Pragmatic Literary Criticism Pragmatic criticism is concerned, first and foremost, with the ethical impact any literary text has upon an audience. Regardless of art's other merits or failings, the primary responsibility or function of art is social in nature. Assessing, fulfilling, and shaping the needs, wants, and desires of an audience should be the first task of an artist. Art does not exist in isolation; it is a potent tool for individual as well as communal change. Though pragmatic critics
Postmodern Literary Criticism Postmodernism attempts to call into question or challenge the notion of a single absolute unified master narrative without simply replacing it with another. It is a paradoxical, recursive, and problematic method of critique. It encourages transcendence through or in spite of limitation, while simultaneously decentering the concept of absolute transcendence. To this end, it encourages the development of a heightened sense of self in relation to itself and
Narrative “New Literary” Criticism A good novel is hard to put down. The story in the novel is perfect with a great plot, convincing characters, and a suspenseful build up to the climax. You have been drawn into the story and it is almost like you are there, living along side the characters. You understand their background, their trials, and their joys. The story brings to life something from long ago that may or may not be fictional. It is hard to tell without doing further research. In
feminist criticism focuses on the role of women in literature. it is based on an assessment of the roles of women in a story or occurring from the opinion of supporting equality among genders. Charlotte Perkins is one writer whose work include feminist criticism. feminist literary criticism before the 1970s was worried with the politics of women's writing and the illustration of women's state within literature, this comprises the representation of imaginary female women's characters. according to
No one literary theory is specific enough to explain a literary body of work, various approaches are needed to truly analyze and evaluate the structured themes in literature. The Feminist Approach is the most common literary device used in theorizing Charlotte Perkin Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper; the story is a tale of a Victorian Age woman controlled by a patriarchal society, which is not in question. The second most common approach is the Psychoanalyze criticism, our protagonist Jane is most likely
historical, literary, or biographical leads to a better understanding of the writing. Through research on Kate Chopin, the early 20th century Louisiana writer of “The Storm,” one can find literary criticism that is relevant to understanding the meaning of her work. Literary criticism topics such as setting, feminism, resistance to patriarchal authority, and sexual fulfillment in relation to Chopin and her writing changes and enriches the reading of “The Storm.” Like Skredsvig, the literary critic Martha
delve further into the classical period by examining female characters from the works of male playwrights. The construction of women in male literature is extremely important. Peter Barry, in his chapter on feminist literary criticism in his book Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory, asserts that observing the female characters in works by men is important because it provides “role models which indicated to women, and men, what constituted acceptable version of the ‘feminine’
In Literary Criticism, there is an idea that believes that Archetypes make up literature’s meaning. The concept of Archetypes in literature has been the subject of extensive examination in Literary Criticism. “Criticism can be broken down into two broad categories: evaluative and interpretive” (Gardner 1287). The criticism is based on Literary Theory, which is composed of ideas that help interpret, and analyze literature. Everything in literature has a meaning, and many different people came
be known that poetry is literary work that convey the authors’ thoughts and feelings, and it directs the readers into their imagination world for imagining the phenomena happen in that poetry. Thus, poetry can tell stories, draw pictures, and describe something. Additionally, poetry is not only about human feeling, but also the art of diction. Samuel Taylor Coleridge proposes poetry as the most beautiful words (Fadila: 2011). Definitely, in order to get a beautiful literary work the author composes
Absolutely, most critics have adapted psychoanalytic literary criticism theory based upon the works of psychoanalysis by famous psychologists Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Jacques Lacan to literary works. 'Psychoanalytic literary criticism does not constitute a unified field....However, all variants endorse, at least to a certain degree, the idea that literature...is fundamentally entwined with the psyche' (wiki).The three literary works which will be analyzed in this essay are “A
Literary criticism is a hard study to grasp because of the numerous explanations that must make sense for the critic’s view to be comprehensible to readers. Understanding the role of the critic is vital. The critic is second most important aspect, next to the author and the work itself. In this course, we have read many critics, that all have valid points. The critic’s prospective is the second most important element of literary criticism, next to the author and the work itself. In this course, we
Literary Criticism: Questions for a Variety of Approaches I. Formalistic Approach: This approach focuses on form. The analysis stresses items like symbols, images, and structure and how one part of the work relates to other parts and to the whole. How is the work’s structure unified? How do various elements of the work reinforce its meaning? What recurring patterns (repeated or related words, images, etc.) can you find? What is the effect of these patterns or motifs? How does repetition
Literary Criticism of Swift’s Poetry In her article, "Voyeurism in Swift's Poetry," Louise K. Barnett explores the trend of voyeurism m the works of Jonathan Swift. She speaks broadly about the use of this technique in his work and concentrates on a few poems including "The Lady's Dressing Room." Barnett believes that Swift's poetry tends to be more voyeuristic than it is obsessed with excrement and decay. To support this, she maintains that each poem centers around the experience of seeing the
Tuite’s Literary Criticism of Lewis’ The Monk I would like to preface this by saying that one of the things I learned from this exercise is that, just because an article exists in published form, does not necessarily mean that it is a good article. This is the conclusion I reached after plowing, dictionary in hand, through two articles that were, respectively, ridiculously elementary after one hacked through the jargon, and entirely absurd and unsupported. Disheartened, I went searching again
Satire and Hypocrisy: Literary Criticism of Lewis’ The Monk In her essay "Satire in The Monk: Exposure and Reformation", Campbell strives to portray Matthew Lewis' The Monk as a work that is full of and dependent upon satire, yet marks a significant departure from the tradition thereof. Campbell asserts that satire "forcibly exposes an essential quality of an institution, class, etc., which individuals associated with the ridiculed body have concealed either through ignorance, hypocrisy, or affectation
Literary Criticism of Wuthering Heights Wuthering Heights is not just a love story, it is a window into the human soul, where one sees the loss, suffering, self discovery, and triumph of the characters in this novel. Both the Image of the Book by Robert McKibben, and Control of Sympathy in Wuthering Heights by John Hagan, strive to prove that neither Catherine nor Heathcliff are to blame for their wrong doings. Catherine and Heathcliff’s passionate nature, intolerable frustration, and overwhelming
Margit Stange’s Literary Criticism of Chopin’s The Awakening Kate Chopin created Edna Pontellier, but neither the character nor her creator was divorced from the world in which Chopin lived. As a means to understand the choices Chopin gave Edna, Margit Stange evaluates The Awakening in the context of the feminist ideology of the late nineteenth century. Specifically, she argues that Edna is seeking what Chopin’s contemporaries denoted self-ownership, a notion that pivoted on sexual choice and
Literary Criticism of Matthew Lewis’ Novel, The Monk Elliot B. Gose's essay "The Monk," from Imagination Indulged: The Irrational in the Nineteenth-Century Novel, is a psychological survey of Matthew Lewis' novel The Monk. Gose uses Freud's and Jung's psychological theories in his analysis of The Monk's author and characters. To understand Gose's ideas, we must first contextualize his conception of Freud's and Jung's theories. According to Gose: According to Freud we must look behind conscious
what ways has structuralism impacted on literary criticism? Since the mid twentieth century, the rise of structuralist methodology in literary theory has created seismic shifts opening up the study of text to cultural study and assisting in the development of other theories such as poststructuralism, feminism and postcolonialism. Structuralism challenged the idea of a politically detached study of text, epitomised in the then dominant new/practical criticism approaches. It reinforced the challenge
Types of Criticism and Literary Movements in Short Stories The short story dates back as early as the 14th Century. It offers what a novel or the equivalent would offer but it has a swiftness and completeness about it. According to Ruby Redinger, the short story is most powerful through graphic narration (752). The short story has captured a diverse group of things from the supernatural to an everyday occurrence. Nearly any situation can be worked into a short story if the right writer is managing