Month: November 2019

LITERARY THEORY: AN OVERVIEW (adapted from The Norton Introduction to Literature, shorter 12th ed.) EMPHASIS ON SOURCE----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BIOGRAPHICAL CRITICISM—(popular 1750s-1960s), emphasis on the artistic expression/agency of a work, the author is the ultimate authority, a look at how the author’s biographical information may have affected the work (as a whole or in part). PSYCHOANALYTIC CRITICISM—emphasis on mental and emotional effects within literature such as dreamlike imagery, rarely focuses on the form of the text—they tend to focus on hidden meanings/agendas behind the author or a source behind the character.   EMPHASIS ON READER------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ READER-RESPONSE CRITICISM—“regard the work not as what is printed on the page but as what is experienced temporally through each act of reading”, “the reader effectively performs the text into existence the way a musician performs music from a score”, identifies reader’s expectations, how they are met/satisfied/interpreted, could possibly bring in political identities because of the potency of literature to shape and be shaped by human experiences. HISTORICAL/IDEOLOGICAL CRITICISM---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MARXIST CRITICISM—(20th century-present, Karl Marx), “literary works...