Intro to Literary Theory

romantic aesthetic

thinks that art reveals something about nature in addition to imitating it

theoretical "move"/critical leverage

using someone elses theory to approach a test

new criticism

-Arose in the US in 1930s and 1940s -Want to exclude (1) personal registrations, (2) synopses and paraphrases, (3) linguistic studies, (4) historical studies, and (5) moral studies from literary criticism. -Focus on unity or integration of literature works, and opposed the historical scholarship practiced in universities with lit criticism. -Think literary devices and rhetoric used are all one needs to understand the meaning to a work of lit (ambiguity, paradox, irony, effects of connotation and poetic imagery) -How do these parts and their collective whole contribute to or not contribute to the aesthetic quality of the work?

Theory

-Interdisciplinary -Analytical & speculative -critique of common sense -reflective (thinking about thinking)

hyperprotected cooperative principle

-basic convention that makes possible the interpretation of literature: the assumption that difficulties, apparent nonsense, digressions, and irrelevancies have a relevant function at some level -Culler's attempt at providing parameters to the elastic and variant manner in which we receive and perceive meaning in language and literature.2

brooks

-critic of american new criticism -isolated lit criticism by limiting it to the intensive analysis itself & disabled any attempt to relate lit study to political, social, and cultural issues/debates -had interest in "close reading" -seeks to make lit criticism more like a science, HOWEVER thinks that lit and science use lang. in different ways -intent on exploring attitudes towards history that author expressed in the language itself; text possesses an "organic unity" -technique creates meaning -forms chosen b/c convey specific, unique ideas -most important part of poetry is that it cannot be paraphrased; "heresy of paraphrase" -form and content cannot be separated -irony=most general term to indicate recognition of incongruities -preserve the unity of experience

romantic era

-developed in latter half of 18th century & early 19th century; was inspired by American & French Revolutions -drew attention to how the imagination transforms and synthesizes sense perceptions to create unique, organic art ---> attention to the symbol -studying lit derived from this era

russian formalists

-early 1920s, after the Russian Revolution; suppressed by Stalin b/c he thought the practice and study of culture should always support social progress. -friction btwn Russian formalism & social historical approaches represents "intrinsic" vs. "extrinsic" literary theoretical conflict -"literariness" -stressed that what a piece of literature "means" cannot be dismissed from how it says it. In other words, the form/technique is what makes literature meaningful. -literary devices--"the device is the only hero of literature"

paraphrase

-express the meaning of (the writer or speaker or something written or spoken) using different words, especially to achieve greater clarity; -Brooks believed that the most important part of poetry is that it cannot be paraphrased b/c it separates the "form" and the "content" of the poem, which he finds crucial.

critique of common sense

nietzsche; "good" & "bad" are human constructs that we are inherently taught

positivism

philosophical theory stating that certain ("positive") knowledge is based on natural phenomena and their properties and relations. Thus, information derived from sensory experience, interpreted through reason and logic, forms the exclusive source of all certain knowledge.; western scientific method will answer all questions

defamiliarization

the artistic technique of presenting to audiences common things in an unfamiliar or strange way in order to enhance perception of the familiar. "making strange"

irony

the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect

literariness

the feature that makes a given work a literary work; the verbal strategies that make something literary--the foregrounding of language itself, and the making strange of an experience that they accomplish

metonymy

the substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant, for example suit for business executive, or the track for horse racing.

synecdoche

a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa, as in Cleveland won by six runs (meaning "Cleveland's baseball team").

metaphor

a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable. does not use like or as.

paradox

a statement or proposition that, despite sound (or apparently sound) reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory; a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true

affective fallacy

according to the followers of New Criticism, this is the misconception that arises from judging a poem by the emotional effect that it produces in the reader.

intentional fallacy

an assertion that the intended meaning of the author is not the only or most important meaning; a fallacy involving an assessment of a literary work based on the author's intended meaning rather than on actual response to the work.

formalist theory

focuses on the work itself, and demphasizes connections btwn the text and the universe, artist, and audience.

expressive theory

foregrounds the relationship between the work and the artist

"connotative" vs. "denotative"

meaning that cannot be paraphrased vs. surface meaning

ransom

-focused on how literature was taught in universities -thinks that historical study dominates at the expense of a truly "critical" approach, preventing students from acquiring skills needed for them to understand the "technical effects" of literary works -> they cannot respond in a direct way to lit or poetry -urges teachers to focus on "technical studies of poetry"--imagery, metaphor, and meter -critics argue that in giving lit studies a disciplinary identity, they failed to clarify how it could engage with social, cultural, and historical issues in a meaningful way. -thinks that lit should not entwine with other subjects like psych or history -struggle btwn intrinsic & extrinsic

mimesis

-literature imitating life; emphasizes the relationship between the work and the universe. - Aristotle

literature

-particular use of language (e.g. defamiliarization) -mimetic fiction -aesthetic object -inter-textual (a text is lit because it relates itself to other example of lit) -social convention -intention of the author (lit b/c author says it is -engages reader in special ways