SOMMAIRE

New Critical Theories and Approaches NEW CRITICISM • origins and major 9gures

Russian Formalism, Roman Jakobson, René Wellek and Austin Warren, Northrop Frye, Mikhail Bakhtin, Gérard Genette.

• •

basic principles The text is an obje?. Its form expresses its meaning. Literature is, in some cases, a code without a message. pra?ical approaches • Don’t overevaluate the historical context, biographical data, or the ideological purpose. • Describe the literary procedures, i.e.: in 9?ion: narrative strategies, voices, chara?er constru?ion, various techniques of foregrounding. • in poetry: pattern, rhythm, parallelisms and deviations, tropes, paradoxical images. •

FROM STRUCTURALISM TO POST-STRUCTURALISM • origins and major 9gures

The linguistic works of Ferdinand de Saussure, studies in semiotics, Vladimir Propp, Claude Lévi-Stauss, IgirdasJulien Greimas, Roland Barthes.

• •

basic principles Just like language itself, a text is a system with an underlying stru?ure. Chara?ers are 9rst and foremost signs that are associated with fun?ions and must be understood in relation with the other signi9ers, the literary work as a complex of signs. pra?ical approaches • See what common stru?ure the text has with other texts, what genre it is close to. • Note how the text operates logically, how parts relate to one another. • Identify the fun?ions the chara?ers stand for and see how they interrelate in a coherent system. • Regard the text as a system of signs to be interpreted.

PSYCHOANALYSIS • origins and major 9gures

Works of Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung, Jacques Lacan, Julia Kristeva.

• •

basic principles Creative writing is very much like day-dreaming. Reading is interpreting and 9nding the underlying meaning. Unconscious material is not expressed dire?ly but through images and symbols. There is an unbridgable gap between signi9er (word) and signi9ed (thing). Where the word is present, the thing is absent. pra?ical approaches • Think in terms of desire and repression, displacement and alienation. • Conne? the literary work to key psychoanalytical concepts. • Search the author’s biography for traumatic events.


he e of nglish iterature, chap.  OPHRYS—PLOTON Created / updated 15/05/01 at 08:46; page 1 of 2 http://www.e-anthologie.com

DECONSTRUCTION • origins and major 9gures

The philosophy of Friedriech Nietzsche, Julia Kristeva, Jacques Derrida, Jean-François Lyotard, Jean Beaudrillard.

• •

basic principles The relationship between words and things is arbitrary. Traditional hierarchies or oppositions between sets of values may be reversed. Truth is mere representation. There is nothing outside the text. pra?ical approaches • Spot the oppositions in the text and expose the contradi?ions that upset a traditional hierarchy. • Contrast the authentic and the arti9cial, truth and its representation. • Show that the text ultimately contradi?s itself and opens up, while meanings multiply in9nitely.

READER-RESPONSE CRITICISM • origins and major 9gures Rea?ions to New Criticism, Elizabeth Freund.

• •

basic principles The reader creates the text as he reads. Reading is constru?ion of meaning. pra?ical approaches • Read very slowly, paying close attention to the way you respond at each step. • Describe your way of constru?ing meaning. • Contrast your own response with the likely responses of the “implied” reader.

HISTORICISM • origins and major 9gures

The University of Berkeley and its return to history after the decline of Marxism, Michel Foucault, E.M.W. Tillyard.

• •

basic principles History and 9?ion are porous genres. History is text just as 9?ion. “Fa?s” are created by the historian. Literature is not autonomous, it is conne?ed to the modes of representations of the culture around itself and it contibutes to shaping history. pra?ical approaches: • Study the context thoroughly: the social beliefs, customs, systems of representations, cultural imagery, legends, the “world pi?ure” of the time of writing. • See how history permeates 9?ion.

GENDER CRITICISM • origins and major 9gures

Feminist and gay and lesbian movements, works of Michel Foucault on the history of sexuality, Luce Irigaray.

• •

basic principles Western culture and the literary canon are male-dominated. A feminist or gay/lesbian viewpoint allows us to discover negle?ed works of art. Women writers and gay/lesbian writers have given an alternative rendering of human experience. pra?ical approaches: • Think in terms of gender and repressed identity. • Study the representation of men and women in the text and see whether they are prejudiced. • Consider how the writer’s writing and the reader’s gender a8e?s the reading.


he e of nglish iterature, chap.  OPHRYS—PLOTON Created / updated 15/05/01 at 08:46; page 2 of 2 http://www.e-anthologie.com