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87 Cards in this Set
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Literary Theory
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"Literary theory" is the body of ideas and methods we use in the practical reading of literature. By literary theory we refer not to the meaning of a work of literature but to the theories that reveal what literature can mean.
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Literary Criticism
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Literary criticism analyzes, interprets, and evaluates works of literature. Though you most often find criticism in the form of an essay, in-depth book reviews may also be considered criticism. Criticism may analyze an individual work of literature. It may also examine an author’s body of work.
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New Criticism
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to evaluate various aspect of a text that produce ambiguity. Critics analyzed metaphor, simile, and other rhetorical tropes that resulted in stress and counter stress, reconciling them to find the harmony in a work. Through analysis, the critic could then tell readers how to interpret a text and what value was to be gained from reading a text. In other words, the critic became the interpreter through which literature could be understood. Additionally, in New Criticism, the text had to be considered as an object of literature, complete within itself.
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Close Reading
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a close and detailed analysis of the text itself to arrive at an interpretation without referring to historical, authorial, or cultural concerns
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Intentional Fallacy
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equating the meaning of a poem with the author's intentions.
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Affective Fallacy
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confusing the meaning of a text with how it makes the reader feel. A reader's emotional response to a text generally does not produce a reliable interpretation.
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Heresy of Paraphrase
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Means that the meaning of a poem is complex and precise, and that any attempt to paraphrase it inevitably distorts or reduces it. Thus, any attempt to say what a poem means is heretical, because it is an insult to the integrity of the complex structure of meaning within the work.
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Organic Unity
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A term describing the concept that a texts structure is similar to a living plant, with all its parts supporting one another- and living in a complex interrelationship. In a text- each part serves to enhance the whole- the whole is therefore greater than the sum of its parts.
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Paradox
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a statement whose two parts seem contradictory yet make sense with more thought. Christ used paradox in his teaching: "They have ears but hear not." Or in ordinary conversation, we might use a paradox, "Deep down he's really very shallow." Paradox attracts the reader's or the listener's attention and gives emphasis.
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Irony
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he discrepancy between what is said and what is meant, what is said and what is done, what is expected or intended and what happens, what is meant or said and what others understand. Sarcasm is one kind of irony; it is praise which is really an insult; sarcasm generally involves malice, the desire to put someone down, e.g., "This is my brilliant son, who failed out of college."
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Ambiguity
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1) a statement which has two or more possible meanings; (2) a statement whose meaning is unclear. Depending on the circumstances, ambiguity can be negative, leading to confusion or even disaster. On the other hand, writers often use it to achieve special effects, for instance, to reflect the complexity of an issue or to indicate the difficulty, perhaps the impossibility, of determining truth."Heaven's Just a Sin Away" is deliberately ambiguous; at a religious level
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Canon
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The collected works of an author or of a tradition.
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Reader Orientated Criticism
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Critical approaches to literature that stress the validity of reader response to a text, theorizing that each interpretation is valid in the context from which a reader approaches a text.-focuses on the importance of the reader and their individual, subjective response to the text.
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Horizons of expectations
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A term used to refer to all of a historical period's critical vocabulary and assessments of a particular text.
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Implied reader
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denotes the hypothetical figure of the reader to whom a given work is designed to address itself. Any text may be said to presuppose an ‘ideal’ reader who has the particular attitudes (moral, cultural, etc.) appropriate to that text in order for it to achieve its full effect.
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Actual Reader
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The actual reader is the person who physically picks up a book and reads it. The actual reader comes to the text shaped by cultural and personal norms/ prejudices.
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Ideal Reader
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The ideal reader- is the one who explicitly and implicitly understands all the nuances, terminology, and structure of a text.
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Concretized
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A phenomenological term used to describe the process whereby the reader fills in the gaps in the structure of a work by rendering concrete and determinate its "places of indeterminacy." the reader has to concretize the work, making the implicit explicit, the potential actual.
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Identity Theme
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Term coined by Freud- who claims that we claim our identity at birth from our mothers. Through our life's experiences- we personalize this identity and individualize ourself.
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Interpretive community
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Designates a group of readers who share the same interpretive strategies.
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Forestructure
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The past experiences/memories that readers bring to the reading process.
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Structuralism
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An attempt to understand the concept of "structure" within this theoretical point of view. (one Idea) Furthermore these models are not obvious but demand an understanding of hidden, or deep aspects, of the matter at hand. Following this approach structuralism is an attempt to build models which can help understand or, as structuralists, would put it explicate the materials at hand. Structuralist models exist only in human minds, and not in nature as e.g. a Marxist would claim.
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Postmodernism
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Reality is a human construct shaped by each individuals dominant social group.
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Langue
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The rules that comprise a language or its structure- that is mastered and shared by all its speakers.
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Parole
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Refers to an individuals actual speech utterances.
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Deconstruction Theory
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A method of reading and theory of language that seeks to subvert, dismantle, and destroy any notion that a text or signifying system has any boundaries, margins, coherence, unity, determinate meaning, truth, or identity.Deconstruction's central point is that total context is unmasterable.the realm of end-less differing and deferral, of limitless free play.
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Transcendental Signified
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describes the bias of Western philosophy toward a metaphysics of presence, an order of being, meaning, truth, reference, reason, or logic conceived as independent of language.
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Binary Oppositions
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binary opposition, the principle of contrast between two mutually exclusive terms: on/off, up/down, left/right etc; an important concept of structuralism, which sees such distinctions as fundamental to all language and thought.
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Intertextuality
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is the shaping of texts' meanings by other texts. It can refer to an author’s borrowing and transformation of a prior text or to a reader’s referencing of one text in reading another.
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Psychoanalytic Criticism
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refers to literary criticism which, in method, concept, theory, or form, is influenced by the tradition of psychoanalysis begun by Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalytic reading has been practiced since the early development of psychoanalysis itself, and has developed into a rich and heterogeneous interpretive tradition. It is a literary approach where critics see the text as if it were a kind of dream. This means that the text represses its real (or latent) content behind obvious (manifest) content.
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Sigmund Freud
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Freud is also renowned for his redefinition of sexual desire as the primary motivational energy of human life, as well as his therapeutic techniques, including the use of free association, his theory of transference in the therapeutic relationship, and the interpretation of dreams as sources of insight into unconscious desires.
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Manifest Content
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the content of a dream or fantasy as it is experienced and remembered, and in which the latent content is disguised and distorted by various mechanisms
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Latent Content
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the hidden and unconscious true meaning of a symbolic representation such as a dream or fantasy.
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Tripartite Model
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Freud's dividing of the psyche into 3 parts: id, ego, super ego
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Id
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completely unconscious part of the psyche that serves as a storehouse of our desires, wishes, and fears. The id houses the libido, the source of psychosexual energy. (Freud)
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Ego
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mostly to partially (<--a point of debate) conscious part of the psyche that processes experiences and operates as a referee or mediator between the id and superego. (Freud)
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Superego
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often thought of as one's "conscience"; the superego operates "like an internal censor [encouraging] moral judgments in light of social pressures" (Freud)
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Oedipal Complex
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Psychiatry Normal attachment of a child to the parent of the opposite sex, accompanied by envious and aggressive feelings toward a same-sex parent; the OC is a constellation of consequences–per Freud–resulting from the sublimation of a boy's psychosexual desire for his mother, likened to Oedipus of Greek mythology, who killed his father and married his mother.
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Electra Complex
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In psychoanalytic theory, a daughter's unconscious libidinal desire for her father.
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Pleasure Principle
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The psychoanalytic concept that people instinctually seek to avoid pain and discomfort and strive for gratification and pleasure.
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Reality Principle
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an awareness of the demands of the environment and the need for an adjustment of behavior to meet those demands, expressed primarily by the renunciation of immediate gratification of instinctual pleasures to obtain long-term and future goals. In psychoanalysis this function is held to be performed by the ego.
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Collective Conscious
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In Jungian psychology, a part of the unconscious mind that is shared by a society, a people, or all humankind. The product of ancestral experience, it contains such concepts as science, religion, and morality.
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Archetypes
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Jungian psychology, an inherited pattern of thought or symbolic image that is derived from the past collective experience of humanity and is present in the unconscious of the individual.
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Anima
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feminine aspect - the inner feminine part of the male personality or a man's image of a woman.
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Animus
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male aspect - an inner masculine part of the female personality or a woman's image of a man.
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Imaginary Order
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Jacques Lacan: a preverbal/verbal stage in which a child (around 6-18 months of age) begins to develop a sense of separateness from her mother as well as other people and objects; however, the child's sense of sense is still incomplete.
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Real Order
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Lacan's 3rd stage of psychic development - consisting of the physical world: symbolizing everything a person is not.
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Symbolic order
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the stage marking a child's entrance into language (the ability to understand and generate symbols); in contrast to the imaginary stage, largely focused on the mother, the symbolic stage shifts attention to the father who, in Jacques Lacan theory, represents cultural norms, laws, language, and power (the symbol of power is the phallus--an arguably "gender-neutral" term).
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Jouissance
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ouissance means enjoyment, but it has a sexual connotation (i.e. orgasm) lacking in the English word "enjoyment", and is therefore left untranslated in English editions of the works of Jacques Lacan
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Phallic Symbol
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Any object that symbolically resembles a penis may also be referred to as a phallus; however, such objects are more often referred to as being phallic (as in "phallic symbol"). Such symbols often represent the fertility and cultural implications that are associated with the male sexual organ, as well as the male orgasm.
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Yonic Symbol
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word for "Divine Passage" ,"Place of birth","Womb"(more as nature as a womb and cradle of all creations) or "sacred Temple" (cf. lila). "place of birth, source, origin, spring, fountain, place of rest, repository, receptacle, seat, abode, home, lair, nest, stable" . In classical texts such as Kama Sutra, yoni refers to vagina.
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Feminist Criticism
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She cites the goals of feminist criticism as: (1) To develop and uncover a female tradition of writing, (2) to interpret symbolism of women's writing so that it will not be lost or ignored by the male point of view, (3) to rediscover old texts, (4) to analyze women writers and their writings from a female perspective, (5) to resist sexism in literature, and (6) to increase awareness of the sexual politics of language and style.
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Patriarchy
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1. A social system in which the father is the head of the family and men have authority over women and children.
2. A family, community, or society based on this system or governed by men. |
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Phallocentrism
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Centered on men or on a male viewpoint, especially one held to entail the domination of women by men.
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Misogyny
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an extreme dislike of females, frequently based upon unhappy experience or upbringing. Hatred of women: "Every organized patriarchal religion works overtime to contribute its own brand of misogyny"
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Gynocriticism
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It refers to a criticism that constructs "a female framework for the analysis of women's literature, to develop new models based on the study of female experience, rather than to adapt male models and theories"
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Marxism
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Any political practice or theory that is based on an interpretation of the works of Marx and Engels may be called Marxism; * an attention to the material conditions of people's lives, and social relations among people
* a belief that people's consciousness of the conditions of their lives reflects these material conditions and relations * an understanding of class in terms of differing economic relations of production, and as a particular position within such relations * an understanding of material conditions and social relations as historically malleable * a view of history according to which class struggle, the evolving conflict between classes with opposing interests, structures each historical period and drives historical change * a sympathy for the working class or proletariat * and a belief that the ultimate interests of workers best match those of humanity in general. |
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Dialectical Materialism
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"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"
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Capitalist
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Karl Marx considered capitalism to be a historically specific mode of production (the way in which the productive property is owned and controlled, combined with the corresponding social relations between individuals based on their connection with the process of production) in which capital has become the dominant mode of production.
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Ideology
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An ideology is an organized collection of ideas.An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things,as in common sense,and several philosophical tendencies,or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to all members of this society
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Base
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Base meaning bottom, the lowest part of an object
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Superstructure
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"The social, political, and ideological systems and institutions--for example, the values, art, and legal processes of a society--that are generated by the base"
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Proletariat
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is a term used to identify a lower social class; a member of such a class is proletarian. Originally it was identified as those people who had no wealth other than their sons; the term was initially used in a derogatory sense, until Karl Marx used it as a sociological term to refer to the working class.
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Bourgeoisie
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Marxism defines the bourgeoisie as the social class which obtains income from ownership or trade in capital assets, or from commercial activities such as the buying and selling of commodities, wares, and services.
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Alienation
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a technique used to abolish the theatres audience's normal expectations when viewing a drama- via son or speech to keep the audience constantly aware of the moral and social issues to which they're being exposed to.
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Fragmentation
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- the disintegration of social norms governing behavior and thought and social relationships
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Hegemony
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domination of one state, country, or class within a group of others
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Interpellation
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a parliamentary procedure of demanding that a government official explain some act or policy-the action of interjecting or interposing an action or remark that interrupts
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False Consciousness
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a failure to recognize the instruments of one's oppression or exploitation as one's own creation, as when members of an oppressed class unwittingly adopt views of the oppressor class.
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New Historicism
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New Historicism is an approach to literary criticism and literary theory based on the premise that a literary work should be considered a product of the time, place, and circumstances of its composition rather than as an isolated creation.
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Episteme
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the body of ideas that determine the knowledge that is intellectually certain at any particular time
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Thick Description
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a thick description of a human behavior is one that explains not just the behavior, but its context as well, such that the behavior becomes meaningful to an outsider.
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Postcolonialism
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Literally, postcolonialism refers to the period following the decline of colonialism, e.g., the end or lessening of domination by European empires. Although the term postcolonialism generally refers to the period after colonialism, the distinction is not always made. In its use as a critical approach, postcolonialism refers to "a collection of theoretical and critical strategies used to examine the culture (literature, politics, history, and so forth) of former colonies of the European empires, and their relation to the rest of the world"
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Hegemony
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is a concept that has been used to describe the existence of dominance of one social group over another, such that the ruling group
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Alterity
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"lack of identification with some part of one's personality or one's community, differentness, otherness"
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The Other
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Meaning different from and unimportant, that which was dominated.
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Orientalism
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1. A quality, mannerism, or custom specific to or characteristic of the Orient.
2. Scholarly knowledge of Asian cultures, languages, and peoples. |
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Double Consciousness
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The term is used to describe an individual whose identity is divided into several facets.
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Hybridization
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ybridisation is a term to describe the process of one language variety blending with another variety
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Decolonization
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the action of changing from colonial to independent status
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African-American Criticism
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A literary analysis the develops a black aesthetics to be applied when interpreting African American Literature.
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Double Voicedness
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Asserts that African American Literature draws upon two voices and cultures: the white and the black.
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Queer Theory
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queer theory builds both upon the feminist challenge to the idea that gender is part of the essential self and upon gay/lesbian studies' close examination of the socially constructed nature of sexual acts and identities. Whereas gay/lesbian studies focused its inquiries into "natural" and "unnatural" behavior with respect homosexual behavior, queer theory expands its focus to encompass any kind of sexual activity or identity that falls into normative and deviant categories.
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Essentialism
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1. a philosophical theory asserting that metaphysical essences are real and intuitively accessible.
2. a philosophical theory giving priority to the inward nature, true substance, or constitution of something over its existence. |
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Social Constructivism
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is a sociological theory of knowledge that considers how social phenomena develop in particular social contexts. Within constructionist thought, a social construction (social construct) is a concept or practice which may appear to be natural and obvious to those who accept it, but in reality is an invention or artifact of a particular culture or society.
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Gay and Lesbian studies
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Both groups analyze the social structures that defined gays and lesbians as deviant or abnormal. (asking why not normal?)
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Sign = Signified
Signifier |
Sign = word (eg: ball)
Sound of ball= signifier Concept of ball= signified |
