The Birth of Literary Criticism - Literature Paper Sample

First instances of criticism go back to the dramatic festivals in Athens. This was around 500 BC. They were organized as contests, requiring an official judgment to decide the best drama.

The basic concept that emerged during this period has helped shape the field.

They are inclusive of :

mimesis or imitation

the concept of beauty and its connection to truth or goodness,

the unity of the literary work

The political and moral functions of the literary work

The connection between literary work and philosophy and rhetoric

The definition of figures of speech such as metaphor and symbol

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF LITERARY CRITICISM:

First picture of literary critism : 405 BCE in Athens: Aristophanes The Frogs

The center of Plato's shorter ethical works is the Apology of Socrates, which consists of a speech purportedly given by Socrates at his trial, and is probably the closest of Plato's works to the historical Socrates.

The second is the Crito, which shows Socrates in prison on the day before his execution, defending his decision to accept the penalty rather than corrupt the law by bribing his way out of prison and away from Athens. The Crito argument depends on a principle that is the bedrock of Socratic ethics: that it is never right to do wrong, even in return for the wrong (49ab). The bedrock principle rules out the view that one should do right by one's friends and wrong by one's enemies, a view that had roots in the Greek tradition.

Platos Cave

In the allegory, Plato Likens people unexperienced in the Theory of Forms to prisoners chained in a cave, unable to turn their heads. All they can see is the wall of the cave. Behind them burns a fire. Between the fire and the prisoners there is a parapet, along which puppeteers can walk.

Absolutes: The realms of ideas rather than in the natural/physical world

The sensible knowledge: a mere shadow/representation of the intelligible knowledge

Platos theory of Mimesis

Art is mimetic by nature; art is an imitation of life, while an idea is the ultimate reality.

Art imitates ideas as well as reality

Plato gives first importance to philosophy as philosophy deals with the ideas whereas poetry deals with illusion things which are twice removed from reality.

Plato contends that philosophy is superior to poetry

Platos Abstract Reasoning

Literature

Politics

Morality and Ethics

Aristotle (388-322 BC)

Central figure in Western thought: metaphysics, logic, ethics, politics, literary criticism, and various branches of natural science.

Literary criticism shifts from concern with morality to concern with the elements of which the work is composed.

Poetics lectures: cornerstone of Western literary criticism.

Poetikes: things that are made or crafted

At the heart of his poetics are two concepts: immitation and action

Aristotles Poetics:

The artist does not simply reflect the real in the manner of a mirror.

It is the representation of selected events and characters necessary in a coherent action for the realization of the artists purpose.

The function of art is to provide aesthetic delight, communicate experience, express emotions and represent life.

Art should never be confused with the function of ethics which is simply to teach morality.

However, poetry is bad because it does not teach philosophy or ethics.

The poet and the historian differ not by their medium, but because the historian relates what has happened, the poet, what may/ought to have happened - the ideal.

Poetry is more philosophical

Aristole does not agree with Plato about how poetry make people weaker and emotional.

Tragedy:

Composed of plot, character, action, diction, thought, spectacle, and song.

Unity of plot : must be arranged and if one is removed it changes meaning

Simple plots show continuous action

Complex plost illustrated by Oedipus Rex- action is marked by a movement through reversal, recognition, and suffering

Horace (65-8 BCE)

Illustrates poetry as a repository of social and religious wisdom.

Functions of literature: Sweet, charming, useful, and offer advice

Once poem is published it becomes public property.

it will be permissible to destroy what you have not published: the voice once sent forth cannot return (AP, 386390).

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321):

His letter to Can Grande della Scala was a pivotal work of literary theory.

Interpretation of texts as allegory or symbolic representations

John Dryden (1631-1700):

Natural and simple prose style that still guides modern literary writing and criticism

Contributes to a still infant discipline of English literary criticism.

Call for establishment of objective principles of criticism.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) Romanticism.

Change in subject and change in focus as well.

Redefinition of poetry: the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings

Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)Realism /Postivism

Poetry can offer truths and values of society literature also reflect values of society.

The best poetry is of a higher truth and seriousness than history.

Social role of criticism: to create a current of true and fresh ideas

Biographical Criticism

It reads the text looking for the authors influence and examines his lifestyle.

Historical/Cultural Criticism: Analyzes text in relation its cultural or historical backdrop.

Psychological Criticism: Applies theories of psychology to better understand the characters.

It is largely based on Freuds theory.

Eg.: Hamlets indecisive behavior in killing his uncle Claudius is linked to his ambivalent feelings toward his mother.

Mythological Criticism: Its about universal elements of human lifestyle which are common in all cultures. The concept of archetypes is core here.

Common Archetypes

The Hero = Beowulf, Spiderman, Luke Skywalker, Braveheart

The Outcast = Macbeths clown, Grendel, Cain

The Quest = LOTR, Star Wars, Beowulf

Sacrificial King = Jesus, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, LOTR

Evil Personified = Wicked Witch of the West, the Devil, the Emperor in SW, the Borg

Modernism:

Movements in Europe and America between 1910-1930 with major exponents being Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, William Faulkner, Kafka.

Modernism Poetics:

Affirmation of a continuity between the self and the world

Time is not conceived in a static model which separates past, present, and future

Formalist Criticism:

focuses on symbol, metaphor, imagery

Literature is regarded as a unique mode of expression.

Gender/ Feminist Criticism:

Through the lens of socially constructed roles it and it is unique in various societies.

Largest being feminism that seeks to womens subordination to men thus its about equality

Deconstructionist Criticism

There is no single meaning of any word; there can be no single meaning of a text.

Question the connections between thought and reality, self and world, subject and object.

Truth is a relation of linguistic terms, and reality is a construct, ultimately religious, social, political, and economic, but always of language, of various linguistic registers

Postcolonial Criticism

Objectives include:

To analyze process of decolonization

Reexamine history of colonialism from perspective of colonized.

Determine the impact of colonialism

To participate in political liberation