Introduction to Literary Theory & Criticism lecture-1(MS/MPhil 2020)

Note:
1. It is intimated that following lectures will not repeated and would be part of mid-term &
Final-term exam as well.
2. The attendance of the students will be marked on receipt of assignment on due date.
3. Marks of the assignment may be deducted on emailing irrelevant material to respective teacher.
4. Email ID of concerned teacher is mentioned at the end of each lecture notes and ppt as well.
5. In case of any query, contact through email.
6. The mode of communication would be English only.
Objectives of the lesson are
• To understand the basic concepts of literary theory and criticism
• To know about critic and literary critic.
• To clarify the concept of text analysis
• To know the difference between literary criticism and literary theory
• To differentiate between phonetics and phonology.
• To study different approaches to literary criticism
• to enable us to understand how to analyze a text of literature.
Criticism
The term ‘criticism’ is often understood to be: The act of finding fault; censure; disapproval. The
act of criticizing, especially adversely. But the term ‘criticism’ as it is used in this course signifies:
The act of interpreting, analyzing and making judgments of individual and comparative worth of
works of art such as literature • A critical comment, review, article, essay, etc express such analysis
and judgment are called: the art, principles, or methods of a critic or critics.
What is literary criticism?
Literary criticism is the interpretation, analysis, classification and ultimately the judgment
of literary works. It is usually in the form of a critical essay, but in depth book reviews can
sometimes be considered as literary criticism. Criticism may examine a particular literary work,
or may look at an author's writings as a whole.
A Critic:
Etymology • 1580s: Critic is "one who passes judgment," from M. French. critique (14c.), from
Latin. criticus "a judge, literary critic," from Gk. kritikos "able to make judgments," from krinein
"to separate, decide." Meaning "one who judges merits of books, plays, etc.“ 17th and 18th
centuries: the critic was considered a judge who finds the faults and merits of a literary work. 4
A Literary Critic:
A literary critic is not someone who merely evaluates the worth or quality of a piece of literature
but, rather, is someone who argues on behalf of an interpretation or understanding of the particular
meaning(s) of literary texts. The task of a literary critic is to explain and attempt to reach a critical
understanding of what literary texts mean in terms of their aesthetic, as well as social, political,
and cultural statements and suggestions.
A literary critic does more than simply discuss or evaluate the importance of a literary text; rather,
a literary critic seeks to reach a logical and reasonable understanding of not only what a text’s
author intends for it to mean but, also, what different cultures and ideologies render it capable of
meaning.
Literary Theory:
A very basic way of thinking about literary theory is that these ideas act as different lenses critics
use to view and talk about art, literature, and even culture. These different lenses allow critics to
consider works of art based on certain assumptions within that school of theory. The different
lenses also allow critics to focus on particular aspects of a work they consider important
Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical
discussion of its methods and goals. • E.g. if a critic is working with certain Marxist theories, s/he
might focus on how the characters in a story interact based on their economic situation. If a critic
is working with post-colonial theories, s/he might consider the same story but look at how
characters from colonial powers (Britain, France, and even America) treat characters from, say,
Africa or the Caribbean.
Literary theory proposes particular, systematic approaches to literary texts that impose a particular
line of intellectual reasoning to it. • For example, a psychoanalytic literary theorist might take the
psychological theories of Sigmund Freud or Carl Jung and seek to reach a critical understanding
of a novel such as Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Literary Criticism vs. Lit Theory:
Literary criticism is the practice of interpreting and writing about literature as the latter, in turn,
strives to make sense of the world. Literary criticism is the comparison, analysis, interpretation,
and/or evaluation of works of literature. Literary criticism is essentially an opinion, supported by
evidence, relating to theme, style, setting or historical or political context. It usually includes
discussion of the work’s content and integrates your ideas with other insights gained from
research. Literary criticism may have a positive or a negative bias and may be a study of an
individual piece of literature or an author’s body of work.
Although criticism may include some of the following elements in order to support an idea,
literary criticism is NOT a plot summary, a biography of the author, or simply finding fault with
the literature.
Researching, reading, and writing works of literary criticism will help you to make better sense
of the work, form judgments about literature, study ideas from different points of view, and
determine on an individual level whether a literary work is worth reading.
Examples of some types of literary criticism are:
Biographical, Comparative, Ethical, Expressive, Theoretical
• Literary theory is the study of the principles which inform how critics make sense of literary
works. There are many different approaches we can take to critical analysis • Literary theories
provide a framework for our discussion of a text. A critical analysis is an in-depth examination
of some aspect of the literary work • you may examine any element of the text: character
development, conflicts, narrative point of view, etc.
The distinction between the two rests on the conceptual level at which each operates. Literary
criticism is material written by scholars about specific literary works, either individually, or taken
in some common group (like the works of an author, of a given time period, or works centered on
a given theme). Criticism looks closely at the texts it has chosen to consider, and explores them in
great depth, explaining difficulties and perhaps outlining a position about an aspect of the text or
texts that would not normally be obvious, but which is nonetheless supported by the text. Note that
literary criticism, unlike the way we use the term every day, indicates an in-depth exploration of a
work, not (necessarily) an evaluation of its quality, nor an opinion giving it a given number of
stars. Theory, on the other hand, is not concerned with the exploration of individual texts, but
rather with outlining broad concepts about the study of literature itself. Some works, which
examine specific texts according to a given theoretical approach, and which use the texts to
highlight and explain the theory as much as the reverse, perform both critical and theoretical
functions. Indeed, all critical works come from a given theoretical position, but the difference
between them is one of concentration; if the focus is on the text, and the theory is largely unstated
and understood, this is criticism. If the texts are merely used as examples of the theory that is being
illustrated, we have theory.
Types of Literary Criticism:
A broad division can be made between the types of literary criticism:
1. Practical criticism
2. Theoretical criticism
3. Descriptive criticism
4. Prescriptive criticism
These Four types can be grouped in to two classes:
1. Practical and Theoretical criticism, 2. Descriptive and Prescriptive criticism.
Practical and Theoretical Criticism:
Practical criticism focuses on the examination of individual text, while theoretical criticism
discusses the nature of literature, and the relation between literature, critics and society.
Descriptive and Prescriptive Criticism:
Descriptive criticism tends to explain the piece of literature as it is, in its original form,
while prescriptive criticism argues on how it ought to be.
The various theories of lit criticism are categorized into four major classes.
1. Mimetic Theory
2. Pragmatic Theory
3. Expressive Theory
4. Objective Theory.
Mimetic Theory of Arts:
Mimetic theory sees a work of literature as if it is reflecting the universe like a mirror. It regards
literature as imitating or reflecting life, and therefore emphasizes on the truth and accuracy of its
representation. That is why it is said that it is realism in general sense. (Mimetic means imitation
and the word is first used by Aristotle in 4th century B.C, where he states that tragedy
is the imitation of an action).
Pragmatic Theory of Arts:
It sees literature as designed to achieve its effects on the audience (instructions, aesthetics, joy etc),
and judge it according to the successful achievement of this assumed aim. Pragmatic theories
emphasize on the reader’s relation to the work. The work is treated as something that is constructed
to achieve certain effects on the audience. Effects may be for the aesthetic pleasure, instruction or
any kind of emotion.
Expressive Theory:
Expressive theories center on the artist. Wordsworth’s definition of the poetry as the spontaneous
overflow of powerful feelings is typical and nearly all Romantic and 19th Century criticism
generally regards art as primarily concerned with expressing the poet’s feelings or psyche.
It examines text as an expression of the writer’s feelings, imagination and personality. It tends to
judge the work by its sincerity or the extent to which it has successfully revealed the author’s state
of mind. Romantic Critics such as Coleridge and Wordsworth were expressive critics in this sense.
Objective Theory:
It focus more on the text without the influences of the writer or the reader. • The text here is
supreme and once this text is produced the writers fizzles out and the only interpretation to be
gotten is what can be inferred from the text, the direct message which the text itself has which has
to be inferred within the text and to them there is no correspondence between the universe and the
work and we cannot know the true nature of either the audience or the author.
Approaches to Literary Criticism:
Traditional Approaches
1. Historical/Biographical Approach
2. Moral/Philosophical Approach •
Historical/Biographical Approach: views literature as the reflection of an author's life and times
(or of the characters' life and times). It is necessary to know about the author and the political,
economical, and sociological context of his times in order to truly understand his works.
Historical/Biographical Advantages: • works well for some which are obviously political
or biographical in nature. • places allusions in their proper classical, political, or biblical
background. Disadvantages: • "the intentional fallacy" it tends to reduce art to the level of
biography and make it relative (to the times) rather than universal.
A Checklist of Historical Critical Questions:
When was the work written? When was it published? How was it received by the critics and public
and why? What does the work’s reception reveal about the standards of taste and value during the
time it was published and reviewed? What social attitudes and cultural practices related to the
action of the word were prevalent during the time the work was written and published? What kinds
of power relationships does the word describe, reflect, or embody? How do the power relationships
reflected in the literary work manifest themselves in the cultural practices and social institutions
prevalent during the time the work was written and published? To what extent can we understand
the past as it is reflected in the literary work? To what extent does the work reflect differences
from the ideas and values of its time?
Checklist of Biographical Critical Questions:
What influences people, ideas, movements, events evident in the writer’s life does the work
reflect? To what extent are the events described in the word a direct transfer of what happened in
the writer’s actual life? What modifications of the actual events has the writer made in the literary
work? For what possibly purposes? What are the effects of the differences between actual events
and their literary transformation in the poem, story, play, or essay? What has the author revealed
in the work about his/her characteristic modes of thought, perception, or emotion? What place does
this work have in the artist’s literary development and career?
Moral / Philosophical Approach:
Moral/philosophical approach asserts that the larger purpose of literature is to teach morality and
to probe philosophical issues, authors intend to instruct the audience in some way.
Moral/Philosophical Advantages:
It is useful for works which do present an obvious moral philosophy, useful when considering the
themes of works, does not view literature merely as "art" isolated from all moral implications,
Recognizes that literature can affect readers and that the message of a work is important.
Moral/Philosophical Disadvantages:
such an approach can be too “judgmental” Some believe literature should be judged primarily
(if not solely) on its artistic merits, not its moral or philosophical content.
Checklist of Moral/Didactic Critical Questions:
What enduring truth is revealed in the theme of this work? How are the actions of the protagonist
rewarded and the actions of the antagonist punished?

Assignment:
Compare and contrast literary criticism and literary theory with example. Also explain that
why the literary authors have disowned literary criticism and replaced it with literary theory
in the modern age?

If any query please contact.

raj.wali@northern.edu.pk
03465002273(whatsapp)