English Composition II: ENGL 112Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Plan for Today

Section 1 (5:15-6:30)

– Week 7 Quiz

– Discussion of Critical Lens and Schools of Criticism

Section 2 (6:45-7:45)

– Peer Review Workshop

Section 3 (8:00-9:00)

– Review for Final Exam

– Assign Homework

Section 4 (9:00-10:15)

– Individual Conferences on Essay 3

Week 7 Quiz

Schools of Criticism

Formalism & New Criticism (pp 2045-2047)

Formalism – Stresses the importance of literary form to the meaning of a

work– Considers each work in isolation– Relies on

• close textual reading• organization and structure• verbal nuances (word choices and figurative language)• multiple meanings

– Considers biographical, historical, and social matters to be irrelevant to the real meaning of a play, short story, novel or poem

New Criticism is American version of FormalismEx: Formalist Reading of “The Storm”

Reader-Response Criticism (pp 2047-2049)

Reader-Response Criticism – Opposes formalism– Sees reader’s interaction with text as central to interpretation– Does not believe that a work of literature exists as a separate,

closed entity, but rather based on a reader’s experiences and knowledge

– Important concepts include • different personalities and histories• recursive readings (coming back to the text with a new interpretation at a

different time in life)• reception theory (generations reading a text differently)

– Stanley Fish, an American critic, writes that no two readers read the same book

Ex: 3 Reader-Response Readings of “The Storm”

Feminist Criticism (pp 2050-2051)

Feminist Criticism– Recovers female and under-represented voices in literature that

have been repressed due to patriarchal control– Focuses not on anatomical sex but gender, which is socially

constructed– Two Focuses

• Reinterpreting traditional works in the canon• Adding and redefining the canon

Ex: Feminist Reading of “I Stand Here Ironing”

Marxist Criticism (pp 2052-2053)

Marxist Criticism– Believes dominant middle class will be overthrown by working

classes– Until then, sees middle class as exploiting working class– Considers the effects of middle-class capitalism on the working

classes– Sees literature as supporting cultural elite and suppressing the

working classEx: Marxist Reading of “I Stand Here Ironing”

Psychoanalytic Criticism (pp 2054-2056)

Psychoanalytic criticism

– Sees literature as an expression in fictional form of the inner workings of the human mind

– Uses theories of Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis,• believed that we are forced to repress much of our experiences and many

of our desires in order to coexist peacefully with others

• believed that literature could often be interpreted as the reflection of our unconscious life

– If using Psychoanalytic criticism, should read terms on p 2055

Ex: Psychoanalytic Reading of “The Cask of Amontillado”

Structuralism (pp 2057-2059)

Structuralism

– Sees literature as a system of signs that have no inherent meaning except for conventional relation to one another

– Ignores the individuality of the text and instead looks at patterns, systems, and structures

– Some critics propose that all narratives can be charted as variations on certain basic universal narrative patterns• Monomyth

• Initiation/Coming of Age

Ex: Structuralist Reading of “Barn Burning”

New Historicism (pp 2063-2065)

New Historicism

– Relates text to the historical context of • the period in which it was created

• the periods in which it was critically evaluated

– Cannot interpret literature without reference to the time and place in which it was written

– Sees history as open to interpretation

Ex: New Historicist Reading of “The Yellow Wallpaper”

American Multiculturalism (pp 2070-2071)

American Multiculturalism

– Studies interactions between members of different cultures

– Increases visibility of literature produced by minority groups

– Creates critical environment where these works can be appreciated

– Like Feminist Criticism, focuses on • Texts left out of canon

• Rereading texts included in canon

– Is suspicious of categories of high/low art

– Texts shaped by societal conditions

Ex: American Multiculturalist Reading of “Everyday Use”

Peer Review Workshop

Review for Final Exam

Review for Final Exam

Three Sections

– Matching (Literary Terms)

– Short Answer (choose three of four)

– Essay (choose one of two)

Studying for Final Exam

– Review literary terms from each week and examples of each from the stories

– Review stories themselves for plot, character, theme, etc.

– Focus on connections among stories – How do they fit together?

Homework

Study for Final Exam

Finish Essay 3

– Submit a copy to TurnItIn.com

– Submit a copy by email or as a hard copy by the beginning of class