Literary

Criticism
 Study, evaluation and interpretation of
literature or a certain literary works.
 Is an act of analysis which includes the
classification of analyzing literary works by its
genre, structure, etc.
SOCIOCULTURAL
CRITICISM
 Form of criticism examines how different religions,
ethnicities, class identification, political beliefs, and
views affect the way in which text are created and
interpreted.
 Used to describe awareness of circumstances
surrounding individuals and how their behaviors are
affected by their surroundings, social and cultural
factors.
Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky
Born on November 1896, Orsha, Russian
Empire and died on June 11, 1934 (aged
37), Moscow, Soviet Union.
A pioneer of the sociocultural approach
and a Soviet phsycologist.
Kenneth Duva Burke
 Born on May 5, 1897, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania and died on
November 19, 1993 (aged 97),
Andover, New Jersey.
 He was one of the first individuals to
stray away from more traditional
rhetoric and view literature as
“symbolic action”.
Georg Lukacs
 Born on April 13, 1885, Budapest,
Austria-Hungary and died on June 4
1971 (aged 86), Hungarian People’s
Republic.
 One of the founders of Western
Marxism.
Marxism focuses on the material side of capitalism.

Capitalism is an economic and political system in

which a country's trade and industry are controlled
by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.

Critical Theory focuses on the cultural side of

capitalism.
 Examples of Writers
Aldous Huxley - A brave new world
George Orwell -1984
Charlotte Perkins Gilman – the yellow
wallpaper
 Guide Questions:
To discover what a text can tell us about the society in which it was
written, ask:

 Who has the power in this society and who doesn’t?

 What are the official and unofficial rules of this society? What
happens when a rule is broken?
 How are women supposed to behave in this society? How are
men supposed to behave?
 What is valued in this society? (love, money, power, order,
honesty, etc)
 How does money affect individual’s lives in this society?
 What type of government does this society have? How si the ruler
chosen? What rights do individuals have?