CHAPTER 1

Literature and Literary Theory

 Traditionally, literature is regarded as a homogenous body of works with similar
characteristics which are read in similar ways by an undifferentiated audience.
 Today, with the impact of literary theory to the study of literature, the latter is seen
as an are in state of flux
 Literature, as a body of writing together with its moral and aesthetic qualities, can be
seen as a site of struggle where meanings are contested rather than the regarded as
something possessing timeless, and universal values and truths.
 Literary theories cab offer various ways of reading, interpreting, and analyzing
literature.
 These theories do not offer any easy solutions as to what literature is, or what its
study should be, but this should not be taken as negative feature.
 These theories aim to explain or demystify some of the assumptions or beliefs
implicit in literature and literary criticism.
Literary Criticism and Literary Theory
 Literary criticism involves the reading, interpretation and documentary of a
specific texts or texts which have been designated as literature.
 If literary criticism involves the reading, analysis, explication and interpretation of
texts which are designed as literary, then literary theory should do two things:
a.)it ought to provide the readers with a range of criteria for identifying literature
in the first place, and an awareness of these criteria should inform critical
practice; and b.) it should make us aware of the methods and procedures which
we employ in the practice of literary criticism, so that we can not only interrogate
the text, but also the ways in which we read and interpret the text.
 Literary criticism also involves the understanding and appreciation of literary
texts.
 Two primary questions of literary criticism are: a.) why does a piece of literature
have the precise characteristics that it has? (How does it work?) And b.)What is
the value of literature?
 Any literary theory has to account for a.) The nature of representation in the text;
b.) The nature of reality and its relation to representation; c.)How the
representation of reality is accomplished or subverted and denied; and d.) What
conventions or codes particular writers, literary schools or periods might employ
to achieve representation.

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 Literary theory also addresses questions of what makes literary language literary,
as well as the structures of literary language and literary texts, and how these
work.
 Literary theory is also concerned with the study of the function of the literary text
in social and cultural terms, which leads to a construction of its value.

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 CHAPTER 2

SURVEY OF THE LITERARY THEORISTS/APPROACHES

Classical Literary Theory – this theory is premised in the idea that literature is an imitation
of life. It is interested in looking at literature based on:
 Mimesis – (Plato) is the Greek word for limitation. We try to see whether a piece
of literary work shows imitation of life or reality as we know it.
 Function (Horace) – function refers to whether a piece of literary works aims to
entertain (Dulce) or teach or to instruct.
 Style (Longinus) – refers to whether the literary work is written in a low, middle
or high level. Longinus even suggested a fourth style which he called the sublime.
 Catharsis (Aristotle) – refers to purgation, purification, classification, or structural
kind of emotional cleansing. Aristotle’s view of catharsis involves purging of
negative emotions, like pity and fear.
 Censorship (Plato) – is an issue for Plato for literary works that show bad
mimesis. Literary works that show bad mimesis should be censored according to
Plato.
HISTORICAL-BIOGRAPHICAL AND MORAL-PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACHES
The historical-Biographical Approach sees a literary work chiefly, if not exclusively, as a
reflection of its author’s life and times or the life and times of the characters in the work. A
historical novel is likely to be more meaningful when either its milieu or that of its author is
understood. James Fennimore Coopers Last of the Mohicans Sir Walter Scotts Ivanhoe, Charles
Dickens’s Tale of Two Cities, and john Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath are certainly better
understood by readers familiar with respectively, the French and the Indian War (and the
American frontier experience), Anglo-Norman Britain, the French Revolution, and the American
Depression.
The Moral Philosophical Approach emphasizes that the larger function of the literature is to
teach morality and to probe philosophical issues. Literature is interpreted within a context of
philosophical thought of a period or group. Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus can be read
profitably only if one understands existentialism. Hawthornes’s Scarlet Letter is seen as the
study of the effects of sin on human soul. Robert Frost’s “Stopping of Woods on a Snowy
Evening” suggests that duty takes precedence over beauty and pleasure.
This approach also uses Northrop Frye’s assertion that literature consist of variations on a
great mythic theme that contains the following:

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  The creation and life in paradise; garden
 Displacement or banishment from paradise; alienation
 A time of trial and tribulation, usually a wandering; journey
 A self – discovery as a result of struggle; epiphany
 A return to paradise; rebirth/resurrection
e.g.
Lam-Ang – archetype of immortality
Superman in the movie Superman Returns – death and rebirth archetype
Ganoalf in The Lord of The Rings – wise old man archetype
Odysseus – Hero of initiation
Aeneas – hero of the quest
Jesus Christ – sacrificial soupegoat

Structuralist Literary Theory

This theory draws from the linguistic theory of Ferdinand de Saussaure. Language is a
system or structure. Our perception of reality and hence the ways we respond to it are dictated
or constructed by the structure of the language we speak.
This theory assumes that the literature, as an artifact or culture, is modeled on the
structure of language. The emphasis is on “How” a text means, instead of the “what” of the
American New Criticism. The structuralist argue that the structure of language produces
reality, meaning and is no longer determined by the individual. Sructuralism aims to identify
the general principles of literary structure and not to provide interpretations of individual texts
(Vladimir Propp and Tzvetan Todorov).
the structuralist approach to literature assume three dimensions in the individual literary texts:
 The text as the particular system and structure in itself (naturalization of text)
 Text are unavoidably influenced by other texts, in terms of both their formal and
conceptual structures; part of the meaning of any texts depends on its intertextual
relation to other texts
 The text is related to the culture as a whole (binary oppositions)

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 DECONSTRUCTION CRITICISM

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Deconstruction is the best-known (and most significant) form of literary criticism
known as post-structuralism, and in fact many people use the terms interchangeably. To
understand the revolution that post-structuralism has created in literary criticism, it is
necessary to look at some of its predecessors, both structuralism-the movement that it
both incorporates and undermines-and those that structuralism itself challenged.

WRITING A DECONTRUCTIVE ANALYSIS

PREWRITING
A reading log can be particularly helpful with the deconstructive approach. As
you go through a text from the first time, you can make notes as a formalist would,
taking an interest in how meaning grows out of its various stylistic elements. You will
identify tensions (in the form of paradox and irony) and be aware of how they are
resolved. You will take note of how images, figurative language, and symbols come
together to make a unified whole. During the second reading, you can set aside your
willingness to accept that there is an identifiable, stable meaning produced by diction,
imagery, symbols, and the rest and begin to probe unresolved, unexplained, or
unmentioned matters. In your reading log you should record the undeveloped concerns
that would, if they were explored, interrupt the assumed unity and meaning of the text.

DRAFTING AND REVISING

The Introduction
Given that deconstructive reading seek to displace previous ones, and sometimes
to decenter standard, generally accepted interpretations, one way to open the
discussion is to reiterate the conventional reading of a text. In other words, the
introduction may simply be a restatement of the usual perception of what a work means
or how it operates, because by explaining how a story is usually read or how a character
is normally perceived to be, you have a basis for deconstructing those views. Once you
have established what is usually deemed to be so, you are set to state why it is not the
only possible reading. Your argument for multiple readings will be the central focus of
the body of the discussions that follows, but it is helpful to introduce that the idea early
on.

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The Body
Your purpose in the body of your deconstructive analysis will be to demonstrate
the limited perspective of the conventional reading. You may want to show how the
ideology that the text tries to support is not supportable, an approach that is popular
with Marxist and Feminist deconstructive critics. In this case, as you study a particular
text, you will also be deconstructing the larger contexts in which it exists: You will be
suggesting, or overtly stating, that the order supported by it is also open to question,
perhaps itself fraught with inconsistencies and illusory stability.

The conclusion
If you have begun by rehearsing the conventional reading of the text under
analysis, an effective way to end your essay is by making a comparison of that
understanding your deconstructive analysis, pointing out why the earlier one is not
definitive. If you prefer, you may reiterate the several different ways in which the text
can be read, thereby making the point that meaning is always provisional, always ready
to give way to other meaning.

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 CHAPTER 3

Russian Formalism
This theory expresses that art is artificial and that a great deal of acquired skill goes into
it as opposed to the old classical maxim that true art conceals its art. The Russian formalists,
led by Victor Shklovsky, aimed to establish a science of literature – a complete knowledge of
formal effects (devices, techniques, etc.) which together make up what is called literature.

The Key Ideas in this theory are:

 Baring the device – this practice refers to the presentation of devices without any
realistic motivation – they are presented purely as devices. For example, fiction
operates by distorting time in various ways- foreshortening, skipping, expanding,
transposing, reversing, flashback and flash-forward, and so on.
 Defamiliarization – this means making strange. Everything must be dwell upon and
described as if for the first time. Ordinary language encourages the automatization of
our perceptions and tends to diminish our awareness of reality. It simply confirms things
as we know them.
 Retardation of the narrative – the technique of delaying and protracting actions
Shklovsky draws attention to the ways in which familiar actions are defamiliarized by
being showed down, drawn out of interrupted. Digressions, displacement of the parts of
the book, and extended descriptions are all devices to make us attend to form.
 Naturalization – refers to how we endlessly become inventive in finding ways in making
sense of the most random or chaotic utterances or discourse. We refuse to allow a text
to remain alien and stay outside our frames of reference – we insist on naturalizing it.
 Carnivalization – the term Mikhail Bakhtin uses to describe the shaping effect of carnival
on literary texts. The festivities associated with the carnival are collective and popular,
hierarchies are turned on their heads (fools become wise, kings become beggars):
opposites are mingle (facts and fantasy, heaven and hell); the sacred is profaned; the
rigid or serious is subverted, mocked or loosened.

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 MARXIST CRITICISM

A type of criticism in which literary works are viewed as the product of work and whose
practitioners emphasize the role of class and ideology as they reflect, propagate, and even
challenge the prevailing social orcer.
A form of critique and discourse for interrogating all societies and their texts in terms of
certain specific issues – including race, class, and the attitudes shared within a given culture.

 FREIDRICH ENGELS 1820-1895

 KARL HEINRICH MARX 1818-1883

 German writers, Philosophers, social critics

 Coauthored “The Communist Manifesto”
 Declared that the capitalists, or the bourgeoisie, had successfully enslaved the working
class, or the proletariat, through economic policies and control of the production of
goods.

Who was Karl Marx?

 Born in Trier, Germany in 1818
 German philosopher who rejected the tenets of Romanticism in favor of Philosophy of
dialectical materialism.
 Criticized the injustice inherent in the European Class/capitalist system of economics
operating in the 19th century.
 Believed that capitalism allowed the bourgeoisie to benefit analyzes.

The Communist Manifesto

Das Kapital, the capitalist from of wealth production and its consequences for culture.
1. The author’s social class.
2. Its effect upon the author’s society.
3. Examining the history and the culture of the times as reflected in the text.
4. Investigate how the author either correctly or incorrectly pictures this historical period.

Marxist Literary Theory

 Focuses on the representation of class distinctions and class conflict in literature.
 Focuses more on social and political elements than artistic and visual (aesthetic)
elements of text.

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 FEMINISM CRITICISM
Feminism is theory that man and women should be equal politically, economically and
socially.

Feminist Criticism has two basic premises:

1. Women presented in literature by male writers from male point of view.
2. Women presented in writing of female writers from female point of view.

History of Feminism

First Wave Feminism

Widely are considered to be:
 Intellectually inferior
 Physically weak
 Emotional, intuitive irrational
 Suited to the role of wives and mother
 Women could not vote
 They were not educated at school/universities and could only work in manual jobs.
 A married women’s property and salary were owned by her husband
 Rape and physical abuse are legal within marriage
 Divorce available to men but far more difficult to women
 Women had no right to their children if they left a marriage
 First-wave feminism refers to a period of feminist activity during the 19 th and early 20th
century in the United Kingdom, Canada and United States.
 The key concern of the first wave feminists were education, employment, the marriage
laws, and the plight of intelligent middle-class single women.
 First wave feminism overall goal: to improve the legal position fro women in particular
to gain women the vote. Basic Assumption: men and women have separate, biologically
determined roles and duties in society. Women work in the private sphere (the home),
men in the public sphere. Active until the first World War 1.

Second Wave Feminism:

 Women could attend school and university.
 Women did not receive equal pay for the same work.
 It was easier to gain a divorce but socially frown upon.

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  Rape and physically abuse within marriage were illegal but husbands were rarely
convicted.
 Abortion was still illegal.
 Women’s body were objectified in advertising.

Third Wave Feminism

 Women seem to be more equal to men.
 Women are no longer obligated to marry or have children, and marriage is more
 The legal system is better at protecting women’s right.

Branches:
 Cultural Feminism- the theory that there are fundamental personality differences
between man and women, and that women’s differences are special and should be
celebrated.
 Ecofeminism is a theory that rest on the basic principal that patriarchal philosophies are
harmful to women, children and other living things.
 Individualists. The primary focus is individual autonomy, rights, liberty, independence
and diversity. Individualist Feminism tends to widely encompass men and focuses on
barriers that both men and women face due to their gender.
 Material Feminism. A movement that begun in the late 19 th century focused liberating
by improving their material condition. This movement revolved around taking the
burden off women in regards to housework, cooking and other traditional female
domestic jobs.
 Moderate Feminism. This branch of feminism tends to be populated mostly by younger
women or women who perceive that they not directly experienced discrimination.

 National organization for women (N.O.W) Feminism a.k.a Gender Feminism. This theory
is based on the notion that in order for men and women to be equal (as the core of
feminism states), women must be granted some special privileges, and men should not
be central issue or barrier in feminism. N.O.W feminism encompasses only women and
fights to offer special privileges to women with the intent of making women equal to
men. Radical Feminism is the breeding ground for many of the ideas arising from
feminism.
 Amazon Feminism focuses on physical equality and is opposed to gender role
stereotypes and discrimination against women based on assumptions that women are
supposed to be, look, or behave as if they are passive, weak and physically helpless.

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Separatists are often wrongly depicted as lesbians. These are the feminists who
advocate separation from men, sometimes total, sometimes partial.

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 CHAPTER 4

LITERARY CRITICISM
LITERARY APPRECIATION - Refers to the evaluation of works of imaginative literature as an
intellectual or academic exercise. In this process the reader interprets, evaluates, or
classifies a literary work with a view to determining the artistic merits or demerits or such a
work.

Donelson and Nilsen (2009) – echo this sentiment and add that it is the process by which
one ‘gauges one’s interpretive response as a reader to a literary work. This means that the
reader is able to gain pleasure and understanding for the literature, understand its value
and importance and admire its complexity.

Nilsen and Donelson (2005) – further determined that a main goal of teaching literature is
to elicit a response from students so they can explore their own lives and improve their
logical thinking skills. Therefore, the key to developing appreciation for reading is first is
selecting appropriate adolescent literature in which students can identify and make
connections. This can foster love for reading and improve their language arts skills as well.

According to Donelson and Nilsen (2009), literary appreciation occurs in seven stages:
Level 1: Pleasure and profit (literary appreciation is a social experience)
Level 2: Decoding (literacy is developed)
Level 3: Lose yourself (reading becomes a means of escaping)
Level 4: Find yourself (discovering identity)
Level 5: Venture beyond self (going beyond me, assessing the world around them)
Level 6: Variety in reading (reads widely and discusses experiences with peers)
Level 7: Aesthetic purposes (avid reader, appreciates the artistic value of reading)

Margaret Early’s Stages of Growth in Literary Appreciation- determines that the personal
attitudes, reading and observing skills are all part of literary appreciation. Stages which
readers go through are added unto without dropping the previous stages. Thus, literary
appreciation is a lifelong process. However, occasionally students are ill-equipped to handle

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transition from childhood literature to adolescent literature and fail at establishing literary
appreciation.
This may occur as a result of student’s rate or early cognitive maturity. As teachers, we
must understand that in order to appreciate literature students must experience pleasure
from their reading. Transaction reading journals and literature circles can be helpful as
students can document their progress and reflect on them. They should be provided with a
forum to respond to literature in he classroom, discuss personal responses, ideas and
deductions with other students. This will also allow them to make text to text connection.

Knickerbocker and Rycik (2002) assert that it is important to understand literary

development that teachers should consider students stages of development and select
materials and methods appropriate to them. This sentiment was supported by Piaget’s
stages of cognitive development are which children are set to go through mental
development at different ages. They affirm that each level must provide a sense of
satisfaction for the reader if he or she is expected to move unto the next stage.

Literary Criticism and Interpretation: An Introduction

What is Interpretation?
In general, to interpret something is to make it personally meaningful. Our brain takes
raw data from the senses and makes it meaningful by relating it to our previous experiences.
When we read or hear a sentence, we put the words together into a meaningful whole,
rather than just noting their separate dictionary definitions. Most everyday language is fairly
straightforward and requires little interpretation. Because literature presents us with more
than one possible meaning, interpreting literature requires more care and attention.

Why Should We Interpret Literature?

Authors of fiction, poetry or drama choose literature for their expression because they
believe that there are the least two valid sides to any major issue—not just a simple right
and wrong. Reading and interpreting literature, then nourishes us with a sense of
complexity of life’s deepest mysteries—love, hate, death conflicts between the individual
and society and so on, so that when we approach these problems we do so with greater
self-awareness and greater tolerance for the views of others.

LITERARY CRITICISM

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Literary criticism is the study, evaluation and interpretation of literature. Modern literary
criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its
methods and goals. Though the two activities are closely related, literary critics are not
always, and have not always been, theorists.

HISTORY OF LITERARY CRITICISM

Aristotle’s Poetics clearly defines aspects of literature and introduces many literary terms
used still used today.

The history of literary criticism dates back to Plato and Aristotle. Both philosophers
expressed ground breaking opinions about literature, especially on the issues of literary
mimesis (imitation and representation) and didacticism. Literary mimesis asks the question,
“Does literature imitate life, or does life imitate literature?’ Didacticism in literature asks the
question, “How does the text lend itself as an instructional or moral guide to life?”

CLASSICAL AND MEDIEVAL CRITICISM

Literary criticism has probably existed for as long as literature. In the 4 th century BC Aristotle
wrote the Poetics, a typology and description of literary forms with many specific criticisms
of contemporary works of art. Poetics developed for the first time the concepts of mimesis
and catharsis, which are still crucial in literary study. Plato’s same time, Bharata Muni, in his
Natya Shastra, wrote literary criticism on ancient Indian literature and Sanskrit drama.

Later classical and medieval criticism often focused on religious texts, and the several
influence on the study of the secular texts. This was particularly the case for the literary
traditions of the three Abrahamic religions: Jewish literature, Christian literature and Islamic
literature.

Literary criticism was also employed in other forms of medieval Arabic literature and Arabic
poetry from the 9th century, notably by Al-Jahiz in his al-Bayan Wa-‘i-tabyin and al-Hawayan
and by Bdullah ibn al-Mu’tazz in his Kitab al-Badi.

DEFINITION OF LITERARY CRITICISM

Literary criticism is simply the attempt to explain a literary work. A literary critic is one who
explains or interprets a literary work-its meaning, production, aesthetics, and

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 CHAPTER 5

THE FIVE CODES

ROLAND BARTHES’ FIVE CODES- Barthes presents his theory of five codes to understand the
underlying structure of text. He proposed that these five codes are the basic underlying
structures of all narratives (Barry, 2002, p. 151). After a close scrutiny of literary texts
against these codes, the text can be categorized for its from and genre. In other words,
through the study of these codes we can either recognize that which genre the text belongs
to, or recognize the characteristics of an already established genre. A brief description of
these codes is necessary before moving any further.

Roland Barthes (1915-80) was a prolific French literary critic whose eclectic interests led him
to write on topics as diverse as photography, advertising, film, and even fashion. Although
regarded as a semiologist, Barthe’s methods go far beyond semiology and are difficult to
categorize into anyone trend of literary criticism. The analytical technique whith which the
present study is concerned comes from his large 1970 essay S/Z, an exhaustive analysis of
Honore de Balzac’s novella Sarrasine. 4 Barthes sections the text of the novella into 561
segments, or “lexias”, which vary in length from one word (as in the case of the title) to
several sentences among different lexias. Barthes works with one lexia at a time but creates
a system of cross-references among diffrents lexias.

Through this method, Barthes tracks linearly all of the various processes involved in the
reader’s interpretation of narrative text. After presenting each segment of text, Barthes
identifies which of the codes are operative in that segment, that is, by means of which codes
the reader processes the story to derive meaning from it. Barthes formulates five codes,
each of which has roots in a different aspect of literary analysis. The first of these of codes is
the hermeneutic code, which governs the proposing, sustaining and resolution of enigmas.

Small enigmas might be solved quickly, while major enigmas, those which are integral to
maintaining suspense in the text’s plot, are prolonged through various means. The semic
code is the code of character. Through it, the writer unfolds the personalities of the

15
 characters of the story. The symbolic code refers to the symbolic antitheses which are so
prevalent in classical literature: for example, references to life and death, hot and cold,
youth and age, etc. The proairetic code is the most basic of the codes: it is the sequence of
events and actions that make up the plot of the story as it unfolds.

1. Hermeneutic code (the voice of truth)- The code of enigmas or puzzles.

2. Semic Code (the voice of the person)- The accumulation of connotations. Semes,
sequential thoughts, traits and actions constitute character. “The proper noun
surrounded by connotations”
3. Symbolic code- Binary oppositions or themes. The inscription into the text of the
antitheses central to the organization of the cultural code.
4. Proairetic Code (the voice of empirics)- The code of actions. Any action initiated must be
completed. The cumulative actions constitute the plot events of the text.
5. Cultural Code (the voice of science [or knowledge])- Though all codes are cultural we
reserve the designation for the storehouse of knowledge we use in interpreting everyday
experience.

POST-STRUCTURALISM
Reflects the idea of a literary text having a single purpose, a single meaning or one single
existence. Instead every individual reader creates a new and individual purpose, meaning and
existence for a given text.
Hold that language is not a transparent medium that connects one directly with a
“truth” or “reality” outside it but rather a structure or code, whose parts derive their meaning
from their contrast with one another and not from any connection with an outside world.
May be understood as a critical response to the basic assumptions of Structuralism, but
there are differences.

STRUCTURALIST
ORIGIN Derives ultimately from linguistics.
TONE AND STYLE Structuralist writings tend towards
abstraction and generalization: it
aims for detached, “scientific
coolness” of tone.
POST-STRUCTURALIST
Derives ultimately from
philosophy.
Nietzsche-“There are no facts
only interpretations.”
Post-structuralist writing, by
contrast, tends to be much
more emotive. Often the
tone is urgent and euphoric,
and the style flamboyant and

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ATTITUDE TO THE Structuralist accept that the world
LANGUAGE is constructed through language in
the sense that we do not have
access to reality other than
through the linguistic medium.
FUNDAMENTAL AIMS Questions our way of structuring
and categorizing reality, and
prompts us to break free of
habitual modes of perception or
categorization, but it believes that
we can thereby attain a more
reliable view of things.
self-consciously showy.
Post-structuralist is much
more fundamentalist in
insisting upon the
consequences of the view
that; in the effect, reality
itself is textual. Post-
structuralism develops what
threaten to become terminal
anxieties about the
possibility of achieving any
knowledge through
language.
It distrusts the very notion of
reason and the idea of the
human being as an
independent entity,
preferring the notion of the
“dissolved or constructed”
subject, whereby what we
may think of as the individual
is really a product of social
and linguistic forces- that is,
not an essence at all, merely
a “tissue of textualities”.

In the Post-structuralist approach to textual analysis, the reader replaces the author as the
primary subject of inquiry and, without a central fixation on the author, Post-structuralists
examine other sources for meaning (e.g., readers, cultural norms, other literature, etc.), which
are therefore never authoritative and promise no consistency. A reader’s culture and society,
then, share at least an equal part in the interpretation of a piece to the cultural and social
circumstances of the author.

Writers whose work is often characterized as Post-structuralist include Jacques Derrida Michel
Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Judith Butler Baudrillard and Julia Kristeva, although many theorists
who have been called “post-structuralist” have rejected the label.

SOME COMPONENTS OF POST-STRUCTURALISM

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JACQUES DERRIDA- was one of the first to propose theoretical limitations to Structuralism, and
identified an apparent de-stabilizing or de-centring in intellectual life (referring to the
displacement of the author of a text as having greatest effect on a text itself, in favour of the
various readers of the text), which came to known as Post-structuralism. She argued that
meaning has a performative, practical dimension not associated with an originating
subjectivity.
Meaning is renewed or transformed through such performances.
ROLAND BARTHES- “The Death of the Author”
Asserts rhetorically, the independence of the literary text and its immunity to the to the
possibility of being unified or limited by any notion of what the author might have intended of
crafted into the work. The death of the author is the birth of the reader.
KEY ASSUMPTIONS UNDERLYING POSY-STRUCTURALISM INCLUDE:
 The concept of “self” as a singular and coherent entity is a fictional construct, and an
individual rather comprises conflicting tensions and knowledge claims (e.g. gender,
class, profession, etc.). The interpretation of meaning of a text is therefore dependent
on a reader’s own personal concept of self.
 An author’s intended meaning (although the author’s own identity as a stable “self”
with a single, discernible “intent” is also a fictional construct) is secondary to the
meaning that the reader perceives, and a literary text (or, indeed, any situation where
the subject perceives a sign) has no single purpose, meaning or existence.
 It is necessary to utilize a variety of perspectives to create a multi-faceted
interpretation of a text, even if these interpretations conflict with one another.
WHAT POST-STRUCTURALIST CRITICS DO?
 The read and text against itself, where meanings are expressed which may be directly
contrary to the surface meaning.
 Gives importance to words similarities in sound, the root meanings of words, added
metaphor.
 The text is characterized by disunity rather than unity. Concentrate on a single passage
and analyze it so intensively. Results into multiplicities of meaning.

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 CHAPTER 6

READERLY AND WRITERLY

Readerly Text
Barthes argues that most readerly texts, such texts are associated with classic texts that
is presented in a familiar, linear, traditional manner, adhering to the status quo in style and
content. Meaning is fixed and pre-determined so that the reader is a site merely to receive
information. These texts attempt, through the use of standard representations and dominant
signifying practices, to hide any elements that would open up the text to multiple meaning.
Readerly texts support the commercialized values of the literary establishment and uphold the
view of texts as disposable commodities.
Writerly Text
By contrast, writerly texts reveal those elements that the readerly attempts to conceal.
The reader, now in a position of control, takes an active role in the construction of meaning.
The stable meaning, or metanarratives, of readerly texts is replaced by a proliferation of
meanings and a disregard of narrative structure. There is a multiplicity of cultural and other
ideological indicators (codes) for the reader to uncover. What Barthes describes as “ourselves
writing” is a self-conscious expression of the discrepancy between artifice and reality. The
writerly text destabilizes the reader’s expectations. The reader approaches the text from an
external position of subjectivity. By turning the reader into the writer, writerly texts defy the
commercialization and commodification od literature.
BARTHES AND THE IDEAL TEXT
Barthes identifies the writerly yextas the dominant mode in modern mythological culture in
which forms of representation seek to continually blur the divisions between the real and the
artificial. He proposes that the ideal text blurs the distinction between the reader and writer:
 The networks are many and interact without any one of them being able to surpass the
rest; this text is the galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of signifieds; it has no beginning;
it is reversible; we gain access to it by several entrances, none of each can be

19
 authoritatively declared to be the main one; the codes it mobilizes extends as far as the
eye can reach, they are determinable.
 The systems of meaning can take over this absolutely plural text, but their number is
never closed, based as it is on the infinity of language (S/Z 5)

Hypertext
Possesses many of the qualities Barthes identifies in the ideal text. In hypertext, the
presentation is non-linear. It is text that branches, links, and connects, allowing information to
be understood in random sequence. The nature or the order of meaning is not pre-
determined by the author, but is rather an interactive activity in which the reader is free to
take any chosen direction. Hypertext is composed of lexias. Lexias are blocks of text connected
via verbal and non-verbal links.it is a medium of information that connects words (language)
with external commentaries, related or contrary texts – all towards determining the underlying
conceptual and ideological structure of the text.

INTERTEXTUALITY
Is the shaping of the texts meaning by another text. Intertextual figures include: allusion,
quotation, calque, plagiarism, translation, pastiche and parody.
o Intertextuality is a literary device that creates an interrelationship between texts and
generates related understanding in separate works.
o Intertextuality is a literary discourse strategy (Gadavanij) utilized by writers in novels,
poetry, theatre and even in non-written texts (such as performances and digital media).
o Examples of intertextuality are an author’s borrowing and transformation of a prior text,
and a reader’s referencing of one text in reading another.
o Intertextuality does not require citing of referencing punctuation (such as quotation
marks) and is often mistaken for plagiarism (Ivanic, 1998)
o However, intertextuality is not always intentional and can be utilized inadvertently. This
term was developed by the pos-structuralist Julia Kristeva in the 1960’s, and since then
it’s been widely accepted by postmodern literary critics and theoreticians.

Julia Kristeva
Contribution to the notion of intertextuality is immense. She not only coined the word
intertextuality but substantially stressed the importance of the potential dynamics that lay
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within the text. Text is not an unilinear entity but a heterogeneous combination of texts. Any
text Is once literary and social, creaticve and cultural. They are culturally and institutionally
fashioned. Most of the ides that Kristeva puts forward is a rework or revision of Bakhtinian
notion of intertextuality. Bakhtin also held the view point that the text cannot be detached
from socio-cultural textuality which is the backdrop in which the text is created.
Coined the term intertextuality. Intertextuality, though surfaced as a postructuralist concept,
existed as a universal phenomenon that elucidates the communicative interconnections
between the text and the other and text and context. Her invention was a response to
Ferdinand de Saussure’s theory and his claim that signs gain their meaning through structure in
particular text. She opposed his to her own, saying that the readers are always influenced by
other texts, sifting through their archives, when reading a new one.
Basically, when writers borrow from previous texts, their works requires layers of meaning. In
addition, when a text is read in the light of another text, all assumptions and effects of the
other text give a new meaning and influence the way of interpreting the original text. It serves
a subtheme and reminds us of the double narratives in allegories.

TYPES OF INTERTEXTUALITY
OBLIGATORY
Obligatory intertextuality is when the writer deliberately invokes the comparison or
association between two (or more) texts. Without this pre-understanding or success to grasp
the link, the reader’s understanding of the text if is regarded as inadequate (Fitzsimmons,
2013).
Obligatory intertextuality relies on the reading or understanding of a prior hypotext,
before full comprehension of the hypertext can be achieved (Jacobmeyer, 1998).

OPTIONAL
Optional Intertextuality has a less vital impact on the significance of the hypertext. It is
possible, but not essential, intertextual relationship that if recognized, the connection will
slightly shift the understanding of the text (Fitzsimmons, 2013).
Optional intertextuality means it is possible to find a connection to multiple texts of a
single phrase, or no connection at all (Ivanic, 1998)

Examples:
The use of optional intertextuality may be something as simple as parallel
characters or plotlines.

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 For example, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series shares many similarities with J.R.R.
Tolkien’s Lord of The Rings trilogy. They both apply the use of an aging wizard mentor
(Professor Dumbledore and Gandalf) and a key friendship is formed to assist the protagonist
(an innocent young boy) on their arduous quest to defeat a powerful wizard to destroy a
powerful being (Keller, 2013).

ACCIDENTAL
Accidental intertextuality is when readers often connect a text with another text,
cultural practice or a personal experience, without there being any tangible anchor point
within the original text (John Fitzsimmons).

Examples:
When reading Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, a reader may use his or her prior
experiences to make a connection between the size of the whale and the size of the ship.

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 CHAPTER 7

FREUDIAN CRITICISM

FREUDIAN LITERARY CRITICISM

o They pay close attention to unconscious motives and feelings, whether these are those
of the author, or of the characters depicted in the work.
o They demonstrate the presence in the literary work of classic psychoanalytic symptoms
or conditions.

THEORY OF NEUROSIS
(Decade of 1980’s) – When Freud used hypnosis and Breuer’s cathartic method of
psychotherapy, gradually developing the psychoanalytic methods of free association, dream
interpretation, and the analysis of transference.

NEUROSIS
Is a defense against intolerable memories of a traumatic experience – infantile
seduction of the hands of a close relative.
“Psychology for Neurologists” (or “Project for a Scientific Psychology”) – On 1985 Freud
sending a comprehensive anatomical-physiological model of the nervous system and its
functioning in normal behavior, though and dreams, as well as in hysteria.

FREUD’S TOPOGRAPHIC MODEL

The interpretation of Dreams (1900)

Was further elaborated in the metapsychological papers (1915), conceptualizes thought
and behavior in terms of processes in three psychological systems:
 1st The Sexual Aberrations

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  2nd Infantile Sexuality
 3rd The Transformations of Puberty

CONTRIBUTIONS

Freud May be said to have made five major contributions:

1. Psychic Determinisn – the lawfulness all psychological phenomena, even the most
trivial, including dreams, fantasies, and slips of the tongue.

2. Psychic Apparatus- that characterizes the unconscious id: indeed, it is the principal
property by means of which the latter denned, ceases characterized by magical rather
than rational logic and by wish fullness – a seeking for immediate gratification of crude
sexual or aggressive impulses – are called primary. Freud emphasized the concepts of
displacement and condensation of psychic energy in his conceptualization of the
primary process and noted that it often makes use of symbols, which differ from other
generations. These were the main theoretical resources Freud called upon to explain
dreams, neurotic symptoms, psychotic thought and language, normal character traits,
myths, creative thought, art and humor.

3. Of the many contributions Freud made to understanding of sexuality. The following

seem to enjoy the most acceptance:
His stress on its great importance in human life generally; his broad definition,
which includes oral, anal, and other bodily pleasures and links them to the phallic-
genital; his conception of its plasticity - it can be delayed, transformed, or fixated, and
interest can be shifted from one “component drive” or “partial instinct” to another; his
discovery that appears early in human life (infants and young children masturbate, have
sexual curiosity, etc.) and follows a typical developmental sequence; his insistence that
bisexuality and “polymorphous perversity” are universal endowments or potentialities;
his explanation of sexual perversions as pathological development, not (or not wholly)
as constitutional givens and not as sins; and his elaborations of many aspects of the
Oedipus complex – the fact of inevitable but tabooed incestuous attraction in families,
the associated phenomena of anxiety about castration (or, more generally, mutilation),
and of intra-familial jealousy, hatred, and envy, much of it unconscious.

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4. Three of Freud’s concepts
Conflict, anxiety, and defense - are so interrelated that we may look on them as
constituting one major contribution. He saw the pervasive importance of conflict
(not merely the traditional opposition of reason and passion, or ego versus id, but
also ego versus superego and superego versus id) in both normal and abnormal
behavior.
5. A number of Freud’s lasting discoveries and insights make up the genetic point of
view.
o He showed the necessity of knowing facts of development in order to understand
personality.
o The importance of the events of early life for the main features of the characters,
including the specific syndromes of the oral and anal character types as
outgrowths of events at the corresponding psychosexual stages;
o The role of identification as a principle of learning and development;
o The importance of drive delay and control in development; and the nature of the
psychopathology as regression along a developmental path.

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 CHAPTER 8

PSYCHOANALYTIC LITERARY CRITICISM

Is literary criticism or literary theory which in method, concept, or form, is influenced by

the tradition of psychoanalysis begun by Sigmund Freud.
“Psychoanalytic and psychoanalytical are used in English. The latter is the older term,
and at first simple meant ‘relating to the analysis of the human psyche’. But with the
emergence of psychoanalysis as a distinct clinical practice, both terms come to describe that.
Although both are still used , today the normal adjective is psychoanalytic. Psychoanalysis is
defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as a therapeutic method, originated by Sigmund
Freud, for treating mental disorders by investigating the interaction of conscious and
unconscious elements in the patient’s mind and bringing repressed fears and conflicts to the
conscious mind, using techniques such as dream interpretation and free association. Also: a
system psychological theory associated with this method.
Through the scope of psychoanalytic lens, humans are described as having sexual and
aggressive drives. Psychoanalytic theorists believed that human behavior is deterministic. It is
governed by irrational forces, and the unconscious, as well as instinctual and biological drives.
Due to this deterministic nature, psychoanalytic, theorists do not believed in free will.

The Beginnings
Freud first begun his studies on psychoanalysis and in collaboration with Dr. Josef
Breuer, especially when it came to the study on Anna O. the relationship between Freud and
Breuer was a mix of admiration and competition, based on the fact that they were working
together on the Anna O. case and must balance two balance different ideas as to her diagnosis
and treatment. Today, Breuer can be considered the grandfather of psychoanalysis. Anna O.
was subject to both physical and psychological disturbances, such as not being able to drink
out of fear.
Breuer and Freud both found that hypnosis was a great help in discovering more about
Anna O. and her treatment. The research and ideas behind the studies of Anna O. was highly

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referenced as Freud’s lectures on the origin and development of psychoanalysis. These
observations led Freud to theorize that the problem faced by hysterical patients could be
associated to painful childhood experiences that could not be recalled. The influence of these
lost memories shaped the feeling, thoughts and behaviors of patients. These studies
contributed to the development of psychoanalytic theory.

The Id
The id acts in accordance with the pleasure principle, in that it avoids pain and seeks
pleasure. Due to the instinctual quality of the id, it is impulsive and often unaware of
implications of actions.

Id: Meeting basic Needs

Examples:
1. Sally was thirsty. Rather than waiting for the server to refill her glass of water,
she reached across the table and drank from Mr. Smith’s water glass, much to
his surprise.
2. A hungry baby cried until he was fed.
3. A toddler who wanted another helping of dessert whined incessantly untol
she was given another serving.
4. Michael saw a $5 bill fall out of Nick’s backpack as he pulled his books out of
his locker. As nick walk away, Michael bent over, picked up the money, and
slipped it into his pocket, glancing around to make sure no one was looking.
5. On Black Friday, customers were so obsessed with getting a good deal that
they shoved others out of their way and trampled them, not thinking twice
about hurting people if it meant they could get what they want.
The Ego
The ego is driven by reality principle. The works to balance works to balance both the id
and superego. To balance these, it works to achieve the id’s drive in the most realistic ways. It
seeks to rationalize the id’s instinct and please the drives that benefit the individual in the long
term. It helps separate what is real, and realistic of our drives as well as being realistic about
the standards that the superego sets for the individual.

Ego: Dealing with the Reality

Examples:
1. Even though Michael needed money, he decided not to steal the money from
the cash register because he didn’t want to get in trouble.

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 2. In line at the salad bar, Amy really wanted to shove a handful of croutons into
her mouth. However, since her boss was there, she decided to wait another
minute or two until she sat down to eat.
3. Mary really wanted to borrow her mom’s necklace, but knew her mom would
be angry if she took it without asking, so she asked her mom if she could wear
it.
4. Hillary was so sweaty after her workout that she wanted to change her
clothes right there by the car. However, she knew the other people around
her would not approve, so she waited until she was in the restroom to
change.
The Superego
The superego is driven by morality principle. It acts in connection with the morality of
higher thought and action. Instead of instinctively acting like the id, the superego works to act
in socially acceptable ways. It employs morality, judging our sense of wrong and right and using
guilt to encourage socially acceptable behavior.

Superego: Adding Morals

Examples:
1. Sarah knew that she could steal the supplies from work and no one would
know about it. However, she knew that stealing was wrong, so she decided
not to take anything even though she would probably never get caught.
2. Maggie couldn’t remember the answer to the test question #12, even though
she had studied. Nate was the smartest kid in the class, and from where
Maggie sat, she could see his answers if she turned his head slightly. When
Mrs. Archer turned her back, Maggie almost cheated, but her conscience
stopped her because she knew it was wrong. Instead, Maggie took a guess at
the answer and then turned in his paper.
3. While away on business, Tom had many opportunities to be unfaithful to his
wife. However, he knew the damage such behavior would have on his family,
so he made the decision to avoid the woman who had expressed interest in
him.
4. When Michael saw the $5 bill lying on the floor with no one around it, he
turned it into the school office in case anyone came looking for it. He wouldn’t
want to lose $5 and hoped that whoever had lost it would ask about it in the
office.
5. The cashier only charged the couple for one meal evn though they had eaten
two. They could have gotten away with only paying for one, but they pointed

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 out the cashier’s mistake and offered to pay for both meals. They wanted to
be honest and they knew that the restaurant owner and employees needed
to make a living.
The Unconscious
The unconscious is the portion of the mind of which the person is not aware. Freud said
that it is the unconscious that exposes the true feelings, emotions, and thoughts of the
individual. There are variety of psychoanalytic techniques used to access and understand the
unconscious, ranging from methods like hypnosis, free association, dream analysis. Dreams
allow us to explore the unconscious; according to Freud, they are “the royal road to the
unconscious”. Dreams are composed of latent and manifest content. Whereas the latent
content is the underlying meaning of a dream that may not be remembered when a person
wakes up, manifest content is the content from the dream that a person remembers upon
waking and can be analyzed by a psychoanalytic psychologists. Exploring and understanding
the manifest content of dreams can inform the individual of complexes or disorder that may be
under the surface of their personality. Dreams can provide access to the unconscious that is
not easily accessible.
Freudian Slips (also known as paraphrases) occur when the ego and superego do not
work properly, exposing the id and internal drives or wants. They are considered mistakes
revealing the unconscious. Examples range from calling someone by the wrong name,
misinterpreting a spoken or written word, or simply saying the wrong thing.

Defense Mechanisms
The ego balances the id, superego, and reality to maintain a healthy state of
consciousness. It thus reacts to protect the individual from any stressors and anxiety by
distorting reality. This prevents threatening unconscious thoughts and material from entering
the consciousness. The different types of defense mechanisms are: repression, reaction, denial,
projection, displacement, sublimation, regression, and rationalization.

Psychoanalysis And Literature

When analyzing literary texts, the psychoanalytic theory could be utilized to decipher or
interpret the concealed meaning within a text, or to better understand the author’s intentions.
Through the analysis of motives, Freud’s theory can be used to help clarify the meaning of the
writing as well as the actions of the characters within the text.

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 CHAPTER 9

LACANIAN CRITICISM

Jacques Lacan
 French Psychologist
 He follows Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory
 According to him, literature and psychoanalysis are merely two different type of
discourse with the same and that is to expose the discursive dimension of knowledge,
power and social relations.
 His theory is by his own account a development of systematic reading of Sigmund
Freud’s own works, and in fact his seminars, which are beginning to appear in
transcriptions, are always based around particular text by Freud.
The Unconscious is the discourse of the other
 Human subject is always split between a conscious side and unconscious side.
 Symbol to figure the subject in its division.
 Lack desire, a desire that cannot be satisfied even when our demand our met.
Unconscious is Structured like Language
 Therefore, sexuality cannot be considered as a result of needs.
 Sound or image is called the signifier, the concept is signified
 The position of signifier and signified in a sentence is important to produced meaning.

Metaphor and Metonymy

 Metonymy follows horizontal line of signifiers which never cross the bar that leads to be
signified and to signification.
 Metaphor is placed in a vertical relation. One signifier can substitute as the signified
another signifier.

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 Slective/Associative Synchronic Dimension
(Metaphor)

Combinative/Syntagmatic Diachronic Dimension

(Metonymy)

Comparison between Freud, Saussure and Lacan’s formulation:

Freud Saussure Lacan
 Conscious Signified Signifier
 Unconscious Signifier Signified

Freud and Saussure believes that the concept or meaning is important over the image while
Lacan believes that the image is important over concept.

Sexuality and Sexual Difference

 Freud’s 3 essays on sexuality remains one of the key books on sexuality and sexual
difference both within and outside the institution of psychoanalysis.
 Two striking aspects to Freud’s work on sexuality.
 1st is the mainstream professional views on his time; 2 nd is the evidence in relation to the
professional views.

Sexuality
Normal sexuality involve an exclusive sexual interest felt by men to women. Both the
implicit one way sign and the exclusive nature of the interest are present in the traditional
notion.
For him, the evidence shows that sexuality is grounded in a condition where there is no
preexisting object and no defined aim. The pleasure principle is unscrupulous.

Sexuality has the following related meanings:

The condition of being sexed; being male or female; having sexual characteristics,
feelings or desire to a specified degree. The condition of having sex.

Evidence against Normativity

The distinction between the normal and the perverse is riddled with overlaps

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  A great diversity of sexual perversion not only exist but is common.
 The diversity includes not only the choice of sexual object but also the type of activity
used to obtain satisfaction.
 The normal type of sexual activity involve only between members of the opposite sexes
with the aim of reproduction.

Sexual Difference
Lacan was so taken by the similarities between Freud’s theory of the unconscious and
the stryctural linguistics that he was bale to come up with the same fairly systematic
concordances
Lacan’s first official contribution to psychoanalysis was the mirror stage, which he
described as, “formative of the function”
I as revealed in psychoanalytic experience. By the early 1950’s, he came to regard the
mirror stage as more than a moment in the life of the infant; instead, it formed part of the
permanent structure of subjectivity.

Lacanianism
The study of, and development of, the ideas na theories of the dissident French
psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. Beginning as a commentary on the writings of Freud.
Lacanianism developed into a new psychoanalytic theory of human kind, and spawned a world-
wide movement of its own.

The Three key Ideas of Lacan:

1. The Real
The real differs from the symbolic because it’s the real is not accessible. The real is
series of expressions and emotions that are controlled by something we are not aware
of. The real is also not accessible quality. We exist in the real, but we do not know we
exist in the real. There is a sense of anxiety that is associated with the real because it
cannot be controlled. The real is described as lying beyond the symbolic. Hallucinations
stems from feeling and emotions that we are not integrated into the symbolic order are
put into the real. We as human cannot distinguish between fiction and reality so we
interpret the real as reality. When in fact the real may not be the reality.
2. The Symbolic Order

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 The symbolic order is one of three orders that things can go into. The symbolic order is
the realm in which our desires and emotions are stored and interpreted. Death and
absence is a part of the symbolic order because we can understand these terms, but
they might not be interpreted. If something is in the symbolic order, there is a sense of
understanding. If something is in the symbolic transfer into another or the real, that
something becomes an allusion.

3. Mirror Stage

Lacan’s Mirror stage is probably the theory that is talked about the most. This theory
deals with infants and mirrors. When an infant looks his/or herself in the mirror, they
become the fascinated with the image until they realize that the image is not real. This
goes back to the concepts of the real infants cannot determine between the real. When
thery realized whether o not the real is present or not, they lose interest. This theory
shows that we start to interpret what is real and what is imaginary based on looking in a
mirror.

READER-RESPONSE CRITICISM
 A school of literary theory that focuses on the reader (or audience) and their experience
of a literary work. In contrast to other theories that focuses attention primarily on the
author or the content and form of the work.
 It considers reader’s reactions to literature as vital to interpreting the meaning of the
text.
 It recognizes the reader as an active agent who imparts “real existence” to the work and
completes its meaning through interpretation.

FAMOUS PEOPLE

1. Louise Rosenblatt- a pioneer in reader-response criticism whose literature as

exploration provided an alternative theory to the persistent New Critical Approaches
that gained such popularity.
“Towards a Transactional Theory of Reading”- her 1969 essay which summed up her
position as follows: “A poem is what the reader lives through under the guidance of the text
and experiences as relevant to the text.”

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2. Stanly Fish- a prominent literary theorist of the 20th century who suggested that
literature should not be interpreted as an object. His early works marked the true
beginning of contemporary reader-response criticism and took issue with the tenets of
formalism.
“Literature in the Reader: Affective Stylistics (1970)- in here fish argued that any school of
criticism that sees a literary work as an object, misconstrues the very essence of literature
and reading.

3. Wolfgang Iser- a German critic who argues that texts contains gaps that powerfully
affects the reader, who must explain them, connect what they separate and create on
her or his mind aspects of a work that aren’t in the text but are incited by the text.

4. Wayne Booth- uses the phrase that implied reader to mean the reader” created by the
work”.

5. C.S Lewis- through his work “An experiment in Criticism”, he analyzed reader’s role in
selecting literature in light of their goals in reading.

FAMOUS WORKS
Lord Of the Rings- believed by fans to be basis for catholic teachings yet this was denied
by Tolkien. Yet later, he suggested that the criticism of these readers had merit.

Inception- many people wondered whether or not the top was still spinning after movie
ends, providing whether or not Cobb (De Caprio) was still dreaming.

The Raven (Edgar Allan Poe)- it was a very dark dream about a man who kept believing
that someone was in his door. Some may say that this story is explaining a man whose
significant other left him and is never coming back. Others might say is a lonely man that
is crazy in his head and hears it.

Frankenstein (Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)- the monster doesn’t exist, so to speak,

until the reader reads Frankenstein and reanimates it to life, becoming a co-creator of
the text.

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Pretty Little Liars- a very popular show which is a great example of media that uses
reader-response because the show never reveals the true identity of a character named
“A”, it is left to the viewer to think about and attempt to figure out who this is.

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