Approaches to Criticism

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Approaches to Criticism

• Traditional, Formalistic, Mythological and
  Archetypal

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Traditional

• The work of art frequently appeared to be of
  secondary importance, before 30s something that
  merely illustrated background
• Studying literature was basically biography or
  history rather than an art
• New criticism is a reaction to the
  traditionalists
• Avoid danger of interpreting a literary work
  solely as biography and historythe end result of
  the traditional method
• Literature is primarily an art art does not
  exist in a vacuum. It is a creation by someone
  at some time in history, and it is intended to
  speak to other human beings about some idea or
  issue that has human relevance

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Types of Traditional Approaches

• Textual-linguistic
• Not precisely a method of criticism but important
  tool in literary analysis
• Correct meaning of words in their historical
  context. Authenticity of text
• Reader may assume text has come down unchanged
• Poes original verse from To Helen
• To the beauty of fair Greece
• And the grandeur of old Rome.
• Revision
• To the glory that was Greece
• And the grandeur that was Rome.

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Types of TraditionalHistorical-biographical

• Reflection of authors life and times or the life
  and times of the characters in the work.
• The Jungle, Poe, Oliver Twist
• Additional approaches
• Expressive, which sees literature as a source of
  unique knowledge deriving from the artists
  imagination and therefore glorifies
  self-expression as the true function of art
• Impressionist is what the critic feels in
  presence of a work of art
• Poets have from earliest times been the
  historians, the interpreters of contemporary
  culture, and the prophets of their people.
  Remember Emerson and the poet owns the
  landscape

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Moral-philosophical

• An approach as old as classical Greek and Roman
  critics
• The larger function is to teach morality
• Critic is not aware of form, figurative language,
  other aesthetic considerations, but are
  secondary.
• The important thing is the moral or philosophical
  teaching.
• All great literature teaches in the larger sense
• Less likely to err on side of over-interpretation

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Formalistic approach

• The object of formalistic criticism is to find
  the key to the structure and meaning of the
  literary work
• We search for form which is necessary for real
  understanding
• A unifying pattern is the pattern that as modern
  critics say, informs or shapes the work inwardly
  and gives its parts a relevance to the whole
• We must narrow our attention to what the literary
  work says but we must first consider how it is
  said
• Suggests that the reader see what is in the poem,
  novel, or the play rather than to consider what
  is outside it.
• First step in explaining the literary work is to
  discover what the words actually mean in their
  full denotative and connotative value.
• Find point of view used by author
• Principle by which content and form inseparable
• Imagery, tone, meters, rhymes, etc

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Psychological approach

• Most controversial, most abused, for the most
  part the least appreciated
• Trad. Overlooks structure, Formal neglects
  historical and biographical, Psychologicals
  limitation is its aesthetic inadequacy.
• Abuses and Misunderstandings
• Aristotle used it to define tragedy
• Psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud and
  followers
• mistrust from abuses because sexual in nature

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Freuds theories

• Emphasis on unconscious aspects of the human
  psyche
• Most actions are motivated by psychic forces over
  which we have limited control
• Most of the individuals mental processes are
  unconscious
• All human behavior is motivated ultimately by
  sexuality

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Freud

• Idprimary source of psychic energy
• Egoprotects the individual rational governing
  agent of the psyche the conscious mind
• Super-egoto protect society, moral censoring
  agency. Acting either directly through the Ego,
  the super-ego serves to repress or inhibit the
  drives of the Id, to block off and thrust back
  into the unconscious those impulses toward
  pleasure that society regards as unacceptable.
  Parental influence develops super-ego.

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Freud

• Concerning child psychology
• Infancy and childhood a period of intense sexual
  experience

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Mythological and Archetypal approaches

• Myth critic seeks out those mysterious artifacts
  built into certain literary forms which elicit
  dramatic and universal human reactions.
• To discover how it is that certain works of
  literature, image a kind of reality to which
  readers give response
• A close connection between mythological criticism
  and the psychological approach both are
  concerned with the motives underlying human
  behavior

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Archetype cont.

• Psychology tends to be experimental and
  diagnostic its is related to biological sciences
• Mythology tends to be speculative and
  philosophic its affinities are with religion,
  anthropology, and cultural history
• Mythology is wider in scope
• Psychoanalysis attempts to disclose about the
  individual personality, the study reveals about
  the mind and character of the people.
• Myths are symbolic projections of a peoples
  hopes, values, fears, and aspirations.
• The common misconception of the term, myths are
  merely primitive fictions, illusions, or opinions
  based on false reasoning
• Mythology encompasses more than grade-school
  stories about the Greek and Roman deities or
  clever fables invented for the amusement of
  children.
• Myths do not meet our current standards of
  factual reality, they reflect a more profound
  reality. Metaphoric truth.

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Cont.

• Myth is fundamental, the dramatic representation
  of our deepest instinctual life, of primary
  awareness of man in the universe, capable of many
  configurations, upon which all particular
  opinions and attitudes depend.Mark Schorer
• Myth is to be defined as a complex of
  storiessome no doubt fact, and some
  fantasywhich, for various reasons, human beings
  regard as demonstrations of the inner meaning of
  the universe and of human life.

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Archetypes

• Similar motifs and themes may be found among many
  different mythologies.
• Images that widely separated have a common
  meaning or, tend to elicit comparable
  psychological responses and to serve similar
  cultural functions.
• Universal symbols
• The myth critic is interested more in pre-history
  and the biographies of gods.
• Form concentrated on the shape of the work
  itself.
• The myth critic probes the inner spirit which
  gives that form its vitality, its enduring
  appeal.

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archetypes

• This approach is relatively new and poorly
  understood
• Proper interpretive tools become available
  through the development of such disciplines as
  anthropology, psychology, and cultural history.

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Cont.

• As with psychological approach, the reader must
  take care that his enthusiasm for a new-found
  interpretive key does not tempt him to discard
  other valuable critical instruments or to try to
  open all literary doors with this single key.
• Myth critic tends to forget that literature is
  more than a vehicle for archetypes and ritual
  patterns. He runs the risk of being distracted
  from the essential experience of the artifact
  itself he forgets that literature is above all
  else, art.

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Jungian psychology and its archetypal insights

• Primary contribution to myth criticism is his
  theory of racial memory and archetypes.
• Beneath the personal unconsciousprimeval,
  collective unconscious shared in the psychic
  inheritance of all members of the human family.
• Jung believed Mind is not born as a tabula rosa
  (clean slate). Like the body, it has its
  pre-established individual definiteness namely
  forms of behaviour. They become manifest in the
  ever-recurring patterns of psychic functioning.
• Myth-forming structural elements are
  ever-present in the unconscious psyche he refers
  to the manifestations of these elements as
  motifs primordial images, or archetypes.

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Jung cont.

• Theorized that myths do not derive from external
  factors such as the seasonal or solar cycle but
  are the projections of innate psychic phenomena.
• Myths are the means by which archetypes become
  manifest
• Archetypes reveal themselves in dreams dreams
  are personalized myths/myths are personalized
  dreams.

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Jung cont.

• Personal unconscious is private to the
  individualexperiences which have been forgotten,
  suppressed, repressed, ignored. Includes
  fantasies and dreams

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Joseph Campbell

• Four functions of myth
• 1. Mystical/spiritual
• Faith is believing in something when there is no
  reason to or when there is no scientific
  explanation.
• 2. Scientific function This explains the
  physical workings of nature and natural phenomena
  according to the scientific understanding of the
  time.
• 3. Sociological function Supports and
  validates social order of the society in which
  the myth took place. It conservatively defends
  the status quo.
• 4. Pedagogical/Instruction Shows how one
  should live ones daily life rules to live by.

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The Archetype of the hero

• Part I Departure
• The Call to Adventure
• Refusal of the callnot always
• Supernatural aidbenefit of wisdom of others,
  cant succeed entirely by self, the force which
  is within.
• Crossing the first thresholdseparation from
  home, present comforts of home
• Belly of the whaledeath experiencedeath of old
  self. The whale is the unconscious unknown
  fears. Usually there is a mentor or wise person
  somewhere in here.

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Part II Initiation

• The road of trials the adventureto prove
  status
• Meeting with the goddess/womannot enslaved to
  lustavoiding temptations
• Atonement with the fathermust in course of
  journey to adulthood be on same level
• Apotheosistransformation
• The Ultimate Boonrewardsometimes physical
  sometimes knowledge

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Part III The Return

• Refusal of the returnnot always, but must return
  to society and responsibility
• Magic Flightsign of favor

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Common Archetypes

• Golden Age or Gardenearly man
• Loss of innocencethe fall--childhood
• The flooddestructive but cleansing renewal
• The heromodel for us standard to judge our
  lives by of man but apart
• Wise old man/wizardhelpful to man
• Tricksterachieves goal by cunning not always
  good
• Metamorphosistransformation into something else
• GiantsNeanderthals
• DragonsWestern worldgreed Eastern worldwealth
  and wisdom
• Snake/serpentknowledge and immortality
• Tree/tree of lifesymbol of connection of all
  levels from underground to heavensChrists cross
• God teacherbridge between man and God brings
  gift to man but with consequences
• Demon godnot in all
• Woman Maiden/Wife/Mother
• Magic Objects rings, staves, swords, etc.