: Literary Criticism

What is Literary Criticism?
• Literary Criticism is the broad field that uses Literary Theory to take apart a piece of Literature, find meaning within the text/poem, and explain the text/poem within a school of thought.
• Literary Theory is the lens one uses to examine the particular text/poem. It applies a systematic study to deeply analyze a text. In literary theory one chooses a school of analysis and examines the work in that context.
• Academics are usually fiercely loyal to their school of interpretation.
Schools of Literary Theory
• Aestheticism: often associated with the Romantic period of Literature: aesthetic value is of great importance in this sort of theory.
• Cognitive Studies: focuses on how the mind works, scientifically, heavy emphasis on neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, to explain the text.
• Cultural Theory: examines a work through the lens of how cultures work, and then focuses on specific cultures. Anthropology, Sociology, can both be a valuable tool in this regard.
• Deconstruction: takes apart a work by reading very close (called: close reading) and examining word choices, paradoxes, concepts, leading to awareness of what runs counter to how the text presents itself initially.
• Eco-criticism: Nature, Ecology, their presence, anthropomorphisms, or treatment of the natural world within a text.
• Existentialism: the philosophy of “why I matter,” the works of Nietzsche, Sartre, Camus, Heidegger, Jaspers to discover themes of authentic and inauthentic being-in-the-world.
• Feminist Critique: examines a work based on one of the specific “waves” of Feminist schools of theory.
• Gender: Examines a work based on how gender roles are emphasized, explored, assigned, ignored.
• The Gothic: (your prof’s preferred school of theory) Initially a school of Aestheticism, looks at a work as a subject of Gothic inquiry, how the major themes of what “The Gothic” or “Goth” are functioning within a work.
• Reader Response: the reader, the reader’s feelings, self-awareness, and response to it from their own life and experience are what matter most here. This school of thought is no longer considered “academic.”
• Religious: It is also possible to examine a work purely based on specific schools of Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Neo-Pagan or other religious and/or spiritual traditions.
• Semiotics: language, linguistic conventions, linguistic structures, how structure functions within a text
• NOTE: New Schools of thought constantly appear, come into favor, fall out of favor. It’s not enough to simply “pick a school” devotees of Literary Theory immerse themselves in their school’s major critics, major thinkers, literary movements, and changes in convention.
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