INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY CRITICISM || QUARTER 3 WEEK 6 || GRADE 10 || MELC-Based || Aizie Dumuk

Teacher Aiz Dumuk

19 Apr 202106:24

Summary

TLDRIn this educational video, Teacher Izzy introduces literary criticism as the analysis and interpretation of literature, focusing on themes, style, and context. She outlines its purpose: to understand the text's essence, the author's relationship with the text, and to enhance reading enjoyment. The video maps out various approaches to criticism, including formalism, historical, intertextual, reader response, and more, emphasizing the importance of an open mind and diverse viewpoints. Izzy encourages viewers to explore different perspectives to enrich their literary insights.

Takeaways

📚 Literary criticism is the analysis, interpretation, and evaluation of literature, focusing on aspects like theme, style, setting, and historical or political context.
🔍 It serves to understand the essence of a text, the relationship between the author and the text, and to enhance the enjoyment of reading.
🎨 There are two main functions of literary criticism: to analyze literature and to form general principles for examining literary works.
🧩 The literary criticism map includes four critical variables: author's world, author's life, text itself, and readers.
📜 Formalism and deconstruction focus primarily on the text, disregarding external factors like the author or historical context.
📚 Historical approach emphasizes understanding the author's beliefs, time, and history to interpret the work.
🌐 Intertextual approach compares the work with other literature to provide a broader perspective.
👀 Reader-response focuses on how the audience interprets the work, suggesting that meaning is created by the reader, not solely by the author or the work.
🌍 Memetic criticism assesses the work's alignment with the real world, considering its accuracy, correctness, and morality.
🔮 Archetypal criticism identifies universal symbols, images, characters, and motives that resonate across cultures and races.
🧠 Psychological criticism delves into the behavioral motivations of characters and may extend to the author's and reader's psychological states during the writing and reading process.
🏛 Marxist criticism examines the social class conflicts, particularly between the bourgeoisie and proletariat, as they influence the narrative.
👩‍🎓 Feminist criticism analyzes the portrayal of women's roles in society and challenges the literary construction of gender.
🌟 There is no single 'best' literary approach; a good approach is to keep an open mind and consider multiple viewpoints.

Q & A

What is literary criticism?
-Literary criticism is the comparison, analysis, interpretation, and/or evaluation of works of literature. It is an opinion supported by evidence relating to theme, style, setting, or historical and political context.
Why is literary criticism important?
-Literary criticism is important because it helps us understand the essence of a text, reveals the relationship between the author and the text, and enhances the enjoyment of reading literary works.
What are the two main functions of literary criticism?
-The two main functions of literary criticism are to analyze, study, and evaluate works of literature, and to form general principles for the examination of works of literature.
What are the four critical variables in literary criticism?
-The four critical variables in literary criticism are the author's world, author's life, the text itself, and the readers.
How does the historical approach in literary criticism differ from other approaches?
-The historical approach relies heavily on understanding the author and his world to interpret the work, emphasizing the importance of the author's beliefs, time, and history in making sense of the literary work.
What is the main focus of formalism and deconstruction in literary criticism?
-Formalism and deconstruction primarily deal with the text itself, focusing on the language, structure, and form of the work without considering external factors like the author or the real world.
How does reader-response criticism view the creation of meaning in a literary work?
-Reader-response criticism posits that the meaning of a literary work is created by the audience, emphasizing the reader's experience and interpretation rather than the author's intent or the work itself.
What does intertextual criticism involve?
-Intertextual criticism involves comparing the work in question to other literature to gain a broader understanding of its themes, influences, and context within the literary tradition.
What is the primary concern of feminist criticism in literary analysis?
-Feminist criticism is concerned with a woman's role in society as portrayed through texts, analyzing the depiction of women and critiquing the literary construction of gender roles.
How does Marxist criticism approach the analysis of literature?
-Marxist criticism analyzes the clash of opposing social classes in society, particularly the ruling class (bourgeoisie) and the working class (proletariat), and how these class dynamics shape the events and themes within the literary work.
What is the best literary approach to use, according to the video?
-There is no single 'best' literary approach; rather, varying approaches and keeping an open mind to different viewpoints can enrich one's insights into a literary work.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Introduction to Literary Criticism

This paragraph introduces the concept of literary criticism as the analysis, interpretation, and evaluation of literature. It emphasizes that literary criticism is an opinion supported by evidence and relates to aspects like theme, style, setting, and historical or political context. The paragraph outlines the three main benefits of literary criticism: understanding the essence of a text, exploring the relationship between the author and the text, and enhancing the enjoyment of reading. It also highlights two primary functions of literary criticism: to analyze and evaluate literature and to establish general principles for literary examination. The critical variables in literary criticism are introduced, including the author's world, author's life, the text itself, and the readers. Different approaches to literary criticism are briefly described, such as formalism, deconstruction, historical, intertextual, reader response, memetic, archetypal, psychological, Marxist, and feminist criticism.

05:02

🌟 Choosing the Best Literary Approach

The second paragraph discusses the idea that there is no single 'best' approach to literary criticism, as each approach offers unique insights. It encourages an open-minded approach and the consideration of various viewpoints to enrich one's understanding of literature. The paragraph concludes with a call to action for viewers to subscribe for upcoming videos that will delve deeper into each literary approach. It ends with a quote from Socrates, emphasizing the importance of examining life and, by extension, literature.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡Literary Criticism

Literary criticism is the process of analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating literature. It involves forming opinions about a text that are supported by evidence and can encompass themes, style, setting, and historical or political context. In the video, literary criticism is presented as a crucial tool for understanding literature, as it helps to uncover the essence of a text, the relationship between the author and the text, and enhances the reader's enjoyment.

💡Author's World

Author's world refers to the historical and social context in which an author lived and created their work. In the video, it is mentioned as one of the critical variables in literary criticism, suggesting that understanding the author's world can provide insight into their intent and the meaning of their work.

💡Text Itself

The text itself is the central focus of formalism and deconstruction approaches in literary criticism. It emphasizes the importance of examining the literary work directly, without relying on external factors like the author's life or historical context. The video script places the text at the center of the literary criticism map, indicating its foundational role.

💡Formalism

Formalism is a critical approach that concentrates on the form and structure of the text, such as style, language, and literary devices. It is mentioned in the script as one that deals primarily with the text itself, suggesting that the meaning of a literary work can be found within its form and style, independent of external factors.

💡Deconstruction

Deconstruction is a critical approach that seeks to dismantle the text to reveal its underlying assumptions and contradictions. It is associated with the idea that there is no fixed meaning in language, as mentioned in the script. This approach challenges traditional interpretations and encourages a deeper examination of the text's structure.

💡Historical Approach

The historical approach in literary criticism emphasizes the importance of understanding the author's life and the historical context in which the work was created. As the script explains, this approach views the work as informed by the author's beliefs, time, and history, and thus, to fully understand the work, one must understand the author and his age.

💡Intertextual Approach

Intertextuality is the relationship between a text and other texts. The intertextual approach, as discussed in the video, involves comparing the work in question to other literature to gain a broader understanding. This approach recognizes that literature is part of a larger dialogue and that texts are influenced by and influence one another.

💡Reader Response

Reader response is a critical approach that focuses on the reader's experience and how they interpret the text. The video script highlights that in this approach, the reader creates meaning, rather than the author or the work itself. This perspective acknowledges the subjectivity of literary interpretation and the active role of the reader in constructing meaning.

💡Memetic Criticism

Memetic criticism, as mentioned in the script, seeks to evaluate how accurately a work reflects the real world. It examines whether the work is correct, accurate, or moral in its depiction of reality. This approach is concerned with the truthfulness and ethical implications of the text's content.

💡Archetypal Criticism

Archetypal criticism, also known as mythological and symbolic criticism, is an approach that looks for universal symbols, images, characters, and motifs in literature. The script explains that these archetypal patterns evoke similar responses across different cultures and races, suggesting that they are fundamental to the human experience.

💡Psychological Criticism

Psychological criticism involves analyzing the psychological aspects of characters within a literary work, as well as the author's and reader's psychological states. The video script mentions that this approach examines the behavioral underpinnings of characters, including any neurosis or psychological disorders that may be present, providing insights into the characters' actions and thoughts.

💡Marxist Criticism

Marxist criticism is a critical approach that focuses on the analysis of social classes and their conflicts within a society, as they are reflected in literature. The script describes how this approach looks at the ruling class versus the working class dynamics and how they shape the events in the story, providing a socio-political lens through which to view the text.

💡Feminist Criticism

Feminist criticism is concerned with the representation of women in literature and society. The video script explains that this approach typically analyzes the portrayal of women's plight and challenges the literary construction of women. It seeks to uncover and critique the gender dynamics and power structures within the text.

Highlights

Literary criticism is the comparison, analysis, interpretation, and evaluation of works of literature.

Literary criticism helps us understand the essential aspects of a text, the relationship between the author and the text, and enhances our reading enjoyment.

Literary criticism serves to analyze, study, and evaluate works of literature, as well as to form general principles for their examination.

The text is central in literary criticism as all approaches must engage with it.

Formalism and deconstruction focus primarily on the text itself, disregarding external factors.

Constructionists also perform formal analysis but conclude that language has no inherent meaning.

Historical approach emphasizes understanding the author's world to interpret their work.

Intertextual approach compares literature to provide a broader understanding of the work.

Reader response focuses on how the audience views and creates meaning from the work.

Memetic criticism evaluates a work's accuracy, correctness, and morality in relation to the real world.

Archetypal criticism identifies universal symbols, images, characters, and motives that resonate across cultures.

Psychological criticism analyzes the behavioral patterns and potential neuroses of characters and possibly the author and reader.

Marxist criticism examines the conflict between social classes as depicted in literature.

Feminist criticism critiques the portrayal of women's roles and societal constructs in literature.

There is no single 'right' literary approach; a good approach is to keep an open mind and consider various viewpoints.

Socrates' quote emphasizes the importance of examining life, which can be applied to the examination of literature.

The video promises to delve into the details of various literary approaches in future installments.