Homework: Read literary theory handout, posted below, and begin thinking how it to apply to your interpretation of Star Wars. Also, please read The Odyssey Books V-XII by Thursday, marking up for epic conventions and archetypes as you go.
Literary Theories: A Sampling of Critical Lenses
Literary theories were developed as a means to understand the various ways people read texts. The proponents of each theory believe their theory is the theory, but most of us interpret texts according to the "rules" of several different theories at a time. All literary theories are lenses through which we can see texts. There is nothing to say that one is better than another or that you should read according to any of them, but it is sometimes fun to "decide" to read a text with one in mind because you often end up with a whole new perspective on your reading.
What follows is a summary of some of the most common schools of literary theory. These descriptions are extremely cursory, and none of them fully explains what the theory is all about. But it is enough to get the general idea. Enjoy!
Archetypal Criticism: In criticism, "archetype" signifies narrative designs, character types, or images that are said to be identifiable in a wide variety of works of literature, as well as in myths, dreams, and even ritualized modes of social behavior. The archetypal similarities within these diverse phenomena are held to reflect a set of universal, primitive, and elemental patterns, whose effective embodiment in a literary work evokes a profound response from the reader. The death- rebirth theme is often said to be the archetype of archetypes. Other archetypal themes are the journey underground, the heavenly ascent, the search for the father, the paradise-Hades image, the Promethean rebel-hero, the scapegoat, the earth goddess, and the fatal woman.
Feminist Criticism: A feminist critic sees cultural and economic disabilities in a "patriarchal" society that have hindered or prevented women from realizing their creative possibilities and women's cultural identification as a merely negative object, or "Other," to man as the defining and dominating "Subject." There are several assumptions and concepts held in common by most feminist critics.
1. Our civilization is pervasively patriarchal.
2. The concepts of "gender" are largely, if not entirely, cultural constructs, effected by the
omnipresent patriarchal biases of our civilization.
3. This patriarchal ideology also pervades those writings that have been considered great
literature. Such works lack autonomous female role models, are implicitly addressed to male readers, and leave the woman reader an alien outsider or else solicit her to identify against herself by assuming male values and ways of perceiving, feeling, and acting.
This is somewhat like Marxist criticism, but instead of focusing on the relationships
between the classes it focuses on the relationships between the genders. Under this theory you would examine the patterns of thought, behavior, values, enfranchisement, and power in relations between the sexes. For example, in Dickens’ Great Expectations some of the female characters are victims of the behavior of men and the expectations of society about women’s role and behavior. Also, all of the female characters’ stories are told by Pip, thereby depriving these women of their own voices.
Marxist Criticism: A Marxist critic grounds theory and practice on the economic and cultural theory of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, especially on the following claims:
1. The evolving history of humanity, its institutions and its ways of thinking are determined by the changing mode of its "material production"-that is, of its basic economic organization.
2. Historical changes in the fundamental mode of production effect essential changes both in the constitution and power relations of social classes, which carry on a conflict for economic, political, and social advantage.
3. Human consciousness in any era is constituted by an ideology-that is, a set of concepts,
beliefs, values, and ways of thinking and feeling through which human beings perceive, and by which they explain, what they take to be reality. A Marxist critic typically undertakes to "explain" the literature in any era by revealing the economic, class, and ideological determinants of the way an author writes, and to examine the relation of the text to the social reality of that time and place.
For example, if Dickens in Great Expectations can be said to be writing from a Marxist perspective then the extent of Pip's mistakes are better understood if one takes into account Marxism's rejection of the determination of social decisions in accordance with private profits rather than human needs. That said, the characters make their social decisions based on a status accorded to them by “capital.” Pip's anxiety over Joe coming to visit him in London can be seen as a commercial relationship that is the opposite of the social relationship. Pip's ability to relate to Joe on a personal level has been corrupted by capital. Pip even imagines that his anxieties may be assuaged by means of capital, ‘If I could have kept him away by paying money, I certainly would have paid money.' (240) This is evidence that their relationship has become the opposite of the social relationship. However, Pip is no mere flotsam on the wave of capitalism. He expresses an ability to analyze his situation from a personal level, “As I had grown accustomed to my expectations, I had insensibly begun to notice their effect upon myself and those around me… I lived in a chronic uneasiness respecting my behavior to Joe'”(291). Here we see in Pip an awareness that his behavior is based on the expectations of his new found social status.
New Criticism: New Criticism is directed against the prevailing concern of critics with the lives and psychology of authors, with social background, and with literary history. There are several points of view and procedures that are held in common by most New Critics.
1. A poem should be treated as primarily poetry and should be regarded as an independent and self-sufficient object.
2. The distinctive procedure of the New Critic is explication or close reading: The detailed and subtle analysis of the complex interrelations and ambiguities of the components within a work.
3. The principles of New Criticism are basically verbal. That is, literature is conceived to be a special kind of language whose attributes are defined by systematic opposition to the language of science and of practical and logical discourse. The key concepts of this criticism deal with the meanings and interactions of words, figures of speech, and symbols.
4. The distinction between literary genres is not essential.
Psychological and Psychoanalytic Criticism: Psychological criticism deals with a work of literature primarily as an expression, in fictional form, of the personality, state of mind, feelings, and desires of its author. The assumption of psychoanalytic critics is that a work of literature is correlated with its author's mental traits.
1. Reference to the author's personality is used to explain and interpret a literary work.
2. Reference to literary works is made in order to establish, biographically, the personality of the author.
3. The mode of reading a literary work itself is a way of experiencing the distinctive subjectivity or consciousness of its author.
This theory requires that we investigate the psychology of a character or an author to figure out the meaning of a text (although to apply an author's psychology to a text can also be considered biographical criticism, depending on your point of view). For example, in Great Expectations, Mr. Jaggers’ obsessive hand-washing is an example of a psychological means of keeping himself clean of taint from the cases he deals with; his biting of his finger is another psychological ‘tic’, suggesting that there is a good deal going on under the surface
Reader-Response Criticism: This type of criticism does not designate any one critical theory, but focuses on the activity of reading a work of literature. Reader-response critics turn from the traditional conception of a work as an achieved structure of meanings to the responses of readers as their eyes follow a text. By this shift of perspective a literary work is converted into an activity that goes on in a reader's mind, and what had been features of the work itself-including narrator, plot, characters, style; and structure-are less important than the connection between a reader's experience and the text. It is through this interaction that meaning is made.
This is the school of thought most students seem to adhere to. Proponents believe that literature has no objective meaning or existence. People bring their own thoughts, moods. and experiences to whatever text they are reading and get out of it whatever they happen to based on their own expectations and ideas, For example, when I read “Sonny’s Blues" I am reminded of my younger sister who loves music. The story really gets to me because sometimes I worry about her and my relationship with her. I want to support her in a way that Sonny's brother does not support Sonny.
Deconstruction: Deconstruction is, by far, the most difficult critical theory for people to
understand. It was developed by some very smart (or very unstable) people who declare that literature means nothing because language means nothing. In other words, we cannot say that we know what the "meaning" of a story is because there is no way of knowing. For example, in some stories (like "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been") that do not have tidy endings, you cannot assume you know what happened.
Historical Criticism: Using this theory requires that you apply to a text specific historical information about the time during which an author wrote. History, in this case, refers to the social, political, economic, cultural, and/or intellectual climate of the time. For example, ethical questions concerning the use and misuse of money in Great Expectations are relevant in a period when the high point of the Industrial Revolution was past and the commercial and financial sectors were developing.
