EL109 LITERARY CRITICISM

CHAPTER 3: LITERARY THEORIES

Objectives:

a.) Analyze the characteristics of literary theories mentioned.

b.) Criticize literary pieces based on the literary theories presented.

Russian Formalism

This theory stresses that art is

artificial and that a great deal of
acquired skill goes into it as
opposed to the old classical
maxim that true art conceals its
art∙ The Russian Formalists, led
by Viktor Shklovsky, aimed to establish a science of literature- a complete knowledge of
the formal effects (devices, techniques, etc.) Which together make up what is called
literature∙ The Formalists read literature to discover its literariness- to highlight the
devices and technical elements introduced by the writer in order to make language
literary∙

The key ideas in this theory are:

 Baring the device- this practice refers to the presentation of devices without any
realistic motivation- they are presented purely as devices∙ For example, fiction
operates by distorting time in various ways- foreshortening, skipping, expanding,
transposing, reversing, flashback and flash-forward, and so on∙
 Defamilairization- this means making strange∙ Everything must be dwell upon
and described as if for the first time∙ ordinary language encourages the
automatization of our perceptions and tends to diminish our awareness of reality∙
It simply confirms things as we know them (e.g. the leaves are fallings from the
trees; the leaves are green) ∙

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 Retardation of the narrative- the technique of delaying and protracting actions

Shklovsky draws attention to the ways in which familiar actions are
defamiliarized by being showed down, drawn out or interrupted∙ Digressions,
displacement of the parts or the book, and extended description are all devices to
make us attend to form∙
 Naturalization- refers to how we endlessly become inventive in finding ways of
making sense of the most random or chaotic utterances or discourse∙ We refuse
to allow a text to remain alien and stay outside our frames of reference- we insist
on naturalizing it∙
 Carnivalization-the term Mikhail Bakhtin uses to describe the shaping effect of
carnival on literary texts∙ The festivities associated with the Carnival are
collective and popular, hierarchies are turned on their heads(fools become wise,
kings become beggars); opposites are mingled (fact and fantasy, heaven and
hell); the sacred is profaned; the rigid or serious is subverted, mocked or
loosened∙

Marxist Literary Theory

This theory aims to explain literature in

relation to society- that literature can only be
properly understood within a larger framework
of social reality∙ Marxists believe that any
theory that treats in isolation (for instance, as
pure structure or as a product of the author’s
individual mental processes) and keeps it in
isolation, divorcing it from history and society,
will be deficient in its ability to explain what
literature is

Marxist literary critics start by looking at the structure of history and society and
than see whether the literary work reflects or distorts this structure∙ Literature must have

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a social dimensions- it exists in time and space; in history and society∙ A literary work
must speak to concerns that readers recognize as relevant to their lives∙

Marxist literary criticism maintains that a writer’s social class and its prevailing
‘Ideology’ outlook, values, tacit assumptions, etc∙) have a major bearing on what is
written by a member of the class∙ The writers are constantly formed by their social
contexts∙

Marxist Criticism

According to Marxists, and to other scholars in fact, literature reflects those social
institutions out of which it emerges and is itself a social institution with a particular
ideological function. Literature reflects class struggle and materialism: think how often
the quest for wealth traditionally defines characters. So Marxists generally view
literature "not as works created in accordance with timeless artistic criteria, but as
'products' of the economic and ideological determinants specific to that era" (Abrams
149). Literature reflects an author's own class or analysis of class relations, however
piercing or shallow that analysis may be.

The Marxist critic simply is a careful reader or viewer who keeps in mind issues of
power and money, and any of the following kinds of questions:

 What role does class play in the work; what is the author's analysis of class
relations?
 How do characters overcome oppression?
 In what ways does the work serve as propaganda for the status quo; or does it
try to undermine it?
 What does the work say about oppression; or are social conflicts ignored or
blamed elsewhere?
 Does the work propose some form of utopian vision as a solution to the problems
encountered in the work?

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The Farmer's Son

BY ALFREDO NAVARRO SALANGA

There is great power in reason

It comes like so much rain
Or like strong wind in a dry month

My father was bent

by work
his shoulders were bend
by words
in a contract
he never understood

While I was still

a young man
he send me off
to school
and bid me walk
with straight shoulders

Learn, he said
learn words
that you may pry off
these letters
that have made me
old and bent

I came back
many years later
with the words
I knew he wanted
but by then
it was too late

I listened to him
die with words:
you are lucky
to have learned words
they will keep you
from having bent shoulders

By his deathbed
I cried
and spat out
letter's while
my shoulders bent
with grief

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Feminist Criticism

This is a specific kind of political discourse;

a critical and theoretical practice committed to the
struggle against patriarchy and sexism∙ Broadly,
there are two kinds of feminist criticism: one is
concerned with unearthing, rediscovering or re-
evaluating women’s writing, and the other with re-
reading literature from the point of view of women∙

Feminist asks why women have played a subordinate role to men in the society It
is concerned with how women’s lives have changed throughout history and what about
women’s experience is different from men∙

Feminist literary criticism studies literature by women for how it addresses or

expresses the particularity of women’s lives and experience∙ It is also stories the male-
dominated canon in order to understand how men have used culture to further their
domination of women∙

Robert Herrick, 1591 - 1674

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,

Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.
The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.
That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.
Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry

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Postcolonial Criticism

Post colonialism refers to a

historical phase undergone by third
world countries after the decline of
colonialism: for example, when
countries in Asia, Africa, Latin
America, and the Caribbean separated
from the European empires and were
left to rebuild themselves∙ Many third
world writers focus on both colonialism and changes created in postcolonial culture∙
Among the many challenges facing postcolonial writers are the attempts both to
resurrect their culture and to combat the preconceptions about their culture∙

Postcolonial literatures emerged in their present form out experience of

colonization and asserted themselves by foregrounding the tension with the imperial
power and emphasizing their differences from the assumptions of the imperial center∙
Language became a site of struggle for postcolonial literatures since one of the main
features of imperial oppression is control over language∙

There is a need to escape from the implicit body of assumptions to which

English, the language of the colonizing power, was attached: its aesthetic and social
values, the formal and historically limited constraints of genre, and the oppressive
political and cultural assertion of metropolitan dominance- of center over margin∙

Postcolonial critics also study diasporic texts outside the usual Western genies,
especially productions by aboriginal authors, marginalized ethnicities, immigrants, and
refugees∙

Homi K∙ Bhabha’s postcolonial theory involves analysis of nationality, ethnicity,

and politics with poststructuralist ideas of identity and indeterminacy, defining
postcolonial identities as shifting, hybrid constructions∙

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Amamu sat in the living room, not exactly sober, and not exactly drunk ∙
He had been arranging his flower pots∙ His master had called him thrice∙
Yes sah, masa∙
You finish for outside?
No sah∙
Finish quick and come clean for inside∙ We get party tonight∙ Big people
they come∙ Clean for all the glass, plate, spoon, knife everything∙ You
hear?
Yes sah∙
Yaro shuffled off silent feet∙ Amamu stretched himself in the armchair,
covering his face with yesterday’s Daily Graphic
Awoonor, 1971:123

Postmodern Literary Theory

Postmodern is a term used to refer to the culture of advanced capitalist societies∙

This culture has undergone a profound shift in the structure of feeling∙ A whole new way
of thinking and being in the world emerged- a paradigm shift in the cultural, social, and
economic orders.

For More Knowledge:. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Yh3WLNL0gA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmIhEWiYE3o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ktiru9MrHQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG-0KCAwFBo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv1fgtkhhtA

Reference:
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/introliterature/chapter/introduction-to-critical-
theory/

https://iep.utm.edu/literary/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CLiterary%20theory%E2%80%9D%20is
%20the%20body,reveal%20what%20literature%20can%20mean.

https://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/marxist.crit.html

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