The Need For Critical Theory

Discussion in 'Non-Fiction Books' started by myself, Jul 20, 2006.

  1. myself

    myself just me

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    THE NEED FOR CRITICAL THEORY





    Any approach to literature is theory-based.

    A theoretical approach is to be preferred over an impressionistic opinion of a literary work, as it has explanatory power.

    The main conflict between the history of literary ideas is Formalism vs Historicism.

    Is a text an autonomous structure which can be classified, whose meaning can be exhausted through interpretation? Or is a text a site of conflictual meaning structures, whose meaning is indeterminate, offering the ground for several and sometimes opposite interpretations?

    New Historicism means approaching a text as part of cultural context. World and language mean institutional norms and codes.

    Writing practices differ widely in time. Thinking about literature changes as well.

    For example, a cultural approach of Shakespeare’s "King Lear" would argue that the text is the outgrowth of a certain type of culture (Renaissance poetics). The play’s message is anti-absolutist, a warning to the autocratic king against the medieval theocratic view of kingship. In the Middle Ages, the king was God’s annointed, he had two bodies (a mortal body and a body politic); a king was a king no matter the circumstances. In "King Lear," we notice placing interest in the outward signs of his dignity. Lear is deprived of these tokens of the royal body of his kingship: he is descended among common people, he is no longer obeyed. In the Renaissance, the king had a set of duties towards the subjects, he was supposed to assume some responsibilities. Identity was constructed in the public sphere.
     
  2. Scott MacFarlane

    Scott MacFarlane Member

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    Good post.

    Another issue in literary criticism, particularly for poststructuralism,
    stems from the idea that deconstructivist analysis is inherently a breaking apart of the text being critiqued. The unit of meaning for the poststructuralist is the sign or the signifier. It is an analysis of reader/text in the breaking down of a literary work. Deconstructivism can also draw on postitionality, socio-historical context (as you aptly point out), Feminist models, psychoanalytical critique, Neo-Marxist critique, etc. All of these are valid methods of literary analysis, but usually disregard the genuine cultural production of text,which is inherently constructivist. Missing in deconstructivist critical theory is the integrated dialectic of thesis (text), antithesis (critique), and synthesis (authorial constructivism). Specifically, the author when constructing text, is most commonly concerned, not with signs and signifiers, but with how well his or her synthesizing of new text contributes to the dramatic whole of the piece.

    Think of the writer's workshop. The author of a short story must listen quietly to fellow writers dissect the prose, mostly in terms of how well certain sections "work" or "don't work" as literature. This is not unlike Aristotle in his Poetics discussing the Speaker/Audience/Subject as the way to understand a dramatic enactment. Schools of Literary Criticism in the 19th and 20th century, however, in looking at a similar triangle of Author/Reader/Text tend to emphasize one leg of this triangle over the other two. Aristotle's analysis was more integrated. In the contemporary writer's workshop, the writer of the work being critiqued is not unlike the writer of a play sitting in the theater and witnessing the audience boo, weep, laugh, or applaud the play they are watching. Understanding the dramatic whole as the unit of meaning for the artist, is, I believe, the key to a more integrated approach to literary criticism.

    This is different than a purely subjective, "I really like it," or "this really sucks" kind of response. Constructivist critique would look at how and why specific elements of literary craft are working or not working within the context of the full work.
     

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