outlook of the West to the East creates only representations and does not reach the truth. Only the East from the interior can reach its truth with a cultural discourse that delivers its truth. Thus the true idea of the Orient was appropriated as well as its artistic and scientific dimensions to be represented only. Conquering powers were looking for their interest. The reproach which is made by post colonial studies questions colonised countries and several images that were wrongly transmitted. The colonised is often depicted as uncivilized, barbaric, and in need of control. The original attributes of the colonised people are not understood and their traditions, conventions, and codes are all neglected. The image of children and adults is likewise used as the colonised are depicte as irrational people. The coloniser claims to bring rationality and maturity as well as virtue. Many situations are close and parallel to what is studied in the Marxist literary theory as well as the feminist one. Two groups of power are contrasted. Who is Frantz Fanon and what is his relationship with post-colonialism? Frantz Fanon (1925-1961) is regarded as a founding father of post-colonialism studies. He wrote a famous book entitled The Wretched of the Earth in which he examined the condition of empowerment of the colonizer over the colonized. His argument is about the fact that colonialism involves violence both physical and mental. Therefore the title of his work is communicative of the state of colonialism in making colonized people, in particular, the wretched of the earth. Inevitably, aggression is implemented by the colonizer who imposes authority by all means, thus using violence. As for the colonized people, the unbearable state of submission they are subjected to leads to rebellion and to hostility in order to escape oppression. The uprising of the native colonised people leads to more brutality, cruelty and bloodshed in both the oppressor and the oppressed. Psychological relations to post-colonialism have also been expressed by Octave Mannoni, Omi Bhabha, and Ashis Nandy as illustrated in the section of this lesson entitled ‘What is the relationship of psychoanalysis, post-colonialism and literary theory?’ 103

What does the Postcolonial literary theory deal with? It is a type of cultural criticism that deals with the analysis of literary texts produced by or about countries that have been under colonial powers at some point in their history. It is about ‘literature written in the shadow of the great European empires, which, by one estimate, held 85 per cent of the rest of the world in their sway by 1914 as explained by Edward Said’ (Bonnycastle 227). Postcolonial criticism focuses on the way in which the colonizing power, referred to as the centre, deals with enforced and generalised stereotypical images of the Third (postcolonial) World, referred to as the margin, to justify its exploitation. Postcolonial critics are interested in the literature that arises after the colonizer has left. It considers the colonized people as victims who have to struggle with the consequences of having been taken advantage of. This theory involves the consideration of two groups in an analogous way to Marxism and Feminism but for different reasons. The struggle of a dominated group and a dominant one is an aspect that all three theories share. For Marxism, the struggle is about class power, for feminism, it is about gender differences and in the same way as women are inferior, so is the colonized people; for Post Colonialism, ideas develop about power related to dominating people and their territory. It equally considers the imposed language on native lands as well as an imposed culture.

What are recommended steps to use in Postcolonial studies? The students as well as critics look for the text’s display of the effects of oppression at different levels. Two cultures get involved with one imposing on the other that resists. Hybridity is a result at several levels, whether about population, religion or culture. ‘The relationship between the centre and the margin is frequently the study and the interest of postcolonial theory’ (Stephen 365). The literary text may question the colonial relationship and its influence within political, social and economic lives that affect culture reflected by writers. Another aspect is ‘[O]ne of the principal elements in colonial and postcolonial literature [ is] what is called ‘the encounter with the Other ’ (Bonnycastle 231). All types of encounters are considered when two different people get to meet and start questioning who the other is and how different he can be.

How are Psychoanalysis, Postcolonialism and literary theory related? Octave Mannoni wrote Prospero and Caliban (1964), a ‘pioneering psychoanalytic attempt to understand racism… [in which he] argued that ‘natives’ suffered from an inferiority complex in relation to their colonizers… relationships of dependence and resentment evident in colonial societies’(Elliott 57). Frantz Fanon, as a psychoanalytic critic didn’t fully agree with the explanations of Mannoni. Fanon explained that the psychic consequences of imperialism and its

104

oppression were the cause of the inferiority complex. For Fanon, ‘dispositions of inferiority as an inherent weakness in the structure of native societies, a weakness only brought to the surface in confrontation with a superior colonizing culture .. emerging from the terrible physical and emotional oppression under which the colonized suffer’(Elliott 57) were inevitable. In his work entitled Black Skin, White Masks (1952), he ‘explicitly takes up psychoanalysis to explore the colonial terrain’ (Elliott 56). He wrote literary works highly representative of psychoanalytic issues related to colonialism and its effects. Homi Bhabha followed in the footsteps of Fanon and considered the psychiatrics’ position as he wrote that Fanon’s ‘psychoanalytic framework illuminates the madness of racism, the pleasure of pain, the agonistic fantasy of political power’ (Elliott 57). In addition, Homi Bhabha draws extensively from the works of Jacques Lacan, Julia Kristeva, Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida. Bhabha ‘argues that colonial identities are always fabricated upon a marginalized, excluded Other. … the repressed unconscious returns to derail the colonial language of power….evident … in colonial strategies of ‘hybridazation’ and ‘mimicry’(Elliott 59). Bhabha fashioned a ‘very particular politically informed psychoanalytic critique of post-colonialism…’ (Elliott 59). Ashis Nandy is another post-colonial critic who also drew upon psychoanalysis ‘to explore the complexity of identity in the post-colonial world’ (Elliott 60). Nandy agrees with Fanon’s conviction that the Western World transformed geography of colonized countries as well as bodies and minds of colonized people. In addition, a reciprocal process takes place and ‘colonialism psychologically deforms and disfigures, not only the colonized, but the colonizer’ (Elliott 60). These reflections are projected in literary works that reveal the imoact of colonialism in a various ways. How is hybridity reflected in specific examples? ‘Postcolonialists can argue that variation of the language is the first phase of development, followed by abrogation (denial of and rebellion against the imposed language), followed finally by appropriation ( the use and modification of the language for the users own purposes)’ (Stephen 365). The colonised are often referred to as being the margin people whereas the colonisers are the central people. The effect of colonialism in Algeria is obvious in writers of Algerian nationality but with a French education. Rather than being passive recipients of a new culture, the Algerian writers use their voice to expose their state of oppression which they condemn through their writing. The expression of hybridity is relevant to their state as oppressed people and as Algerians as well. What are the differences in the opinions of Fanon, Memmi, Cesaire, and Edward Said? Memmi ,Cesaire, and Fanon viewed colonialism as a psychological sickness created by the abnormal entwined position of the master and his slave. Said took a Post-Structuralist standpoint. He projected the discourse of “orientalism,” as one that had been fabricated by the texts of 18th and 105

19th century European scholars who explored the Eastern parts of the world in search for more territories to widen European empires. Explorers and antiquarians constructed a representation of an idea of an East that was exotic and totally different from the West.

Strengths of Postcolonial literary theory Many writers have rejected the ideas that writers from dominant countries have transmitted. Chinua Achebe has fervently defended cultures attached to a way of life that dominant occupiers cannot understand and did not respect. multiculturalism, multi religious practices, multilingualism with dialects, respect and tolerance have become recognised aspects of the other and his difference as displayed in literary works. Not to espouse the other as different but superior materially speaking has become awareness among post colonised people. Pride, in who one is proud, becomes more evident. To be different does not mean to be superior or inferior. Awareness of status, language, customs, and colour has gained more space in literary texts.

Shortcomings of Postcolonial literary theory Political stands may diminish the value of the text as a piece of art. Sensitive issues revealed and attacked may be handled with subjectiveness. The vagueness of describing postcolonial instances in literary works might lead to its uselessness. To see a work of literature only through the lens of the postcolonial issue might lessen the interest in other dimensions of structure or linguistics.

Suggested Guiding questions to approach texts with this theory Does the author attempt to combat preconceptions about a specific culture? Does the author attempt to restore to life a specific culture? Are there different powers represented in the text? ( geographic entities) Is there a dominant and a dominated group? Is colonialism directly referred to? Are there marks of hybridity? Can one group be said to be depicted as the ‘Other’? Is there a discourse of muteness for an oppressed group? Is there one group controlling the other? For what reasons? Are there reflections of the West and the East, or the Occident and the Orient? Does the text deal with issues about the powerful and the powerless?

106

Does the text exploit the concepts of the uncivilized, the barbaric, and the backward people? Is there the display of interests for one of the groups? Does the text allude to the history of colonialism and imperialism? What type of cultural effects is reflected in the text? What vocabulary and imagery are used to describe the groups or characters involved in the text?

Examples of works that deal with Postcolonial issues ‘The Tempest is Shakespeare’s penultimate play, and in one sense combines the moral outlook of the comedies, the histories, and the tragedies. Critical interpretations of it have been turned on their head by postcolnial critics, who have pointed out the arrival of Prospero on his island and his subjugation of the ‘native’ Caliban prefigures exactly the process of colonisation and Empire that started in seventeenth century Europe’ (Stephen 134). Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness ‘Postcolonial critics have pointed out Conrad’s horror of Empire allied to complicity with it on the part of his characters’ (Stephen 307).

More important figures to consider for the Postcolonial literary theory Gayatri Spivak ( 1942- ) Wole Soyinka ( 1934- ) Jamaica Kincaid (1949- ) Buchi Emecheta (1944-2017) Antonio Gramsci (1891 – 1937)

107

Week Eleven IV.4. Psychoanalytical Literary Theory ‘Literature provides a form in which the mind’s censor can permit the repressed desires to be expressed and released indirectly. The conscious mind or ego does not see what is written as the expression of these repressed desires, and therefore allows it through into print. However, these disguised fantasies carry tremendous strength in their coded, hidden form, strength both for the author and for the reader.’ (Stephen 356). ‘The work’s insights, as with all writing, are deeply related to its blindness: what it does not say, and how it does not say it, may be as important as what it articulates; what seems absent, marginal or ambivalent about it may provide a central clue to its meaning’(Eagleton 178)

108

Psychology and literature have a lot in common. René Wellek and Austin Warren explain that ‘[B]y ‘psychology of literature’, we may mean the psychological study of the writer, as a type and as an individual, or the study of the creative process, or the study of the psychological types and laws present within works of literature, or finally, the effects of literature upon its readers (audience psychology) (Wellek and Warren 81). Through literary works that we read and analyze, psychological issues may appear and psychology as a science may help to understand what works intend in a clearer way. The relationship between literature and psychology can be approached through the theory of psychoanalysis. Literature as fiction needs to be clearly delimited as to the elements that are fictional and the influence of psychological patters. Terry Eagleton comments on the dimensions of reality, fiction and psychology as he mentions that ‘…the patient’s problems are gradually redefined in terms of the analytic situation itself. In this sense, paradoxically, the problems which are handled in the consulting room are never quite at one with the real-life problems of the patient: they have perhaps, something of the ‘fictional’ relation to those real-life problems which a literary text has to real-life materials it transforms’(Eagleton 160). How can a text be analyzed in terms of psychological issues and how? This lesson intends to enlighten the topic by first giving some key words. key words : psychology, unconscious, motivation, mind, ego, superego, Id

What is the Psychological approach about? In the same way as Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) interpreted dreams, a text can be approached as a "dream" which reflects the subconscious of the author and its manifestation in a written form. The analysis and interpretation of the symbols as well as other figures of speech in addition to the analysis of the characters can provide an insight into the psyche of the author or of people whom the author writes for. ‘Freud believed that the literary artist, far from being mentally ill, was someone who possessed a power to take subliminal, unconscious fixations and communicate them with great strength’ (Stephen 356). All that concerns motives, desires and conflicts is of great interest to psychoanalysts. Three categories of characters can be the basis for an author to use in his works. Thus whether the characters are based on real people, whether they are real people or whether they are half real and half fictional, an author may consciously or unconsciously display their underlying traits as well as their motivations and secrets. Complex characters can be created as a mixture of totally fictional features as well as real ones.

109

A text can also allow for a Psychological critical interpretation by readers who recognize some aspects that they respond to in a personal way. This aspect has been dealt with Norman Holland (148-150) as the reader and the text relationship, an aspect that is also related to the Reader Response.

How did it develop and where does the name ‘Psychoanalytic literary theory’ come from? The name of ‘psychoanalytic literary theory’ comes from psychology and is related more particularly but not only to psychologist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). One can notice that this theory is also referred to as the Freudian theory. Notice, in addition that there are two theories that have the name of their founding father: they are Marxism and the present Freudian theory. But the reason why it is more logical to refer to the Freudian Theory by psychoanalysis is due to the fact that many concerns about psychology and literature, other than Freud’s, are involved in the analysis of literature. For instance, Carl Gustav Jung (1875- 1961) with his theories about the collective unconscious are also a key foundation of psychoanalysis and of Mythological Criticism at the same time. Anthropological methodology was also taken into account by critics such as T. S. Eliot (in The Sacred Wood, 1920) and Northrop Frye (in Anatomy of Criticism, 1957), who sought to trace similarities of pattern in literatures of disparate cultures and ages. Another important application of psychological principles concerns Jacques Lacan. ‘Owing its origin to language, the unconscious, linguistic in its very nature as Lacan sees it, shows itself to be creative within the structure’ (Jefferson and Robey 161). Psychoanalytic literary theory reflects how modern psychology can contribute to a better understanding of literature and literary criticism

How are psychology and literature related? Observations about literature and psychology lead to considering the Psychoanalytical theory of Freud which has had a great effect upon literature. Terry Eagleton explains that ‘[W]hat has dominated human history to date is the need to labour; and for Freud that harsh necessity means that w must repress some of our tendencies to pleasure and gratification. … Every human being has to undergo this repression of what Freud named the ‘pleasure principle’ by the ‘reality principle’, but for some of us, and arguably for whole societies, the repression may become excessive and make us ill’ (Eagleton 151). These instances and experiences of repression are often used in literary texts. It can be observed that at first literature was used very much as a slave to the master- discourse of psychoanalysis, which used literature to validate its clinical findings’ (Jefferson and Robey 145). Yet the relationship is reciprocal, and the effect of Freud upon literature has been no

110

greater than the effect of literature upon Freud. Freud believed that the poets and philosophers discovered the unconscious before he did. In fact, ‘[F]rom 1912 to 1937 the chief organ for the publication of writings concerned with the relation of psychoanalysis to the arts and all aspects of culture was a periodical called Imago, published in Leipzig, Vienna and Zürich; one of its founding editors was Otto Rank, a psychoanalyst with wide interests in myth and fairy fairy-tale’ (Jefferson and Robey 145). The Romanticist literature of 19th century offers a wide field of analysis of Psychological insights and passion devoted to a research into the self. The same is true about modernism in literary studies with a direct influence from Freud’s claims. Schopenhauer and Nietzsche can be recognized to have anticipated ideas about the unconscious mind. The relationship of literature and psychoanalysis is compared with the relationship between a patient and a consulting room. Terry Eagleton explains that ‘paradoxically, the problems which are handled in the consulting room are never quite at one with the real-life problems of the patient: they have, perhaps, something of the ‘fictional’ relation to those real-life problems which a literary text has to real-life materials it transforms’ (Eagleton 160). In terms of content, the events and issues of a narrative could be explained in terms of fictional projections in a literary text. In addition to psychological aspects in a literary text, Ann Jefferson and David Robey consider that the ‘main contribution of classical psychoanalytical criticism was to point out the role of desire in the figuring and structuring of texts, and this links psychoanalysis with both rhetoric and narrative’ (Jefferson and Robey 150). The psychoanalytic theory has proven effective in its application to literary texts as illustrated in the examples provided in the section entitled: ‘Suggested Examples of psychoanalysis’ in this lesson. Julia Kristeva ‘sees artistic creation and literary expression as possible containers for unspoken experiences, in particular giving symbolic form to the semiotic. It is in the cultural products of the artist or the writer, says Kristeva, that the semiotic may impress itself upon symbolic structures, thus threatening established meaning. She finds such a poetics of the semiotic in the writings of various avant-garde authors as Mallarme, Lautreamont, Artraud and Joyce’ (Elliott 146).

What does it deal with and what does it attempt to achieve? Psychoanalytical Criticism focuses on psychological dimensions of the work. Psychoanalytic interpretations of literary texts attempt to decode the psyche of the author and whether there are conscious or unconscious motives. The text is perceived to give the expression of the personality, state of mind, feelings and desires of its author. Psychoanalytic interpretations can do so by inferring the psychological states and intentions behind elements in the text such as the characters, imagery, setting, symbolism and other components that build the text.

111

Some aspects get close to the biographical theory as the life of the author is analysed; but it differs since psychoanalysis looks into the intentions at the level of the unconscious mental processes. Another aspect can be found in that ‘Psychoanalytic criticism seeks to reveal the ‘true’ content of a work and to explain its effect on the reader’ (Stephen 356). Two important parts of a narrative are what the formalists call the ‘fabula’, to refer to the original sequence, chronologically, of events and the ‘syuzhet’ to refer to the events in the order they are presented in the narrative. Some events may appear early in the narrative when they are chronologically posterior, in time, to events that appear later that is after them. In psychoanalytical approaches of literary texts, the reader has ‘to find causes and connections and like the analyst, he has to work back through time in order to recover meaning. …the insights of psychoanalysis can provide far more than a simple code of meaning … what is … common to all narratives: the endeavour to grasp reality through a fictious construct. …’ (Jefferson and Robey 150). In addition, the desires to write, the reader’s comfort in reading, the projection of mental process in characters and more issues related to the ego, the superego and the id can be found in texts. Literary texts can be a therapy for the writers and readers can also find therapy in reading. Fiction allows for projections of reality but also imaginary outputs and fulfilment of what cannot be achieved outside a fictional narrative.

What are the approaches that Psychoanalysis usually employs? According to Terry Eagleton, ‘Psychoanalytical literary criticism can be broadly divided into four kinds, depending on what it takes as its object of attention. It can attend to the author of the work; to the work’s contents; to its formal construction; or to the reader’ (Eagleton 179). It analyses the creativity of the artist; his literary input and genius are paid attention to. It investigates the normal functions of a writer and checks them against the artist’s ones. As mentioned earlier, it relates to Biographical Theory in the sense that the life of the artist is taken into consideration as a possible effect on the rendition of a literary text. Some motivation and behaviour can be explained in terms of the writer’s experience of some events in his life especially in his youth or teenage. Freud believes in three divisions of the psyche which are the ID, the Ego, and the Superego. These divisions can be projected in literary works as the id which is a totally unconscious part of the psyche may be a kind of a storehouse of desires, wishes, and fears. It is thus reflected in some characters or the treatment of themes for instance. As for the second division which is the Ego, due to being partly unconscious and partly conscious, it can process experiences and then be used a reference and moderator between the id and the superego. The last division is the Superego also referred to as being the conscience. The superego works as a censor that constantly calls for moral

112

judgments in accordance with what society requires in terms of permissible and non permissible acts. As for Jacques Lacan and his perception of psychological dimensions that can be projected in literary texts, three models are defined. They are the Imaginary, the Symbolic, and the Real. Psychoanalysis also pays particular attention to characters, their behaviour and their language. These can reveal some unconscious motives of the author.The characters can be approached from the ‘characters’ perspective’. What is the Character Perspective? When the purpose of the psychological perspective is to examine the internal motivations of literary characters, it is called the Character Perspective. As a form of criticism, this perspective deals with works of literature as expressions of the personality, state of mind, feelings, and desires of the author or of a character within the literary work. As readers, we investigate the psychology of a character or an author to figure out the meaning of a text .

What do the Freudian and Jungian Psychological approaches look for? A Freudian approach often includes pinpointing the influences of a character's id (the instinctual, pleasure seeking part of the mind), superego (the part of the mind that represses the id's impulses) and the ego (the part of the mind that controls but does not repress the id's impulses, releasing them in a healthy way) (Jefferson and Robey 148). Freudian critics like to point out the sexual implications of symbols and imagery, since Freud believed that all human behaviour is motivated by sexuality. They tend to see concave images, such as ponds, flowers, cups, and caves as female symbols; whereas objects that are longer than they are wide are usually seen as phallic symbols. This aspect is remindful of symbolic language used in Formalism as well as connotations that archetypal analysis favours. Dancing, riding, and flying are associated with sexual pleasure. Water is usually associated with birth, the female principle, the maternal, the womb, and the death wish. Freudian critics occasionally discern the presence of an Oedipus complex (a boy's unconscious rivalry with his father for the love of his mother) in the male characters of certain works, such as Hamlet (Shakespeare). They may also refer to Freud's psychology of child development, which includes the oral stage, the anal stage, and the genital stage. The Jungian Approach is also an influential force in myth (archetypal) criticism. Psychological critics are generally concerned with Jung’s concept of the process of individuation (the process of discovering what makes one different form everyone else). Jung labeled three parts of the self: the shadow, or the darker, unconscious self (usually the villain in literature); the persona, or a man's social personality (usually the hero); and the anima, or a man's "soul image" (usually the heroine). A neurosis occurs when someone fails to assimilate one of these unconscious components into his 113

conscious and projects it on someone else. The persona must be flexible and be able to balance the components of the psyche.

What are the strengths of Psychoanalysis? ‘Psychoanalytic criticism has made a major contribution to literary studies. It does not demand total blind allegiance from those who areare of it, and a significant number of critics have learnt from it and adapted part of its tenets in their own approach’ (Stephen 357). Psychoanalysis, in ‘its obsessive pursuit of ‘harmony’, coherence, ‘deep structure’ or ‘essential meaning’ … fills in the text’s gaps and smooths over its contradictions, domesticating its disparate aspects and defusing its conflicts. It does this so that the text may be, so to speak, more easily ‘consumed’- so that the path is made straight for the reader, who will not be ruffled by any unexplained irregularities’ (Eagleton 181). Studying the development of a literary work, its genesis, how drafts have been erased and how elements have been added, can be of help in analysing the final output of an author. The elements which have been considered unnecessary or those that were essential can help situate what an author considers most important in terms of the quality of his production. This aspect concerns the ‘experience of the author’ by which two different things are meant. They are ‘the conscious experience, the intentions which the author wanted to embody in his work or the total conscious and unconscious experience during the prolonged time of creation’ (Wellek and Warren 148). ‘For some conscious artists, psychology may have tightened their sense of reality, sharpened their powers of observation or allowed them to fall into hitherto undiscovered patterns’ (Wellek and Warren 93).

What are the shortcomings of Psychoanalysis? Psychological criticism can turn a work into little more than a psychological case study, neglecting to view it as a piece of art. Critics sometimes attempt to diagnose long dead authors based on their works, which is perhaps not the best evidence of their psychology. Critics are aware of the issue that ‘common criticism is that Freud ‘brings everything down to sex’ that he is, in the technical term a ‘pan-sexualist’(Eagleton 163), exaggerating this aspect of literature. Finally, some works do not lend themselves readily to this approach. In addition, martin Stephen warns of the fact that this theory ‘carries within it the danger of becoming dominated by one theme, sexuality, and an additional danger is the inherently comic nature of both fanatical single-mindedness and sexuality’ (Stephen 357). The artistic aspect of texts should not be undermined by the scientific aspect of psychoanalysis as ‘… psychology is only preparatory to the act of creation; and in the work itself, psychological

114

truth is an artistic value only if it enhances coherence and complexity – if, in short, it is art’ (Wellek and Warren 93). Many dramatic or melodramatic instances in novels or other works are analyzed in terms of displays of psychological instances while they are merely striking situations of a stage in life that is not always realistic. Psychology is more serious than dramatic and melodramatic treatments in fiction. Authors use psychological situations that fit their art but which cannot be considered to be realistic situations. These fictional treatments are part of the imaginative process of the writer and remain aspects of pure fantasy. The artistic representation of characters should not be mistaken with reality. Wellek and Warren warn that ‘[e]ven if we assume that an author succeeds in making his figures behave with ‘psychological truth’, we may well raise the question whether such ‘truth’ is an artistic value’ (Wellek and Warren 92). Such a creation remains part of fiction as opposed to a mirror of reality. The stream of consciousness literary technique gives way to the mental thoughts of a character. Psychologically, there is the access to inner thoughts while the device of the stream of consciousness is to be considered as a tool to dramatize a situation or to explain the difficulty that a character cannot openly voice. Consequently, psychological issues should remain within the limits of an artistic production. While analysing a literary text, some detachment from what the reader subjectively feels needs to be carefully considered. In fact, ‘[T]he psychology of the reader, however interesting in itself or useful for pedagogical purposes, will always remain outside the object of literary study – the concrete work of art – and is unable to deal with the question of the structure and value of the work of art’ (Wellek and Warren 147). The text under analysis is the most important part of the analysis as opposed to what the reader may think that could have been conducted differently.

Questions to approach a text through Psychoanalysis -Are the theories of Freud or other psychologists recognizable in this work? To what degree? -Are the characters recognizable psychological types? -What kind of relation have the fictional characters got to the author’s self? -Do any of the characters correspond to the parts of the tripartite self? (Id, ego, superego) -What forces are motivating the characters? -Which behaviours of the characters are conscious ones? Which are unconscious? -What conscious or unconscious conflicts exist between the characters? -Given their backgrounds, how plausible (credible) is the characters’ behavior? -What roles do psychological disorders and dreams play in this story? -How might a psychological approach account for different responses in female and male readers? -How does the work reflect the writer’s personal psychology? 115

-What do the characters’ emotions and behaviours reveal about their psychological states? -How does the work reflect the unconscious dimensions of the writer’s mind? -How does the reader’s own psychology affect his response to the work? -Can the author’s personality explain or enable to interpret the text? -Are there any psychological theories reflected in the text? Oedipus complex? Sexual repression? Denial? Guilt? Defense mechanisms, avoidance, displacement, projection or regression. -Are there materials which reflect repressed feelings in terms of using imagery or symbols?

Suggested Examples of Psychoanalysis 1. Freudianism in D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers (1913): Terry Eagleton explains how psychoanalysis in Sons and lovers can explain what the novel deals with. He states that ‘Even conservative critics, who suspect such phrases as the ‘Oedipus complex’ as alien jargon, sometimes admit that there is something at work in this text which looks remarquably like Freud’s famous drama. ….Sons and Lovers, without appearing to be at all aware of it, is a profoundly Oedipal novel: the young Paul Morel who sleeps in the same bed as his mother, treats her with the tenderness of a lover and feels strong animosity towards his father, grows up the man Morel, unable to sustain a fulfilling relationship with a woman, and in the end achieving possible release from this condition by killing his mother in an ambiguous act of love, revenge and self-liberation….’ (Eagleton 175). His explanation 2. Virginia Wolf’s To the Lighthouse (1927) (Eagleton 189). (1) A psychological approach to John Milton's Samson Agonisties (1671) might suggest that the shorning of Samson's locks is symbolic of his castration at the hands of Dalila and that the fighting words he exchanges with Harapha constitute a reassertion of his manhood. Psychological critics might see Samson's bondage as a symbol of his sexual impotency, and his destruction of the Philistine temple and the killing of himself and many others as a final orgasmic event (since death and sex are often closely associated in Freudian psychology). The total absence of Samson's mother in Samson Agonisties would make it difficult to argue anything regarding the Oedipus complex, but Samson’s refusal to be cared for by his father and his remorse over failing to rule Dalila may be seen as indicative of his own fears regarding his sexuality. (2) A psychological approach to Rudolfo Anaya’s The Silence of the Llano (1982) would allow us to look into the motivations of Rafael--it would allow us to examine the effects of isolation and loneliness on his character and provide some reasoning for why he might choose to establish an incestuous relationship with his daughter. A specifically Freudian approach will tune us in to the relevant symbolism which will enable us to better understand the conclusion. For instance, with such a mind frame, we can immediately recognize that Rafael's statement to his daughter "I will

116

turn the earth for you. The seeds will grow" is the establishment of a sexual relationship that will result in children. We can see the water in which she bathes as symbolic of that birth that is to come. (3)Marie Bonaparte’s study of the life and work of Edgar Allan Poe (Jefferson and Robey 146- 148). She takes Poe’s characters in his stories as imagos, internalised images which result from past experiences. ‘A brief example of Bonaparte’s application of these mechanisms to the literary text can be extracted from her analysis of Poe’s story ‘The Black Cat’ (1843). She argues that for the narrator, whom she identifies with the author, there is a displacement of his hatred for the mother seen as bad onto all-black cat which bites him and which he duly mutilates and kills…’ (Jefferson and Robey 147). Coleridge’s poem entitled ‘Kubla Khan’(1816) is considered in terms of what was conscious and what was unconscious for the poet. The analysis provided by Stephen Bonnycastle is also an opening on biographical and structural elements. This is available in his book entitled In Search of Authority, An Introductory Guide to Literary Theory , as mentioned in the pages 36 to 40. 4. Online Example : A Jungian Analysis of The Sound and the Fury (1929): Faulkner and the Four Functions by Edna Brown, St. Louis, Missouri “The Interior Monologues of The Sound and the Fury ,” in which Collins describes how “Faulkner built his novel around Freud’s tri-partite structure of the personality; in this structure, Benjy is roughly equivalent to the id, Quentin to the ego, and Jason the superego” (Polk 15).available online at : https://semo.edu/cfs/teaching/17677.html

A Freudian Approach to Erin McGraw's "A Thief" by Skylar Hamilton Burris available at https://www.skylarb.com/single-post/.../ Diderot’s Rameau’s Nephew ( 1762). Freudian influence on Marcel Proust ( 1871-1922) T.S. Eliot in The Waste Land (1913) (Eagleton 181). Franz Kafka ( 1883-1924) has explored the Freudian conception of guilt and punishment, of the dreams, and of the fear of the father. Thomas Mann (1875-1955) has been influenced by Freudian anthropology finding a special charm in the theories of myths and magical practices. James Joyce (1882-1941) has his interest in the numerous states of receding consciousness. Henry James’ The Turning of the Screw (1898) is a work in which characters obviously have psychological issues. Like the biographical approach, knowing something about a writer's psychological makeup can give the reader insight into his work.

117

Moby Dick by Herman Melville and To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf are ‘condensation, a displacement and a symbol of forbidden sexual desires’ (Stephen 356). Ernest Jones, Hamlet and Oedipus, (1949).

Other figures to consider in Psychoanalysis Louise Michelle Rosenblatt (1904 -2005) mentioned in the lesson about the Reader Response theory.

Concluding statement In the beginning of this lesson, the question was in Wellek and Warren’s words: ‘Can psychology, in its turn, be used to interpret and evaluate the literary works themselves?’ (Wellek and Warren 90) and the answer in the same scholars’ words is: ‘Psychology obviously can illuminate the creative process’ (Wellek and Warren 90). Eagleton states that ‘[T]he problems of literary value and pleasure would seem to lie somewhere at the juncture of psychoanalysis, linguistics and ideology… We know enough, however, to suspect that it is a deal more possible to say why someone enjoys certain arrangements of words than conventional literary criticism has believed’ (Eagleton 192).

118

Week Twelve IV.5. Archetypal and Myth literary theory ‘Although a relative sideline in the flood of modern critical theories, it would be wise not to ignore Archetypal criticism, for all that it tends to oversimplify complex issues’ (Stephen 353).

119

The Archetypal literary theory is closely related to Mythological and Psychological literary theories. Several instances in this lesson evoke myth criticism alongside archetypes. Myths and archetypes provide the literary critics with necessary tools to approach the analysis of a text in terms of transmitted beliefs and shared concepts that get to be used in narratives, images, symbols, themes and more. Recurrent archetypes provide a strong basis for the past to resist changes and time flow. Thus these emerge in the present sometimes under modified aspects but recognisable shapes. Familiar references can be discovered and literary texts in their embodiment of new structures, new stories, new characters and else still bear the print of well known archetypes or myths. This lesson sheds light on how the Archetype and mythological theories can be approached in the analysis of literary texts. The figures associated with this literary theory are often associated with psychoanalysis as well.

Key words: archetype, symbol, myth, image, forms

What is the Myth and Archetypal Literary theory? It is a theory that enables the analysis and the interpretation of a literary text by paying particular attention to the use of myths and archetypes. There is a focus on the recurrence of a specific type of narrative, the use of ancient image and symbols which are remindful of certain myths. Archetypes are often related to mythological or biblical events. Certain characters may also be based on specific types like the hero, the temptress, the ogre, or the godmother/father, the orphan, the good and bad type of character, devilish or saintly in their behaviour. It also deals with long held beliefs in using a sign for success or for failure such as a black cat, a star, a light, a snake, a crow or even another type of bird. Writers may use such objects in their narratives. The plot development of narratives may also be remindful of folk tales, tales of wisdom and other plots that are used again and again.

What is the historical development of these theories ? Two disciplines have contributed to Archetypal literary theory and consequently to literary criticism. In fact, ‘Archetypal criticism sprang from two sources. The first was the School of Comparative Anthropology at the University of Cambridge and the book which came to symbolise some of its views, J.G.Fraser’s The Golden Bough (1890-1915). This book traced ‘elemental’ myths and rituals which, it claimed, could be proved to run through and recur in very many diverse cultures. This tied in naturally with the theories of C.G.Jung, who believed that human life gave rise to types of experience that repeated themselves again and again, …part of the collective’

120

unconsciousness’’ (Stephen 353). Carl Jung was Freud’s pupil and many ideas about the collective unconscious find their source in Freud’s theories around the idea of the social archetype. Carl Jung expanded Freud’s theories and he also refined them. Other marking figures in the development of Archetypal literary theory are Bodkin and Frye.

What is the origin of the word Archetype? The word archetype comes from the Greek archetypos ; ‘ arch ē’ means ‘beginning’, and ‘ typos’ means ‘imprint’. Thus, Archetypes means “original pattern”. In literary texts, Archetypes refer to recurring patterns of images, theme developments, characters, plot progressions and denouements among other literary elements. These recurrent items throughout different literary texts and thoughts display consistent and universal concepts that also resist time changes and that can be easily recognisable. How did Carl Gustav Jung contribute to the development of Archetypal literary Criticism? Carl Gustav Jung, the Swiss born psychologist mentioned in the lesson about the Psychoanalytical literary theory, theorized about myths and archetypes in relation to psychology and to the unconscious, as a part of the mind that cannot be accessed. According to Jung, two types of unconscious are the personal and the collective one. It is the collective unconscious also called the objective psyche that Jung pays more attention to in terms of a collection of inner thoughts, feelings, instincts, and memories that all people share unconsciously. Thus, old beliefs would have been passed on from generation to generation and could be present in all people’s unconscious. Jung’s archetypal approach deals with literary texts as a way in which images, patterns and symbols can be analysed through mythological interpretations. Jung’s view was not much used until the 1950s when the branch of archetypal literary criticism developed. However, in 1934, Jung’s theories about the collective unconscious were used by Maud Bodkin who published a work entitled Archetypal Patterns in Poetry , a type of criticism that referred to the use of recurrent patterns remindful of mythology. She referred to primordial images in literature applying and examining archetypes. For instance, she dealt with the ancient mariner and rebirth, heaven and hell, images of the devil, the hero and God. How did Northrop Frye contribute to the development of Archetypal literary Criticism? Archetypal criticism became popular in the 1940s and 1950s with the Canadian literary critic Northrop Frye, already mentioned in the previous lesson as his work breaks from his anthropological and psychoanalytical precursors, Frazer and Jung. Frye felt that due to the fact that the unconscious is inaccessible, Jung’s theory was not interesting. As for the origins of archetypes by Frazer, Frye judged that it was not the essential concern. What really mattered to Frye was the function and effect of archetypes. The material universe that literary archetypes come from is

121

reflected in literary texts and the linguistic dimension becomes a concern in literary analysis. Frye’s work displaced New Criticism as the major literary theory in critical analysis. Who is Joseph Campbell and how did he contribute to the development of Archetypal literary Criticism? Joseph Campbell initiated the idea of the ‘monomyth', a term borrowed from James Joyce. In his 1949 book Hero with a Thousand Faces , he used a universal pattern in heroic tales across different cultures and genres. He examined eight steps in a hero's journey. This method greatly impacted the Abstract Expressionists of the 1950s. Creative artists continue to be inspired by his innovation to this day.

What do the Myth and the Archetypal literary theories claim? Archetypal criticism claims that archetypes determine the form and function of literary works. Consequently, a text's meaning is shaped by cultural and psychological myths. Archetypes may contain an unknowable basic form which gets personified or concretized in recurring images, symbols, or patterns. Archetypes may include motifs such as a mission or the ascent to heaven. Some characters may be recognised as specific types in the trickster, the evil mother in law or the hero. Symbols may give allusions such as the apple or the snake. Archetypes may also transmit images such as the cross, the crescent or even the star. When these archetypes appear in a text, they convey meaning which is already integrated in the object used in the text. The reader is reminded of previous knowledge that he has encountered in other texts. As for myths they are ‘by nature collective and communal; they bind a tribe or a nation together in common psychological and spiritual activities’ (Guerin 226). Thus the archetype and myth theories refer to common knowledge passed on from different epoch to epoch and through different cultures. What are common archetypes and myths the theories relies on? The wise old man is an archetypal character. For example, Dumbledore (Guerin 229) in Harry Potter Journeys convey the overcoming of a series of obstacles before reaching a specific goal. The journey archetype in Western culture is Homer's Odyssey , the quest for knowledge and Ulysses who remains victorious in the end. Other common and familiar examples are: death- rebirth myth, springtime settings, growing seasons and vegetation. Black hats and black cats may be associated with gothic instances as well as witches and magic spells. The forest is an archetypal setting. Characters lose their way, meet strangers, fight dangers and in the end, they become stronger. Meaningful examples are provided in Snow White and the Twelve

122

Dwarfs , Young Goodman Brown , Robinson Crusoe with the forest exchanged with the unknown island and Lion King . The evil or bad intentioned stepmothers such as displayed in the Cinderella fairy tale and recognisable in Jane Eyre’s evil aunt Reed. The forbidden fruit gives way to forbidden objects and is derived from the Genesis. Apples as the forbidden or poisonous fruit such as used in Snow White . Fairy god mothers or god fathers change the course of events for distressed characters who are often orphans. Available in Cinderella (1812) by Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859) and Cosette, the little girl with the famous good man, Jean Valgean, in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables (1862). The pattern is extended to good characters such as Jane Eyre who changes the course of events in the life of her female cousins who become rich and marry comfortably to live happily. Magic objects, treasures that lead to misery that is overcome through bounty. The Femme Fatale is a female character type. She affects others with bad luck in ruinous and devastating events. She might have been drawn from Eve from the story of Genesis or from the figure of Pandora in Greek mythology. The myth of the American Dream is present in many works and has been interpreted in different genres of literary texts such as the play, the short story and the novel. The myth of travel and flying such as used in Ulysses and heroes on trips searching happiness an good fortune as well as knowledge and eternal life.

How to approach of a text from Myth or Archetypal literary theories ? Students can seek mysterious elements in a literary text and find out what they correspond to. Myth aspects can be found in underlying behaviours of main characters. The identification of common archetypes such as those cited in this lesson can enable to unveil forms of classic stories. Love triangles or mother in law and stepdaughter relationships are easily recognisable. Many forms of the beauty and the beast are used by writers. Fairy Tales often provide with plots based on myth and are re-used in other literary genres. Heroes can be disguised in apparently weak characters who are wise and thus stronger than well built characters. Regular patterns strike readers who have read great numbers of works and find parallel patterns all based on traditional plots and basic stories.

Strengths of the Archetypal and Myth Literary Theory Archetypal critics have found that New Criticism was too reductive in ignoring inter-textual elements. They also felt that approaching the text as if it existed on its own with no relation to other texts was not fair enough. Story patterns and symbolic associations, when available, cannot be ignored. It is sometimes difficult not to take into account both the meaning that is in the text and

123

that which is outside the text. In fact, to isolate a text and to treat it without considering other meanings, as if it were independent might make the critic fail to value relevant elements. Archetypal images as well as story structures, their settings and their plots may promote participation in ritual basic beliefs. Some texts may expose parallels in the fears and anxieties of a certain era. Archetypal criticism may allow analysing larger patterns in texts and making connections with other texts, writers and genres. Regardless of the origin of a text, identifying universal archetypes can help understanding and analysing any book from anywhere.

Shortcomings of the Archetypal and Myth Literary Theory Readers must not enforce archetypes by believing that irrelevant parallels are considerable analogies. Narratives may be totally independent from previous stories despite the resemblance of some characters with those of previously read stories. Certain themes may inevitably lead to the same developments without resembling previously encountered treatments. Archetypes may be mistaken for stereotypes or general familiarities. Looking at strong generalities in archetypes could cause the individuality of the text to be overlooked.

Questions to ask when using the Archetypal/ Mythological Approach Does the text contain symbols that relate to a mythological/archetypal treatment? Are there recurrent images of Archetypal Images of water, fire, gardens, caves or celestial bodies? Does the text present a hero built on a common and known pattern? Are there loners and outcasts among the characters? Are there numbers remindful of three, seven or thirteen? (typical magical or gothic) Is there a colour or colours that dominate the work? Does the text reflect a quest for knowledge, youth, eternal life, love? Are the names of the characters, places, or events remindful of mythological figures? Are there recurring themes, characters, and situations remindful of myths? (Greek or Roman) Can the characters be easily grouped in the Archetypal Characters of the Hero, The villain , the temptress , the Scapegoat , the loser or the beauty in distress?

124

Examples of works that could be approached through the Archetypal and Myth theory Northrop Frye’s Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (Princeton University Press, 1957) deals with texts about four great myths corresponding to the four seasons and in turn corresponding to the four great literary genres of tragedy, comedy, romance and satire. Romeo and Juliet (1597) by William Shakespeare (1564-1616) T.S.Eliot based part of the Waste Land round the Golden Bough : A Study in Comparative Religion (1890). This work was retitled The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion by Sir James George Frazer. J.R.Tolkien’s (1892-1973) Lord of the Rings (1954) is based on myth. The Odyssey ( VIIIc BC.) by Homer ( VIIIc BC.- VIIIc BC. Moby Dick by Herman Melville.

125

Week Thirteen IV.6. The New Historicism ‘Detailed historical examination allows us to see the ‘discourses’ that underpin the writing of the time, and which the author is often unaware of as an influence on his or her work’ (Stephen 366). ‘new historicists join the study of literature and history together primarily to observe how they influence each other’(Guerin 132)

126

This lesson’s target is to make students aware of how history can be interpreted in relation to literary texts. Is history a linear set of events that has affected writers? It is certainly so, as explained in traditional historical approaches of texts and studied in the lesson entitled historical literary approach in the first part of traditional theories of this study guide. It can also be much more than that as authors can react to a linear set of events. They can, because of their personality, choose to accept or to reject some events. Their texts may reflect a selection of what has infleuenced their style of writing. History does not change but New Historicism becomes a tool to understand the approach of events through particular individual selections at the expense or denial of others. The New Historical literary approach covered in this lesson will be clarified and compared with the traditional historical approach so as to set these two literary theories apart.

Key words: context, primary source, past, historical method

What is New Historicism? It is a theory that involves historical references in a parallel way to the Historical theoretical approach but that goes beyond the analysis that traditional historical theory provides. The historical perspectives of a literary work are elevated so as to get a central understanding of the position of historical references in a literary treatment of language. New Historicism is also called ‘historical method’, ‘Contextualism’, or ‘Cultural Materialsm’(Stephen 366). This literary theory is recent compared with traditional theories. It emerged in the 1970s and 1980s. Differently from old Historicism which is based on the approach of history, New Historicism is based on changes in historical methodology. It first reacted to New Criticism and also against Structuralism and Deconstruction due to the exclusion of history altogether.

How did New Historicism come into practice? New historicism was born with a simple declarative statement. Renaissance scholar Stephen Greenblatt laid the foundation for what would become New Historicism, a mode of cultural inquiry that would change the direction of literary theory in the final two decades of the twentieth century. In his seminal volume Shakespearean Negotiations: The Circulation of Social Energy in Renaissance England (1988), Greenblatt acknowledges, “I began with the desire to speak to the dead.” Critics who apply the methods of New Historicism have attempted to bring back historical and anthropological approaches that Russian Formalist and American New Critics had abandoned nearly a century earlier. Michel Foucault’s philosophy largely contributed to the development of New Historicism. Foucault based his approach on collective cultural knowledge. He examined the

127

influence of the power-structures of the society. This theory gained widespread influence in the 1990s and beyond.

What does New Historicism deal with? New Historicism focuses on understanding texts by viewing them in the context of other texts, taking into consideration both the history of the author and the history of the critic. Thus, it pays attention to primary source materials such as political treatises and newspaper articles written at the time of the work’s publication as the circumstances in which a text was written matter . It seeks to understand how economic, social, and political influences may have affected an author at the time of creation and production of literary texts. New Historicism acknowledges not only that a literary text is influenced by its author's times and circumstances, but that the critic's response to that work is also influenced by his environment as well as his beliefs including whatever prejudices he may hold. New Historicism tends to broadly define the term "text" in the dimensions of its creation and all influences that may have affected its production. In fact, the activities of New Historicists are an attempt at re-creating the conditions in which a work was written and those in which it is analysed. There are many kinds of New Historicism approaches which are used within various other theories such the perspectives of Reader-Response criticism and more particularly Jauss’ Reader Response, Feminist criticism, and Marxist approaches. New historicism uses methods that are opposed to the theories that exclude external historical influences as the case of Formalism, New Criticism, Post-structuralism and Hermeneutics, theories that favour an isolated work of art or text. On the contrary, New Historicism pays attention to interactions between the text and all the external factors and circumstances of its composition.

Difficulties that New Historicism can face The goal of reliving the times in which a work was written is quite difficult. A modern scholar cannot pretend to be in the condition of a Renaissance author for instance, despite hard trial at doing so. What is past is not easy to recreate. Thus there is some difficulty in trying to fully understand the time and culture of a specific time in which a work was written , and to gain a small understanding of the enormous, mysterious past culture that produced the work remains challenging. A New Historicist looks at literature in a wider historical context, examining both how the writer's times affected the work and how the work reflects the writer's times, in turn recognizing that current cultural contexts affect and contribute to that critic's conclusions. There is an attempt to re-live the situation and to understand the conditions in which the work was produced. Critics are also interested in how literature functions as a political device, as a by-product of power, and as part of cultural imitation. 128

What does this theory rely on? All the tools that can benefit the description of the times depicted in the text are useful elements. They can deal with the era through the newspapers, some news, machines of the times or the fashion followed by people. The text can mention political views, tracts, pamphlets, meetings or gatherings. What relates to dates needs to be taken into consideration. birth, death, birthdays, anniversaries, celebrations, religious feasts. Any element that enables to situate the text, even in terms of the vocabulary used or references to other languages may be useful.

What are some steps that could be followed in applying this theory? Question the literary facts connected to history in the text. Consider which historical facts may have been omitted and why. Consider the tools that the writer possessed at the time when he produced the literary text. Contrast the text with the times in which it was written. What occupations are reflected? Are the thoughts represented plausible? Consider the vocabulary and check whether it was the vocabulary of the times reflected in the text. Is there a manipulation of past events with new recent contemporary vocabulary? For example, there were no cell phones in Victorian England. How did people quickly transmit information?

Strengths of New Historicism New historicism considers literature in a wider historical context than does traditional historicism. New historicists consider that traditional historical criticism was too simplistic. They judge that traditional historical critics tended to look for the text as a reflection of unity in the past. they rather consider texts as a reflection of complexity. New historicists object to emphasizing order and also to generalizing assumptions about a text as a reflection of a period of time. For new Historicists, there is not one general aspect but a multitude of details that cannot get to be generalized. A period of time reflected in a text is in fact a witness of a multitude of different elements that have impacted the author and his production. For New Historicists, there is a text with only one basic way of looking at the world that is shared by all. Views and values are not all identical and looking at texts in context may reveal a variety of results. New Historicist object to naming an era by one general term like Elizabethan or Jacobean. Instead, it is political, social, cultural, and economic views which are always in instability that

129

should be the focus. Different opinions are in a kind of struggle with the need for assertion and the prevailing of choosing one name to refer to a whole period might diminish the existence of differing views and opinions as well as influences. In fact because different groups, opinions, and views may have implemented more authority and influence than others, these must not erase the existence of differing groups, opinions and views that could in their turn become more influential at another period. There is no static name or group or opinion and thus possible change should be reflected as a multitude of existing views. Marginalisation of opinions is rejected as all opinions need to be considered if the atmosphere of a certain time is to be properly rendered. In their analyses, New Historicists consider that a literary text is the result of various influences and that in its turn, the literary text is going to influence other works. Culture is reflected as a working agent and the production of a literary text is going in its turn to contribute to the very culture that it was born in, thus making it alter in one way or the other. While texts are influenced by culture, they ultimately become part of that culture. When a literary text is recognized to be a piece of testimony of a certain culture, then that text is related to other pieces of evidence of that culture. Thus complexity needs to be taken into account as opposed to generalization in the way it was performed by traditional historians. New Historicists reject the claim of harmony and unity that is sustained by traditional historians. . Texts that are produced are in fact a result of a political system that allowed for that text to be published. Negotiating power is indirectly part of the text as a result of a cultural system.

Shortcomings of New Historicism Contexts of production and contexts of analysis may be wide apart and should not be enforced one upon the other. The negative criticism that addresses New Historicism concerns the analysis of texts in their reductive dimensions. The importance of literature as a work of art seems to be erased at the expense of the texts that become a historical artefact. The New Historicist finds it hard to examine literature without any influence from his own culture and environment. In the example of Shakespeare and The Merchant of Venice , the question about anti-semiticism is triggered by the concerns of the critic’s times more than by a consideration of Shakespeare’s times in which such a question wouldn't have been considered important. The critic must be aware of the affective impact of the civilization in which he lives.

Questions pertaining to New Historicism What type of text is under analysis? Letter, newspaper, article, novel or other.

130

How does the story reflect the aspirations and conditions of the lower or upper classes? Who is the narrator? What are the aspirations of this narrator? Is it a man or a woman? What time is depicted in the text? How much time is there between the reading of the text and the time when it was published? Can the motivations in the text or for the text, be still coherent at the moment of its reading and analysis? Are there any announcements for a desire for change? In the themes, the characters or the convictions of the narrator? Is tension created by juxtaposing privileged, powerful positions to subordinated, dominated positions? What information about the historical context of the story helps explain the character's motivations? Who benefits from the outcome of the story or from a given character's motivation?

Example of application of New Historicism A critical appreciation of Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" from the perspective of New Historicism? Source: Kitson, Peter. “Coleridge, the French Revolution, and 'the Ancient Mariner': Collective Guilt and Individual Salvation”. The Yearbook of English Studies 19 (1989): 197–207. New Historicism refers to a mode of criticism in which the literary text is read as a product of the historical conditions under which it was produced. In the case of the “Ancient Mariner,” this means, how does the text reflect the dominant political or aesthetic thinking of Coleridge’s time? Of course, there are many ways to answer this question. One thing that might be worth pursuing is the degree to which Coleridge’s poem reflects or was shaped by political attitudes towards the French Revolution. For example, it has been argued that the themes of guilt and redemption that characterize the poem emerged from Coleridge’s own complex relationship to the Revolution—at first a staunch supporter, Coleridge became disillusioned and began to question the ability of political action of any kind to effect real social change. One way of understanding the shooting of the albatross, for example, is to see it as a kind of falling away from revolutionary change; the Mariner’s loneliness and guilt expresses Coleridge’s conflicted feelings about the revolution and England’s role in opposing it. This is not to argue that Coleridge’s poem is in any way an allegory of the Revolution; instead, it makes sense to attribute, in some measure, Coleridge’s extraordinary ability to evoke sin and guilt to his own doubts about the possibility of social change. - Online Example: Monstrous Acts by Jonathan Lethem, https://writingcommons.org/literary- criticism?showall=1...

131

-When studying Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice (written between 1596 and 1599), literary critics have questioned whether Shakespeare was anti-Semitic. The New Historicist recognizes that this isn't a simple answer. By studying the text, this work must be analyzed in the context in which it was written. Cultural history can be disclosed by studying the work. New Historicists have studied the use of power and the marginalization of social classes displayed in that play. Studying the history reveals more about the text; studying the text reveals more about the history. At those times it seems hard to project the dimensions of anti-semiticism in the sense it has acquired in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The answer remains elusive.

Concluding philosophy of New Historicism According to new Historicists, literary criticism is not permanent in the sense that each era needs to be approached with the tools that were available at a particular time in history. Modern tools can be applied to ancient texts but it makes it hard to profess what the author and his text reflect, what belongs to modern times, as there was no knowledge of these dimensions at the time of the production. Present literary criticism is affected by present times. Literature in its turn belongs to its time. It reflects what was in existence at its particular time, when it was produced.

More figures to consider for the New Historicism literary theory Giovan Battista Vico (1668-1744) Marilyn Butler (1937-2014) Louis Montrose (1950- ) Catherine Gallagher (1945- ) Jean Francois Lyotard 91924-1998)

Differences between traditional historical criticism and New Historicism? New Historicism asserts that our understanding of history itself is a result of subjective interpretation, rather than a linear objective set of events as claimed by the traditional historical approach. This is unavoidable as readers bring to a text some perceptions, assumptions and beliefs that were not at play when the text was written. For instance, the interpretation of how women’s portrayals in Shakespeare’s plays are done, is according to contemporary feminist thought. The changes that women’s roles in society have undergone affect the analysis. New Historicism informs of literature that is influenced by history and of historical understanding that is also influenced by literature. In the end, all of the author, the reader and the critic, are influenced by culture, the historical period they belong to, the historical conditions of writing and reading and consequently, much

132

subjectivity which differs from one person to another. In addition, the appreciation of a text may differ for different generations of readers and even for the same reader at different times in his life.

133

Week Fourteen V. A Brief Outlook at a Wide Range of Literary theories with Other Names ‘The critic’s task is to produce a viable meaning appropriate to the critic’s time and place. particularly, this meant employing not any one method in interpreting a work of art but every method which might prove efficient.(qtd in Guerin 18)

134

These lessons would not be complete without paying some brief consideration to other theories. These other theories are not widely used, yet they must not be ignored.

What is Phenomenology and the Geneva School of literary criticism? This critical thinking originated from the philosophical thinking of the German philosopher Edmund Husserl (1859-1938). He proposed inseparable liknks between the thoughts of a creator that lead to the creation of an object. His thinking leads to making the critic empty his own critical mind of any ideas so as to espouse the thoughts of the creator of the object under criticism. Martin Herdegger ( 1889-1976) developped phenomenology in Germany and the Polish Roman Ingarden. Phenomenology is also referred to as the Geneva School. It is highly subjective and differs from Formalism and New criticism. For the Geneva School critics, a literary work is the expression of its author’s unique personality. Thus empathy is the outcome as the reader is enabled to directly communicate with the author through words in print. There is communion between the reader’s mind and the author’s one. The historical background of the work is disregarded as in New criticism and the form of the work is disregarded contrary to formalism as the critic concentrates on the content.

What is the Stylistic literary theory? It seeks objectivity in analysis and considers a scientific approach of texts. It had a strong influence in the 1950s. As indicated by its name, it concentrates on style. What is said in a text is less pertaining than how it is said. Thus like Formalism, the form is important. . The use of literary techniques as well as linguistic patterns is not related to the personal use of the author but rather to an expression related to the cultural and historical expression of a period. Thereafter, the work can be related to sociological and biographical instances.

What is Ēcriture Feminine? Raman Selden states that: ‘The idea of a specifically ‘women’s language’ is perhaps a mirage. A use of language which disrupts fixed subject positions is not necessarily a woman’s language, as kristeva has shown. However, women writers have often brilliantly redirected and refashioned received genres and styles in order to achieve a true difference of view’ (Selden 152). The question of gender remains a preoccupation for women writers.

135

What is Islamic Feminism? It is a form of feminism related to the Islamic precepts. The position of women is the main focus as per her status and the teachings of Islam in the literary works that deal with Islamic concepts.

What is Gynocriticism? It is ‘criticism that deals exclusively with literature written by women, in all its aspects. Attempts have been made to define a specifically female subject matter, a specifically female tradition of writing and a specifically female style’ (Stephen 362).

What is Speech Act theory? As a linguistics-based approach to literary texts, it is associated with the work of J.L.Austin as expressed in his posthumously printed book entitled How to do Things with Words (1962). John Searle carried on with the ideas proposed by Austin. Thus, language could be grouped into three categories. Uttering words would be the locutary stage; Praising, reprimanding or warning would be the illocutionary act while arguing and persuading would be the percolutionary act. All three acts are conditioned according to Austin by the felicity conditions of acts in speaking or writing. While sentences used to be considered as complete units of speech, Austin considered that the conditions surrounding the sentence could give it an alternative meaning no matter what language is spoken. Derrida attacked the ideas of Speech act theory by showing how deconstructing meaning in sentences can apply as opposed to the three categories and the felicity conditions.

What are the Gay, Lesbian and Queer theories These theories intend to re-claim literature about the topics of gay and lesbian issues and which have been hidden due to their unconventional topics. ‘It is difficult to see much coherence in gay and lesbian theories at present. This is not testimony to their worth, more testimony to their relatively late arrival on the scene.’ (Stephen 367). Oscar ‘Wilde’s homosexuality and the savage punishment of his sexual inclination have inevitably made him something of an icon for gay, lesbian and queer schools of criticism’ (Stephen 268).

Even more theories to explore What are Ethnic Studies, Ecological theories and Gastronomy theories? These theories could be dealt with. They are not as widely spread and used as the theories that the previous lessons deal with but they cannot be ignored altogether.

136

Conclusion

‘… literary theory needs to be read around problems, rather than a set of individual schools with their characteristic concepts’ (Jefferson and Robey 22). ‘Hostility to theory usually means an opposition to other people’s theories and oblivion of one’s own.’ (Eagleton preface).

137

The literary theories and their explanations included in these lessons are by no means the only ways of distinguishing separate areas of literary theory and criticism. Other explanations can be gathered by consulting recommended works that specialize in individual theories or in the approach of some literary works through specific literary theories. In addition, it is important to take into consideration that it is not only two but often more schools and not always two but more than two literary theories that can be used in analysing a text. These lessons have provided explanations which are meant only as starting points for further investigation into literary theory. The references to scholars and works provided for students to further their understanding of these literary theories may prove necessary and can be enlarged through individual reading. It is clear that philosophers, critics, educators, and students have been writing about writing since very old times. All are interested in how to look at and write about literature. The process is ongoing since literary works are produced everywhere in the world on a daily basis. With each work, literary criticism takes its place in analysis, evaluation and recommendation for reading. Philip Swallow, an old-fashioned academic, said that ‘the function of criticism was to assist in the function of literature itself, which Dr Johnson had famously defined as enabling us to better enjoy life, or better to endure it. The great writers were men and women of exceptional wisdom, insight, and understanding. Their novels, plays and poems were inexhaustible reservoirs of values, ideas, images, which, when properly understood and appreciated, allowed us to live more fully, more finely, more intensely. But literary conventions changed, history changed, language changed, and these treasures too easily became locked away in libraries, covered with dust, neglected and forgotten. It was the job of the critic to … bring out the treasures into the light of day. …he needed certain specialist skills to do this: a knowledge of history, a knowledge of philosophy, of generic convention and textual editing. But above all he needed enthusiasm, the love of books. It was by the demonstration of this enthusiasm in action that the critic forged a bridge between the great writers and the general reader. (Small World, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1985, p. 317 qtd in Selden 1). The lessons proposed in this manual can be easily completed with additional information to be sought by enthusiastic students. In the experience of teaching Literary Theories, I have noticed that due to individual preferences, students develop passion for some theories and put others aside. Students are then encouraged to seek more detailed information and explore more examples for the use of the theories they favour. What remains prevalent in introducing these theories is expressed by Stephen Bonnycastle when he states that ‘[H]istorical criticism, new criticism, structuralism, deconstruction, and feminist analysis are all different types of interpretation, and they present different paradigms for understanding literature. Essentially these theories inhabit different worlds, although there is some

138

overlapping and interconnection’ (Bonnycastle 78). The same can be applied to other literary theories that Bonnycastle does not include in this quote and which are provided in this guide book. In addition to the common ground and common questioning of a single text by different approaches, it is fruitful to consider David Carter who states that : ‘As a final warning I would like to remind the reader that the interpretation of literature according to a specific theory can itself be reinterpreted according to another theory ad infinitum. In the words of Professor Morris Zapp in David lodge’s novel Small World , which satirizes literary scholars, ‘[E]very decoding is another encoding’’ (20). With the support that these lessons provide, students are now armed with basic tools for decoding and encoding ad infinitum. These guiding lessons aim at providing conspicuous grounding about the basic elements that Master students need in the elaboration of their critical approaches of literary texts. The task was conducted with the objective of clear proposals and reiteration of the parallel aims that students look for. There is ample satisfaction with regard to the plain and vivid explanations, and the illustrations provided in the examples as they should result in effectiveness. Yet more time would be necessary to reach better results in each theory as indicated for some aspects in a shallow way only. Research is encouraged for the students, who are armed with the basics, to look for more detailed explanations. The majority of the students tend to develop some liking for particular theories, depending on their taste. Encouragement to develop a full comprehension with maximum examples needs to be provided as in class instructions are far from being enough. The problem of time load of this subject needs to be remedied by rehashing an exhaustive program both for graduation and post graduation studies. The students are supposed to start familiarization with theories in their second year at the university (B.A. Licence); there is no continuation in their third year. This is an initiative that would certainly contribute to the quality of students’ research works. Actually, the program for the first year of Master 1 students in Civilization and Literature includes, among others, four subjects that need to be re-programmed. In the first semester, students simultaneously have literary theory and literary criticism. In their second semester, they have the History of American Literature and The history of British Literature. My proposal for our teaching procedures would be to have Literary Theory in semester one and Literary Criticism in semester 2 so as to master theories and then apply them. As for The history of British Literature, it would be in semester one followed by ‘The history of American Literature’ in semester 2. The logical sequence of theories followed by criticism would certainly prove less stressful for students who have taken so far both aspects simultaneously. As for the subjects of The history of British Literature followed by The history of American Literature, the very name of these subjects speaks for its defense.

139

Works Cited

Ann Jefferson and David Robey, Modern Literary Theory, A Comparative Introduction, Billing and Sons Limited, Great Britain, 1986

Anthony Elliott, Psychoanalytic Theory, An Introduction, Palgrave Publishers Ltd, New York, 2002

David Carter, Literary Theory, ed by Pocket Essentials, Great Britain, 2006

Martin Stephen, English Literature, a student guide, Pearson Education Limited, England, 2000

Raman, Selden, Practising Theory and Reading literature, An introdution, Biddles Ltd, Guildford and King’s Lynn, Great Britain, 1989

René, Wellek, Austin, Warren, Theory of Literature, Theory of Literature, USA, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,Inc, 1977

Robert Scholes, Structuralism in Literature, An Introduction, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1975

Stephen Bonnycastle, In Search of Authority, An Introductory Guide to Literary Theory, Broadview Press, canada, 2007

Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory An Introduction, University of Mineapolis Press, USA, 1985

Wilfred L. Guerin, Earle Labor. Lee Morgan, Jeanne C. Reesman, John R. Willingghan, A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, sixth edition, Oxford University Press, New York, 2011

X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia’s Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama , Sixth Edition (New York: HarperCollins, 1995), pages 1790-1818.

140