{"id":114,"date":"2018-05-31T11:23:40","date_gmt":"2018-05-31T11:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/sunycorning1020elec201819\/?post_type=chapter&p=114"},"modified":"2018-06-08T10:24:34","modified_gmt":"2018-06-08T10:24:34","slug":"literary-criticism-an-introduction","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/sunycorning1020elec201819\/chapter\/literary-criticism-an-introduction\/","title":{"raw":"Literary Criticism: An Introduction","rendered":"Literary Criticism: An Introduction"},"content":{"raw":"
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Literary Criticism: An Introduction<\/h1>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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What is Literature and Why Does it Matter?<\/strong><\/h2>\r\nLiterature is what makes the world whirl. Whether a student is reading about Miranda\u2019s encounter with a \u201cBrave New World\u201d in William Shakespeare\u2019s play\u00a0The Tempest<\/em>, a \u201cfalling star\u201d in John Milton\u2019s poem \u201cSong,\u201d or \u201ca Spring Saturday\u201d in Toni Morrison\u2019s novel\u00a0The Bluest Eye<\/em>, what the student reads was written by an author who aimed to give a reader his or her perspective\u2014or spin\u2014on the world in the form of literature. By reading literature with a critical eye, one can begin to go beyond simply expressing a like or dislike of a particular text, delving deeper into the particular view of the world that an author wanted to convey. Literary criticism enables students and critics to develop an informed opinion about the meaning of a literary work.\r\n

What is Literary Criticism?<\/strong><\/h2>\r\nThis article focuses on literary interpretation, which may be called second-level literary criticism. The difference between first- and second-level criticism is similar to the distinction between a like or dislike of a text versus giving an interpretation of it. Imagine that a group of friends gathers outside a movie theater after watching a re-release of\u00a0Twilight<\/em>, the first film in the\u00a0Twilight<\/em>\u00a0film series, based on the novel of the same name by Stephanie Meyers. Some of the people in the group say they do not like the film because it portrays Bella as a weak female who becomes obsessed with Edward Cullen whom she cannot marry without leaving her loving father and losing her precious mortality. Other people like those aspects of the film, however, arguing that the film makes them disagree with its representation of some women as meek characters. In each case, everyone states his or interpretation of the film to contribute to a conversation about it; everyone offers literary criticism.\r\n\r\nLiterary criticism advances a particular argument about a specific text or a set of texts, so literary criticism should be persuasive. The first step in formulating a critical argument is to assume a rhetorical stance that engages a type, school, or approach of literary criticism. The critical approach will determine the content of the interpretation. Although literary theory and criticism have existed from classical through contemporary times, a feature of modern and postmodern literary criticism is the division of criticism into various schools. In this article, students will learn about the modern and contemporary critical movements that scholars and students most frequently use, gaining the ability to handle any literary analysis assignment.\r\n

Russian Formalism and New Criticism<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Key Terms<\/strong><\/td>\r\nDefinitions<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/thead>\r\n
Form<\/td>\r\na genre or literary type (the lyric form, the drama form); the principle that determines how a work is organized; a work\u2019s shaping principle<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Literary Devices<\/td>\r\ntechniques (e.g., allusion, allegory, metaphor, simile, rhythm, imagery, language, structure, sound, paradox, denotation connotation) used to convey an author\u2019s message<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Trope<\/td>\r\na figure of speech or a word or a phrase that is not meant to be taken literally<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Tone<\/td>\r\nthe attitude conveyed toward a subject in a literary work<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Paradox<\/td>\r\na statement that initially seems to be a self-contradiction but that may prove to be true; a statement that leads to a conclusion that seems self-contradictory<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\nFormalist critics ignore the author, his or her biography, and historical context, focusing on the literary work, which they uphold as autonomous. As Jonathan Culler explains in\u00a0Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction<\/em>, the Russian Formalists of the early years of the twentieth century stressed that critics should concern themselves with the literariness of literature, the verbal strategies that contribute to the form of a literary text, and the emphasis on language that literature itself invites (122). Roman Jakobson, Boris Eichenbaum, and Viktor Shklovsky oriented literary studies toward questions of form and technique. T.S. Eliot, I.A. Richards, and William Empson significantly influenced the Anglo-American tradition of Formalism.\r\n\r\nNew Criticism and its seminal figures, including Cleanth Brooks, John Crowe Ransom, and W.K. Wimsatt, borrowed some of the methodologies of Russian Formalism. The New Critics also resisted emphasizing the author\u2019s biography, focusing instead on how the parts of a literary text contribute to the whole. These two schools cannot be conflated, however. Russian Formalism locates its origins in Russia in the early years of the twentieth century. New Criticism began in the 1930s and 1940s, in Great Britain and in the United States.\r\n\r\nCriticism that adopts an approach espoused by either the schools of Russian Formalism or New Criticism analyzes how the elements and devices (e.g., words, plot, characters, images, tone) in a literary text contribute to its meaning. Consider Samuel Taylor Coleridge\u2019s narrative poem \u201cRime of the Ancient Mariner,\u201d which narrates the tale of a sea mariner who kills an albatross and then experiences intense guilt before he finds redemption. The imagery that appears in the poem after the Mariner kills the albatross is unnatural: \u201cDay after day, day after day \/ We stuck, ne breath ne motion \/ As idle as a painted Ship \/ Upon a painted ocean\u201d (2.111-114). The unnatural imagery creates a visual depiction of the Mariner\u2019s guilt\u2014as if he is stuck thinking about the fact that he killed the albatross. The language of the poem creates an additional image that enhances the audience\u2019s awareness of the Mariner\u2019s guilt: \u201cAh wel-a-day ! what evil looks \/ Had I from old and young; \/ Instead of the Cross the Albatross \/ About my neck was hung\u201d (2.135-38). The \u201chung\u201d albatross serves as the ultimate symbol of the mariner\u2019s guilt, as if the albatross is haunting the Mariner. \u201cRime of the Ancient Mariner\u201d is a narrative poem, so Coleridge has to rely on language\u2014in these examples words with negative connotations (\u201cstuck,\u201d \u201cidle,\u201d and \u201cevil\u201d) and words that create images (the idle ship and the hung albatross)\u2014to show how guilty the Mariner feels after killing the albatross. Critics who use an approach from the schools of either the Russian Formalists or the New Critics thus focus on elements and devices within the literary text in order to analyze how they create meaning.\r\n

Questions to Ask:<\/h3>\r\n