Literary Criticism
Schools of Theory
Overview: Imagine a white piece of paper with different dots of color, red, blue, and yellow. If you were to put a transparent yellow sheet over the paper, which dots would disappear? How would the red dots appear under the yellow film? Literary theory is a method of applying different readings, or “lenses,” to a piece of writing. Depending on the lens or theory you select, different aspects of the story will be foregrounded or backgrounded. These lenses help readers to better understand different messages an author conveys, or they help us better understand different aspects of human nature or history.
Qualifications: Literary theory has been around as long as people have told stories. Many famous writers, in addition to their published poetry, drama, and stories, also published essays arguing the purpose of fiction and non-fiction. Literary theories are an open-ended process. They can be combined together, or a mere starting point for the analytical process. For this assignment, however, you will be considering one approach closely.
Marxism: This reading approach is concerned with the socio-economical class distinctions in literature. A person using this approach would closely examine who has power and who does not have power in the text and how this power relates to wealth and social standing. This approach highlights the ways in which our socioeconomic distinctions influence our life experiences.
Assumptions / Questions / Things to look for:1. What drives historical change are the economic realities of members rather than the ideologies of politics or religion.
2. The worker is alienated from what he produces, from himself, and people in general are alienated from each other. / 1. Who is benefited if a work/effort is believed or successful?
2. What social classes do characters represent?
3. How do characters from different classes interact?
4. What values are reinforced/subverted by the power structure?
5. From what social class is the author? How might the author’s class be expressing itself in the story? / · Identify the elite, middle class, lower class, servants, etc.
· Identify the values of each group.
· Identify how those values compare/contrast and which are championed overall.
· Identify ways in which the lower or working classes are oppressed or exploited.
*Example of a Marxist approach with The Hunger Games: The annual hunger games are an example of the wealthy Capitol exploiting the working classes in the other districts. Those contestants from wealthier districts fare better in this competition due to the subsidization from wealthy patrons in the Capitol. The Capitol’s control of wealth and material items is used to manipulate other districts into an oppressed lifestyle. Katniss’s challenging of this authority incites rebellion because she shows the other districts that without her cooperation within the society, the Capitol will lose control. Katniss’s rebellion stemming from a refusal to participate suggests that class structure is only enforced through passive participation.
Feminism: This approach seeks to challenge or reinforce the patriarchy. You will look at ways women are painted in a story. Women should either conform to traditional gender roles or challenge them. Read to see what happens to women who conform and women who challenge. Does fate punish or reward them? When determining if a female character challenges or conforms to society, it is important to consider the time period as well. For example, Lizzy in Pride and Prejudice may seem pretty traditional by today’s standards, but she was aggressively independent for her time period. Sometimes a feminist reading of a text reveals male fears as portrayed through female characters.
Assumptions / Questions / Things to look for:1. Your interpretation of literature is influenced by your own status, gender, class, race, religion, and more.
2. Women are oppressed by patriarchy economically, politically, socially, and psychologically; patriarchal ideology is the primary means by which they are kept so.
3. In every domain where patriarchy reigns, woman is other: she is marginalized, defined only by her difference from male norms and values. / 1. How is the relationship between men and women portrayed?
2. How are male/female roles defined?
3. Do characters take on traits from opposite genders? How? How does this change others’ reactions? Is it good or bad to be feminine/masculine?
4. How do women interact? If they “damage the sisterhood,” is it the result of the patriarchy?
5. Are teenage girls always lovesick? Obsessed with their appearance? / · Women being marginalized or trivialized.
· Male characters who act feminine and what the result is.
· Enforcement of or challenge to the patriarchy.
*Example of a Feminism approach with The Hunger Games:: It is interesting to consider the roles of Peeta and Katniss because Katniss is very much seen as the strong character, reflecting traditional male qualities, and Peeta is portrayed as more passive and gentle, marking him as a more feminine character (here the labels of masculine/feminine are based on the assumed traditional definitions). Despite this yin-yang of feminine qualities, both characters are the only two who remain at the end of the competition. Peeta—artist, baker, sacrificial character—is the model 17th century woman. No one is particularly impressed with his survival despite its reliance on cleverness. Peeta, much as a woman, is viewed only as an extension of Katniss. Katniss’s success in the games is twisted as well. It is not her proficiency at traditionally masculine roles (hunting, survival skills, tracking) but rather her relationship with Peeta and her image as the lovesick girl that earns her patrons in the game, tipping the scale in her favor. Even though Peeta and Katniss are both the champions of the game, it is Katniss’s conformity to her traditional feminine status that gains her admirers. By flipping traditional gender roles on Katniss and Peeta, Suzanne Collins is able to highlight the inconsistencies in our society’s treatment of men and women.
Historical: This approach links the historical context of the author and the author’s biographical information with the published work. A story is the reflection of the author’s life and time. Using this approach requires research into the author’s biography and any information the author may share regarding his/her story. This reading might also review how critics and others received the book.
Assumptions / Questions / Things to look for:1. It matters when and where something was written, and by whom.
2. This consideration includes facts about the author’s life and status, larger history around the author and the work, beliefs/philosophies at work during the author’s time.
3. You must be careful to distinguish literature and “real” life, but each can illuminate the other. / 1. How can you connect the author’s life to his or her writing? Are there common issues and events?
2. How can you connect the literary work to its historical contest, including literary context?
3. Is the author part of a dominant culture, and how does that status affect the work?
4. Does the author’s story align to the philosophical leanings of his/her time period, or challenge them? / · Research the author’s life and relate that information, cautiously, to the work.
· Research the historical time period of the author and relate it to the work.
· Research how people reasoned during the author’s lifetime, the limits and patterns involved. Relate these strategies to the work.
*Example of a Historical approach with The Hunger Games: Published at the height of the Iraq War and the emergence of 24-hour news, The Hunger Games seeks to display the inherent dangers of a culture desensitized to violence. The televised nature of the competitions reflects the intermingling of reality television with actual violence, a blend that Suzanne Collins uncomfortably experienced in her living room while flipping the channels of her TV. Members of the Capitol eagerly watch the brutalization of children as entertainment, much as an American audience hungrily watched soldiers rolling into enemy territory. The horrifying nature of war was somehow scaled down to a 32” screen, safely confined in the realm of “some other where,” and this lack of compassion and empathy is reflected in characters’ disconnect with the trauma a 12 year old could experience. Characters like Effie merely view the games as an exciting adventure, selfishly urging contestants to take enjoyment and fun from their death parades. In a similar fashion, the fervor and excitement initially surrounding the invasion of Iraq lacked awareness and concern for the families of soldiers in danger.
Psychoanalytical: This approach believes that author’s write expressions of the repressed desires, feelings, and wishes of the reader. This approach builds on some theories from several psychologists like Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. The goal of this is to discover the psychological motivations driving characters. In essence, you act as if the story were a case study and you are analyzing the character’s driving forces. Who are they? Why do they behave as they do?
Assumptions / Questions / Things to look for:1. Creative writing, like dreaming, represents the disguised fulfillment of a repressed wish or fear.
2. People are not always aware or willing to admit what wishes/fears are actually driving their behavior. / 1. What appears to be motivating the character?
2. What other motivations, repressed or disguised, might be at work?
3. Do the actions/statements of the character match what is going on in his/her head?
4. How does your understanding of the characters, their relationships, their actions, and their motivations in a literary work help you better understand the mental world and imaginative life, or the actions and motivations of the author? / · Behavior reflecting the Id (primal desire), Ego (logic, the balancer of Id and Super Ego), and Superego (moral compass).
· Look for how metaphors, imagery, and other devices might reveal the psychological motivations of the character OR his/her mindset at a given time.
*Example of a Psychoanalytical approach with The Hunger Games: Many often view the scene where Katniss covers Rue’s body with flowers as an example of her rebellious nature and the preservation of her humanity. However, are we to believe that Katniss is merely a thoughtful, compassionate soul? Past examples of Katniss show she has little concern for how her actions might startle or intimidate others. For example, she blatantly shoots an arrow at the judges out of anger. She also shows a lack of empathy for Peeta as she pretends to have romantic feelings for him, feelings he genuinely holds for her. Katniss’s motivation in holding a funeral for Rue actually stem from her fear of losing her family; her death means she will no longer spend time with them. She is terrified of what might happen to her sister following the games and how her death will impact her family. The purpose of a funeral is to preserve the memory of a dead person, and Katniss’s action reveals her own desire to preserve the memory of her sister. Multiple times in the book, Suzanne Collins stresses that Rue reminds Katniss of Primrose both in stature and age. Katniss’s funeral is not an act of the selfless honoring of an enemy and child, but rather an instinctually selfish act as she mourns the loss of what she holds dearest: Prim.
Deconstruction: All previous approaches seek to unify a work. How do the elements of the story work together to create a message? Deconstruction is the opposite approach, and instead attempts to break apart the unity of the work. Whatever message seems the obvious direction of the author must be disproven. This approach can occur with many works, but the challenge will fluctuate depending on how focused an author is. Play the devil’s advocate.
Assumptions / Questions / Things to look for:1. Meaning is made through binary oppositions (happy/sad, man/woman, black/white); one item is favored over the other.
2. This favoring must be reversed and questioned through imaginative and playful reading. / 1. Identify oppositions in the text and determine which items are favored.
2. What appears to be central to the text, and what appears to be marginalized?
3. Reverse the favored and central/marginalized. What is central to the text now?
4. What ideology does the text initially seem to promote and how does conflicting evidence reveal the limitations? / · You MUST identify what the author actually appears to be arguing or promoting.
· Identify ideas that seem to be unpopular or not supported by the author.
· Look for examples of characters acting or behaving in a way that challenged what the central theme is.
*Example of a Deconstruction approach with The Hunger Games:: In The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins attempts to show rebellion occurs once one individual is willing to stop (figuratively and literally) “playing the game.” However, the circumstances surrounding this catalyst for rebellion are not as plausible as she implies; Katniss’s rebellion is only possible through serendipity. Let’s set the stage: Katniss threatens to eat the poison berries along with Peeta, rather than kill him which would be the expectation of the Capitol. The audience is then supposed to believe the game makers would be concerned with a mutual suicide. Collins tenuously explains that citizens of Capitol would rebel if they lost the iconic love pair; however this explanation does not support the earlier characterization of the Capitol’s power, might, and callousness. The purpose of these games is to cull and weaken the districts, and citizens view the games as entertainment, and what grips an audience more than a martyr? Even in our own culture we romanticize the deaths of celebrities, and while hopefully we are not quite as out of touch with compassion and reality as the Capitol’s citizens, it is much more plausible to imagine the Capitol’s citizens as deliciously saddened and delighted at Katniss and Peeta’s tragic end. The whole balance of power is shifted in the next two novels due to this one miscalculation on the game makers’ part: sparing Katniss and Peeta rather than losing them. Finally, the unlikeliness that the Capitol would truly allow two contestants to win, removes the power from the oppressed. There is no hope for rebellion in unjust circumstances because rebellion only occurs at the mercy of the oppressor. Hence, while Collins creates a successful scene of rebellion, this, when taken to its logical conclusion, is not realistic since the game makers and those in the Capitol are merciless.