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Intro to Major Schools of Critical Theory. What is Critical theory?. Telling whether a text is good or bad (like a book review). Just applicable to literature The same thing as critical thinking (although it certainly requires critical thinking). What it’s not. Critical Theory is. . .
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Telling whether a text is good or bad (like a book review). • Just applicable to literature • The same thing as critical thinking • (although it certainly requires critical thinking) What it’s not
Critical Theory is. . . • According to the dictionary: a philosophical approach to culture, and especially to literature, that seeks to confront the social, historical, and ideological forces and structures that produce and constrain it. • Define critical theory in your own words. Definition
An attempt to view the text as a mechanical system of signs and symbols • Does not consider any factors “outside the text.” i.e. historical context, author’s intent, “message” or “moral” to the story. • Views literature as language used in “alienating” or “estranging” ways. • Attempts to apply a “scientific” approach to literature. Formalism/new criticism
“how does the text use symbols to generate effects and meaning?” • “What does this word choice add to the text that a synonym would not?” • “What is the underlying structure of this text?” Sample questions/critical approaches
Contrary to formalists, view literature as *exclusively* historical documents. • Sees the text as a manifestation of underlying social and historical forces. • Uses literary text to examine what was happening in society at the time of the writing. • Examines how literature has developed over history. Historicist
How does this text reveal social tensions and conflicts happening in the real world? • What is the author’s view on the controversial issues of the time and why? • How was the author influenced by or reacting to authors who came before? • How has this text influenced the development of history that came after? • Does the text support or criticize the dominant attitudes of the day? Example questions.
Focused on examining underlying economic causes for social and historical phenomena. • Sees the text as either an encoding of underlying economic and ideological factors or an attempt to subvert the economic system. • Views a text “dialectically” • “dialectics” being broadly defined as the conflict between opposed ideas that is resolved into a new, third idea. • Sees history as a purposeful process that leads to a more perfect society through a dialectical process. Marxist
How does the author portray people of different social classes? • What role do class and economic relations play in the text? • Does the author accept the underlying economic systems as just or natural, or do they criticize them? • How does this text contribute to the development of the historical dialectic? • What are some of those “unknown knowns” at work in the text? How do they manifest through characters and other literary devices? Example questions
Attempts to examine how misogyny and/or patriarchy is embedded into texts. • Seeks to liberate women’s voices from historical oppression. • Examines how gender is used and expressed in the text. • Tries to break down and examine traditional ideas about gender and femininity. • Examines how the sexuality of the author might have contributed to factors of the text. • Examines which characters may be implicitly coded as queer and why/how. Feminist/Gender/Queer theory
How does the author portray female characters? What does this tell us about ideas of gender? • What violations and subversions of traditional gender roles are to be found in the text? • What things are coded as masculine and what things are coded as feminine? • (i.e. why are ships always “she?”) • What women authors have been forgotten/ignored due to patriarchal structures in literary studies? • What characters are coded as lgbtq+ and how does the text handle them? Example questions
Takes the methods of other schools (Marxist, feminist, queer etc.) and applies them to constructs of race and ethnic identity. • Examines how and why race became “a thing” over the course of history. • Examines the development of racial discourse over time. • Attempts to break down “scientific” and “realist” approaches to race. Critical Race theory
Far too many to cover here. And many more