Literary Approaches Mimetic/Aesthetic (ontological & holistic)

Romanticism(ontological &

holistic)

Historical/Biographical/Author-Centred(Epistemological, analytic, holistic)

Text Centred(ontological & analytic)

Literary Theories PlatonicPoetics

AristotelianPoetics

HoratianPoetics

Wordsworth’sPoetics

Historicism Psychoanalytic Theory

Russian Formalism

New Criticism New Historicism Structuralism

Dates & Places Greece ca.427-347

B.C.

Greece ca.1384-322

B.C.

Rome65-8 B.C.

Britain1798-1850

Europe-Germany18th – 19th Century

Italy, France1900s

RussiaEarly 20th

century

America1930s – 1960s

America1970s – 1980s

France, Russia1950s – 1960s

Proponents Plato & his Greek

Academy

Aristotle & school of Lyceum

Quintuss Horatius Flaccus

William Wordsworth,

Samuel Coleridge

G.W.F. Hegel Sigmund FreudJacques Lacan

Viktor Shklovsky, Boris

Eichenbaum

Rene Wellek, W.K. Wimsatt,Cleanth Brooks

Stephen Greenblatt,

Michel Foucault

Jonathan Culler, Roland Barthes,

Claude Levi-Strauss

Principles/Beliefs/Focus

Spiritual realm (morality & truth) superior to material realm

Poets’ work twice removed from reality

Literature imitates material realitywhich is only a replica of spiritual reality

Poets cannot be trusted

Art imitation of reality

Poetry superior to other disciplines since it is universal & presents things, not as they are but as they should be

Literary imitation seen as positive

Artists must imitate other older poets

Literature should be sweet & useful

Good quality literature is influenced by humble & rustic lifestyle, ordinary language & the emotions

Historical context, including author’s life, impacts interpretation

May be seen as an approach rather than a theory

Easily combined with other literary theories

Not aesthetic

Artists are neurotics

Literature seen as external expression of author’s unconscious mind

Lit. work is like dream – author’s hidden motivations & repressed desires

Lit. uses lang. in distinctive way

Defamiliarize perceptions so that associations are not habitual

Text autonomous

Critic must isolate text from context & author

Art makes things unfamiliar to increase difficulty of perception

Emphasis on aesthetic function

Move away from cultural context

Text interprets text

Text ontological (exists in & of itself)

Intentional fallacy

Eclectic analysis

One correct reading possible

Aesthetic function

Parallel reading of lit. text & non-literary texts of same historical period

“textuality of history” & “historicity of text”

Lit. expression of social power structures

Intensive close reading

Anti-mimetic: lang. shapes rather than reflects the world

Emphasis on form & structure, not content

Codes, signs, & rules govern all human cultural & social practices

Focus on how code is structured within & outside the text

All texts refer readers to other texts

Interpretation not based on author’s intention or reader’s perception but on analysis of system of rules

Linguistic structures similar to literary codes

Binary oppositions

Literary Approaches Reader-centred (epistemological & analytic)

Political/Cultural/Ideological (epistemological & analytic)

Postmodernism (epistemological & analytic)

Literary Theory Reader-response Reception Feminisms Marxism Postcolonialism Deconstruction Post-StructuralismPlaces & Dates America & Germany

1960s-1970sGermany

1960sBritain, America,

France1960s-1970s

Russia & Germany1960s-1980s

Formerly British colonized countries

1960s- 1980s

France1970s-1980s

France1960s-1970s

Proponents Stanley Fish, I.A. Richards, Louise

Rosenblatt

Hans Robert Jauss Virginia Woolf, Elaine Showalter, Adrienne

Rich

Leon Trotsky, Georg Lukacs, Terry Eagleton

Frantz Fanon, Helen Tiffin, Homi Bhabba

Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault

Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida

Principles/Beliefs/Focus Reality not found in external world, but in one’s perception of it

Lit. work created by reader

Reader makes transactions with text

Aesthetic reading

Text’s social history important in interpretation

Focus on how text was accepted/received by its contemporary readers

Readers from historical period devise criteria for critiquing text

Horizons of expectation vary from one period to another

Gender discrimination in lit. texts & in canon

Masculine hegemony

Often combined with other theories

Opposed to patriarchy

Sexual politics

Counter stereotypes of women in literature

Person’s consciousness not shaped by spiritual entity

Humans define themselves based on social interactions

Economic factors affecting publication

Social relationships within & outside text

Political function of lit.

Lit. product of ideology & of history

Opposed to bourgeoisie hegemony

In favour of proletariat & communism

Concerned with British colonization

Diverse emphases including

Universality Difference Nationalism Representation Resistance Ethnicity Language Education Cultural

hegemony Colour Race Economic

oppression

Friedrich Nietzsche-death of God

No such thing as objective reality

All truth subjective creation of human mind

Truth relative- based on social & cultural influence

Controversial

Emphasis on ambiguity & contradiction

“all interpretation is misinterpretation”

No single correct interpretation

Language unstable therefore lit. unstable

Meaning constantly deferred

De-centred universe

Uncertainty, no fixed landmarks

Based on philosophy, not linguistics

Meanings fluid & subject to constant “slippage”

Oppositions

Historical context of lang. affect modern usage

No fixed meaning

“death of the author”: textual independence

Uncover unconscious dimension of text