2.6: About Literary Criticism
- Page ID
- 318961
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- define, identify, discuss, and apply concepts of basic literary theory.
- 2.6.1: Literary Criticism
- This page emphasizes the importance of literature in fostering imagination and empathy while enhancing critical reading skills. It discusses literary criticism, highlighting diverse theoretical approaches and debates on interpretation, particularly through examples like "The Yellow Wallpaper" and "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." Key themes include gender roles, mental health, and societal constraints, illustrated through an unreliable narrator and the impact of patriarchal structures.
- 2.6.2: What is Literary Criticism?
- This page discusses literary theory as an intellectual framework that facilitates the interpretation of literature through various schools of thought. Unlike scientific theories, it focuses on subjective ideas rather than empirical facts. Engaging with literary theory promotes critical thinking by enabling readers to analyze texts from multiple perspectives, thereby deepening their understanding of literature and its connection to broader human themes.
- 2.6.3: Formalism
- This page explores John Donne's urn metaphor in poetry, connecting it to themes in Gray and Keats, emphasizing New Criticism's focus on close reading for understanding literary meaning and structure. Additionally, it highlights Cleanth Brooks's analysis of Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn," addressing paradox and irony and defending the poem's conclusion against Eliot's critique.
- 2.6.4: Psychoanalytic Criticism
- This page explores the relationship between dreams and psychoanalytic literary criticism, focusing on Freud, Lacan, and Jung. It highlights how dreams reveal unconscious states that aid in literary interpretation and includes methods for dream analysis related to an author's life and thematic elements. The text provides examples from Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne to illustrate these concepts and ultimately offers guidance on using psychoanalytic theories in literary essays.
- 2.6.5: Criticism and Gender
- This page critiques women's representation in literature through feminist perspectives, examining historical cookbooks and Susan Glaspell's play "Trifles," where women's identities are overshadowed by patriarchal norms. It traces the evolution of feminist criticism, from patriarchal critiques to gynocriticism, emphasizing the importance of women's voices.
- 2.6.6: Postcolonial and Ethnic Studies Criticism
- This page examines the evolution of English literary studies, emphasizing the historical exclusion of minority voices. It highlights a shift towards inclusivity, featuring diverse authors such as Phillis Wheatley, who critiques racial stereotypes, and addresses the need for critical analysis to challenge Eurocentrism. Additionally, it contrasts Wheatley's subversion of prejudiced viewpoints with Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," criticized for its racist portrayals.
- 2.6.7: New Historicism
- This page examines the relationship between history and literature, contrasting early linear views with New Historicism's perspective of dynamic cultural interplay. It highlights examples like Yeats's "Easter, 1916" and Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" to showcase literature as both a reflection of and response to historical contexts.
- 2.6.8: Ecocriticism
- This page explores the interplay between literature and nature, highlighting Romantic criticism, particularly through Leo Marx's pastoral ideal. It critiques modernity's estrangement from nature, especially in works like Wordsworth's and Dickens’s depictions of pollution. Industrialization's toll on the environment and human health is further examined in Rebecca Harding Davis’s "Life in the Iron Mills," which serves as an ecocritical reminder of the consequences of neglecting the natural world.