15 ELL 601: Contemporary Literary Theory

S9 Int MA (English)/ MA S2-Odd Semester 2021

Faculty: Dr Beena S Nair
Unit 1: Peter Barry - Beginning Theory
TOPIC 1 - Theory before Theory
The advent of Contemporary Literary Theory
• 1980s – the invasion of Contemporary Literary Theory into our thought
structures
• The ‘moment of theory’
• 1990s - steady flow of texts on literary theories, like After Theory (Thomas
Docherty, 1990) & Post-Theory (Nicolas Tredell, 1993)
• Later, the ‘hour of theory’ when literary theory enters the classroom as
daily teaching (or in general discussions)
• All modern theories – to be understood as reactions against prior
knowledge/ theories
• Older approach to literature studies - termed Liberal Humanism (by critics)
Studying Contemporary Literary Theory
• Look back to your previous training critically.
• Practice intensive reading - rather than extensive/ wide reading.
• Also repeated reading – to understand the argument, how it unfolds,
is contextualized.
• Say NO to desperate skim reading. Make reading meditative,
reflective & personal.
• Become a slow reader, so that you develop individual viewpoints.
• Close reading is essential. ‘Study’ an essay/ article closely. Read
summaries, commentaries etc. Take down notes.
Tips to studying Literary Theory - 1
• Adopt intensive reading, while encountering difficulty in language or
concepts.
• Adopt the technique SQ3R: Survey – Question – Read – Recall -- Review
• Survey - skim for the scope & nature of the argument – see hinge points
concentrated in the opening & closing paragraphs.
• Question - Set yourself questions. Be an active/ involved reader.
• R1 - Read the article. Underline key points. Make notes.
• R2 - Recall what you have read after closing the text. Jot down summary
points. See whether your questions have been answered. Spell out the
difficulties faced.
Tips to studying Contemporary Literary
Theory - 2
• R 3 - Review - final stage.
Review your reading the next day or so, without opening the book.
Review what you have got from the text. Refer to your notes if you are
unable to remember, recall.
• Repeat this technique of SQR3, if more clarity is needed.
• Literary Theory is a story/ collection of (competing) ideas.
• Use of technical terminology. Social, political concerns.
• Your initial understanding might be partial/ incomplete. It’s ok.
• Gradually you will penetrate jargon and see the sense beneath. Knowledge of
linguistics, philosophy etc can be helpful.
Challenges in the study of Theory
• Difficulty in the language of theory, when compared to fiction or reports.
• Content based on ideas – from various disciplines and areas
• Many major theories in French lose their clarity in clumsy translations. May
contain longer Latinate words - hence difficult for English speaking readers.
• Reading the essays may put you off and you may lose patience. Train yourself to be
patient with the texts – and yourself.
• Avoid the pessimistic thought that theory is meaningless or full of pretentious
jargon.
• NB: Resist the view that you are intellectually incapable.
• We are looking for knowledge that is a tool to read texts, rather than something
which will use us!😀
Early 20th century theories/ approaches
Peter Barry analyses the linking of language & literature in the theories of early
20th century, especially of the three engineers of change, who were teaching at
Cambridge in the 1920s:
I A Richards, William Empson, F R Leavis
I A Richards – proposed the technique of Practical Criticism (1929)
Close study of literature - isolated the text from context and
history
William Empson - student of I A Richards – “Seven Types of
Ambiguity” (1930) - close verbal analysis - identified seven types
of difficulty/ ambiguity in poetry
Early 20th century theories - 2
• F R Leavis criticised “Seven Types of Ambiguity” as poetry is analysed purely
intelligence-based like mathematics; criticized this ultra-close form of reading
• T S Eliot termed close reading “lemon squeezer“ school of criticism.
• F R Leavis – the most influential figure in early 20th century British criticism
-Extended the close reading method beyond poetry to novels;
canon of great works (= list of great novels to be taught)
-Moral approach to literature - that the purpose of literature is to
teach about life & to transmit human values
• These three critics isolated literature from language. Also from context. 1930-60
saw the acceptance of this demarcation. Hugely popular in English classrooms.
These ideas and approaches together were later termed ‘liberal humanist’ by critics
and detractors.

Reductively, we can say:

liberal = not radical; conventional/ traditional
humanism = centrality to the (human) person, individual etc

It pushed history, social forces, material conditions of life etc to the margins and
gave centrality to individual(s)/people and their ageny/ thoughts/ feelings.
 Liberal Humanism Vs Post-1960s Theories

Liberal Humanism - Texts studied in isolation, detached from contexts; close verbal
analysis of the text without ideological/ political assumptions
Pervasive distrust of ideas - notion that all ideas are preconceived - rejected
introspective speculations, insisted on the need for direct experience and eviden
Argument that the trained mind can see the ‘ unseen’
Theories post-1960s:
Re-established the connection of literary studies with language, history, philosop
etc from which it had separated itself.
Overview of the History of Literary Criticism
-1
• Aristotle’s Poetics examines the nature of literature through the
analysis of tragedy and how it affects the spectator - Precursor to
later reader-centered approaches
• Sidney’s Apology for Poetry (1580) emphasises pleasure as a central
principle/purpose in the reading of texts
• Samuel Johnson’s critical work offered detailed commentary on the
work of individual authors.
• Wordsworth proposes the idea of the unconscious through his critical
work Preface to the Lyrical Ballads. He blends high literature &
popular fiction.
Overview of the History of Literary
Criticism• Coleridge
- 2 in his Biographia Literaria maintains radical views about th
nature of poetry.
• Shelley’ a A Defense of Poetry (1821) strips the veil of familiarity from
world, comparable to the modern defamiliarisation theory (of the Ru
Formalists) and contains the Freudian notion of the mind as made up
conscious & unconscious elements.
• Shelley’s theory anticipates T S Eliot’s notion of impersonality in the 1
essay “Tradition & Individual Talent”, where there is a separation betw
the man and the mind.
• Keats reflects on poetry through his letters & formulates a notion of t
workings of the unconscious.
Classification of critical theories

• In the critical writings of the Romantics, there is anticipation of the

concerns of modern critical theories.
• Division of critical theories into two tracks:
Track 1 -Samuel Johnson, Mathew Arnold, T S Eliot & F R Leavis
included in the theory of Practical Criticism, where a close read

of texts was practised

Track 2 - Sidney, Wordsworth, Coleridge – “ideas-led” rather th
‘text-led”
History of Literary Criticism – in brief
• Barry classifies the history of Literary Criticism from Aristotle to F R Leavis as two distinct tracks.
• First track - Liberal Humanists (or Traditional Critics) –
-F R Leavis - British Liberal Humanist - assumed that the study of literature is a
precondition to the health of the society
-Proposed close reading of texts, removing the contexts.
-William Empson analysed language as a slippery medium, anticipating Post-
Structuralist views about the unreliability of language.
-Practical Criticism - I A Richards - pioneer of decontextualised approach to
literature
• Second track – Ideas-led , not text-led - similar to modern psychoanalytic theories of conscious &
unconscious
-e.g., Romantic critics
Post-Leavis/ Contemporary Literary Theory

Basic premises of Contemporary Literary Theory

1. Politics is pervasive.
2. Language is constitutive
3. Meaning is contingent. (based on circumstances)
4. Truth is provisional. (not permanent or fixed)
5. Human Nature is a myth. (anti-essentialist, anti-universalist view)
Assignment
• Attempt a Liberal Humanist (= Traditional) reading of Edgar Allen Poe’s
“ The Oval Portrait”.
(The story is available in the prescribed text, i.e., Peter Barry’s

Beginning Theory.)