STELLA MARIS MTWARA UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE
(STEMMUCO)
(A Constitute College of St. Augustine University of
Tanzania)
ENGLISH LITERATURE
(TET05104) – 2016
MOST COMMON OR POPULAR CRITICAL THEORIES/PERSPECTIVES.
i. Feminist
ii. Marxist
iii. Reader response
iv. New Criticism or New Historicism
1. FEMINIST THEORY/PERSPECTIVE
i.
The basic of the feminist movement, both in literature and politics, is
that western culture is fundamentally patriarchal (gender) i.e. created by men
controlled by men view through the eyes
of men, and evaluated by men. The 1960’s saw the rise of the new feminist
approach to literary criticism.
ii.
Feminist in general in literature is considered as written displine it
implies different theories in examine patriarchy ideology and traditional in
general.
three major areas of study and point of existing in
the feminist theory
i.
Different between men and women.
·
one basic assumption of the feminist perspective is that gender
determines everything includes values and the ways language is used.
·
The canon of literature printed, marketed and taught in schools must be
expanded to includes a study of genres in which women tradition by write
Journals, diaries and person letters.
ii.
Women in position of power and Power Dynamics between Men and women.
Any evidence
of the social, economic and political exploitation of women must note and
confronted. The feminist critic checks the work to see whether female
characters have power and what type power might be.
iii.
The female experiences.
·
Feminist critic rejects any application of male standard to the female
personality. The female personality must be judge independently from the male
personality and vice versa.
·
Feminist critics examine and celebrate all portrayals of the creative,
life giving a role of feminist. Women have traditional been portrayed as
depended on men but feminists points out that men are dependant on women for
humanity most basic need –birthing children. All evidence of feminine nurture,
healing life giving and restoring are examined.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION FOR FEMINIST READING.
i.
What stereo type of the women are depicted in the text?
ii.
Are female characters over simplified? Weak? Foolish? Excessively naive?(ability to think
more)
iii.
If the female characters have any power. What kind is it political?
Economical? Social? Psychological?
Examples of
feminist aspects in PARCHED EARTH
(a)Socially
·
Women as mother and care of the family
·
Marriage based family
(b)Biologically
·
Development of women conscious (from unconscious to conscious).
2. MARXIST THEORY
Marxist theory has been profounder by KALMAX
and this based on understanding and interpreting social, political, and
economic ideologies that built up the society.
Fundamental premises areas of Marxist theory
(a) Economic is
the base in which the superstructure of social, political and ideologies
realities is built. Economic power therefore always includes social and
political power as well.
(b) Marxist assumed that neither human events nor human
production can be understood without understanding the specific material or
historical circumstances in which those events and production have occurred.
(c) Marxist analysis of human events and production
focuses on relationship among socio-economic classes both within the society
and among the society and it explains all human activities in terms of
distribution and dynamics of economic power.
Marxist theory in literature
·
To explain the nature of literary genre in terms of social period which
produced it.
·
To relate the literary work to the social assumption of the time in
which is consume.
Essential question for Marxist theory.
a) Does work by reinforce capitalism, imperialism, or
classist value?
b) How might be the work seen as critique of capitalism,
imperialism, or classism?
c) How does literary work reflect the socio-economic of
the time in which was written?
3.
READER RESPONSE
a) The theory falls under pragmatic theory. It intended
to see the role of reader on the construction of the and its interpretation.
b) Literary text have to get meaning or interpretation
from the reader.
c) It is a reader who gives existence to the literary
text.
d) The meaning of literary text is unstable, there no
specific meaning unless the interpretation of the reader.
e) The logic relationship between the reader and a text.
Example of
scholars; Stanley Fish – there is interpretative community.
Individual
and society where;
Individual-is
not independent she acquire value from the community that
shape
him/her to interpret the text.
Society-there group of readers who
share a set of conversation for
understanding
literary work in a text.
4. NEW CRITICISM THEORY
Is a method that provides the reader with formula (or
away) for arriving at the correct interpretation of a text using only the text
itself. This method gives a reader an objective approach for discovering a text
meaning regardless of his/her level.
Core basic of the theory
a) Formalism; focuses on intrinsic (formal text) rather than extrinsic (historical
and biography)
b) Imperialism; appreciating the text for its beauty.
c) Naturalism; naturalist view of life that emphasizes the importance of scientific
thought in literary analysis.
How to become a formalist (new critic)
i.
Read a text many times, careful note the diction (word choice)
ii.
Search for images and symbols and relate them with each other.
iii.
Look for element of prosody such as rhyme, rhythm, stanzas, mater,
language and style. Examine tone
of speaker(narrator), theme, setting, and point of view.
