Archetype: Metamorphosis

Metamorphosis and shape shifting is a common theme in many cultures

mythologies. Characters who transform are often used as a medium to
express a meaning or enforce a characterization of the archetype. It is
represented as both voluntary and involuntary to have different meanings.
Apollo and Artemis are able to shape- shift into a more essential form
and the goddess Circe is able to transform individual into animals as a
punishment revealing their darker personalities.
Gregors transformation is representative of this tendency in mythology as
his metamorphosis into a bug is used to express the central arguments of
the novel
Archetype: Oedipus Complex
The Oedipal Complex that is represented in novel between Gregor and his
family finds its foundations in a Greek myth about the character Oedipus.
The story is used as an archetype to explain psychosexual development.
Archetype: The Tragic/Absurd Hero
A tragic hero is a main character who has to meet a tragic fate in
order to express the full idea and meaning of the story. Tragedy is
a main theme in many Greek myths and western theatre and
influences how the reader should interpret a characters
significance. Archetypes of the Tragic Hero are Oedipus, Creon,
and Odysseyus. The Metamorphosis also finds its archetypal base
in the The Myth of Sissyphus later to be interpreted by Albert
Camus as depicting the height of triumph in the face of ultimate
existential plight.
Gregor embodies qualities of this archetypal hero by being the
focus of the books main conflict and having do endure all of the
suffering and tragedy in the book in order to express the full
meaning of both the book and his character.
Jim Casey- Grapes of Wrath
Macbeth- The Tragedy of Macbeth
Obi wenkenobi Star Wars
What is an archetype?
Arche first and typos form
An original model or pattern from which copies are made
Archetypal Literary Criticism
1. Archetypal critics believe that literature is based on
recurring images, characters, narrative designs and themes.
2. Origins of western literature in Judeo-Christian scripture and
Greco-Roman mythology
Historical Context

1. Based on works of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell (and myth

itself)
2. Popular in 1950s and 60s due to Canadian, Northrop Frye

Fundamental Plot Archetype

THE JOURNEY

Protagonist moves from innocence to experience

Begins in familiar environment
Descent into danger
Battle monsters in underworld (task)
Return home (reunion, marriage)

Key Terms
Anima
Animus
Collective Unconscious
Persona
Shadow
Common Archetypal Figures

The Child
The Hero
The Great Mother
The Wise old man
The Trickster or Fox

Frye vs Jung
Frye sees archetypes as recurring patterns in literature; in
contrast, Jung views archetypes as primal, ancient
images/experience that we have inherited

MARXIST CRITICISM

Marxist criticism is based on the political and economic

theories of Karl Marx that deals with society rather than
literature (1818-1883).
Marx believed that history is
created and change occurs because of the struggles
between social and economic classes. Marx is revered as one of the
most influential socialist thinkers of the 19 th century.Some of his most
notable works are:

The German Ideology (1846)

The Communist Manifesto (1848)
Das Kapital (1867) the seminal work of the communist
movement.

Some representatives of this school are Christopher

Caudwell, George Lucas, Luciene Goldmann, and Walter
Benjamin

Principles of Marxism
A sociological approach to literature that viewed
works of literature or art as the products of
historical forces that can be analyzed by looking
at the material conditions in which they were
formed.
1) The current struggle in modern history, is the struggle
between the rich (owner) called the bourgeoisies and the
poor (worker) called the proletariat .

It is political in

nature.
2) Marxist critics suggest that the struggle is inherent in our
society so it is also reflected in our literature.The Marxist
critic finds a reflection of the same conflicts in literature.It
promotes the idea that literature should be a tool in the
revolutionary struggle.
3) It attempts to clarify the relationship of literary work to

social reality.
4) It aims to arrive at an interpretation of literary text in
order to define the political dimensions of literary work
MARXISM

1. Economic structure is the main driving force behind all

social conditions and historical changes.
2. Marx considers human history as a series of struggles
between classes -between the oppressed and the
oppressing.
3. Capitalism is based on exploitation of labourers.
4. The workers revolution is the inevitable
exploitation and the means of emancipation.

result

of

The aim of Marxism is to bring about a classless society,

based on the common ownership of the means of
production, distribution, and exchange
CONCEPTS
1. The Marxist idea of society sees it as constituted by a base
(the material means of production, distribution, and
exchange) and a superstructure, which is the cultural
world of ideas, art, literature, religion, education, law, and
so on.
2. The material conditions control thought, not vise versa. It is
not the consciousness of men that determines their
existence, but their social existence that determines their
consciousness. Marxist theory argues that the way we think
and the way we experience the world around us are
conditioned by the way the economy is organized.

Basic Assumptions of Marxist Criticism

1. Economic and social conditions affect all aspects of life
including art and literature. All intellectual and artistic
production are the product of these conditions.
In other words, all intellectual and literary production
is ideological.
2. Art reflects the social and economic conditions (and class
conflict).
3. Art aims at improving the social and economic conditions.
4. Since literature represents ideology, Marxist critics see it as
a way to understand social structures.
They look for
political ideas and ideologies in a text, and explore how
society and economic forces influence literature.
5. Marxist critics explain the class structure and class relations
in a literary work.
6. Social and economic conditions inform not only the content
of literature, but also the literary form and techniques.

What do Marxist Critics ask?

1. What role does class play in the work?
2. What is the author's analysis of class relations?
3. What does the work say about oppression and social
conflicts?

CRITICS OF KARL MARX

GEORG LUKACS:
Reflectionism or Vulgar Marxism
1) Believed that the text will reflect the society that has
produced it.
2) Stressed that historical approach is different to
reflectionism
3) Reflectionists attribute the separation that they
discover to the ills of capitalism.

Louis Althusser: Interpellation

Argued that literature and art affect the society.
Believed that the working class is manipulated to accept
the ideology of the dominant one.
Jameson and Eagleton : Theories are intertwined and not
just one sided.

DEFINITION OF TERMS
Bourgeoisie
: the name given by Marx to the owners of
the means of productions in a society.
Ideology
: A belief system
Proletariat
:
The name given by Marx to the workers
in the society.
Capitalism is an economic system that is based on private
ownership of the means of production and the creation of
goods or services for profit.
Engels and Marx founded the social and economic

system of Marxism in the 19th century. Essentially, it is the

opposite of capitalism. Instead, Marxism utilizes socialisms
concept of public ownership.
Marxism theorizes that in order to remove
the proletariat from its poor economic situation, a socialist
revolution must occur to remove the unconcerned ruling class from
government.

What about Marxist literary criticism?

1) Marxist Criticism is the belief that literature reflects this class struggle and
materialism.
2) It looks at how literature functions in relation to other aspects of the
superstructure, particularly other articulations of ideology.
3) Like feminist critics, it investigates how literature can work as a force for
social change, or as a reaffirmation of existing conditions.
4) Like New Historicism, it examines how history influences literature; the
difference is that Marxism focuses on the lower classes.

Key Terms
1)
2)
3)
4)

Commodification
Conspicuous consumption
Dialectical materialism
Material circumstances
Reflectionism

5)
6) Superstructure

Points to consider
1. Literature expresses the ideas, beliefs and values of a culture
2. Literature of any significance actively engages in controversy or
argument
3. Literature reveals power struggles (sexual power, economic power,
social power, and so on) and how this operates and with what
consequences. Literature and authors can manipulate readers into
sympathizing with rather than critiquing the dominant (and
oppressive) social order.
4. The theory that history develops neither in a random fashion nor in a
linear one but instead as struggle between contradictions that
ultimately find resolution in a synthesis of the two sides. For
example, class conflicts lead to new social systems .
5. The economic conditions underlying the society. To understand
social events, one must have a grasp of the material circumstances and
the historical situation in which they occur.

6. A theory that the superstructure of a society mirrors its

economic base and, by extension, that a text reflects the
society that produced it

7. The

social,

political,

institutions--for

and

example,

the

ideological
values,

systems
art,

and

and
legal

processes of a society--that are generated by the base

New Criticism
1.

View literature as a valid form of knowledge and as a

communicator of truths inaccessible via scientific and other
discourse
2. A work of literature has an organic structure
3. Objective way of analyzing literature
4. Authors intentions are irrelevant
5.

Assaulted middle-class ideologies of liberalism,

romanticism, individualism
Before Miltonpoets could think but not feel
After (Romantics)feel
but
not
thinkand
degenerated
New Criticism
T.S. ELIOT
Symbolism in context of classical and Christian
traditions
Believed language of poetry should communicate by
objective correlativesdeep symbols and images that
bypass rational thought and seize readers by the cerebral
cortex, the nervous system, the digestive tracts. Images
should penetrate to the primitive levels at which all men and
women experienced alikethrough symbols, rhythms,
archetypes, images of death and resurrection, the Fisher
King.

AMERICAN NEW CRITICISM

John Crow Ransom The New Criticism (1941)
Poetry as an aesthetic alternative to the scientific
rationalism of the North
Sensual integrity of poetry as a form of human
knowledge
Allen Tate, R. P. Blackmur, Robert Penn Warren,
Cleanth Brooks
A poem is a unification of attitudes into a
hierarchy subordinated to a total and governing
attitude
Phenomenology / Reception Theory

 JEAN-PAUL SARTRE (1905-1980)

What is Literature? (1948)
A books reception by the reader is part of the
work itself
Includes an image of who the book is written for
An implied reader is encoded in the book itself
The dilemma of the contemporary writer, who can
address his work neither to the bourgeoisie, the
working class or the mythical man in general.
RECEPTION THEORY
Role of reader as co-partner
Reader brings considerable knowledge and
experience
to the literary encounter
Including literary conventions
Will fill in the blanks, select and organize
Must open ourselves to the deep essences of
things
Look for recurring themes and patterns of
imagery
Pre-Structuralism
NORTHROP FRYE, Anatomy of Criticism (1957)
Literature formed an objective system that could
be analyzed scientifically
Laws = archetypes, myths, genres are basic
structures (universal patterns)
Four narrative categories:
Comic
Spring
Romantic Summer
Tragic
Autumn
Ironic
Winter

NORTHROP FRYE, Anatomy of Criticism (1957)

Tragedy
About human isolation
Comedy
Human integration
Three recurrent patterns of symbolism:
Apocalyptic
Demonic
Analogical

 NORTHROP FRYE, Anatomy of Criticism (1957)

All these patterns spring from the COLLECTIVE
UNCONSCIOUS to reveal universal archetypes
Myth
ero is superior
Romance
Superior in degree
Tragedy and epic Superior in degree but not to
others
Comedy and realism
Equal to rest of us
Satire and irony

Inferior

Louis Althusser (1918-1990)

Ideologies constructs the subject

Humans are the result of many different social
determinants
Why didnt the working classes rebel?
Ideologies help us create a sense of identity
Make us feel good about ourselves
Lacans idea of Other
Ideologies give people a satisfying mirror image of
themselves (identify with a cause)

Postmodernism: Basic Concepts

1. Language is a social construct that speaks &
identifies the subject
2. Knowledge is contingent, contextual and linked to
POWER
3. Truth is pluralistic, dependent upon the frame of
reference of the observer
4. Values are derived from ordinary social practices,
which differ from culture to culture and change with
time.
5. Values are determined by manipulation and domination

Post-structuralism
STRUCTURALISM
The individual is sacred

 The mind as the realm of meaning

Universal laws and essences
Inherent universal meanings that precede the text
POSTSTRUCTURALISM
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

The subject is a cultural construct

Mind created from interactions as situated symbolic beings
Truth is local; language creates reality
Meaning is intertextual, determined by social discourse;
changes with history.
Meanings are often hidden in the texts
Real meaning can be unlocked by deconstructing the text
Must consider psychological, cultural, ideological, gender
and other power positions of author, characters, intended
readers
Words are an endless chain of signifiers, pointing to nothing
but themselves

New Historicism & Cultural Materialism

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Recognize that history is written by the victors

History as culturally produced--not objective narratives
Paralleled evolution in cultural criticism
Focus on power, culture and economics
New Historicism: Top of social hierarchy
a. Government, church, upper classes
6. Cultural Materialism: Bottom of society
a. Lower classes, women, gays, colonialized ethnic
groups

Jaques Derrida (1930-)

Deconstruction is a theory of reading which aims to
undermine the logic of opposition within texts.
Skeptical postmodernist
Attacks fundamental principles of Western philosophy
Influenced by Nietzsche and Heidegger
Attacks from a structuralist foundation
Agrees that meaning is not inherent in signs
Strongly disagrees with bifurcation of structuralism

STRUCTURALISM is inherently flawed:

I.
II.

Argues that all STRUCTURES have an implied center

All systems have binary oppositions

III.
IV.
V.
VI.

One part more important than another (good/evil,

male/female)
Reinforces humanist idea that speaker/subject more
important
Reinforces real self as the origin of what is being said
This is logocentricismbasic to all Western thought
since Plato

BASIC THEMES:
By deconstructing, basic units of logic are shown how
they contradict themselves.
Sees all writing as a complex, historical cultural
process rooted in the relations of texts to each other
and in the institutions and conventions of writing.
Language operates in subtle and often contradictory
ways.
Certainty will always elude us