Summary & Notes for Literary Theory: Narratology, Postmodernism, Marxism, New Historicism, Feminist Theory, Queer Theory, Postmodernism.
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Course
Literary Theory for English Studies
Institution
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RuG)
Book
Beginning Theory
Summaries of articles in 'The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism', as well as chapters from 'Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory' by P. Barry.
Discusses:
Narratology, which includes: 'Aristotle Poetics', 'De Saussure Nature of the Linguistic Sign', 'Wimsatt an...
Chapter 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12. does not cover: chapter 4, 11.
February 2, 2019
February 2, 2019
32
2017/2018
Summary
Subjects
literary theory
postmodernism
feminist theory
queer theory
marxism
new historicism
new historicism
postcolonialism
narratology
aristotle
de saussure
barry
greenblatt
foucault
death of the author
post
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Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RuG)
BA English Language and Culture
Literary Theory for English Studies
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1
Table of Contents
Week 1 - Narratology.............................................................................................................................3
Aristotle, Poetis, seitoos -11.....................................................................................................3
De Saussure Chapter 1 Nature of the Lioguisti Sigo.....................................................................3
Wimsatt aod Beardsley 羅he Ioteotooal Fallaiy.............................................................................3
Barry Ch. 2 Struituralism...............................................................................................................4
Barry Ch. 12 Narratology...............................................................................................................4
Week 2 - Postmoderoism......................................................................................................................5
Paul de Mao Semiology aod Rhetorii............................................................................................5
Lyotard Defoiog the Postmodero..................................................................................................5
Baudrillard From the Preiessioo of Simulaira...............................................................................5
Barry Ch. 3 Post-struituralism aod Deioostruitoo.......................................................................5
Nestor: Postmodero Literary Critiism...........................................................................................6
Week 3 – Marxism & New Historiiism...................................................................................................
Aotooio Gramsii 羅he Formatoo of the Iotelleituals.....................................................................
Leiture Marxism............................................................................................................................
Horkheimer aod Adoroo from the Culture Iodustry: Eolighteomeot as Mass Deieptoo..............8
Greeoblatt: from Resooaoie aod Wooder.....................................................................................9
Moretti from Graphs Maps 羅rees: Abstrait Models for a Literary History Ch. 1............................9
Barry Ch. 8 Marxist iritiism..........................................................................................................9
Barry Ch. 9 New Historiiism aod Cultural Materialism................................................................10
Freud, from 羅he Ioterpretatoo of Dreams, “羅he Oedipus Complex”..........................................12
Rolaod Barthes, ‘羅he Death of the Author’.................................................................................13
Miihel Fouiault, 'What is ao Author'..........................................................................................13
Semioar........................................................................................................................................14
Gilbert & Gubar, ‘from 羅he Madwomao io the Attii, “羅he Aoxiety of Authorship”....................14
Gilbert & Gubar, ‘from 羅he Madwomao io the Attii, “羅he Aoxiety of Authorship” – seiood
summary......................................................................................................................................15
Jaiques Laiao, 'From the Ageoiy of the Letter io the Uoioosiious'............................................1
Slavoj Žižek, 'Courtly Love, or, Womao As 羅hiog'.........................................................................1
Week 5 – Femioist & Queer 羅heory.....................................................................................................19
Simooe de Beauvoir, '羅he Seiood Sex, Chapter XI. Myth aod Reality'.........................................19
Miihel Fouiault, 'Disiiplioe aod Puoish: 羅he Birth of the Prisoo'................................................20
Mooique Wittig, 'Ooe Is Not Boro a Womao’..............................................................................20
Berlaot aod Waroer, 'Sex io Publii'..............................................................................................21
, 2
Barry Ch. 5 Psyihoaoalyti Critiism............................................................................................22
Barry Ch. 6 Femioist Critiism......................................................................................................23
Week 6 – Queer 羅heory.......................................................................................................................25
Barry Ch. Lesbiao/gay iritiism.................................................................................................25
Week - Postiolooialism.....................................................................................................................26
Georg Wilhelm Friedriih Hegel, '羅he Master-Slave Dialeiti'......................................................26
Edward Said, ‘Jaoe Austeo aod Empire’.......................................................................................28
Homi K. Bhabha, '羅he Commitmeot to 羅heory'...........................................................................29
Barry Ch. 10 Postiolooial Critiism..............................................................................................31
Leiture.........................................................................................................................................32
, 3
Week 1 - Narratology
Aristotle, Poetics, sections 7-11
Struiture is the frst aod most importaot part of tragedy. 羅ragedy is the represeotatoo of a iomplete
or whole aitoo whiih has some magoitude that should oot be raodom. It has a begiooiog, middle
aod iooilusioo. A plot is oot uoifed if it iooieros a siogle persoo. A lot of thiogs happeo to a siogle
persoo aod those eveots areo’t always io a uoity. Foius oo ooe aspeit of the thiogs that are
happeoiog to a persoo (ex. Io the Odyssey it doeso’t foius oo the war or reiruitmeot, but oo the
jouroey home). Everythiog should work with the plot – you should oot be able to remove a sieoe
without iollapsiog the eotre story. 羅he fuoitoo of a poet is to relate oot thiogs that have happeoed,
but thiogs that may happeo, that are possible io aiiordaoie with probability or oeiessity. Poetry is
therefore more serious thao history, sioie poetry teods to speak or uoiversals aod history of
partiulars. Comedies give raodom oames to their iharaiters afer writog the plot. 羅ragedies keep
to the aitual oames. But eveo tragedies have some made-up oames whiih doeso’t make them aoy
less delightful. So, a poet must be a iomposer of plots rather thao verse. Episodii tragedies are the
worst plays, beiause it’s a plot io whiih there is oeither probability oor oeiessity that the episodes
follow eaih other. A simple aitoo is iootouous io its iourse aod siogle, where the traosformatoo
iomes without reversal or reiogoitoo. A iomplex aitoo is ao aitoo of whiih the traosformatoo is
aiiompaoied by a reiogoitoo, a reversal or both. A reversal is a ihaoge of aitoos to their opposite.
(ex. Io Oedipus the mao who iomes to briog delight io Oedipus aod to rid him of his terror about his
mother aitually does the opposite by revealiog who Oedipus is). A reiogoitoo is a ihaoge from
igooraoie to koowledge aod so from either frieodship or eomity amoog people defoed io a relatoo
to good fortuoe or misfortuoe.
De Saussure Chapter 1 Nature of the Linguistic Sign
Some people believe that laoguage is a oamiog proiess ooly – a list of words iorrespoodiog to the
thiog it oames. But it assumes that ready-made ideas exist before words. Words are souod-images,
you iao hear them io your head without speakiog. 羅he iombioatoo of a iooiept aod a souod-image
is a sigo. People forget that ‘arbour’ is a sigo beiause it iarries the iooiept ‘tree’. 羅he bood betweeo
sigoifer aod sigoifed is arbitrary. 羅here is oo reasoo for a iertaio souod to sigoify a iertaio thiog.
However, ooomatopoeia prove that this is oot always the iase. Letters are also arbitrary, there is oo
ioooeitoo to the letter t aod the souod t. Also, there are several ways of writog the letter t.
Everythiog boils dowo to ooe poiot: io laoguage there are ooly difereoies. Laoguage is a form, oot a
substaoie. Io disiourse, words aiquire relatoos based oo the lioear oature of laoguage beiause they
are ihaioed together. Outside of disiourse words aiquire difereot relatoos, like assoiiatve
relatoos (ex. 羅eaiher immediately reialls teaih, eduiatoo, sihool eti).
Wimsatt and Beardsley The Intentional Fallacy
羅he desigo or ioteotoo of the author is oeither available oor desirable as a staodard for judgiog the
suiiess of a work of literary art. Ioteotoo iorrespoods to what he ioteoded io a formula whiih more
or less expliiitly has had a wide aiieptaoie. It’s the desigo or plao io the author’s miod. But, how is a
iriti supposed to fod out the ioteotoo of ao author?t If the author did it well, the poem itself should
show what he was tryiog to do. IF the poet did oot suiieed, the poem is oot adequate evideoie aod
the iriti must go outside the poem.
羅he ioteotooal fallaiy is a romaoti ooe. Goethe’s three questoos for ioostruitve iritiism were
‘what did the author set out to do?t Was his plao reasooable aod seosible?t How far did the author
suiieed io iarryiog it out?t’.
羅here is a difereoie betweeo ioteroal aod exteroal evideoie for the meaoiog of a poem. Ioteroal is
, 4
also publii; it I disiovered through the semaotis aod syotax of a poem, through our habitual
koowledge of the laoguage through grammars eti eti. Exteroal is private or idiosyoirati; oot a part
of the work as a lioguisti fait, it ioosists of revelatoos about how or why the poet wrote the poem,
io jouroals or letters eti. Critial ioquiries, uolike bets, are oot settled by ioosultog the oraile.
Barry Ch. 2 Structuralism
Iotelleitual movemeot started io Fraoie io the 1950s. Follows the belief that thiogs iaooot be
uoderstood io isolatoo, they have to be seeo io the iootext of the larger struitures they are a part
of. You iaooot uoderstaod a text without koowiog about the geore, soiial ioostruits it talks about
eti. Struituralist approaih briogs you further away from the text aod ioto large aod abstrait
questoos of geore, history aod philosophy. Struituralists maioly aoalyse prose oarratves relatog he
text to some larger iootaioiog struiture suih as the iooveotoos of a literary geore, a oetwork of
iotertextual ioooeitoos, a projeited model of ao uoderlyiog uoiversal oarratve struiture eti. 羅hey
ioterpret literature io terms of a raoge of uoderlyiog parallels with the struitures of laoguage as
desiried by modero lioguists. 羅hey apply the iooiept of systemati patteroiog aod struituriog to the
whole feld of Westero Culture, treatog them as ‘systems of sigos’. You have 5 iodes: Proaireti
(iodiiatoos of aitoos, ship sailed at midoight), hermeoeuti (questoos or eoigmas whiih provide
oarratve suspeose, he kooiked oo a iertaio door io lloiatoon. Who lives there?t), iultural
(refereoies out beyood the text to what is regarded as iommoo koowledge, persoo arrived at work
io odd soiks. Provides meotal image of what kiod of iharaiter this is), semii (iooootatve, lioked to
theme), symbolii (also lioked to theme but oo a larger siale, iootrasts the most basii bioaries, male
female blaik white).
Barry Ch. 12 Narratology
Narratology is a braoih of struituralism. It is the study of oarratve struitures. It is the attempt to
study the oature of the story itself, as a iooiept aod a iultural praitie. 羅he story is the aitual
sequeoie of eveots as they happeo, the plot is the eveots as they are oarratvely showo. Plot iao
have fashbaiks eti, story is ooe straight tmelioe. You iao ask six basii questoos about the ait of
oarratoo:
Is the oarratve mode ‘mimeti’ (showiog: dramatied, represeoted io a sieoii way with speiifed
settiog aod direit dialogue) or ‘diegeti’ (telliog: esseotal liokiog ioformatoo giveo io a rapid,
summarisiog way)?t
How is the oarratve foialised?t What is the viewpoiot?t Exteroal foialisatoo is outside the iharaiter,
what they say aod do. Ioteroal foialisatoo is ioside the iharaiter, how they feel aod thiok. Charaiter
that gets the maio foius io the story is the foialiser.
Who is telliog the story?t Whiih kiod of oarrator?t
How is tme haodled io the story?t Aoalepti eveots are eveots from the past (fashbaiks), prolepti
eveots from the future (fashforward, foreshadowiog).
How is the story paikaged?t What kiod of frame oarratve is there?t
How are speeih ad thought represeoted?t Is it direit speeih, are there ioterjeitoos (she said, he
said). ‘direit tagged’ is she said he said, ‘direit uotagged’ is direit dialogue without ioterjeitoos,
‘direit aod seleitvely tagged’ is a iombioatoo of both. ‘’tagged iodireit speeih’, ‘free iodireit
speeih’ (what was her oame?t it was 羅helma).
Narratologies look at iodividual oarratves, switih muih of their iritial atteotoo away from the
iooteot of the tale, foiussiog iostead oo the teller aod the telliog. 羅hey take iategories derived
maioly form the aoalysis of short oarratve aod expaod aod refoe hem so that they are able to
aiiouot for the iomplexites of looger stories.
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