Contains a summary of chapters 2 (Structuralism), 3 (Post-structuralism and Deconstruction), 5 (Psychoanalytic Criticism), 6 (Feminist Criticism), 7 (Lesbian/gay criticism), 8 (Marxist criticism), 9 (New Historicism and Cultural Materialism), 10 (Postcolonial Criticism) and 12 (Narratology).
Contents
Ch. 2 Structuralism................................................................................................................................1
Ch. 3 Post-structuralism and Deconstructon........................................................................................1
Ch. 5 Psychoanalytc Critcism................................................................................................................2
Ch. 6 Feminist Critcism.........................................................................................................................3
Ch. 7 Lesbian/gay critcism....................................................................................................................3
Ch. 8 Marxist critcism...........................................................................................................................4
Ch. 9 New Historicism and Cultural Materialism...................................................................................5
Ch. 10 Postcolonial Critcism..................................................................................................................5
Ch. 12 Narratology.................................................................................................................................6
Ch. 2 Structuralism
Intellectual movement started in France in the 1950s. Follows the belief that things cannot be
understood in isolatonn they have to be seen in the context of the larger structures they are a part
of. You cannot understand a text without knowing about the genren social constructs it talks about
etc. Structuralist approach brings you further away from the text and into large and abstract
questons of genren history and philosophy. Structuralists mainly analyse prose narratves relatng he
text to some larger containing structure such as the conventons of a literary genren a network of
intertextual connectonsn a projected model of an underlying universal narratve structure etc. They
interpret literature in terms of a range of underlying parallels with the structures of language as
descried by modern linguists. They apply the concept of systematc paterning and structuring to the
whole field of Western Culturen treatng them as ‘systems of signs’. You have 5 codes: Proairetc
(indicatons of actonsn ship sailed at midnight,n hermeneutc (questons or enigmas which provide
narratve suspensen he knocked on a certain door in llocatonn. Who lives there?,n cultural
(references out beyond the text to what is regarded as common knowledgen person arrived at work
in odd socks. Provides mental image of what kind of character this is,n semic (connotatven linked to
theme,n symbolic (also linked to theme but on a larger scalen contrasts the most basic binariesn male
female black white,.
Ch. 3 Post-structuralism and Deconstruction
Post-structuralists accuse structuralists of not following through the implicatons of the views about
language on which their intellectual system is based. They maintain that because language doesn’t
reflect or record the world but rather shapes and forms itn the world is radically uncertain since you
do not have a fixed landmark beyond linguistc processing. We do not have a standard by which to
measure anything. This is called a decentred universe. By definitonn we cannot know where we are
since all concepts which previously defined the centre and the margins have been deconstructed.
Post-structuralist derives from philosophy there are no facts only interpretatons. It inherits a habit
of sceptcism and intensifies it. Their writng is ofen more emotven with an urgent and euphoric
tone and a flamboyant and self-consciously showy. Titles and central arguments ofen have puns or
word-play. They believe reality itself is textualn language is described as liquid: signs float free of
what they designaten meanings are fluid and subject to constant spillage. Post-structuralism distrusts
the very noton of reason and does not believe that the human is an independent entty. They
believe in the Death of the Author (orn Birth of the Reader,. The deconstructve reading of literary
, texts tends to make them emblems of the decentred universe. Texts previously regarded as unified
artstc artefacts are fragmented and centreless. Deconstructve reading ofen focusses on a detail of
the text that is seemingly insignificant like a metaphor and then sees the entre text through that
angle. They aim to show that the text is at war with itselfn it shows gapsn breaksn fissures and
discontnuous (aka all Gnce reviewers,. Focusses on contradictonsn breaks in tone viewpoint tense
etcn conflictsn linguistcs quirks. Works in three stagesn verbal (close readingn look at a single sentence
that contradicts itself,; textual (overall view of a text,; linguistc (adequacy of language as a medium
of communicaton is called into questonn explicit references to the untrustworthiness of language,.
Ch. 5 Psychoanalytic Criticism
Psychoanalytc critcism is a form of literary critcism which uses some of the techniques of
psychoanalysis in the interpretaton of literature. Psychoanalysis: form of therapy which aims to cure
mental illnesses by investgatng the interacton of conscious and unconscious elements in the mind.
Important terms: unconsciousn consciousn repressionn sublimaton (repressed material promoted or
disguised as something noble,. Psyche has 3 parts: ego (conscious, super-ego (conscience, id
(subconscious,. Infantle sexuality: starts not at puberty but infancy. Gedipus complexn Eros: life
instnctn Thanatos: death instnct. Transference: patent redirects emotons recalled in analysis
towards psychoanalyst. Projecton: aspects of ourselves are atributed to another. Is a defence
mechanism. Screen memory: trivial memory whose functon is to obliterate a more significant one.
Freudian slip/parapraxis. Dream work: real events transformed into dream images. Consists of
displacement: one event is represented by another (similar sounded word or otherwise linked, and
condensaton: multple people/events in one single image. Psychoanalytcs give critcal importance
in literary interpretaton to the distncton between the conscious and unconscious mindn they
associate the text’s overt content with the former and the covert content with the latern privileging
the later as being what the work is really aboutn they play close atenton to the unconscious
motves and feelingsn whether they are of the author or of the characters. They demonstrate the
presence in literary work of classic psychoanalytc systemsn conditons or phasesn such as the oral
anal and phallic stages of emotonal and sexual development in infants. They make large-scale
applicatons of psychanalytc concepts to literary history in general (bloom’s Gedipus thing, and
identfy a psychic context for a literary work at the expense of social or historical contest. Lancan
wanted to go ‘back to basics’ and create a new emphasis on the subconscious itself as the nucleus of
our being. He says the subconscious is structured like a languagen there is a perpetual barrier
between signifier (the word, and signified (the referent,. He argues that the condensaton and
displacement identfied by Freud correspond to metaphors and metonymy. Because 1. In metonymy
one thing represents another by means of part standing in for a whole displacementn a person
might be represented by one of their atributes. Metaphor pushes several things into one symbol
just like condensaton. Lancan emphasises the linguistc means of self-expression in Freud’s work.
Instead of ‘I think therefore I am’ it is ‘I am where I think not’.
Before a sense of self emergesn a young child exists in a realm which Lancan calls the Imaginaryn in
which there is no distncton between self and Gthern instead there is a kind of idealised
identficaton with the mother. Between 6 and 8 monthsn a ‘mirror-stage’ comes in which the child
sees its own reflecton in the mirror and starts to conceive of itself as a unified being. At this stage
the child enters into the language system. This marks the beginning of socialisatonn with its
restraints associated with the figure of the father. This is called the Symbolic. Kinda analogous for
poetry and prose. Lancanian critcsn like Freudiann pay close atenton to unconscious motvesn but
instead of excavatng for those of the author or characters they search out those of the text itselfn
uncovering contradictory undercurrents of meaning which lie subconscious between the conscious
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