INTRODUCTION

to LITERATURE

Dien’s
 Objectives
To understand:
1. The scope of literature
2. Literary theory, literary criticism, and
history of literature
3. The relationship between literary
theory, literary criticism, and history of
literature
 Literature vs Literary Study
We must first make a distinction between literature
and literary study. The two are distinct activities: one
is creative, a work of art; the other, if not precisely a
science, is a species of knowledge
or of learning.

Exposed to literary works?

Like them?
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.

When the blazing sun is gone,

When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, through the night.

Then the traveler in the dark

Thank you for your tiny spark;
He could not see where to go,
If you did not twinkle so.
Twinkle, Twinkle,
In the dark blue sky you keep,
And often through my curtains peep, Little Star
For you never shut your eye (Jane Taylor; 1806)
Till the sun is in the sky.

As your bright and tiny spark

Lights the traveler in the dark,
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
The Nature of Literature
What is literature?
What is not literature?
What is the nature of literature?
Literature:
It can be in written (or printed) and oral form (oral literature).
It refers to "great books," books which, whatever their subject, are
"notable for literary form or expression”. It has aesthetic values.
It must be imaginative (fiction).
It contains literary language and figurative language (not everyday
language, nor scientific language). It is highly "connotative” and
ambiguous, sometimes irrational.
Literature must be "sweet and useful" = aesthetic and
functional role (dulce et utile).
Questions
Are you familiar with literary works? Mention some
literary works you have known so far.
Is Titanic a literary work?
Is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star a literary work?
IMPORTANCE OF LITERATURE
To writers/authors:
a literary work is an expression of their
experiences and ideas about social and
cultural phenomena in life. It tells about
the aspects of life.
To readers:
a literary work is a media they can use
and enjoy in life.
Reading and studying Literature in very important for various reasons as
outlined below: • Literature improves your command of language • It
teaches you about the life, cultures and experiences of people in other
parts of the world. • It gives you information about other parts of the
world which you may never be able to visit in your lifetime. (Shimmer
Chinodya, 1992:36)
It entertains you and provides useful occupation in your free time. • It
makes you a wiser and more experienced person by forcing you to judge,
sympathize with, or criticize the characters you read about. • It helps you
compare your own experiences with the experiences of other people. • It
gives information which may be useful in other subjects, for example, in
Geography, Science, History, Social Studies, and so on. (Shimmer
Chinodya, 1992:36)
Literature in general is very important to all readers although you may not
take Literature in English as an examinable subject at school. Reading is in
fact very much part of language learning. This will, among other things,
improve your command of the English Language if you read widely.
Teachers of the English language should encourage their students to read
widely by using their community libraries if their schools have none.
Where this facility is not available, make use of your class library or
exchange books with your classmates.

IMPORTANCE OF LITERATURE
Functions of Literature
 Remember “dulce et utile”
 How do people use literary works in life?
 lullaby, nursery rhyme
 magic spells
 folktales, ballads, myths
 Education (building characters, attitudes, as a part
of cultural knowledge)
 entertainment
 ideology
 propaganda
ARISTOTLE
 Literature began when a Greek philosopher
Aristotle (384-322 BC) in Poetica (a drama
tragedy).
 (The Study of Literature) = (Theory of
Literature) = (Literary Knowledge) = (Literary
Scholarship)
 Literature and Non-literature

What is categorized as literature?

 Wellek and Austin limit their definition of literature to
pieces of "imaginative literature“.
 Using words with connotative meaning.
 Prose (fiction, novel), poetry, drama.

=======================================

What is considered non-literature?

 Whilst, a non-imaginative work is more factual.
 Using words with denotative (literal) meaning.
 Biography, autobiography
Relationship between Literary theory, literary criticism,
and history of literature

• Literary theory, literary criticism, and history of

literature are closely related.
• Discuss how they relate to one another.
• Literary theory, literary criticism, and history of
literature call for a systematic and
integrated study of literature, uniting
literary theory, which outlines the basic
principles of literature; criticism, which
critiques individual works; and history,
which outlines the development of
literature.
Literary theory vs Literary Criticism
Literary theory can be defined simply as the
various methods we use to analyze and
understand literature. In other words, when
we try to understand literature, we use certain
methods to help us understand the meaning,
and those methods comprise literary theory.
Literary criticism, on the other hand, is the
practical application of those theories
(methods) to particular works of literature –
the actual use of a method to better
understand a text’s meaning.
Relationship
To identify the development of literature, we
need to sort literary works based on the era
when the literary works are written. The
activity of sorting the literary works involves
criticism. The activity of criticizing the literary
works involves literary theory.
Literary theory

Literary theories include formalism, historicism,

deconstructionism, gender approaches, psychological
approaches, and several other methods critics and
readers use to understand meaning.
For example, if a reader wants to understand every
element of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young
Goodman Brown,” who has a dream that changes his
entire outlook on his family and society, a critic using
the historical theory of criticism might look at the
Puritan belief system in order to see what elements of
Puritanism appear in the story and affect the story’s
outcome.
Literary theory

Using biographical theory, which postulates that an

author’s life may affect the way he or she writes, a
biographical approach would discover, for example,
that Hawthorne actually changed his last name, which
was originally spelled without the ‘w’ because he was
appalled that one of his ancestors was a judge at the
Salem witch trials in 1692-1693.
In sum, then, theories provide the methods by which
readers and critics look at the meaning of literature,
and criticism is the use of those methods to
understand meaning.
Literary Theory
 A very basic way of thinking about literary theory is that
these ideas act as different lenses critics use to view and
talk about art, literature, and even culture. These different
lenses allow critics to consider works of art based on
certain assumptions within that school of theory. The
different lenses also allow critics to focus on particular
aspects of a work they consider important.
 For example, if a critic is working with certain Marxist
theory, s/he might focus on how the characters in a story
interact based on their economic situation.
 If a critic is working with post-colonial theory, s/he might
consider the same story but look at how characters from
colonial powers (Britain, France, and even America) treat
characters from, say, Africa or the Caribbean.
LITERARY THEORY
 Moral Criticism, Dramatic Construction (~360 BC-present)
 Formalism, New Criticism (1930s-present)
 Psychoanalytic Criticism, Jungian Criticism (1930s-present)
 Marxist Criticism (1930s-present)
 Reader-Response Criticism (1960s-present)
 Structuralism/Semiotics (1920s-present)
 Post-Structuralism/Deconstruction (1966-present)
 New Historicism/Cultural Studies (1980s-present)
 Post-Colonial Criticism (1990s-present)
 Feminist Criticism (1960s-present)
 Gender/Queer Studies (1970s-present)
 Critical Race Theory (1970s-present)
 Critical Disability Studies (1990s-present)
Formalism, New Criticism
Formalists disagreed about what specific elements make a
literary work "good" or "bad"; but generally, Formalism
maintains that a literary work contains certain intrinsic features.
Formalism attempts to treat each work as its own distinct piece,
free from its environment, era, and even author. This point of
view developed in reaction to "...forms of 'extrinsic' criticism
that viewed the text as either the product of social and historical
forces or a document making an ethical statement" (699).
Formalists assume that the keys to understanding a text exist
within "the text itself" (a common saying among New Critics),
and thus focus a great deal on form (Tyson 118).
For the most part, traditional Formalism is no longer used in the
academy. However, New Critical theories are still sometimes
used in secondary- and post-secondary-level instruction in
literature and writing (Tyson 115).
Formalism, New Criticism
Here is a list of scholars we encourage you to explore to further
your understanding of this theory:
Russian Formalism
Victor Shklovsky
Roman Jakobson
Victor Erlich - Russian Formalism: History - Doctrine, 1955
Yuri Tynyanov

New Criticism
John Crowe Ransom - The New Criticism, 1938
I.A. Richards
William Empson
T.S. Eliot
Allen Tate
Cleanth Brooks
 FREUD’S
PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud
• (born in 1856 – died in
1939)
• An Austrian neurologist 
• The founder
of psychoanalysis
Structural (Psychoanalytic) Theory
of Personality

 Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality

argues that human behavior is the result of the interactions
among three component parts of the mind: the id,
ego, and superego.
 This theory places great emphasis on the role of unconscious
psychological conflicts in shaping behavior and personality.
 Dynamic interactions among these fundamental parts of the
mind are thought to progress through five distinct
psychosexual stages of development.
 However, Freud’s ideas have since been met with criticism
over the last century, in part because of his singular focus on
sexuality as the main driver of human personality
development.
Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory:

 Unconscious, Preconscious, and Conscious
Mind
 Id, Ego, and Superego
 Psychosexual Stages of Development
 Anxiety and Defense Mechanism
 Oedipus Complex
Freud’s
Structure of the Human Mind
 According to Freud, our personality (psyche) develops from
the interactions among what he proposed as the three
fundamental structures of the human mind: the id, ego, and
superego.
 Conflicts among these three structures, and our efforts to
find balance among what each of them “desires,”
determines our personality and behavior.
 What balance we strike in any given situation determines
how we will resolve the conflict between two overarching
behavioral tendencies: our biological aggressive and
pleasure-seeking drives vs our socialized internal control
over those drives.
 Unconscious and Conscious Mind
 Freud developed a topographical model of the mind, whereby he
described the features of the mind’s structure and function.
 Freud used the analogy of an iceberg to describe the three levels of
the mind.
 Freud (1915) described conscious mind, which consists of all the
mental processes of which we are aware, and this is seen as the tip
of the iceberg. For example, you may be feeling thirsty at this
moment and decide to get a drink.
 The preconscious contains thoughts and feelings that a person is
not currently aware of, but which can easily be brought to
consciousness. It exists just below the level of consciousness,
before the unconscious mind. The preconscious is like a mental
waiting room, in which thoughts remain until they 'succeed in
attracting the eye of the conscious‘.
 Unconscious and Conscious Mind
 Finally, the unconscious mind comprises mental
processes that are inaccessible to consciousness but that
influence judgements, feelings, or behavior (Wilson,
2002). According to Freud (1915), the unconscious mind is
the primary source of human behavior. Our feelings,
motives and decisions are actually powerfully influenced
by our past experiences, and stored in the unconscious.
 Freud applied these three systems to his structure of the
personality, or psyche – the id, ego and superego. Here
the id is regarded as entirely unconscious whilst the ego
and superego have conscious, preconscious, and
unconscious aspect.
Location of Id, Ego, & Superego in
Unconscious and Conscious Mind
The id, ego, and superego:
According to Freud’s structural
model, the personality is
divided into the id, ego, and
superego.
On this diagram, the smaller
portion above the water
signifies the conscious mind,
while the much larger portion
below the water illustrates the
unconscious mind. Like an
iceberg, the most important
part of the mind is the part you
cannot see.
Id, Ego, & Superego
Id, Ego, & Superego
The Id
 The id is the primitive part of the mind.
 It is the instinctual (impulsive) part of the mind that
contains sexual and aggressive drives and hidden
memories.
 It is concerned with instant gratification of basic physical
needs and urges.
 It operates entirely in unconscious mind (outside of
conscious thought).
 For example, if your id walked past a stranger eating ice
cream, it would most likely take the ice cream for itself. It
doesn’t know, or care, that it is rude to take something
belonging to someone else; it would care only that you
wanted the ice cream.
 The Superego
 The Superego is concerned with social rules and morals.
 It operates as a moral conscience. 
 It develops as a child learns what their culture considers
right and wrong.
 For example, if your superego walked past the same
stranger, it would not take their ice cream because it
would know that that would be rude. However, if both
your id and your superego were involved, and your id was
strong enough to override your superego’s concern,
you would still take the ice cream, but afterward you
would most likely feel guilt and shame over your actions.
 The Superego
 The superego incorporates the values and morals of society which are learned from
one's parents and others. It develops around the age of 3 – 5 during the phallic stage
of psychosexual development.
 The superego's first function is to control the id's impulses, especially those which
society forbids, such as sex and aggression. It also has the second function of persuading
the ego to turn to moralistic goals rather than simply realistic ones and to strive for
perfection.
 The superego consists of two systems: The conscience and the ideal self. The conscience
can punish the ego through causing feelings of guilt. For example, if the ego gives in to
the id's demands, the superego may make the person feel bad through guilt. The ideal
self (or ego-ideal) is an imaginary picture of how you ought to be, and represents career
aspirations, how to treat other people, and how to behave as a member of society.
 Behavior which falls short of the ideal self may be punished by the superego through
guilt. The super-ego can also reward us through the ideal self when we behave ‘properly’
by making us feel proud.
 If a person’s ideal self is too high a standard, then whatever the person does will
represent failure. The ideal self and conscience are largely determined in childhood from
parental values and how you were brought up.
 The Ego
 In contrast to the instinctual id and the moralistic superego, the ego is
the rational, pragmatic part of our personality.
 It is less primitive than the id and is partly conscious and partly
unconscious.
 It’s what Freud considered to be the “self”, and its job is to balance the
demands of the id and superego in the practical context of reality.
 It is the realistic part that mediates between the desires of the id and the
super-ego.
 So, if you walked past the stranger with ice cream one more time, your ego
would mediate the conflict between your id (“I want that ice cream right
now”) and superego (“It’s wrong to take someone else’s ice cream”) and
decide to go buy your own ice cream. While this may mean you have to
wait 10 more minutes, which would frustrate your id, your ego decides to
make that sacrifice as part of the compromise– satisfying your desire for ice
cream while also avoiding an unpleasant social situation and shame.
 The Ego
 The ego is 'that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence
of the external world.‘ (Freud, 1923, p. 25)
 The ego develops to mediate between the unrealistic id and the external real
world. It is the decision-making component of personality. Ideally, the ego
works by reason, whereas the id is chaotic and unreasonable.
 The ego operates according to the reality principle, working out realistic ways
of satisfying the id’s demands, often compromising or postponing satisfaction
to avoid negative consequences of society. The ego considers social realities
and norms, etiquette and rules in deciding how to behave.
 Like the id, the ego seeks pleasure (i.e., tension reduction) and avoids pain,
but unlike the id, the ego is concerned with devising a realistic strategy to
obtain pleasure. The ego has no concept of right or wrong; something is good
simply if it achieves its end of satisfying without causing harm to itself or the
id.
 Often the ego is weak relative to the headstrong id, and the best the ego can
do is stay on, pointing the id in the right direction and claiming some credit at
the end as if the action were its own.
 The Ego
 Freud made the analogy of the id being a horse while the ego is the rider.
The ego is 'like a man on horseback, who has to hold in check the superior
strength of the horse.‘ (Freud, 1923, p.15)
 If the ego fails in its attempt to use the reality principle, and anxiety is
experienced, unconscious defense mechanisms are employed, to help
ward off unpleasant feelings (i.e., anxiety) or make good things feel
better for the individual.
 The ego engages in secondary process thinking, which is rational,
realistic, and orientated towards problem-solving. If a plan of action
does not work, then it is thought through again until a solution is found.
This is known as reality testing and enables the person to control their
impulses and demonstrate self-control, via mastery of the ego.
 An important feature of clinical and social work is to enhance ego
functioning and help the client test reality through assisting the client to
think through their options.
Conflict between
Id, Ego, and Superego

 Freud believed that the id, ego, and superego

are in constant conflict and that adult
personality and behavior are rooted in the
results of these internal struggles throughout
childhood. He believed that a person who has a
strong ego has a healthy personality and that
imbalances in this system can lead to neurosis
(what we now think of as anxiety and
depression) and unhealthy behaviors.
Anxiety and Defense Mechanisms
 Freud believed that our unconscious was influenced by childhood
events. Freud organized these events into developmental stages involving
relationships with parents and drives of desire and pleasure where children
focus "...on different parts of the body...starting with the mouth...shifting
to the oral, anal, and phallic phases..." (Richter 1015). These stages reflect
base levels of desire, but they also involve fear of loss (loss of genitals, loss
of affection from parents, loss of life) and repression: "...the expunging
from consciousness of these unhappy psychological events" (Tyson 15).
 Tyson reminds us, however, that "...repression doesn't eliminate our
painful experiences and emotions...we unconsciously behave in ways that
will allow us to 'play out'...our conflicted feelings about the painful
experiences and emotions we repress" (15). To keep all of this conflict
buried in our unconscious, Freud argued that we develop defenses:
selective perception, selective memory, denial, displacement,
projection, regression, fear of intimacy, and fear of death, among
others.
 Anxiety and Defense Mechanism
 Defense mechanisms are psychological strategies that are unconsciously
used to protect a person from anxiety arising from unacceptable thoughts or
feelings.
 We use defense mechanisms to protect ourselves from feelings of anxiety or
guilt, which arise because we feel threatened, or because our id or superego
becomes too demanding.  They are not under our conscious control.
 Why do we need Ego defenses?
 Freud once said, "Life is not easy!" The ego -- the "I" -- sits at the center of
some pretty powerful forces: reality; society, as represented by the
superego; biology, as represented by the Id. 
 When these make conflicting demands upon the poor ego, it is
understandable if you feel threatened, overwhelmed, as if it were about to
collapse under the weight of it all.  This feeling is called anxiety, and it serves
as a signal to the ego that its survival, and with it the survival of the whole
organism, is in jeopardy.
Anxiety and Defense Mechanisms

 In order to deal with conflict and problems in

life, Freud stated that the ego employs a
range of defense mechanisms.  Defense
mechanisms operate at an unconscious level
and help ward off unpleasant feelings (i.e.,
anxiety) or make good things feel better for
the individual.
TYPES OF DEFENSE MECHANISM
 Repression
 This was the first defense mechanism that Freud discovered,
and arguably the most important.  Repression is an
unconscious mechanism employed by the ego to keep
disturbing or threatening thoughts from becoming
conscious. 
 Thoughts that are often repressed are those that would
result in feelings of guilt from the superego.  For example, in
the Oedipus complex, aggressive thoughts about the same
sex parents are repressed.
 This is not a very successful defense in the long term since it
involves forcing disturbing wishes, ideas or memories into
the unconscious, where, although hidden, they will create
anxiety.
 Projection
 This involves individuals attributing their own
thoughts, feeling, and motives to another
person (A. Freud, 1936). Thoughts most
commonly projected onto another are the ones
that would cause guilt such as aggressive and
sexual fantasies or thoughts. 
 For instance, you might hate someone, but your
superego tells you that such hatred is
unacceptable.  You can 'solve' the problem by
believing that they hate you.
 Displacement
 Displacement is the redirection of an impulse
(usually aggression) onto a powerless substitute
target (A. Freud, 1936). The target can be a
person or an object that can serve as a symbolic
substitute.  Someone who feels uncomfortable
with their sexual desire for a real person may
substitute a fetish. 
 Someone who is frustrated by his or her
superiors may go home and kick the dog or beat
up a family member.
 Sublimation
 This is similar to displacement, but takes place when we manage to
displace our emotions into a constructive rather than destructive
activity (A. Freud, 1936). This might, for example, be artistic. 
 Many great artists and musicians have had unhappy lives and have
used the medium of art of music to express themselves.  Sport is
another example of putting our emotions (e.g., aggression) into
something constructive.
 For example, fixation at the oral stage of development may later lead
to seeking oral pleasure as an adult through sucking one's thumb, pen
or cigarette.  Also, fixation during the anal stage may cause a person to
sublimate their desire to handle feces with an enjoyment of pottery.
 Sublimation for Freud was the cornerstone of civilized life, arts and
science are all sublimated sexuality.  (NB. this is a value-laden concept,
based on the aspirations of a European society at the end of the 1800
century).
Denial
 Anna Freud (1936) proposed denial involves blocking
external events from awareness.  If some situation is just
too much to handle, the person just refuses to
experience it.
 As you might imagine, this is a primitive and dangerous
defense - no one disregards reality and gets away with it
for long!  It can operate by itself or, more commonly, in
combination with other, more subtle mechanisms that
support it. 
 For example, smokers may refuse to admit to
themselves that smoking is bad for their health.
Regression

 This is a movement back in psychological time

when one is faced with stress (A. Freud, 1936).
When we are troubled or frightened, our
behaviors often become more childish or
primitive. 
 A child may begin to suck their thumb again or
wet the bed when they need to spend some time
in the hospital.  Teenagers may giggle
uncontrollably when introduced into a social
situation involving the opposite sex.
Rationalization

 Rationalization is the cognitive distortion of

"the facts" to make an event or an impulse less
threatening (A. Freud, 1936). We do it often
enough on a fairly conscious level when we
provide ourselves with excuses. 
 But for many people, with sensitive egos,
making excuses comes so easy that they never
are truly aware of it.  In other words, many of
us are quite prepared to believe our lies.
 Reaction Formation
 This is where a person goes beyond denial and behaves in the opposite
way to which he or she thinks or feels. By using the reaction formation, the
id is satisfied while keeping the ego in ignorance of the true motives.
 Conscious feelings are the opposite of the unconscious.  Love - hate. 
Shame - disgust and moralizing are reaction formation against sexuality.
Usually, a reaction formation is marked by showiness and
compulsiveness. 
 For example, Freud claimed that men who are prejudice against
homosexuals are making a defense against their own homosexual feelings
by adopting a harsh anti-homosexual attitude which helps convince them
of their heterosexuality.  Other examples include:
 The dutiful daughter who loves her mother is reacting to her Oedipus
hatred of her mother.
 Anal fixation usually leads to meanness, but occasionally a person will
react against this (unconsciously) leading to over-generosity.
 Freud’s Oedipus Complex
Oedipus Complex
 Freud believed that the Oedipus complex was "...one of the most powerfully
determinative elements in the growth of the child" (Richter 1016).
Essentially, the Oedipus complex involves children's need for their parents
and the conflict that arises as children mature and realize they are not the
absolute focus of their mother's attention: "the Oedipus complex begins in a
late phase of infantile sexuality, between the child's third and sixth year, and
it takes a different form in males than it does in females" (Richter 1016).
 Freud argued that both boys and girls wish to possess their mothers, but as
they grow older "...they begin to sense that their claim to exclusive attention
is thwarted by the mother's attention to the father..." (1016). Children, Freud
maintained, connect this conflict of attention to the intimate relations
between mother and father, relations from which the children are excluded.
Freud believed that "the result is a murderous rage against the father...and a
desire to possess the mother" (1016).
 Freud’s Oedipus Complex
Oedipus Complex
 Freud pointed out, however, that "...the Oedipus complex differs in boys and
girls...the functioning of the related castration complex" (1016). In short,
Freud thought that "...during the Oedipal rivalry [between boys and their
fathers], boys fantasized that punishment for their rage will take the form
of..." castration (1016). When boys effectively work through this anxiety,
Freud argued, "...the boy learns to identify with the father in the hope of
someday possessing a woman like his mother. In girls, the castration complex
does not take the form of anxiety...the result is a frustrated rage in which the
girl shifts her sexual desire from the mother to the father" (1016).
 Freud believed that eventually, the girl's spurned advances toward the father
give way to a desire to possess a man like her father later in life. Freud
believed that the impact of the unconscious, id, ego, superego, the defenses,
and the Oedipus complex was inescapable and that these elements of the
mind influence all our behavior (and even our dreams) as adults - of course
this behavior involves what we write.
 Key Points
 Sigmund Freud ‘s psychoanalytic theory of personality argues that
human behavior is the result of the interactions among three
component parts of the mind: the id, ego, and superego.
 This “structural theory” of personality places great importance on
how conflicts among the parts of the mind shape behavior and
personality. These conflicts are mostly unconscious.
 According to Freud, personality develops during childhood and is
critically shaped through a series of five psychosexual stages, which
he called his psychosexual theory of development.
 During each stage, a child is presented with a conflict between
biological drives and social expectations; successful navigation of
these internal conflicts will lead to mastery of each developmental
stage, and ultimately to a fully mature personality.
 Freud’s ideas have since been met with criticism because of his focus
on sexuality as the main driver of human personality development.
 Questions
 How do the operations of repression structure or inform the work?
 Are there any Oedipal dynamics - or any other family dynamics - are
work here?
 How can characters' behavior, narrative events, and/or images be
explained in terms of psychoanalytic concepts of any kind (for
example, fear or fascination with death, sexuality - which includes
love and romance as well as sexual behavior - as a primary indicator
of psychological identity or the operations of ego-id-superego)?
 What does the work suggest about the psychological being of its
author?
 What might a given interpretation of a literary work suggest about
the psychological motives of the reader?
 Are there prominent words in the piece that could have different or
hidden meanings? Could there be a subconscious reason for the
author using these "problem words"?
MARXIST THEORY
Karl Marx (1818 – 1883)
was a German 
• philosopher 
• economist
• historian
• sociologist
• political theorist
• journalist
• socialist revolutionary
Marxist Theory
Many of the grand theories developed in the second half of the
nineteenth century are deterministic in nature.
 Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution suggests that much of our
behaviour is determined by our genes.
 Sigmund Freud argued that our lives are affected by our unconscious,
and that our psychological and sexual wishes and desires are much
affected by the formative influences of our childhood.
 Similarly, Karl Marx theorized that human beings are the product of
their social and economic environment.
Marx called the economic conditions of life
the base or infrastructure. The base includes everything from
technology and raw materials to the social organization of the
workplace.
This economic base has a powerful effect on the superstructure
(society, culture, and the world of ideas).
 Marxist Theory
In literary theory, a Marxist interpretation reads the text as an
expression of contemporary class struggle. Literature is not
simply a matter of personal expression or taste. It somehow
relates to the social and political conditions of the time.
This theory believes that class stratification and conflict
reflect in the power struggle between socioeconomic classes.
Marxist criticism focus on the role of money and power at
work.
Marxist critics believe that the society progresses when there
is a struggle between existing opponent forces. Typically, the
struggle is between the opposing classes and of a society
which can cause a social transformation.
It also deals with the major means of production, such as raw
material, machines, and factories.
 Marxist Theory
Based on the theories of Karl Marx (and so influenced by
philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel), this school
concerns itself with class differences, economic and
otherwise, as well as the implications and complications
of the capitalist system: "Marxism attempts to reveal the
ways in which our socioeconomic system is the ultimate
source of our experience" (Tyson 277).
Marxists critics are also interested in how the lower or
working classes are oppressed - in everyday life and in
literature.
Is the text a mirror of social values? Or, is it a form of
propaganda for the ruling classes? These are the questions
that preoccupy Marxist literary critics.
 Marxist Theory
 Overall, Marxism has a significant impact on the social
institutions and analyzes how certain classes hegemonies the
working class and controls everything. This approach helps literary
critics understand the cultural and ideological influence of the
society a writer depicts in his writing.
The Chimney Sweeper” is a title of a poem by William Blake which
is published in 1789. The background of this poem is the dark side
of a prominent child labor in 18th and 19th Century in England. Most
of the children work as chimney sweepers. They were oppressed by
the master because they should clean the chimney that has a small
size and they paid low. This poem is Blake’s commentary of the
child labor issue and the use of imagery is to portray the brutality of
The Industrial Revolution, one of crucial period in history.
Wordsworth’s poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” is also worth
to be analyzed using Marxist theory.
 The Chimney Sweeper: When my mother died I was very young
BY WILLIAM BLAKE
 When my mother died I was very young,  And by came an Angel who had a bright key, 
 And my father sold me while yet my tongue  And he opened the coffins & set them all free; 
 Could scarcely cry " 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!"  Then down a green plain, leaping, laughing
 So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep.  they run, 
And wash in a river and shine in the Sun. 
 There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his
head  Then naked & white, all their bags left behind, 
 That curled like a lamb's back, was shaved, so I They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind. 
said,  And the Angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy, 
 "Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head's
He'd have God for his father & never want joy. 
bare, 
 You know that the soot cannot spoil your white
And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark 
hair." 
And got with our bags & our brushes to work. 
 And so he was quiet, & that very night,  Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy
 As Tom was a-sleeping he had such a sight!  & warm; 
 That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, & So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm. 
Jack, 
 Were all of them locked up in coffins of black; 
Marxist Theory
Typical questions:
Whom does it benefit if the work or effort is successful?
The elite? The middle class
What is the social class of the author?
Which class does the work claim to represent?
What values does it reinforce?
What values does it subvert?
What conflict can be seen between the values the work
champions and those it portrays?
What social classes do the characters represent?
How do characters from different classes interact or
conflict?
Reader-Response Criticism
What Do You Think?
At its most basic level, reader-response criticism considers
readers' reactions to literature as vital to interpreting the meaning
of the text. However, reader-response criticism can take a number
of different approaches. A critic deploying reader-response theory
can use a psychoanalytic lens, a feminist lens, or even a
structuralist lens. What these different lenses have in common
when using a reader-response approach is they maintain "...that
what a text is cannot be separated from what it does" (Tyson
154).
Tyson explains that "...reader-response theorists share two
beliefs: 1) that the role of the reader cannot be omitted from our
understanding of literature and 2) that readers do not passively
consume the meaning presented to them by an objective literary
text; rather they actively make the meaning they find in literature"
(154). In this way, reader-response theory shares common ground
with some of the deconstructionists discussed in the Post-
structural area when they talk about "the death of the author," or
her displacement as the (author)itarian figure in the text.
Reader-Response Criticism
Typical questions:
How does the interaction of text and reader create
meaning?
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 prestructured by (built into) that text?
Do the sounds/shapes of the words as they appear on the
page or how they are spoken by the reader enhance or
change the meaning of the word/work?
How might we interpret a literary text to show that the
reader's response is, or is analogous to, the topic of the
story?
What does the body of criticism published about a literary
text suggest about the critics who interpreted that text
and/or about the reading experience produced by that
text? (Tyson 191)
Reader-Response Criticism
Here is a list of scholars we encourage you to explore to
further your understanding of this theory:
 Peter Rabinowitz - Before Reading, 1987
 Stanley Fish - Is There a Text in This Class? The
Authority of Interpretive Communities, 1980
 Elizabeth Freund - The Return of the Reader: Reader-
Response Criticism, 1987
 David Bleich
 Norman Holland - The Dynamics of Literary Response,
1968
 Louise Rosenblatt
 Wolfgang Iser - The Implied Reader: Patterns of
Communication in Prose Fiction from Bunyan to Beckett,
1974
 Hans Robert Jauss
Structuralism and Semiotics
Linguistic Roots
The structuralist school emerges from theories of language and
linguistics, and it looks for underlying elements in culture and
literature that can be connected so that critics can develop general
conclusions about the individual works and the systems from which
they emerge. In fact, structuralism maintains that "...practically
everything we do that is specifically human is expressed in language"
(Richter 809). Structuralists believe that these language symbols
extend far beyond written or oral communication.
For example, codes that represent all sorts of things permeate
everything we do: "the performance of music requires complex
notation...our economic life rests upon the exchange of labor and
goods for symbols, such as cash, checks, stock, and
certificates...social life depends on the meaningful gestures and
signals of 'body language' and revolves around the exchange of small,
symbolic favors: drinks, parties, dinners" (Richter 809).
Structuralism and Semiotics
Patterns and Experience
Structuralists assert that, since language exists in patterns,
certain underlying elements are common to all human
experiences. Structuralists believe we can observe these
experiences through patterns: "...if you examine the physical
structures of all buildings built in urban America in 1850 to
discover the underlying principles that govern their composition,
for example, principles of mechanical construction or of artistic
form..." you are using a structuralist lens (Tyson 197).
Moreover, "you are also engaged in structuralist activity if you
examine the structure of a single building to discover how its
composition demonstrates underlying principles of a structural
system. In the first example...you're generating a structural
system of classification; in the second, you're demonstrating that
an individual item belongs to a particular structural class" (Tyson
197).
Structuralism and Semiotics
Structuralism in Literary Theory
Structuralism is used in literary theory, for example, "...if you examine the
structure of a large number of short stories to discover the underlying
principles that govern their composition...principles of narrative
progression...or of characterization...you are also engaged in structuralist
activity if you describe the structure of a single literary work to discover how
its composition demonstrates the underlying principles of a given structural
system" (Tyson 197-198).
Northrop Frye, however, takes a different approach to structuralism by
exploring ways in which genres of Western literature fall into his four mythoi
(also see Jungian criticism in the Freudian Literary Criticism resource):
theory of modes, or historical criticism (tragic, comic, and thematic);
theory of symbols, or ethical criticism (literal/descriptive, formal, mythical,
and anagogic);
theory of myths, or archetypal criticism (comedy, romance, tragedy,
irony/satire);
theory of genres, or rhetorical criticism (epos, prose, drama, lyric) (Tyson
240).
Structuralism and Semiotics
Peirce and Saussure
 Two important theorists form the framework of structuralism:
Charles Sanders Peirce and Ferdinand de Saussure. Peirce gave
structuralism three important ideas for analyzing the sign
systems that permeate and define our experiences:
 "iconic signs, in which the signifier resembles the thing signified
(such as the stick figures on washroom doors that signify 'Men'
or 'Women';
 indexes, in which the signifier is a reliable indicator of the
presence of the signified (like fire and smoke);
 true symbols, in which the signifier's relation to the thing
signified is completely arbitrary and conventional [just as the
sound /kat/ or the written word cat are conventional signs for
the familiar feline]" (Richter 810).
 These elements become very important when we move into
deconstruction in the Postmodernism resource. Peirce also
influenced the semiotic school of structuralist theory that uses
sign systems
Structuralism and Semiotics
Sign Systems
The discipline of semiotics plays an important role in structuralist
literary theory and cultural studies. Semioticians "...appl[y]
structuralist insights to the study of...sign systems...a non-
linguistic object or behavior...that can be analyzed as if it were a
language" (Tyson 205). Specifically, "...semiotics examines the
ways non-linguistic objects and behaviors 'tell' us something.
For example, the picture of the reclining blond beauty in the skin-
tight, black velvet dress on the billboard...'tells' us that those who
drink this whiskey (presumably male) will be attractive
to...beautiful women like the one displayed here" (Tyson 205).
Lastly, Richter states, "semiotics takes off from Peirce - for whom
language is one of numerous sign systems - and structuralism
takes off from Saussure, for whom language was the sign system
par excellence" (810).
Structuralism and Semiotics
Typical questions:
Using a specific structuralist framework (like Frye's mythoi)...how should the
text be classified in terms of its genre? In other words, what patterns exist within
the text that make it a part of other works like it?
Using a specific structuralist framework...analyze the text's narrative
operations...can you speculate about the relationship between the...[text]... and
the culture from which the text emerged? In other words, what patterns exist
within the text that make it a product of a larger culture?
What patterns exist within the text that connect it to the larger "human"
experience? In other words, can we connect patterns and elements within the
text to other texts from other cultures to map similarities that tell us more about
the common human experience? This is a liberal humanist move that assumes
that since we are all human, we all share basic human commonalities.
What rules or codes of interpretation must be internalized in order to 'make
sense' of the text?
What are the semiotics of a given category of cultural phenomena, or 'text,' such
as high-school football games, television and/or magazine ads for a particular
brand of perfume...or even media coverage of an historical event? (Tyson 225)
Structuralism and Semiotics
Here is a list of scholars we encourage you to explore to
further your understanding of this theory:
Charles Sanders Peirce
Ferdinand de Saussure - Course in General Linguistics,
1923
Claude Lévi-Strauss - The Elementary Structure of
Kinship, 1949; "The Structural Study of Myth," 1955
Northrop Frye - Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays, 1957
Noam Chomsky - Syntactic Structures, 1957; Aspects of
the Theory of Syntax, 1965
Roland Barthes - Critical Essays, 1964; Mythologies, 1957;
S/Z, 1970; Image, Music, Text, 1977
Umberto Eco - The Role of the Reader, 1979
Post-Structuralism, Deconstruction,
Postmodernism
The Center Cannot Hold
This approach concerns itself with the ways and places where systems,
frameworks, definitions, and certainties break down. Post-structuralism
maintains that frameworks and systems, for example the structuralist
systems explained in the structuralist area, are merely fictitious
constructs and that they cannot be trusted to develop meaning or to give
order. In fact, the very act of seeking order or a singular Truth (with a
capital T) is absurd because there exists no unified truth.
Post-structuralism holds that there are many truths, that frameworks
must bleed, and that structures must become unstable or decentered.
Moreover, post-structuralism is also concerned with the power
structures or hegemonies and power and how these elements contribute
to and/or maintain structures to enforce hierarchy. Therefore, post-
structural theory carries implications far beyond literary criticism.
Post-Structuralism, Deconstruction,
Postmodernism
What Does Your Meaning Mean?
By questioning the process of developing meaning, post-structural theory
strikes at the very heart of philosophy and reality and throws knowledge
making into what Jacques Derrida called "freeplay": "The concept of centered
structure...is contradictorily coherent...the concept of centered structure is in
fact the concept of a freeplay which is constituted upon a fundamental
immobility and a reassuring certitude, which is itself beyond the reach of the
freeplay" (qtd. in Richter, 878-879).
Derrida first posited these ideas in 1966 at Johns Hopkins University when he
delivered “Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences”:
"Perhaps something has occurred in the history of the concept of structure
that could be called an 'event,' if this loaded word did not entail a meaning
which it is precisely the function of structural-or structuralist-thought to
reduce or to suspect. But let me use the term 'event' anyway, employing it
with caution and as if in quotation marks. In this sense, this event will have
the exterior form of a rupture and a redoubling” (qtd. in Richter, 878). In his
presentation, Derrida challenged structuralism's most basic ideas.
Post-Structuralism, Deconstruction,
Postmodernism
Can Language Do That?
Post-structural theory can be tied to a move against
Modernist/Enlightenment ideas (philosophers: Immanuel Kant, Réne
Descartes, John Locke, etc.) and Western religious beliefs (neo-Platonism,
Catholicism, etc.). An early pioneer of this resistance was philosopher
Friedrich Nietzsche. In his essay, “On Truth and Lies in an Extra-Moral
Sense” (1873), Nietzsche rejects even the very basis of our knowledge making,
language, as a reliable system of communication: “The various languages,
juxtaposed, show that words are never concerned with truth, never with
adequate expression...” (248).
Below is an example, adapted from the Tyson text, of some language freeplay
and a simple form of deconstruction:
Time (noun) flies (verb) like an arrow (adverb clause) = Time passes quickly.
Time (verb) flies (object) like an arrow (adverb clause) = Get out your
stopwatch and time the speed of flies as you would time an arrow's flight.
Time flies (noun) like (verb) an arrow (object) = Time flies are fond of arrows
(or at least of one particular arrow
Post-Structuralism, Deconstruction,
Postmodernism
So, post-structuralists assert that if we cannot trust language
systems to convey truth, the very bases of truth are unreliable
and the universe - or at least the universe we have constructed
- becomes unraveled or de-centered. Nietzsche uses language
slip as a base to move into the slip and shift of truth as a whole:
“What is truth? …truths are an illusion about which it has been
forgotten that they are illusions...” ("On Truth and Lies" 250).
This returns us to the discussion in the structuralist area
regarding signs, signifiers, and signified. Essentially, post-
structuralism holds that we cannot trust the sign = signifier +
signified formula, that there is a breakdown of certainty
between sign/signifier, which leaves language systems
hopelessly inadequate for relaying meaning so that we are
(returning to Derrida) in eternal freeplay or instability.
Post-Structuralism, Deconstruction,
Postmodernism
What's Left?
Important to note, however, is that deconstruction is not just
about tearing down - this is a common misconception.
Derrida, in "Signature Event Context," addressed this limited
view of post-structural theory: "Deconstruction cannot limit
or proceed immediately to a neutralization: it must…practice
an overturning of the classical opposition and a general
displacement of the system. It is only on this condition that
deconstruction will provide itself the means with which to
intervene in the field of oppositions that it criticizes, which is
also a field of nondiscursive forces" (328).
Derrida reminds us that through deconstruction we can
identify the in-betweens and the marginalized to begin
interstitial knowledge building.
Post-Structuralism, Deconstruction,
Postmodernism
Modernism vs Postmodernism
With the resistance to traditional forms of knowledge
making (science, religion, language), inquiry,
communication, and building meaning take on
different forms to the post-structuralist. We can look
at this difference as a split between Modernism and
Postmodernism. The table below, excerpted from
theorist Ihab Hassan's The Dismemberment of
Orpheus (1998), offers us a way to make sense of some
differences between Modernism, dominated by
Enlightenment ideas, and Postmodernism, a space of
freeplay and discourse.
Post-Structuralism, Deconstruction,
Postmodernism
Typical questions:
How is language thrown into freeplay or questioned in the work? For example, note
how Anthony Burgess plays with language (Russian vs English) in A Clockwork
Orange, or how Burroughs plays with names and language in Naked Lunch.
How does the work undermine or contradict generally accepted truths?
How does the author (or a character) omit, change, or reconstruct memory and
identity?
How does a work fulfill or move outside the established conventions of its genre?
How does the work deal with the separation (or lack thereof) between writer, work,
and reader?
What ideology does the text seem to promote?
What is left out of the text that if included might undermine the goal of the work?
If we changed the point of view of the text - say from one character to another, or
multiple characters - how would the story change? Whose story is not told in the
text? Who is left out and why might the author have omitted this character's tale?
Post-Structuralism, Deconstruction,
Postmodernism
 Here is a list of scholars we encourage you to explore to further your understanding of this theory:
Theorists
Immanuel Kant - "An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?", 1784 (as a baseline to understand what Nietzsche
was resisting)
Friedrich Nietzsche - “On Truth and Lies in an Extra-Moral Sense," 1873; The Gay Science, 1882; Thus Spoke Zarathustra, A
Book for All and None, 1885
Jacques Derrida - "Structure Sign and Play in the Discourse of Human Sciences," 1966; Of Grammatology, 1967; "Signature
Event Context," 1972
Roland Barthes - "The Death of the Author," 1967
Deleuze and Guattari - "Rhizome," 1976
Jean-François Lyotard - The Postmodern Condition, 1979
Michele Foucault - The Foucault Reader, 1984
Stephen Toulmin - Cosmopolis, 1990
Martin Heidegger - Basic Writings, 1993
Paul Cilliers - Complexity and Postmodernity, 1998
Ihab Hassan - The Dismemberment of Orpheus, 1998; From Postmodernism to Postmodernity: The Local/Global Context,
2001
Postmodern Literature
William S. Burroughs - Naked Lunch, 1959
Angela Carter - Burning Your Boats, stories from 1962-1993 (first published as a collection in 1995)
Kathy Acker - Blood and Guts in High School, 1978
Paul Auster - City of Glass (volume one of the New York City Trilogy), 1985 (as a graphic novel published by Neon Lit, a
division of Avon Books, 1994)
Lynne Tillman - Haunted Houses, 1987
David Wojnarowicz - The Waterfront Journals, 1996
 New Historicism, Cultural Studies
It's All Relative...
This school, influenced by structuralist and post-structuralist theories, seeks to reconnect a
work with the time period in which it was produced and identify it with the cultural and
political movements of the time (Michel Foucault's concept of épistème). New Historicism
assumes that every work is a product of the historic moment that created it. Specifically, New
Historicism is "...a practice that has developed out of contemporary theory, particularly the
structuralist realization that all human systems are symbolic and subject to the rules of
language, and the deconstructive realization that there is no way of positioning oneself as an
observer outside the closed circle of textuality" (Richter 1205).
A helpful way of considering New Historical theory, Tyson explains, is to think about the
retelling of history itself: "...questions asked by traditional historians and by new historicists
are quite different...traditional historians ask, 'What happened?' and 'What does the event
tell us about history?' In contrast, new historicists ask, 'How has the event been interpreted?'
and 'What do the interpretations tell us about the interpreters?'" (278). So New Historicism
resists the notion that "...history is a series of events that have a linear, causal relationship:
event A caused event B; event B caused event C; and so on" (Tyson 278).
New Historicists do not believe that we can look at history objectively, but rather that we
interpret events as products of our time and culture and that "...we don't have clear access to
any but the most basic facts of history...our understanding of what such facts
mean...is...strictly a matter of interpretation, not fact" (279). Moreover, New Historicism
holds that we are hopelessly subjective interpreters of what we observe.
 New Historicism, Cultural Studies
Typical questions:
What language/characters/events present in the work reflect the current events of
the author’s day?
Are there words in the text that have changed their meaning from the time of the
writing?
How are such events interpreted and presented?
How are events' interpretation and presentation a product of the culture of the
author?
Does the work's presentation support or condemn the event?
Can it be seen to do both?
How does this portrayal criticize the leading political figures or movements of the
day?
How does the literary text function as part of a continuum with other
historical/cultural texts from the same period?
How can we use a literary work to "map" the interplay of both traditional and
subversive discourses circulating in the culture in which that work emerged and/or
the cultures in which the work has been interpreted?
How does the work consider traditionally marginalized populations?
 New Historicism, Cultural Studies

Here is a list of scholars we encourage you to explore to further

your understanding of this theory:
Michel Foucault - The Order of Things: An Archeology of the
Human Sciences, 1970; Language, Counter-memory, Practice,
1977
Clifford Geertz - The Interpretation of Cultures, 1973; "Deep
Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight," 1992
Hayden White - Metahistory, 1974; "The Politics of Historical
Interpretation: Discipline and De-Sublimation," 1982
Stephen Greenblatt - Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More
to Shakespeare, 1980
Pierre Bourdieu - Outline of a Theory of Practice, 1977; Homo
Academicus, 1984; The Field of Cultural Production, 1993
POST-COLONIAL CRITICISM
History is Written by the Victors
 Post-colonial criticism is similar to cultural studies, but it assumes a unique

perspective on literature and politics that warrants a separate discussion.

Specifically, post-colonial critics are concerned with literature produced by
colonial powers and works produced by those who were/are colonized. Post-
colonial theory looks at issues of power, economics, politics, religion, and
culture and how these elements work in relation to colonial hegemony (Western
colonizers controlling the colonized).
 Therefore, a post-colonial critic might be interested in works such as Daniel

Defoe's Robinson Crusoe where colonial "...ideology [is] manifest in Crusoe's

colonialist attitude toward the land upon which he's shipwrecked and toward the
black man he 'colonizes' and names Friday" (Tyson 377). In addition, post-
colonial theory might point out that "...despite Heart of Darkness's (Joseph
Conrad) obvious anti-colonist agenda, the novel points to the colonized
population as the standard of savagery to which Europeans are contrasted"
(Tyson 375). Post-colonial criticism also takes the form of literature composed
by authors that critique Euro-centric hegemony.
POST-COLONIAL CRITICISM
Power, Hegemony, and Literature
 Post-colonial criticism also questions the role of the Western

literary canon and Western history as dominant forms of

knowledge making. The terms "First World," "Second World,"
"Third World" and "Fourth World" nations are critiqued by post-
colonial critics because they reinforce the dominant positions of
Western cultures populating First World status. This critique
includes the literary canon and histories written from the
perspective of First World cultures. So, for example, a post-
colonial critic might question the works included in "the canon"
because the canon does not contain works by authors outside
Western culture.
POST-COLONIAL CRITICISM
Typical questions:
 How does the literary text, explicitly or allegorically, represent various aspects of colonial

oppression?
 What does the text reveal about the problematics of post-colonial identity, including the

relationship between personal and cultural identity and such issues as double consciousness and
hybridity?
 What person(s) or groups does the work identify as "other" or stranger? How are such

persons/groups described and treated?

 What does the text reveal about the politics and/or psychology of anti-colonialist resistance?

 What does the text reveal about the operations of cultural difference - the ways in which race,

religion, class, gender, sexual orientation, cultural beliefs, and customs combine to form
individual identity - in shaping our perceptions of ourselves, others, and the world in which we
live?
 How does the text respond to or comment upon the characters, themes, or assumptions of a

canonized (colonialist) work?

 Are there meaningful similarities among the literatures of different post-colonial populations?

 How does a literary text in the Western canon reinforce or undermine colonialist ideology

through its representation of colonialization and/or its inappropriate silence about colonized
peoples? (Tyson 378-379)
POST-COLONIAL CRITICISM
Here is a list of scholars we encourage you to explore to
further your understanding of this theory:
 Criticism
 Edward Said - Orientalism, 1978; Culture and

Imperialism, 1994
 Kamau Brathwaite - The History of the Voice, 1979
 Gayatri Spivak - In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural

Politics, 1987
 Dominick LaCapra - The Bounds of Race: Perspectives

on Hegemony and Resistance, 1991

 Homi Bhabha - The Location of Culture, 1994
Feminist Criticism
 Feminist criticism is concerned with "...the ways in which
literature (and other cultural productions) reinforce or
undermine the economic, political, social, and
psychological oppression of women" (Tyson). This school
of theory looks at how aspects of our culture are
inherently patriarchal (male dominated) and "...this critique
strives to expose the explicit and implicit misogyny in
male writing about women" (Richter 1346). This misogyny,
Tyson reminds us, can extend into diverse areas of our
culture: "Perhaps the most chilling example...is found in
the world of modern medicine, where drugs prescribed for
both sexes often have been tested on male subjects only"
(83).
 Feminist criticism is also concerned with less obvious
forms of marginalization such as the exclusion of women
writers from the traditional literary canon.
Feminist Criticism
Common Space in Feminist Theories
 Though a number of different approaches exist in feminist criticism, there

exist some areas of commonality. This list is excerpted from Tyson:

 Women are oppressed by patriarchy economically, politically, socially, and

psychologically; patriarchal ideology is the primary means by which women

are oppressed.
 In every domain where patriarchy reigns, woman is other: she is

marginalized, defined only by her difference from male norms and values.
 All of Western (Anglo-European) civilization is deeply rooted in patriarchal

ideology, for example, in the Biblical portrayal of Eve as the origin of sin
and death in the world.
 While biology determines our sex (male or female), culture determines our

gender (scales of masculine and feminine).

 All feminist activity, including feminist theory and literary criticism, has as

its ultimate goal to change the world by prompting gender equality.

 Gender issues play a part in every aspect of human production and

experience, including the production and experience of literature, whether

we are consciously aware of these issues or not (91).
Feminist Criticism
Feminist criticism has, in many ways, followed what some theorists call the three
waves of feminism:
 First Wave Feminism - late 1700s-early 1900's: writers like Mary Wollstonecraft ( A

Vindication of the Rights of Women, 1792) highlight the inequalities between the
sexes. Activists like Susan B. Anthony and Victoria Woodhull contribute to the
women's suffrage movement, which leads to National Universal Suffrage in 1920
with the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment.
 Second Wave Feminism - early 1960s-late 1970s: building on more equal working

conditions necessary in America during World War II, movements such as the
National Organization for Women (NOW), formed in 1966, cohere feminist political
activism. Writers like Simone de Beauvoir (Le deuxième sexe, 1972) and Elaine
Showalter established the groundwork for the dissemination of feminist theories
dove-tailed with the American Civil Rights movement.
 Third Wave Feminism - early 1990s-present: resisting the perceived essentialist

(over generalized, over simplified) ideologies and a white, heterosexual, middle

class focus of second wave feminism, third wave feminism borrows from post-
structural and contemporary gender and race theories (see below) to expand on
marginalized populations' experiences. Writers like Alice Walker work to
"...reconcile it [feminism] with the concerns of the black community...[and] the
survival and wholeness of her people, men and women both, and for the promotion
of dialog and community as well as for the valorization of women and of all the
varieties of work women perform" (Tyson 97).
Feminist Criticism
Typical questions:
 How is the relationship between men and women portrayed?
 What are the power relationships between men and women

(or characters assuming male/female roles)?

 How are male and female roles defined?
 What constitutes masculinity and femininity?
 How do characters represent these traits?
 Do characters take on traits from opposite genders? How so?

How does this change others’ reactions to them?

 What does the work reveal about the operations

(economically, politically, socially, or psychologically) of

patriarchy?
 What does the work imply about the possibilities of

sisterhood as a mode of resisting patriarchy?

 What does the work say about women's creativity?
Feminist Criticism
Here is a list of scholars we encourage you to explore to further
your understanding of this theory:
 Mary Wollstonecraft - A Vindication of the Rights of Women ,

1792
 Simone de Beauvoir - Le deuxième sexe (The Second Sex) ,

1949
 Julia Kristeva - About Chinese Women, 1977

 Elaine Showalter - A Literature of Their Own , 1977; "Toward a

Feminist Poetics," 1979

 Deborah E. McDowell - "New Directions for Black Feminist

Criticism," 1980
 Alice Walker - In Search of Our Mother's Gardens , 1983

 Lillian S. Robinson - "Treason out Text: Feminist Challenges

to the Literary Canon," 1983

 Camiile Paglia - Sexual Personae: The Androgyne in Literature

and Art, 1990

Gender Studies and Queer Theory
Gender(s), Power, and Marginalization
Gender studies and queer theory explore issues of sexuality, power,
and marginalized populations (woman as other) in literature and
culture. Much of the work in gender studies and queer theory, while
influenced by feminist criticism, emerges from post-structural interest
in fragmented, de-centered knowledge building (Nietzsche, Derrida,
Foucault), language (the breakdown of sign-signifier), and
psychoanalysis (Lacan).
A primary concern in gender studies and queer theory is the manner
in which gender and sexuality is discussed: "Effective as this work
[feminism] was in changing what teachers taught and what the
students read, there was a sense on the part of some feminist critics
that...it was still the old game that was being played, when what it
needed was a new game entirely. The argument posed was that in
order to counter patriarchy, it was necessary not merely to think about
new texts, but to think about them in radically new ways" (Richter
1432).
Gender Studies and Queer Theory
In-Betweens
Many critics working with gender and queer theory are interested in the
breakdown of binaries such as male and female, the in-betweens (also
following Derrida's interstitial knowledge building). For example, gender
studies and queer theory maintains that cultural definitions of sexuality
and what it means to be male and female are in flux: "...the distinction
between "masculine" and "feminine" activities and behavior is constantly
changing, so that women who wear baseball caps and fatigues...can be
perceived as more piquantly sexy by some heterosexual men than those
women who wear white frocks and gloves and look down demurely"
(Richter 1437).
Moreover, Richter reminds us that as we learn more about our genetic
structure, the biology of male/female becomes increasingly complex and
murky: "even the physical dualism of sexual genetic structures and bodily
parts breaks down when one considers those instances - XXY syndromes,
natural sexual bimorphisms, as well as surgical transsexuals - that defy
attempts at binary classification" (1437).
Gender Studies and Queer Theory
Typical questions:
 What elements of the text can be perceived as being masculine (active, powerful)
and feminine (passive, marginalized) and how do the characters support these
traditional roles?
 What sort of support (if any) is given to elements or characters who question the
masculine/feminine binary? What happens to those elements/characters?
 What elements in the text exist in the middle, between the perceived
masculine/feminine binary? In other words, what elements exhibit traits of both
(bisexual)? What are the politics (ideological agendas) of specific gay, lesbian, or
queer works, and how are those politics revealed in...the work's thematic content
or portrayals of its characters?
 What are the poetics (literary devices and strategies) of a specific lesbian, gay, or
queer works?
 What does the work contribute to our knowledge of queer, gay, or lesbian
experience and history, including literary history?
 How is queer, gay, or lesbian experience coded in texts that are by writers who are
apparently homosexual?
 How does the literary text illustrate the problematics of sexuality and sexual
"identity," that is the ways in which human sexuality does not fall neatly into the
separate categories defined by the words homosexual and heterosexual?
Gender Studies and Queer Theory
Here is a list of scholars we encourage you to explore to further
your understanding of this theory:
Luce Irigaray - Speculum of the Other Woman, 1974
Hélène Cixous - "The Laugh of the Medusa," 1976
Laura Mulvey - "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema," 1975;
"Afterthoughts on Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,"
1981
Michel Foucault - The History of Sexuality, Volume I, 1980
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick - Epistemology of the Closet, 1994
Lee Edelman - "Homographesis," 1989
Michael Warner
Judith Butler - "Imitation and Gender Insubordination," 1991
 Critical Race Theory
Introduction
Critical Race Theory, or CRT, is a theoretical and interpretive mode
that examines the appearance of race and racism across dominant
cultural modes of expression. In adopting this approach, CRT scholars
attempt to understand how victims of systemic racism are affected by
cultural perceptions of race and how they are able to represent
themselves to counter prejudice.
Closely connected to such fields as philosophy, history, sociology, and
law, CRT scholarship traces racism in America through the nation’s
legacy of slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, and recent events. In
doing so, it draws from work by writers like Sojourner Truth, Frederick
Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King, Jr., and others studying
law, feminism, and post-structuralism. CRT developed into its current
form during the mid-1970s with scholars like Derrick Bell, Alan
Freeman, and Richard Delgado, who responded to what they identified
as dangerously slow progress following Civil Rights in the 1960s.
 Critical Race Theory
Common Questions
What is the significance of race in contemporary American society?
Where, in what ways, and to what ends does race appear in
dominant American culture and shape the ways we interact with
one another?
What types of texts and other cultural artifacts reflect dominant
culture’s perceptions of race?
How can scholars convey that racism is a concern that affects all
members of society?
How does racism continue to function as a persistent force in
American society?
How can we combat racism to ensure that all members of American
society experience equal representation and access to fundamental
rights?
How can we accurately reflect the experiences of victims of racism?
 Critical Race Theory
Important Terms
White privilege: Discussed by Lipsitz, Lee, Harris, McIntosh, and other CRT scholars, white privilege refers to
the various social, political, and economic advantages white individuals experience in contrast to non-white
citizens based on their racial membership. These advantages can include both obvious and subtle differences in
access to power, social status, experiences of prejudice, educational opportunities, and much more. For CRT
scholars, the notion of white privilege offers a way to discuss dominant culture’s tendency to normalize white
individuals’ experiences and ignore the experiences of non-whites. Fields such as CRT and whiteness studies have
focused explicitly on the concept of white privilege to understand how racism influences white people.  
Microaggressions: Microaggressions refer to the seemingly minute, often unconscious, quotidian instances of
prejudice that collectively contribute to racism and the subordination of racialized individuals by dominant
culture. Peggy Davis discusses how legal discourse participates in and can counteract the effects of
microaggressions.
Institutionalized Racism: This concept, discussed extensively by Camara Phyllis Jones, refers to the systemic
ways dominant society restricts a racialized individual or group’s access to opportunities. These inequalities, which
include an individual’s access to material conditions and power, are not only deeply imbedded in legal institutions,
but have been absorbed into American culture to such a degree that they are often invisible or easily overlooked.
Social construction: In the context of CRT, “social construction” refers to the notion that race is a product of
social thought and relations. It suggests that race is a product of neither biology nor genetics, but is rather a social
invention.
Intersectionality and anti-essentialism: These terms refer to the notion that one aspect of an individual’s
identity does not necessarily determine other categories of membership. As Delgado and Stefancic explain,
“Everyone has potentially conflicting, overlapping identities, loyalties, and allegiances” (CRT: An Introduction 10).
In other words, we cannot predict an individual’s identity, beliefs, or values based on categories like race, gender,
sexuality, religion, nationality, etc; instead, we must recognize that individuals are capable of claiming
membership to a variety of different (and oftentimes seemingly contradictory) categories and belief systems
regardless of the identities outsiders attempt to impose upon them.
 Critical Disability Studies
Disability studies considers disability in political, aesthetic, ethical,
and cultural contexts, among others. In literature, many critics
examine works to understand how representations of disability and
“normal” bodies change throughout history, including the ways both
are defined within the limits of historical or cultural situations.
Disability studies also investigates images and descriptions of
disability, prejudice against people with disabilities (ableism), and the
ways narrative relates to disability (see “Narrative Prosthesis” below).
It’s important to understand disability as part of one’s identity, much
like race, class, gender, sexuality, and nationality. Because of its
concern with the body and embodiment, disability studies also
intersects other critical schools like gender studies, queer studies,
feminism, critical race studies, and more. In fact, many races,
classes, ethnicities, and other parts of identity have been classified as
or associated with disabilities in the past, emphasizing what feminist
and disability theorist Rosemarie Garland-Thomson describes as the
tendency of disability to be a “synecdoche for all forms that culture
deems non-normative” (259). Put differently, disability frequently
signifies things outside of the “normal” world, making it an important
area to investigate critically.
References:

https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what
-difference-between-literary-theory-criticism-4
57791
Tyson, L., Critical Theory Today (2nd Ed). 2006.
NewYork, Routledge.
RUANG LINGKUP SASTRA
Dalam lingkup ilmu sastra terdapat komponen disiplin ilmu yang
meliputi Teori Sastra, Sejarah Sastra, dan Kritik Sastra. Ketiga bidang
ilmu ini saling berkaitan.
Modul Teori Sastra ini dimulai dengan materi ruang lingkup ilmu
sastra tersebut. Tujuannya tidak lain untuk memberikan pemahaman
kepada Anda tentang ruang lingkup ilmu sastra sehingga dalam proses
pembelajaran sastra Anda dapat mempelajari disiplin ilmu sastra
sebagai suatu yang utuh, yang tidak terpisah-pisah.
Anda akan mempelajari ruang lingkup ilmu sastra yang
meliputi Teori Sastra, Kritik Sastra, dan Sejarah Sastra , serta
hubungan antara ketiga disiplin ilmu sastra tersebut. Dalam
mempelajari ilmu sastra, ketiga disiplin ilmu sastra tersebut saling
berkaitan.
Sastra = Kebudayaan
Sastra sebagai cabang dari seni yang
merupakan unsur integral dari
kebudayaan.
Sastra telah menjadi bagian dari
pengalaman hidup manusia sejak
dahulu, baik dari aspek manusia
sebagai penciptanya maupun aspek
manusia sebagai penikmatnya.
 3 CABANG ILMU SASTRA
 Dalam wilayah studi sastra terdapat tiga cabang ilmu sastra,
yaitu teori sastra, sejarah sastra, dan kritik sastra.
 Sastra dapat dilihat dari sudut prinsip, kategori, asas, atau
ketentuan yang mendasari karya sastra.
 Teori sastra adalah teori tentang prinsip-prinsip, kategori,
asas, atau hukum yang mendasari pengkajian karya sastra.
 Sastra dapat dilihat sebagai deretan karya yang sejajar atau
tersusun secara kronologis dari masa ke masa dan
merupakan bagian dari proses sejarah. Sejarah sastra adalah
ilmu yang mempelajari tentang perkembangan sastra secara
kronologis dari waktu ke waktu. Sastra dapat dikaji dengan
menggunakan prinsip-prinsip karya sastra.
 Kritik Sastra adalah ilmu yang mempelajari dan memberikan
penilaian terhadap karya sastra berdasarkan teori sastra. Di
dalam ilmu sastra, perlu disadari bahwa ketiga bidang tersebut
tak terpisahkan (Wellek dan Warren; 1977: 39).
Pemisahan Ketiga Cabang Ilmu Sastra
Dalam perkembangan ilmu sastra, ada yang mencoba
memisahkan sejarah sastra dari teori sastra dan kritik
sastra.
Bateson, misalnya (dalam Wellek dan Warren)
mengatakan bahwa sejarah sastra menunjukkan karya
sastra “A” berasal dari karya sastra “B”, sedangkan kritik
sastra menunjukkan karya sastra ”A” lebih baik dari
karya sastra “B”.
Hubungan yang pertama bersifat objektif dapat
dibuktikan, sedangkan yang kedua bersifat subjektif,
tergantung kepada pendapat dan keyakinan kritikus.
Pemisahan Ketiga Cabang Ilmu Sastra
Alasan lain memisahkan sejarah sastra dan kritik sastra karena sejarah sastra
mempelajari sastra berdasarkan kriteria (ciri-ciri) dan nilai zaman yang telah
lalu.
Menurut ahli rekonstruksi sastra, kita harus masuk ke alam pikiran dan sikap
orang-orang dari zaman yang kita pelajari. Kita harus berusaha
menggunakan standar mereka dan berusaha menghilangkan segala
prakonsepsi kita sendiri.
Pandangan ini disebut historisisme dan dikembangkan secara konsisten di
Jerman pada abad ke-19. Pandangan ini menegaskan bahwa tiap periode
sastra mempunyai konsepsi penilaian dan konvensi sastra yang berbeda.
Frederick A. Pottle pernah menyimpulkan bahwa setiap zaman merupakan
suatu kesatuan yang berbeda dengan periode lainnya dengan
memperlihatkan ciri-ciri puisi yang khas yang tidak dapat dibandingkan
dengan puisi-puisi pada periode berikutnya
Sedangkan kritik sastra, sebagai suatu penilaian terhadap karya sastra
merupakan suatu yang penting, yang tidak dapat disanggah (Wellek dan
Warren, 1994, hlm. 40).
MANFAAT SASTRA
Bagi pencipta karya sastra,
sastra merupakan curahan pengalaman batinnya tentang
fenomena kehidupan sosial dan budaya masyarakat pada
masanya. Ia juga merupakan ungkapan
peristiwa, ide, gagasan, serta nilai-nilai kehidupan yang
diamanatkan di dalamnya.
Sastra membahas manusia dalam segala aspek
kehidupannya
Sehingga karya sastra itu berguna untuk mengenal
manusia dan budayanya dalam kurun waktu
tertentu.
MANFAAT SASTRA
Bagi penikmat karya sastra,
 Karya sastra yang berupa mantra, pantun, dongeng, balada, dan mite sering
digunakan dalam kehidupan keseharian. Misalnya, gangguan-gangguan dalam
kehidupan, seperti sakit/penyakit, panen gagal karena hama, kemarau yang
panjang, dan peristiwa-peristiwa lainnya yang menyulitkan kehidupan, mereka
meminta pawang untuk menyebutkan mantranya untuk mengatasi kesulitan
tersebut.
 Berbagai dongeng, legenda, dan mite digunakan sebagai pengantar tidur. Dalam
pergaulan masyarakat, digunakan
 Karya sastra yang berupa pantun digunakan untuk memberikan nasihat, hiburan,
maupun untuk mencurahkan kata hati. Di sisi lain, pelipur lara menghibur
masyarakat dengan menyampaikan cerita-cerita sebagai hiburan pelepas lelah
setelah mereka bekerja keras pada siang hari di sawah dan di ladang.
sehingga melalui pertemuan mereka dengan sastra, para penikmat sastra dapat
memperoleh kesadaran tentang makna kehidupan. Daripadanya diperoleh
pengetahuan yang mendalam tentang manusia, dunia, dan kehidupan
(Sumardjo, 1988).
MANFAAT SASTRA
Di masa kini, sastra modern berperan ganda pula
dalam kehidupan masyarakat. Disamping sebagai alat
untuk hiburan dan mengisi waktu luang, sastra juga
berperan sebagai:
penyampai ideologi
alat pendidikan
alat propaganda
Sastra dalam Kurikulum Pendidikan
Di dalam kurikulum Bahasa dan Sastra di berbagai
jenjang pendidikan, sastra telah dijadikan sebagai
tujuan dalam:
 pembentukan budi pekerti
 pembentukan sikap
 bagian dari pengetahuan budaya dengan berbagai
disiplin ilmu sastranya, seperti Teori Sastra, Sejarah
Sastra, dan Kritik Sastra.
Awal Sejarah Sastra
Usia ilmu sastra sangat tua.
Cikal bakalnya muncul ketika filosof Yunani yang bernama
Aristoteles (384-322 sM) lebih dari 2000 tahun yang lalu telah
menulis buku yang berjudul Poetica. Tulisannya itu memuat
tentang teori drama tragedi.
Istilah poetica dalam teori-teori kesusastraan disebut dengan
beberapa istilah. Misalnya,
 W.H. Hudson menamakannya dengan studi sastra (The Study of
Literature)
 Rene Wellek dan Austin Warren menamakannya dengan teori sastra
(Theory of Literature),
 Andre Lefevere, menamakannya dengan pengetahuan sastra
(Literary Knowledge)
 A. Teeuw menggunakan istilah ilmu sastra (Literary Scholarship)

• Tidak ada perbedaan prinsip yang melandasi

seseorang dalam mempelajari sastra.
END OF PRESENTATION