Title: AP Literature - Literary Criticism & Theory Flashcards | Quizlet
Headings: AP Literature - Literary Criticism & Theory
AP Literature - Literary Criticism & Theory
Formalist or "New Criticism"
Terms in this set (9)

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Terms in this set (9)
Formalist or "New Criticism"
- "The text, the text, and nothing but the text." - close reading of literary texts
- when analyzing a work, only evidence from the text (intrinsic) is worth considering nothing from the outside (extrinsic)
- questions of technique are most important for meaning
- seek to understand how author or poet uses figures of speech, symbolism, narrative frames, and the other literary tools at his disposal to achieve "unity of effect"
- a work of literature must stand or fall on its own merits
- How do the literary elements found in a particular text work together to achieve a unified artistic effect? Biographical Criticism
- studies the events in the life of the author in order to determine how they may have influenced the author's life
- What real life event or personality inspired the author to create a given plot twist or character? - Where does real life leave off and the imagination take over? Historical Criticism
- examine the social and intellectual milieu (environment) in which the author wrote
- consider the politics and social movements prevalent during the time period of the text's creation
- do so in order to determine how the literature under examination is both the product and shaper of society
- How did the text in question influence contemporary events and how did contemporary events influence the author's creative choices? Feminist Criticism
- investigate how a literary work either tends to serve or to challenge a patriarchal (male dominated) view of society
- literature should be analyzed with the goal of explaining how the text exemplifies or reveals important insights about sex roles and society's structure
- traditional "canon" (books that are commonly read and are valued as sacred or genuine) tends to define women as "other", or an object, compared to the male's high statues
- focuses on social relationships, including the patterns of thought, behavior, values, enfranchisement and power between the sexes
- "a political act whose aim is not simply to interpret the world but to change it by changing the consciousness of those who read and their relation to what they read..." (Judith Fetterly)
- How does the text mirror or question a male-dominated (phallocentric) view of reality? - How are feminine and masculine defined and/ or qualified within the text? - How are women represented in texts written by men? - How does the text display the power relationships between genders?