Formalism (also known as New Criticism)
A Basic Approach to Reading and Understanding Literature
Formalist theory has dominated the American literary scene for most of the twentieth century and has
retained its great influence in many academic quarters. Its practitioners advocate methodical and systematic readings
of texts. The major premises of New Criticism include: literature exists as "art for art's sake," a written work's
"content = its form," and literary works are "texts in and for themselves." These premises lead to the development of
reading strategies that isolate and objectify the overt structures of texts as well as authorial techniques and language
usage. Through "isolated" and "objective" readings, New Criticism aims to classify, categorize, and catalog works
according to their "formal" attributes. Along the way, New Criticism wants to pull out and discuss any "universal"
truths that literary works might hold concerning what has been popularly called "the human condition." These truths
are considered by New Critics to be static, enduring, and applicable to all humanity. Leading new critics include I.A.
Richards, Cleanth Brooks, Northrop Frye, John Crowe Ransom, T.S. Eliot, and Roman Jacobsen. These thinkers
consider literature to be a "language game" in which communication becomes semi-transparent. They reject
Impressionism, moral tones, and philological studies, and believe that written works should work mostly on the
intellect. The rise of New Criticism coincides with that of modern literature, probably because of the popularity of
the "art for art's sake" maxim. Formalists value poetry rich in ambiguity, irony, and intention, and want to make
literary criticism a science. This last projection introduces the concept of "expert readers" into interpretive theory.
Current theorists tend to criticize Formalism for this and other symptoms of narrow-mindedness; still, they canot
deny that New Criticism has left a lasting impression on American literary scholarship. Its terminology continues as
the basis for most "literary" education in the United States, and other critical approaches to reading and critiquing
literature depend upon a reader's familiarity with these terms to articulate their findings.
Glossary of major Formalist literary terms
Character--creation and representation of fictional persons and entities
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antagonist--the main villain
antihero--a central sympathetic character with significant personal flaws
dynamic--changing, growing, active
flat--not well-developed
protagonist--the main character the audience is expected to sympathize with
round--well-developed
static--not growing or changing, an inactive personality
symbolic--caricature that is representative of certain kinds of people
Figures of speech--various expressive devices used in lieu of plain prose for vivid depiction
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allegory--parallel story with underlying moral or message
analogy--extended comparison of things or events with other things and events
irony--paradoxical events, ideas, or attitudes that are played off against each other
sarcasm--making serious fun of things, ideas, people, or events
satire--synthesis of heavily developed ironies and sarcasms
metaphor--brief or extended comparison of something with something else
metonymy--comparison/contrast of a part with the whole (as in "he gave up the sword" to indicate leaving a life
of warfare)
personification--comparing inanimate things to people
simile--something or someone is "as a" something else
symbolism--using inanimate or imagined things to stand for real situations
intangible--imaginary or "mental" symbols
tangible--physical or "actual" symbols
synecdoche--comparison of the whole with one or more of its parts (as in saying "the smiling year" to indicate
springtime)
Imagery--specific details used to describe characters, situations, things, ideas, or events
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hearing--images that make you hear sounds in your mind
seeing--images that draw mental pictures
smelling--images that bring the memories of odors and aromas to mind
Writing Center
Armstrong Atlantic State University
last updated September 14, 2004
Formalism (also known as New Criticism)
A Basic Approach to Reading and Understanding Literature
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tasting--images that make you recall or imagine how something might taste
touching--images that help you imagine how something might feel on your skin
extrasensory--images that take you to an imaginary world of sensations
Plot--a series of events or happenings that organize a text
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climax--the main event in a text
complicated--characterized by many twists and turns
conflict--plot features that demonstrate human rivalries and difficulties
external--conflicts that are active, perhaps physical or overtly expressed
internal--conflicts that are passive, perhaps mental or covertly expressed
denouement--what happens as a result of the climax, the "fallout" or "payoff"
foreshadowing--plot features that predict other events, like the climax or denouement
implausible--fantastic plots that are not acceptable in the everyday sense of reality
plausible--believable, everyday plots
simple--arranged with few twists and turns
Point of view--perspective of the controlling narrative voice
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first person--narrative voice that speaks with "I/we/us" pronouns
limited omniscience--narrator who doesn't know everything
objective--narrator who tries to tell story from an impersonal point of view
omniscient--narrator who presumes to know the ultimate truth of the story
reliable--narrator who can be trusted to tell the truth and be objective
subjective--narrator who admits that personal factors have affected interpretation
third person--narrative voice that uses "he/she/they" pronouns
unreliable--narrator who cannot be trusted to tell the truth or be objective
Setting--atmosphere, historical period, physical setting, or mood of text
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place--physical or psychical locations of events, things, characters, and historical times
time--physical or psychical progression of events
ahistorical--not grounded in any "real" historical period; imaginary or fantasy
chronological--linear telling of events
backward--starting at the end and working toward the beginning
forward--starting at the beginning and working toward the end
circular--a reflection that begins anywhere, goes to the end, works its way to the beginning, and eventually gets
back to where it started
flashbacks--looking back into time
historical--grounded in a "real" historical time period
in media res--beginning more or less in the middle of events
projections--looking forward into time
fragmented--going back and forth in time with combinations of chronologies
atmosphere--physical and external descriptions that help us better understand the setting
mood--emotional and internal descriptions that help us better understand the setting
Theme--a major idea or message in the text
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controlling idea--the major theme of a work
related ideas--subthemes that contribute to the development of the main idea
separate issues--ideas not directly related to the main idea or subthemes, but that are nevertheless important and
contribute to the overall success of the text
Writing Center
Armstrong Atlantic State University
last updated September 14, 2004
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Monday, September 12, 2011
Travel Theory
Travel Theory
Interest in travel and travel writing has emerged as the result of an intellectual climate that is interrogating imperialism, colonialism, postcolonialism, ethnography, diaspora, multiculturalism, nationalism, identity, visual culture, and map theory. Travel theory's lexicon includes such words as transculturation, metropolitan center, "imperial eyes," contact zones, border crossing, tourist/traveler, imperial frontier, hybridity, margin, expatriation/repatriation, cosmopolitanism/localism, museology, displacement, home/abroad, arrival/return, road narrative, and diaspora, to name just a few. Major theorists include Sara Mills, James Clifford, Anne McClintock, Mary Louise Pratt, Homi Bhabha (bah-bah), Edward Said, Paul Fussell, Steven Clark, Inderpal Grewal, Guy Debord, Umberto Eco, Caren Kaplan, Dean McCannell, James Urry, Jean Baudrillard (boh-dree-YAHR), and David Spurr.
Interest in travel and travel writing has emerged as the result of an intellectual climate that is interrogating imperialism, colonialism, postcolonialism, ethnography, diaspora, multiculturalism, nationalism, identity, visual culture, and map theory. Travel theory's lexicon includes such words as transculturation, metropolitan center, "imperial eyes," contact zones, border crossing, tourist/traveler, imperial frontier, hybridity, margin, expatriation/repatriation, cosmopolitanism/localism, museology, displacement, home/abroad, arrival/return, road narrative, and diaspora, to name just a few. Major theorists include Sara Mills, James Clifford, Anne McClintock, Mary Louise Pratt, Homi Bhabha (bah-bah), Edward Said, Paul Fussell, Steven Clark, Inderpal Grewal, Guy Debord, Umberto Eco, Caren Kaplan, Dean McCannell, James Urry, Jean Baudrillard (boh-dree-YAHR), and David Spurr.
Autobiographical Theory
Autobiographical Theory
As the critical attention to biography waned in the mid-twentieth century, interest in autobiography increased. Autobiography paired well with theories such as structuralism and poststructuralism because autobiography was fertile ground for considering the divide between fact and fiction, challenging the possibility of presenting a life objectively, and examining how the shaping force of language prohibited any simple attempts at truth and reference. Classical autobiographies focused on public figures, were, largely, written by men, and works theorizing autobiography primarily treated men's life writing. Until the mid-1970s, little work was done on theorizing women's autobiographies. Major theorists include (and this list, I'm sure, excludes several important writers) Bella Brodski, Paul de Man (de-MAHN), Jacques Derrida (dair-ree-DAH), Paul John Eakin, Leigh Gilmore, Georges Gusdorf, Carolyn Heilbrun, Philippe Lejeune, Françoise Lionnet, Mary G. Mason, Nancy K. Miller, Shirley Neuman, Felicity Nussbaum, James Olney, Roy Pascal, Adrienne Rich, Sidonie Smith, Patricia Meyer Spacks, Domna Stanton, Julia Watson, and Karl Weintraub.
As the critical attention to biography waned in the mid-twentieth century, interest in autobiography increased. Autobiography paired well with theories such as structuralism and poststructuralism because autobiography was fertile ground for considering the divide between fact and fiction, challenging the possibility of presenting a life objectively, and examining how the shaping force of language prohibited any simple attempts at truth and reference. Classical autobiographies focused on public figures, were, largely, written by men, and works theorizing autobiography primarily treated men's life writing. Until the mid-1970s, little work was done on theorizing women's autobiographies. Major theorists include (and this list, I'm sure, excludes several important writers) Bella Brodski, Paul de Man (de-MAHN), Jacques Derrida (dair-ree-DAH), Paul John Eakin, Leigh Gilmore, Georges Gusdorf, Carolyn Heilbrun, Philippe Lejeune, Françoise Lionnet, Mary G. Mason, Nancy K. Miller, Shirley Neuman, Felicity Nussbaum, James Olney, Roy Pascal, Adrienne Rich, Sidonie Smith, Patricia Meyer Spacks, Domna Stanton, Julia Watson, and Karl Weintraub.
Genre Criticism
Genre Criticism
Study of different forms or types of literature. Genre studies often focus on the characteristics, structures, and conventions attributed to different forms of literature, e.g., the novel, short story, poem, drama, film, etc. More recent inquiry in genre criticism centers on the bias often inherent in genre criticism such as its latent (or overt) racism and sexism.
Study of different forms or types of literature. Genre studies often focus on the characteristics, structures, and conventions attributed to different forms of literature, e.g., the novel, short story, poem, drama, film, etc. More recent inquiry in genre criticism centers on the bias often inherent in genre criticism such as its latent (or overt) racism and sexism.
Feminism
Feminism
To speak of "Feminism" as a theory is already a reduction. However, in terms of its theory (rather than as its reality as a historical movement in effect for some centuries) feminism might be categorized into three general groups:
1. theories haaving an essentialist focus (including psychoanalytic and French feminism);
2. theories aimed at defining or establishing a feminist literary canon or theories seeking to re-interpret and re-vision literature (and culture and history and so forth) from a less patriarchal slant (including gynocriticism, liberal feminism); and
3. theories focusing on sexual difference and sexual politics (including gender studies, lesbian studies, cultural feminism, radical feminism, and socialist/materialist feminism).
Further, women (and men) needed to consider what it meant to be a woman, to consider how much of what society has often deemed inherently female traits, are culturally and socially constructed. Simone de Beauvoir's study, The Second Sex, though perhaps flawed by Beauvoir's own body politics, nevertheless served as a groundbreaking book of feminism, that questioned the "othering" of women by western philosophy. Early projects in feminist theory included resurrecting women's literature that in many cases had never been considered seriously or had been erased over time (e.g., Charlotte Perkins Gilman was quite prominent in the early 20th century but was virtually unknown until her work was "re-discovered" later in the century). Since the 1960s the writings of many women have been rediscovered, reconsidered, and collected in large anthologies such as The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women.
However, merely unearthing women's literature did not ensure its prominence; in order to assess women's writings the number of preconceptions inherent in a literary canon dominated by male beliefs and male writers needed to be re-evaluated. Betty Friedan's The Feminist Mystique (1963), Kate Millet's Sexual Politics (1970), Teresa de Lauretis's Alice Doesn't: Feminism, Semiotics, Cinema (1984), Annette Kolodny's The Lay of the Land (1975), Judith Fetterly's The Resisting Reader (1978), Elaine Showalter's A Literature of Their Own (1977), or Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar's The Madwoman in the Attic (1979) are just a handful of the many critiques that questioned cultural, sexual, intellectual, and/or psychological stereotypes about women.
Key Terms (this list is woefully inadequate; suggestions for additional terms would be appreciated):
Androgyny - taken from Women Studies page of Drew University - "'...suggests a world in which sex-roles are not rigidly defined, a state in which ‘the man in every woman' and the ‘woman in every man' could be integrated and freely expressed' (Tuttle 19). Used more frequently in the 1970's, this term was used to describe a blurring, or combination of gender roles so that neither masculinity or femininity is dominant."
Backlash - a term, which may have originated with Susan Faludi, referring to a movement ( ca. 1980s) away from or against feminism.
Écriture féminine - Écriture féminine, literally women's writing, is a philosophy that promotes women's experiences and feelings to the point that it strengthens the work. Hélène Cixous first uses this term in her essay, "The Laugh of the Medusa," in which she asserts, "Woman must write her self: must write about women and bring women to writing, from which they have been driven away as violently as from their bodies. Écriture féminine places experience before language, and privileges the anti-linear, cyclical writing so often frowned upon by patriarchal society' (Wikipedia).
Essentialism - taken from Women Studies page of Drew University - "The belief in a uniquely feminine essence, existing above and beyond cultural conditioning...the mirror image of biologism which for centuries justified the oppression of women by proclaiming the natural superiority of men (Tuttle 90)." Tong's use of the term is relative to the explanation of the division of radical feminism into radical-cultural and radical libertarian.
Gynocentrics - "a term coined by the feminist scholar-critic Elaine Showalter to define the process of constructing "a female framework for analysis of women's literature [in order] to develop new models [of interpretation] based on the study of female experience, rather than to adapt to male models and theories'" (Bressler 269, see General Resources below).
Jouissance - a term most commonly associated with Helene Cixous (seek-sou), whose use of the word may have derived from Jacques Lacan - "Cixous follows Lacan's psychoanalytic paradigm, which argues that a child must separate from its mother's body (the Real) in order to enter into the Symbolic. Because of this, Cixous says, the female body in general becomes unrepresentable in language; it's what can't be spoken or written in the phallogocentric Symbolic order. Cixous here makes a leap from the maternal body to the female body in general; she also leaps from that female body to female sexuality, saying that female sexuality, female sexual pleasure, feminine jouissance, is unrepresentable within the phallogocentric Symbolic order" (Dr. Mary Klages, "Postructuralist Feminist Theory")
Patriarchy - "Sexism is perpetuated by systems of patriarchy where male-dominated structures and social arrangements elaborate the oppression of women. Patriarchy almost by definition also exhibits androcentrism, meaning male centered. Coupled with patriarchy, androcentrism assumes that male norms operate through out all social institutions and become the standard to which all persons adhere" (Joe Santillan - University of California at Davis).
Phallologocentrism - "language ordered around an absolute Word (logos) which is “masculine” [phallic], systematically excludes, disqualifies, denigrates, diminishes, silences the “feminine” (Nikita Dhawan).
Second- and Third-Wave feminism - "Second-wave feminism refers to a period of feminist thought that originated around the 1960s and was mainly concerned with independence and greater political action to improve women's rights" (Wikipedia). "Third-wave feminism is a feminist movement that arguably began in the early 1990s. Unlike second-wave feminism, which largely focused on the inclusion of women in traditionally male-dominated areas, third-wave feminism seeks to challenge and expand common definitions of gender and sexuality" (Wikipedia).
Semiotic - "[Julia] Kristeva (kris-TAYV-veh) makes a distinction between the semiotic and symbolic modes of communication:
* Symbolic = how we normally think of language (grammar, syntax, logic etc.)
* Semiotic = non-linguistic aspects of language which express drives and affects
The semiotic level includes rhythms and sounds and the way they can convey powerful yet indefinable emotions" (Colin Wright - University of Nottingham).
To speak of "Feminism" as a theory is already a reduction. However, in terms of its theory (rather than as its reality as a historical movement in effect for some centuries) feminism might be categorized into three general groups:
1. theories haaving an essentialist focus (including psychoanalytic and French feminism);
2. theories aimed at defining or establishing a feminist literary canon or theories seeking to re-interpret and re-vision literature (and culture and history and so forth) from a less patriarchal slant (including gynocriticism, liberal feminism); and
3. theories focusing on sexual difference and sexual politics (including gender studies, lesbian studies, cultural feminism, radical feminism, and socialist/materialist feminism).
Further, women (and men) needed to consider what it meant to be a woman, to consider how much of what society has often deemed inherently female traits, are culturally and socially constructed. Simone de Beauvoir's study, The Second Sex, though perhaps flawed by Beauvoir's own body politics, nevertheless served as a groundbreaking book of feminism, that questioned the "othering" of women by western philosophy. Early projects in feminist theory included resurrecting women's literature that in many cases had never been considered seriously or had been erased over time (e.g., Charlotte Perkins Gilman was quite prominent in the early 20th century but was virtually unknown until her work was "re-discovered" later in the century). Since the 1960s the writings of many women have been rediscovered, reconsidered, and collected in large anthologies such as The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women.
However, merely unearthing women's literature did not ensure its prominence; in order to assess women's writings the number of preconceptions inherent in a literary canon dominated by male beliefs and male writers needed to be re-evaluated. Betty Friedan's The Feminist Mystique (1963), Kate Millet's Sexual Politics (1970), Teresa de Lauretis's Alice Doesn't: Feminism, Semiotics, Cinema (1984), Annette Kolodny's The Lay of the Land (1975), Judith Fetterly's The Resisting Reader (1978), Elaine Showalter's A Literature of Their Own (1977), or Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar's The Madwoman in the Attic (1979) are just a handful of the many critiques that questioned cultural, sexual, intellectual, and/or psychological stereotypes about women.
Key Terms (this list is woefully inadequate; suggestions for additional terms would be appreciated):
Androgyny - taken from Women Studies page of Drew University - "'...suggests a world in which sex-roles are not rigidly defined, a state in which ‘the man in every woman' and the ‘woman in every man' could be integrated and freely expressed' (Tuttle 19). Used more frequently in the 1970's, this term was used to describe a blurring, or combination of gender roles so that neither masculinity or femininity is dominant."
Backlash - a term, which may have originated with Susan Faludi, referring to a movement ( ca. 1980s) away from or against feminism.
Écriture féminine - Écriture féminine, literally women's writing, is a philosophy that promotes women's experiences and feelings to the point that it strengthens the work. Hélène Cixous first uses this term in her essay, "The Laugh of the Medusa," in which she asserts, "Woman must write her self: must write about women and bring women to writing, from which they have been driven away as violently as from their bodies. Écriture féminine places experience before language, and privileges the anti-linear, cyclical writing so often frowned upon by patriarchal society' (Wikipedia).
Essentialism - taken from Women Studies page of Drew University - "The belief in a uniquely feminine essence, existing above and beyond cultural conditioning...the mirror image of biologism which for centuries justified the oppression of women by proclaiming the natural superiority of men (Tuttle 90)." Tong's use of the term is relative to the explanation of the division of radical feminism into radical-cultural and radical libertarian.
Gynocentrics - "a term coined by the feminist scholar-critic Elaine Showalter to define the process of constructing "a female framework for analysis of women's literature [in order] to develop new models [of interpretation] based on the study of female experience, rather than to adapt to male models and theories'" (Bressler 269, see General Resources below).
Jouissance - a term most commonly associated with Helene Cixous (seek-sou), whose use of the word may have derived from Jacques Lacan - "Cixous follows Lacan's psychoanalytic paradigm, which argues that a child must separate from its mother's body (the Real) in order to enter into the Symbolic. Because of this, Cixous says, the female body in general becomes unrepresentable in language; it's what can't be spoken or written in the phallogocentric Symbolic order. Cixous here makes a leap from the maternal body to the female body in general; she also leaps from that female body to female sexuality, saying that female sexuality, female sexual pleasure, feminine jouissance, is unrepresentable within the phallogocentric Symbolic order" (Dr. Mary Klages, "Postructuralist Feminist Theory")
Patriarchy - "Sexism is perpetuated by systems of patriarchy where male-dominated structures and social arrangements elaborate the oppression of women. Patriarchy almost by definition also exhibits androcentrism, meaning male centered. Coupled with patriarchy, androcentrism assumes that male norms operate through out all social institutions and become the standard to which all persons adhere" (Joe Santillan - University of California at Davis).
Phallologocentrism - "language ordered around an absolute Word (logos) which is “masculine” [phallic], systematically excludes, disqualifies, denigrates, diminishes, silences the “feminine” (Nikita Dhawan).
Second- and Third-Wave feminism - "Second-wave feminism refers to a period of feminist thought that originated around the 1960s and was mainly concerned with independence and greater political action to improve women's rights" (Wikipedia). "Third-wave feminism is a feminist movement that arguably began in the early 1990s. Unlike second-wave feminism, which largely focused on the inclusion of women in traditionally male-dominated areas, third-wave feminism seeks to challenge and expand common definitions of gender and sexuality" (Wikipedia).
Semiotic - "[Julia] Kristeva (kris-TAYV-veh) makes a distinction between the semiotic and symbolic modes of communication:
* Symbolic = how we normally think of language (grammar, syntax, logic etc.)
* Semiotic = non-linguistic aspects of language which express drives and affects
The semiotic level includes rhythms and sounds and the way they can convey powerful yet indefinable emotions" (Colin Wright - University of Nottingham).
Reception and Reader-Response Theory
Reception and Reader-Response Theory
Reader-response theory may be traced initially to theorists such as I. A. Richards (The Principles of Literary Criticism, Practical Criticism and How to Read a Page) or Louise Rosenblatt (Literature as Exploration or The Reader, the Text, the Poem). For Rosenblatt and Richards the idea of a "correct" reading--though difficult to attain--was always the goal of the "educated" reader (armed, of course, with appropriate aesthetic apparatus). For Stanley Fish (Is There a Text in this Class?, Surprised by Sin: The Reader in "Paradise Lost" and Self-Consuming Artifacts: The Experience of the Seventeenth-Century Reader), the reader's ability to understand a text is also subject a reader's particular "interpretive community." To simplify, a reader brings certain assumptions to a text based on the interpretive strategies he/she has learned in a particular interpretive community. For Fish, the interpretive community serves somewhat to "police" readings and thus prohibit outlandish interpretations. In contrast Wolfgang Iser argued that the reading process is always subjective. In The Implied Reader, Iser sees reading as a dialectical process between the reader and text. For Hans-Robert Jauss, however (Toward an Aesthetic of Reception, and Aesthetic Experience and Literary Hermeneutics), a reader's aesthetic experience is always bound by time and historical determinants.
Key Terms:
Horizons of expectations - a term developed by Hans Robert Jauss to explain how a reader's "expectations" or frame of reference is based on the reader's past experience of literature and what preconceived notions about literature the reader possesses (i.e., a reader's aesthetic experience is bound by time and historical determinants). Jauss also contended that for a work to be considered a classic it needed to exceed a reader's horizons of expectations.
Implied reader - a term developed by Wolfgang Iser; the implied reader [somewhat akin to an "ideal reader"] is "a hypothetical reader of a text. The implied reader [according to Iser] "embodies all those predispositions necessary for a literary work to exercise its effect -- predispositions laid down, not by an empirical outside reality, but by the text itself. Consequently, the implied reader as a concept has his roots firmly planted in the structure of the text; he is a construct and in no way to be identified with any real reader" (Greig E. Henderson and Christopher Brown - Glossary of Literary Theory).
Interpretive communities - a concept, articulated by Stanley Fish, that readers within an "interpretive community" share reading strategies, values and interpretive assumptions (Barbara McManus).
Transactional analysis - a concept developed by Louise Rosenblatt asserting that meaning is produced in a transaction of a reader with a text. As an approach, then, the critic would consider "how the reader interprets the text as well as how the text produces a response in her" (Dobie 132 - see General Resources below).
Reader-response theory may be traced initially to theorists such as I. A. Richards (The Principles of Literary Criticism, Practical Criticism and How to Read a Page) or Louise Rosenblatt (Literature as Exploration or The Reader, the Text, the Poem). For Rosenblatt and Richards the idea of a "correct" reading--though difficult to attain--was always the goal of the "educated" reader (armed, of course, with appropriate aesthetic apparatus). For Stanley Fish (Is There a Text in this Class?, Surprised by Sin: The Reader in "Paradise Lost" and Self-Consuming Artifacts: The Experience of the Seventeenth-Century Reader), the reader's ability to understand a text is also subject a reader's particular "interpretive community." To simplify, a reader brings certain assumptions to a text based on the interpretive strategies he/she has learned in a particular interpretive community. For Fish, the interpretive community serves somewhat to "police" readings and thus prohibit outlandish interpretations. In contrast Wolfgang Iser argued that the reading process is always subjective. In The Implied Reader, Iser sees reading as a dialectical process between the reader and text. For Hans-Robert Jauss, however (Toward an Aesthetic of Reception, and Aesthetic Experience and Literary Hermeneutics), a reader's aesthetic experience is always bound by time and historical determinants.
Key Terms:
Horizons of expectations - a term developed by Hans Robert Jauss to explain how a reader's "expectations" or frame of reference is based on the reader's past experience of literature and what preconceived notions about literature the reader possesses (i.e., a reader's aesthetic experience is bound by time and historical determinants). Jauss also contended that for a work to be considered a classic it needed to exceed a reader's horizons of expectations.
Implied reader - a term developed by Wolfgang Iser; the implied reader [somewhat akin to an "ideal reader"] is "a hypothetical reader of a text. The implied reader [according to Iser] "embodies all those predispositions necessary for a literary work to exercise its effect -- predispositions laid down, not by an empirical outside reality, but by the text itself. Consequently, the implied reader as a concept has his roots firmly planted in the structure of the text; he is a construct and in no way to be identified with any real reader" (Greig E. Henderson and Christopher Brown - Glossary of Literary Theory).
Interpretive communities - a concept, articulated by Stanley Fish, that readers within an "interpretive community" share reading strategies, values and interpretive assumptions (Barbara McManus).
Transactional analysis - a concept developed by Louise Rosenblatt asserting that meaning is produced in a transaction of a reader with a text. As an approach, then, the critic would consider "how the reader interprets the text as well as how the text produces a response in her" (Dobie 132 - see General Resources below).
Reader-response theory may be traced initially to theorists such as I. A. Richards (The Principles of Literary Criticism, Practical Criticism and How to Read a Page) or Louise Rosenblatt (Literature as Exploration or The Reader, the Text, the Poem). For Rosenblatt and Richards the idea of a "correct" reading--though difficult to attain--was always the goal of the "educated" reader (armed, of course, with appropriate aesthetic apparatus). For Stanley Fish (Is There a Text in this Class?, Surprised by Sin: The Reader in "Paradise Lost" and Self-Consuming Artifacts: The Experience of the Seventeenth-Century Reader), the reader's ability to understand a text is also subject a reader's particular "interpretive community." To simplify, a reader brings certain assumptions to a text based on the interpretive strategies he/she has learned in a particular interpretive community. For Fish, the interpretive community serves somewhat to "police" readings and thus prohibit outlandish interpretations. In contrast Wolfgang Iser argued that the reading process is always subjective. In The Implied Reader, Iser sees reading as a dialectical process between the reader and text. For Hans-Robert Jauss, however (Toward an Aesthetic of Reception, and Aesthetic Experience and Literary Hermeneutics), a reader's aesthetic experience is always bound by time and historical determinants.
Key Terms:
Horizons of expectations - a term developed by Hans Robert Jauss to explain how a reader's "expectations" or frame of reference is based on the reader's past experience of literature and what preconceived notions about literature the reader possesses (i.e., a reader's aesthetic experience is bound by time and historical determinants). Jauss also contended that for a work to be considered a classic it needed to exceed a reader's horizons of expectations.
Implied reader - a term developed by Wolfgang Iser; the implied reader [somewhat akin to an "ideal reader"] is "a hypothetical reader of a text. The implied reader [according to Iser] "embodies all those predispositions necessary for a literary work to exercise its effect -- predispositions laid down, not by an empirical outside reality, but by the text itself. Consequently, the implied reader as a concept has his roots firmly planted in the structure of the text; he is a construct and in no way to be identified with any real reader" (Greig E. Henderson and Christopher Brown - Glossary of Literary Theory).
Interpretive communities - a concept, articulated by Stanley Fish, that readers within an "interpretive community" share reading strategies, values and interpretive assumptions (Barbara McManus).
Transactional analysis - a concept developed by Louise Rosenblatt asserting that meaning is produced in a transaction of a reader with a text. As an approach, then, the critic would consider "how the reader interprets the text as well as how the text produces a response in her" (Dobie 132 - see General Resources below).
Reader-response theory may be traced initially to theorists such as I. A. Richards (The Principles of Literary Criticism, Practical Criticism and How to Read a Page) or Louise Rosenblatt (Literature as Exploration or The Reader, the Text, the Poem). For Rosenblatt and Richards the idea of a "correct" reading--though difficult to attain--was always the goal of the "educated" reader (armed, of course, with appropriate aesthetic apparatus). For Stanley Fish (Is There a Text in this Class?, Surprised by Sin: The Reader in "Paradise Lost" and Self-Consuming Artifacts: The Experience of the Seventeenth-Century Reader), the reader's ability to understand a text is also subject a reader's particular "interpretive community." To simplify, a reader brings certain assumptions to a text based on the interpretive strategies he/she has learned in a particular interpretive community. For Fish, the interpretive community serves somewhat to "police" readings and thus prohibit outlandish interpretations. In contrast Wolfgang Iser argued that the reading process is always subjective. In The Implied Reader, Iser sees reading as a dialectical process between the reader and text. For Hans-Robert Jauss, however (Toward an Aesthetic of Reception, and Aesthetic Experience and Literary Hermeneutics), a reader's aesthetic experience is always bound by time and historical determinants.
Key Terms:
Horizons of expectations - a term developed by Hans Robert Jauss to explain how a reader's "expectations" or frame of reference is based on the reader's past experience of literature and what preconceived notions about literature the reader possesses (i.e., a reader's aesthetic experience is bound by time and historical determinants). Jauss also contended that for a work to be considered a classic it needed to exceed a reader's horizons of expectations.
Implied reader - a term developed by Wolfgang Iser; the implied reader [somewhat akin to an "ideal reader"] is "a hypothetical reader of a text. The implied reader [according to Iser] "embodies all those predispositions necessary for a literary work to exercise its effect -- predispositions laid down, not by an empirical outside reality, but by the text itself. Consequently, the implied reader as a concept has his roots firmly planted in the structure of the text; he is a construct and in no way to be identified with any real reader" (Greig E. Henderson and Christopher Brown - Glossary of Literary Theory).
Interpretive communities - a concept, articulated by Stanley Fish, that readers within an "interpretive community" share reading strategies, values and interpretive assumptions (Barbara McManus).
Transactional analysis - a concept developed by Louise Rosenblatt asserting that meaning is produced in a transaction of a reader with a text. As an approach, then, the critic would consider "how the reader interprets the text as well as how the text produces a response in her" (Dobie 132 - see General Resources below).
New Historicism
New Historicism
New Historicism (sometimes referred to as Cultural Poetics) emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, largely in reaction to the lingering effects of New Criticism and its ahistorical approach. "New" Historicism's adjectival emphasis highlights its opposition to the old historical-biographical criticism prevalent before the advent of New Criticism. In the earlier historical-biographical criticism, literature was seen as a (mimetic) reflection of the historical world in which it was produced. Further, history was viewed as stable, linear, and recoverable--a narrative of fact. In contrast, New Historicism views history skeptically (historical narrative is inherently subjective), but also more broadly; history includes all of the cultural, social, political, anthropological discourses at work in any given age, and these various "texts" are unranked - any text may yield information valuable in understanding a particular milieu. Rather than forming a backdrop, the many discourses at work at any given time affect both an author and his/her text; both are inescapably part of a social construct. Stephen Greenblatt was an early important figure, and Michel Foucault's (fou-KOH) intertextual methods focusing especially on issues such as power and knowledge proved very influential. Other major figures include Clifford Geertz, Louis Montrose, Catherine Gallagher, Jonathan Dollimore, and Jerome McCann.
Key Terms:
Discourse - [from Wolfreys - see General Resources below] - "defined by Michel Foucault as language practice: that is, language as it is used by various constituencies (the law, medicine, the church, for example) for purposes to do with power relationships between people"
Episteme - [from Wolfreys - see General Resources below] - "Michel Foucault employs the idea of episteme to indicate a particular group of knowledges and discourses which operate in concert as the dominant discourses in any given historical period. He also identifies epistemic breaks, radical shifts in the varieties and deployments of knowledge for ideological purposes, which take place from period to period"
Power - [from Wolfreys - see General Resources below] - "in the work of Michel Foucault, power constitutes one of the three axes constitutive of subjectification, the other two being ethics and truth. For Foucault, power implies knowledge, even while knowledge is, concomitantly, constitutive of power: knowledge gives one power, but one has the power in given circumstances to constitute bodies of knowledge, discourses and so on as valid or invalid, truthful or untruthful. Power serves in making the world both knowable and controllable. Yet, in the nature of power, as Foucault suggests in the first volume of his History of Sexuality, is essentially proscriptive, concerned more with imposing limits on its subjects."
Self-positioning - [from Lois Tyson - see General Resources below] - "new historicism's claim that historical analysis is unavoidably subjective is not an attempt to legitimize a self-indulgent, 'anything goes' attitude toward the writing of history. Rather, the inevitability of personal bias makes it imperative that new historicists be aware of and as forthright as possible about their own psychological and ideological positions relative to the material they analyze so that their readers can have some idea of the human 'lens' through which they are viewing the historical issues at hand."
Thick description - a term developed by Clifford Geertz; [from Charles Bressler - see General Resources below]: a "term used to describe the seemingly insignificant details present in any cultural practice. By focusing on these details, one can then reveal the inherent contradictory forces at work within culture. "
New Historicism (sometimes referred to as Cultural Poetics) emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, largely in reaction to the lingering effects of New Criticism and its ahistorical approach. "New" Historicism's adjectival emphasis highlights its opposition to the old historical-biographical criticism prevalent before the advent of New Criticism. In the earlier historical-biographical criticism, literature was seen as a (mimetic) reflection of the historical world in which it was produced. Further, history was viewed as stable, linear, and recoverable--a narrative of fact. In contrast, New Historicism views history skeptically (historical narrative is inherently subjective), but also more broadly; history includes all of the cultural, social, political, anthropological discourses at work in any given age, and these various "texts" are unranked - any text may yield information valuable in understanding a particular milieu. Rather than forming a backdrop, the many discourses at work at any given time affect both an author and his/her text; both are inescapably part of a social construct. Stephen Greenblatt was an early important figure, and Michel Foucault's (fou-KOH) intertextual methods focusing especially on issues such as power and knowledge proved very influential. Other major figures include Clifford Geertz, Louis Montrose, Catherine Gallagher, Jonathan Dollimore, and Jerome McCann.
Key Terms:
Discourse - [from Wolfreys - see General Resources below] - "defined by Michel Foucault as language practice: that is, language as it is used by various constituencies (the law, medicine, the church, for example) for purposes to do with power relationships between people"
Episteme - [from Wolfreys - see General Resources below] - "Michel Foucault employs the idea of episteme to indicate a particular group of knowledges and discourses which operate in concert as the dominant discourses in any given historical period. He also identifies epistemic breaks, radical shifts in the varieties and deployments of knowledge for ideological purposes, which take place from period to period"
Power - [from Wolfreys - see General Resources below] - "in the work of Michel Foucault, power constitutes one of the three axes constitutive of subjectification, the other two being ethics and truth. For Foucault, power implies knowledge, even while knowledge is, concomitantly, constitutive of power: knowledge gives one power, but one has the power in given circumstances to constitute bodies of knowledge, discourses and so on as valid or invalid, truthful or untruthful. Power serves in making the world both knowable and controllable. Yet, in the nature of power, as Foucault suggests in the first volume of his History of Sexuality, is essentially proscriptive, concerned more with imposing limits on its subjects."
Self-positioning - [from Lois Tyson - see General Resources below] - "new historicism's claim that historical analysis is unavoidably subjective is not an attempt to legitimize a self-indulgent, 'anything goes' attitude toward the writing of history. Rather, the inevitability of personal bias makes it imperative that new historicists be aware of and as forthright as possible about their own psychological and ideological positions relative to the material they analyze so that their readers can have some idea of the human 'lens' through which they are viewing the historical issues at hand."
Thick description - a term developed by Clifford Geertz; [from Charles Bressler - see General Resources below]: a "term used to describe the seemingly insignificant details present in any cultural practice. By focusing on these details, one can then reveal the inherent contradictory forces at work within culture. "
Postmodernism
Postmodernism
Though often used interchangeably with post-structuralism, postmodernism is a much broader term and encompasses theories of art, literature, culture, architecture, and so forth. In relation to literary study, the term postmodernism has been articulately defined by Ihab Hassan. In Hassan's formulation postmodernism differs from modernism in several ways:
In its simplest terms, postmodernism consists of the period following high modernism and includes the many theories that date from that time, e.g., structuralism, semiotics, post-structuralism, deconstruction, and so forth. For Jean Baudrillard, postmodernism marks a culture composed "of disparate fragmentary experiences and images that constantly bombard the individual in music, video, television, advertising and other forms of electronic media. The speed and ease of reproduction of these images mean that they exist only as image, devoid of depth, coherence, or originality" (Childers and Hentzi 235).
Though often used interchangeably with post-structuralism, postmodernism is a much broader term and encompasses theories of art, literature, culture, architecture, and so forth. In relation to literary study, the term postmodernism has been articulately defined by Ihab Hassan. In Hassan's formulation postmodernism differs from modernism in several ways:
In its simplest terms, postmodernism consists of the period following high modernism and includes the many theories that date from that time, e.g., structuralism, semiotics, post-structuralism, deconstruction, and so forth. For Jean Baudrillard, postmodernism marks a culture composed "of disparate fragmentary experiences and images that constantly bombard the individual in music, video, television, advertising and other forms of electronic media. The speed and ease of reproduction of these images mean that they exist only as image, devoid of depth, coherence, or originality" (Childers and Hentzi 235).
Post-Structuralism and Deconstruction
Post-Structuralism and Deconstruction
Post-Structuralism (which is often used synonymously with Deconstruction or Postmodernism) is a reaction to structuralism and works against seeing language as a stable, closed system. "It is a shift from seeing the poem or novel as a closed entity, equipped with definite meanings which it is the critic's task to decipher, to seeing literature as irreducibly plural, an endless play of signifiers which can never be finally nailed down to a single center, essence, or meaning" (Eagleton 120 - see reference below under "General References"). Jacques Derrida's (dair-ree-DAH) paper on "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences" (delivered in 1966) proved particularly influential in the creation of post-structuralism. Derrida argued against, in essence, the notion of a knowable center (the Western ideal of logocentrism), a structure that could organize the differential play of language or thought but somehow remain immune to the same "play" it depicts (Abrams, 258-9). Derrida's critique of structuralism also heralded the advent of deconstruction that--like post-structuralism--critiques the notion of "origin" built into structuralism. In negative terms, deconstruction--particularly as articulated by Derrida--has often come to be interpreted as "anything goes" since nothing has any real meaning or truth. More positively, it may posited that Derrida, like Paul de Man (de-MAHN) and other post-structuralists, really asks for rigor, that is, a type of interpretation that is constantly and ruthlessly self-conscious and on guard. Similarly, Christopher Norris (in "What's Wrong with Postmodernism?") launches a cogent argument against simplistic attacks of Derrida's theories:
On this question [the tendency of critics to read deconstruction "as a species of all-licensing sophistical 'freeplay'"), as on so many others, the issue has been obscured by a failure to grasp Derrida's point when he identifies those problematic factors in language (catachreses, slippages between 'literal' and 'figural' sense, subliminal metaphors mistaken for determinate concepts) whose effect--as in Husserl--is to complicate the passage from what the text manifestly means to say to what it actually says when read with an eye to its latent or covert signifying structures. This 'free-play' has nothing whatsoever to do with that notion of an out-and-out hermeneutic license which would finally come down to a series of slogans like "all reading is misreading," "all interpretation is misinterpretation," etc. If Derrida's texts have been read that way--most often by literary critics in quest of more adventurous hermeneutic models--this is just one sign of the widespread deformation professionelle that has attended the advent of deconstruction as a new arrival on the US academic scene. (151)
In addition to Jacques Derrida, key poststructuralist and deconstructive figures include Michel Foucault (fou-KOH), Roland Barthes (bart), Jean Baudrillard (zhon boh-dree-YAHR), Helene Cixous (seek-sou), Paul de Man (de-MAHN), J. Hillis Miller, Jacques Lacan (lawk-KAWN), and Barbara Johnson.
Key Terms :
Aporia (ah-por-EE-ah)- a moment of undecidability; the inherent contradictions found in any text. Derrida, for example, cites the inherent contradictions at work in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's use of the words culture and nature by demonstrating that Rousseau's sense of the self's innocence (in nature) is already corrupted by the concept of culture (and existence) and vice-versa.
Différance - a combination of the meanings in the word différance. The concept means 1) différer or to differ, 2) différance which means to delay or postpone (defer), and 3) the idea of difference itself. To oversimplify, words are always at a distance from what they signify and, to make matters worse, must be described by using other words.
Erasure (sous rature) - to highlight suspect ideologies, notions linked to the metaphysics of presence, Derrida put them under "erasure," metaphorically pointing out the absence of any definitive meaning. By using erasure, however, Derrida realized that a "trace" will always remain but that these traces do not indicate the marks themselves but rather the absence of the marks (which emphasize the absence of "univocal meaning, truth, or origin"). In contrast, when Heidegger similarly "crossed out" words, he assumed that meaning would be (eventually) recoverable.
Logocentrism - term associated with Derrida that "refers to the nature of western thought, language and culture since Plato's era. The Greek signifier for "word," "speech," and "reason," logos possesses connotations in western culture for law and truth. Hence, logocentrism refers to a culture that revolves around a central set of supposedly universal principles or beliefs" (Wolfreys 302 - see General Resources below).
Metaphysics of Presence - "beliefs including binary oppositions, logocentrism, and phonocentrism that have been the basis of Western philosophy since Plato" (Dobie 155, see General Resources below).
Supplement - "According to Derrida, Western thinking is characterized by the 'logic of supplementation', which is actually two apparently contradictory ideas. From one perspective, a supplement serves to enhance the presence of something which is already complete and self-sufficient. Thus, writing is the supplement of speech, Eve was the supplement of Adam, and masturbation is the supplement of 'natural sex'....But simultaneously, according to Derrida, the Western idea of the supplement has within it the idea that a thing that has a supplement cannot be truly 'complete in itself'. If it were complete without the supplement, it shouldn't need, or long-for, the supplement. The fact that a thing can be added-to to make it even more 'present' or 'whole' means that there is a hole (which Derrida called an originary lack) and the supplement can fill that hole. The metaphorical opening of this "hole" Derrida called invagination. From this perspective, the supplement does not enhance something's presence, but rather underscores its absence" (from Wikipedia - definition of supplement).
Trace - from Lois Tyson (see General Resources below): "Meaning seems to reside in words (or in things) only when we distinguish their difference from other words (or things). For example, if we believed that all objects were the same color, we wouldn't need the word red (or blue or green) at all. Red is red only because we believe it to be different from blue and green (and because we believe color to be different from shape). So the word red carries with it the trace of all the signifiers it is not (for it is in contrast to other signifiers that we define it)" (245). Tyson's explanation helps explain what Derrida means when he states "the trace itself does not exist."
Transcendental Signifier - from Charles Bressler (see General Resources below): a term introduced by Derrida who "asserts that from the time of Plato to the present, Western culture has been founded on a classic, fundamental error: the searching for a transcendental signified, an external point of reference on which one may build a concept or philosophy. Once found, this transcendental signified would provide ultimate meaning. It would guarantee a 'center' of meaning...." (287).
Post-Structuralism (which is often used synonymously with Deconstruction or Postmodernism) is a reaction to structuralism and works against seeing language as a stable, closed system. "It is a shift from seeing the poem or novel as a closed entity, equipped with definite meanings which it is the critic's task to decipher, to seeing literature as irreducibly plural, an endless play of signifiers which can never be finally nailed down to a single center, essence, or meaning" (Eagleton 120 - see reference below under "General References"). Jacques Derrida's (dair-ree-DAH) paper on "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences" (delivered in 1966) proved particularly influential in the creation of post-structuralism. Derrida argued against, in essence, the notion of a knowable center (the Western ideal of logocentrism), a structure that could organize the differential play of language or thought but somehow remain immune to the same "play" it depicts (Abrams, 258-9). Derrida's critique of structuralism also heralded the advent of deconstruction that--like post-structuralism--critiques the notion of "origin" built into structuralism. In negative terms, deconstruction--particularly as articulated by Derrida--has often come to be interpreted as "anything goes" since nothing has any real meaning or truth. More positively, it may posited that Derrida, like Paul de Man (de-MAHN) and other post-structuralists, really asks for rigor, that is, a type of interpretation that is constantly and ruthlessly self-conscious and on guard. Similarly, Christopher Norris (in "What's Wrong with Postmodernism?") launches a cogent argument against simplistic attacks of Derrida's theories:
On this question [the tendency of critics to read deconstruction "as a species of all-licensing sophistical 'freeplay'"), as on so many others, the issue has been obscured by a failure to grasp Derrida's point when he identifies those problematic factors in language (catachreses, slippages between 'literal' and 'figural' sense, subliminal metaphors mistaken for determinate concepts) whose effect--as in Husserl--is to complicate the passage from what the text manifestly means to say to what it actually says when read with an eye to its latent or covert signifying structures. This 'free-play' has nothing whatsoever to do with that notion of an out-and-out hermeneutic license which would finally come down to a series of slogans like "all reading is misreading," "all interpretation is misinterpretation," etc. If Derrida's texts have been read that way--most often by literary critics in quest of more adventurous hermeneutic models--this is just one sign of the widespread deformation professionelle that has attended the advent of deconstruction as a new arrival on the US academic scene. (151)
In addition to Jacques Derrida, key poststructuralist and deconstructive figures include Michel Foucault (fou-KOH), Roland Barthes (bart), Jean Baudrillard (zhon boh-dree-YAHR), Helene Cixous (seek-sou), Paul de Man (de-MAHN), J. Hillis Miller, Jacques Lacan (lawk-KAWN), and Barbara Johnson.
Key Terms :
Aporia (ah-por-EE-ah)- a moment of undecidability; the inherent contradictions found in any text. Derrida, for example, cites the inherent contradictions at work in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's use of the words culture and nature by demonstrating that Rousseau's sense of the self's innocence (in nature) is already corrupted by the concept of culture (and existence) and vice-versa.
Différance - a combination of the meanings in the word différance. The concept means 1) différer or to differ, 2) différance which means to delay or postpone (defer), and 3) the idea of difference itself. To oversimplify, words are always at a distance from what they signify and, to make matters worse, must be described by using other words.
Erasure (sous rature) - to highlight suspect ideologies, notions linked to the metaphysics of presence, Derrida put them under "erasure," metaphorically pointing out the absence of any definitive meaning. By using erasure, however, Derrida realized that a "trace" will always remain but that these traces do not indicate the marks themselves but rather the absence of the marks (which emphasize the absence of "univocal meaning, truth, or origin"). In contrast, when Heidegger similarly "crossed out" words, he assumed that meaning would be (eventually) recoverable.
Logocentrism - term associated with Derrida that "refers to the nature of western thought, language and culture since Plato's era. The Greek signifier for "word," "speech," and "reason," logos possesses connotations in western culture for law and truth. Hence, logocentrism refers to a culture that revolves around a central set of supposedly universal principles or beliefs" (Wolfreys 302 - see General Resources below).
Metaphysics of Presence - "beliefs including binary oppositions, logocentrism, and phonocentrism that have been the basis of Western philosophy since Plato" (Dobie 155, see General Resources below).
Supplement - "According to Derrida, Western thinking is characterized by the 'logic of supplementation', which is actually two apparently contradictory ideas. From one perspective, a supplement serves to enhance the presence of something which is already complete and self-sufficient. Thus, writing is the supplement of speech, Eve was the supplement of Adam, and masturbation is the supplement of 'natural sex'....But simultaneously, according to Derrida, the Western idea of the supplement has within it the idea that a thing that has a supplement cannot be truly 'complete in itself'. If it were complete without the supplement, it shouldn't need, or long-for, the supplement. The fact that a thing can be added-to to make it even more 'present' or 'whole' means that there is a hole (which Derrida called an originary lack) and the supplement can fill that hole. The metaphorical opening of this "hole" Derrida called invagination. From this perspective, the supplement does not enhance something's presence, but rather underscores its absence" (from Wikipedia - definition of supplement).
Trace - from Lois Tyson (see General Resources below): "Meaning seems to reside in words (or in things) only when we distinguish their difference from other words (or things). For example, if we believed that all objects were the same color, we wouldn't need the word red (or blue or green) at all. Red is red only because we believe it to be different from blue and green (and because we believe color to be different from shape). So the word red carries with it the trace of all the signifiers it is not (for it is in contrast to other signifiers that we define it)" (245). Tyson's explanation helps explain what Derrida means when he states "the trace itself does not exist."
Transcendental Signifier - from Charles Bressler (see General Resources below): a term introduced by Derrida who "asserts that from the time of Plato to the present, Western culture has been founded on a classic, fundamental error: the searching for a transcendental signified, an external point of reference on which one may build a concept or philosophy. Once found, this transcendental signified would provide ultimate meaning. It would guarantee a 'center' of meaning...." (287).
Structuralism and Semiotics
Structuralism and Semiotics
Structuralism
Structuralism is a way of thinking about the world which is predominantly concerned with the perceptions and description of structures. At its simplest, structuralism claims that the nature of every element in any given situation has no significance by itself, and in fact is determined by all the other elements involved in that situation. The full significance of any entity cannot be perceived unless and until it is integrated into the structure of which it forms a part (Hawkes, p. 11). Structuralists believe that all human activity is constructed, not natural or "essential." Consequently, it is the systems of organization that are important (what we do is always a matter of selection within a given construct). By this formulation, "any activity, from the actions of a narrative to not eating one's peas with a knife, takes place within a system of differences and has meaning only in its relation to other possible activities within that system, not to some meaning that emanates from nature or the divine" (Childers & Hentzi, p. 286.). Major figures include Claude Lévi-Strauss (LAY-vee-strows), A. J. Greimas (GREE-mahs), Jonathan Culler, Roland Barthes (bart), Ferdinand de Saussure (soh-SURR or soh-ZHOR), Roman Jakobson (YAH-keb-sen), Vladimir Propp, and Terence Hawkes.
Semiology
Semiotics, simply put, is the science of signs. Semiology proposes that a great diversity of our human action and productions--our bodily postures and gestures, the the social rituals we perform, the clothes we wear, the meals we serve, the buildings we inhabit--all convey "shared" meanings to members of a particular culture, and so can be analyzed as signs which function in diverse kinds of signifying systems. Linguistics (the study of verbal signs and structures) is only one branch of semiotics but supplies the basic methods and terms which are used in the study of all other social sign systems (Abrams, p. 170). Major figures include Charles Peirce, Ferdinand de Saussure, Michel Foucault (fou-KOH), Umberto Eco, Gérard Genette, and Roland Barthes (bart).
Structuralism
Structuralism is a way of thinking about the world which is predominantly concerned with the perceptions and description of structures. At its simplest, structuralism claims that the nature of every element in any given situation has no significance by itself, and in fact is determined by all the other elements involved in that situation. The full significance of any entity cannot be perceived unless and until it is integrated into the structure of which it forms a part (Hawkes, p. 11). Structuralists believe that all human activity is constructed, not natural or "essential." Consequently, it is the systems of organization that are important (what we do is always a matter of selection within a given construct). By this formulation, "any activity, from the actions of a narrative to not eating one's peas with a knife, takes place within a system of differences and has meaning only in its relation to other possible activities within that system, not to some meaning that emanates from nature or the divine" (Childers & Hentzi, p. 286.). Major figures include Claude Lévi-Strauss (LAY-vee-strows), A. J. Greimas (GREE-mahs), Jonathan Culler, Roland Barthes (bart), Ferdinand de Saussure (soh-SURR or soh-ZHOR), Roman Jakobson (YAH-keb-sen), Vladimir Propp, and Terence Hawkes.
Semiology
Semiotics, simply put, is the science of signs. Semiology proposes that a great diversity of our human action and productions--our bodily postures and gestures, the the social rituals we perform, the clothes we wear, the meals we serve, the buildings we inhabit--all convey "shared" meanings to members of a particular culture, and so can be analyzed as signs which function in diverse kinds of signifying systems. Linguistics (the study of verbal signs and structures) is only one branch of semiotics but supplies the basic methods and terms which are used in the study of all other social sign systems (Abrams, p. 170). Major figures include Charles Peirce, Ferdinand de Saussure, Michel Foucault (fou-KOH), Umberto Eco, Gérard Genette, and Roland Barthes (bart).
Avant-Garde/Surrealism/Dadaism
Avant-Garde/Surrealism/Dadaism
Avant-Garde literally meant the "most forwardly placed troops." The movement sought to eliminate or at least blur the distinction between art and life often by introducing elements of mass culture. These artists aimed to "make it new" and often represented themselves as alienated from the established order. Avant-garde literature and art challenged societal norms to "shock" the sensibilities of its audience (Childers & Hentzi, p.26 and Abrams, p.110).
Surrealism (also associated with the avant-garde and dadaism) was initiated in particular by André Breton, whose 1924 "Manifesto of Surrealism" defined the movement's "adherence to the imagination, dreams, the fantastic, and the irrational." Dada is a nonsense word and the movement, in many ways similar to the trends of avant-garde and surrealism, "emphasized absurdity, reflected a spirit of nihilism, and celebrated the function of chance" (Childers & Hentzi, p. 69). Major figures include André Breton (breh-TAWN), Georges Bataille (beh-TYE), Tristan Tzara, Jean Arp, Richard Huelsenbeck, Francis Picabia, Marcel Duchamp (dew-SHAHN), Man Ray, Raoul Hausmann, Max Ernst and Kurt Schwitters.
Avant-Garde literally meant the "most forwardly placed troops." The movement sought to eliminate or at least blur the distinction between art and life often by introducing elements of mass culture. These artists aimed to "make it new" and often represented themselves as alienated from the established order. Avant-garde literature and art challenged societal norms to "shock" the sensibilities of its audience (Childers & Hentzi, p.26 and Abrams, p.110).
Surrealism (also associated with the avant-garde and dadaism) was initiated in particular by André Breton, whose 1924 "Manifesto of Surrealism" defined the movement's "adherence to the imagination, dreams, the fantastic, and the irrational." Dada is a nonsense word and the movement, in many ways similar to the trends of avant-garde and surrealism, "emphasized absurdity, reflected a spirit of nihilism, and celebrated the function of chance" (Childers & Hentzi, p. 69). Major figures include André Breton (breh-TAWN), Georges Bataille (beh-TYE), Tristan Tzara, Jean Arp, Richard Huelsenbeck, Francis Picabia, Marcel Duchamp (dew-SHAHN), Man Ray, Raoul Hausmann, Max Ernst and Kurt Schwitters.
Russian Formalism/Prague Linguistic Circle/Linguistic Criticism/Dialogic Theory
Russian Formalism/Prague Linguistic Circle/Linguistic Criticism/Dialogic Theory
These linguistic movements began in the 1920s, were suppressed by the Soviets in the 1930s, moved to Czechoslovakia and were continued by members of the Prague Linguistic Circle (including Roman Jakobson (YAH-keb-sen), Jan Mukarovsky, and René Wellek). The Prague Linguistic Circle viewed literature as a special class of language, and rested on the assumption that there is a fundamental opposition between literary (or poetical) language and ordinary language. Formalism views the primary function of ordinary language as communicating a message, or information, by references to the world existing outside of language. In contrast, it views literary language as self-focused: its function is not to make extrinsic references, but to draw attention to its own "formal" features--that is, to interrelationships among the linguistic signs themselves. Literature is held to be subject to critical analysis by the sciences of linguistics but also by a type of linguistics different from that adapted to ordinary discourse, because its laws produce the distinctive features of literariness (Abrams, pp. 165-166). An important contribution made by Victor Schklovsky (of the Leningrad group) was to explain how language--through a period of time--tends to become "smooth, unconscious or transparent." In contrast, the work of literature is to defamiliarize language by a process of "making strange." Dialogism refers to a theory, initiated by Mikhail Bakhtin (bahk-TEEN), arguing that in a dialogic work of literature--such as in the writings of Dostoevsky--there is a "polyphonic interplay of various characters' voices ... where no worldview is given superiority over others; neither is that voice which may be identified with the author's necessarily the most engaging or persuasive of all those in the text" (Childers & Hentzi, p. 81).
Key Terms:
Carnival - "For Bakhtin, carnival reflected the 'lived life' of medieval and early modern peoples. In carnival, official authority and high culture were jostled 'from below' by elements of satire, parody, irony, mimicry, bodily humor, and grotesque display. This jostling from below served to keep society open, to liberate it from deadening..." (Bressler 276 - see General Resources below).
Heteroglossia - "refers, first, to the way in which every instance of language use - every utterance - is embedded in a specific set of social circumstances, and second, to the way the meaning of each particular utterance is shaped and influenced by the many-layered context in which it occurs" (Sarah Willen, "Dialogism and Heteroglossia")
Monologism - "having one single voice, or representing one single ideological stance or perspective, often used in opposition to the Bakhtinian dialogical. In a monological form, all the characters' voices are subordinated to the voice of the author" (Malcolm Hayward).
Polyphony - "a term used by Mikhail Bakhtin to describe a dialogical text which, unlike a monological text, does not depend on the centrality of a single authoritative voice. Such a text incorporates a rich plurality and multiplicity of voices, styles, and points of view. It comprises, in Bakhtin's phrase, "a plurality of independent and unmerged voices and consciousnesses, a genuine polyphony of fully valid voices" (Henderson and Brown - Glossary of Literary Theory).
These linguistic movements began in the 1920s, were suppressed by the Soviets in the 1930s, moved to Czechoslovakia and were continued by members of the Prague Linguistic Circle (including Roman Jakobson (YAH-keb-sen), Jan Mukarovsky, and René Wellek). The Prague Linguistic Circle viewed literature as a special class of language, and rested on the assumption that there is a fundamental opposition between literary (or poetical) language and ordinary language. Formalism views the primary function of ordinary language as communicating a message, or information, by references to the world existing outside of language. In contrast, it views literary language as self-focused: its function is not to make extrinsic references, but to draw attention to its own "formal" features--that is, to interrelationships among the linguistic signs themselves. Literature is held to be subject to critical analysis by the sciences of linguistics but also by a type of linguistics different from that adapted to ordinary discourse, because its laws produce the distinctive features of literariness (Abrams, pp. 165-166). An important contribution made by Victor Schklovsky (of the Leningrad group) was to explain how language--through a period of time--tends to become "smooth, unconscious or transparent." In contrast, the work of literature is to defamiliarize language by a process of "making strange." Dialogism refers to a theory, initiated by Mikhail Bakhtin (bahk-TEEN), arguing that in a dialogic work of literature--such as in the writings of Dostoevsky--there is a "polyphonic interplay of various characters' voices ... where no worldview is given superiority over others; neither is that voice which may be identified with the author's necessarily the most engaging or persuasive of all those in the text" (Childers & Hentzi, p. 81).
Key Terms:
Carnival - "For Bakhtin, carnival reflected the 'lived life' of medieval and early modern peoples. In carnival, official authority and high culture were jostled 'from below' by elements of satire, parody, irony, mimicry, bodily humor, and grotesque display. This jostling from below served to keep society open, to liberate it from deadening..." (Bressler 276 - see General Resources below).
Heteroglossia - "refers, first, to the way in which every instance of language use - every utterance - is embedded in a specific set of social circumstances, and second, to the way the meaning of each particular utterance is shaped and influenced by the many-layered context in which it occurs" (Sarah Willen, "Dialogism and Heteroglossia")
Monologism - "having one single voice, or representing one single ideological stance or perspective, often used in opposition to the Bakhtinian dialogical. In a monological form, all the characters' voices are subordinated to the voice of the author" (Malcolm Hayward).
Polyphony - "a term used by Mikhail Bakhtin to describe a dialogical text which, unlike a monological text, does not depend on the centrality of a single authoritative voice. Such a text incorporates a rich plurality and multiplicity of voices, styles, and points of view. It comprises, in Bakhtin's phrase, "a plurality of independent and unmerged voices and consciousnesses, a genuine polyphony of fully valid voices" (Henderson and Brown - Glossary of Literary Theory).
Phenomenology and Hermeneutics
Phenomenology and Hermeneutics
Phenomenology
Phenomenology is a philosophical method, first developed by Edmund Husserl (HUHSS-erel), that proposed "phenomenological reduction" so that everything not "immanent" to consciousness must be excluded; all realities must be treated as pure "phenomena" and this is the only absolute data from which we can begin. Husserl viewed consciousness always as intentional and that the act of consciousness, the thinking subject and the object it "intends," are inseparable. Art is not a means of securing pleasure, but a revelation of being. The work is the phenomenon by which we come to know the world (Eagleton, p. 54; Abrams, p. 133, Guerin, p. 263).
Hermeneutics
Hermeneutics sees interpretation as a circular process whereby valid interpretation can be achieved by a sustained, mutually qualifying interplay between our progressive sense of the whole and our retrospective understanding of its component parts. Two dominant theories that emerged from Wilhelm Dilthey's original premise were that of E. D. Hirsch who, in accord with Dilthey, felt a valid interpretation was possible by uncovering the work's authorial intent (though informed by historical and cultural determinants), and in contrast, that of Martin Heidegger (HIGH-deg-er) who argued that a reader must experience the "inner life" of a text in order to understand it at all. The reader's "being-in-the-world" or dasein is fraught with difficulties since both the reader and the text exist in a temporal and fluid state. For Heidegger or Hans Georg Gadamer (GAH-de-mer), then, a valid interpretation may become irrecoverable and will always be relative.
Key Terms:
Dasein - simply, "being there," or "being-in-the world" - Heidegger argued that "what is distinctive about human existence is its Dasein ('givenness'): our consciousness both projects the things of the world and at the same time is subjected to the world by the very nature of existence in the world" (Selden and Widdowson 52 - see General Resources below).
Intentionality - "is at the heart of knowing. We live in meaning, and we live 'towards,' oriented to experience. Consequently there is an intentional structure in textuality and expression, in self-knowledge and in knowledge of others. This intentionality is also a distance: consciousness is not identical with its objects, but is intended consciousness" (quoted from Dr. John Lye's website - see suggested resources below).
Phenomenological Reduction - a concept most frequently associated with Edmund Husserl; as explained by Terry Eagleton (see General Resources below) "To establish certainty, then, we must first of all ignore, or 'put in brackets,' anything which is beyond our immediate experience: we must reduce the external world to the contents of our consciousness alone....Everything not 'immanent' to consciousness must be rigorously excluded: all realities must be treated as pure 'phenomena,' in terms of their appearances in our mind, and this is the only absolute data from which we can begin" (55).
Phenomenology
Phenomenology is a philosophical method, first developed by Edmund Husserl (HUHSS-erel), that proposed "phenomenological reduction" so that everything not "immanent" to consciousness must be excluded; all realities must be treated as pure "phenomena" and this is the only absolute data from which we can begin. Husserl viewed consciousness always as intentional and that the act of consciousness, the thinking subject and the object it "intends," are inseparable. Art is not a means of securing pleasure, but a revelation of being. The work is the phenomenon by which we come to know the world (Eagleton, p. 54; Abrams, p. 133, Guerin, p. 263).
Hermeneutics
Hermeneutics sees interpretation as a circular process whereby valid interpretation can be achieved by a sustained, mutually qualifying interplay between our progressive sense of the whole and our retrospective understanding of its component parts. Two dominant theories that emerged from Wilhelm Dilthey's original premise were that of E. D. Hirsch who, in accord with Dilthey, felt a valid interpretation was possible by uncovering the work's authorial intent (though informed by historical and cultural determinants), and in contrast, that of Martin Heidegger (HIGH-deg-er) who argued that a reader must experience the "inner life" of a text in order to understand it at all. The reader's "being-in-the-world" or dasein is fraught with difficulties since both the reader and the text exist in a temporal and fluid state. For Heidegger or Hans Georg Gadamer (GAH-de-mer), then, a valid interpretation may become irrecoverable and will always be relative.
Key Terms:
Dasein - simply, "being there," or "being-in-the world" - Heidegger argued that "what is distinctive about human existence is its Dasein ('givenness'): our consciousness both projects the things of the world and at the same time is subjected to the world by the very nature of existence in the world" (Selden and Widdowson 52 - see General Resources below).
Intentionality - "is at the heart of knowing. We live in meaning, and we live 'towards,' oriented to experience. Consequently there is an intentional structure in textuality and expression, in self-knowledge and in knowledge of others. This intentionality is also a distance: consciousness is not identical with its objects, but is intended consciousness" (quoted from Dr. John Lye's website - see suggested resources below).
Phenomenological Reduction - a concept most frequently associated with Edmund Husserl; as explained by Terry Eagleton (see General Resources below) "To establish certainty, then, we must first of all ignore, or 'put in brackets,' anything which is beyond our immediate experience: we must reduce the external world to the contents of our consciousness alone....Everything not 'immanent' to consciousness must be rigorously excluded: all realities must be treated as pure 'phenomena,' in terms of their appearances in our mind, and this is the only absolute data from which we can begin" (55).
Existentialism
Existentialism
Existentialism is a philosophy (promoted especially by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus) that views each person as an isolated being who is cast into an alien universe, and conceives the world as possessing no inherent human truth, value, or meaning. A person's life, then, as it moves from the nothingness from which it came toward the nothingness where it must end, defines an existence which is both anguished and absurd (Guerin). In a world without sense, all choices are possible, a situation which Sartre viewed as human beings central dilemma: "Man [woman] is condemned to be free." In contrast to atheist existentialism, Søren Kierkegaard theorized that belief in God (given that we are provided with no proof or assurance) required a conscious choice or "leap of faith." The major figures include Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre (sart or SAR-treh), Albert Camus (kah-MUE or ka-MOO) , Simone de Beauvoir (bohv-WAHR) , Martin Buber, Karl Jaspers (YASS-pers), and Maurice Merleau-Ponty (mer-LOH pawn-TEE).
Key Terms:
Absurd - a term used to describe existence--a world without inherent meaning or truth.
Authenticity - to make choices based on an individual code of ethics (commitment) rather than because of societal pressures. A choice made just because "it's what people do" would be considered inauthentic.
"Leap of faith" - although Kierkegaard acknowledged that religion was inherently unknowable and filled with risks, faith required an act of commitment (the "leap of faith"); the commitment to Christianity would also lessen the despair of an absurd world.
Existentialism is a philosophy (promoted especially by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus) that views each person as an isolated being who is cast into an alien universe, and conceives the world as possessing no inherent human truth, value, or meaning. A person's life, then, as it moves from the nothingness from which it came toward the nothingness where it must end, defines an existence which is both anguished and absurd (Guerin). In a world without sense, all choices are possible, a situation which Sartre viewed as human beings central dilemma: "Man [woman] is condemned to be free." In contrast to atheist existentialism, Søren Kierkegaard theorized that belief in God (given that we are provided with no proof or assurance) required a conscious choice or "leap of faith." The major figures include Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre (sart or SAR-treh), Albert Camus (kah-MUE or ka-MOO) , Simone de Beauvoir (bohv-WAHR) , Martin Buber, Karl Jaspers (YASS-pers), and Maurice Merleau-Ponty (mer-LOH pawn-TEE).
Key Terms:
Absurd - a term used to describe existence--a world without inherent meaning or truth.
Authenticity - to make choices based on an individual code of ethics (commitment) rather than because of societal pressures. A choice made just because "it's what people do" would be considered inauthentic.
"Leap of faith" - although Kierkegaard acknowledged that religion was inherently unknowable and filled with risks, faith required an act of commitment (the "leap of faith"); the commitment to Christianity would also lessen the despair of an absurd world.
Postcolonialism
Postcolonialism
Literally, postcolonialism refers to the period following the decline of colonialism, e.g., the end or lessening of domination by European empires. Although the term postcolonialism generally refers to the period after colonialism, the distinction is not always made. In its use as a critical approach, postcolonialism refers to "a collection of theoretical and critical strategies used to examine the culture (literature, politics, history, and so forth) of former colonies of the European empires, and their relation to the rest of the world" (Makaryk 155 - see General Resources below). Among the many challenges facing postcolonial writers are the attempt both to resurrect their culture and to combat preconceptions about their culture. Edward Said, for example, uses the word Orientalism to describe the discourse about the East constructed by the West. Major figures include Edward Said (sah-EED), Homi Bhabha (bah-bah), Frantz Fanon (fah-NAWN), Gayatri Spivak, Chinua Achebe (ah-CHAY-bay) , Wole Soyinka, Salman Rushdie, Jamaica Kincaid, and Buchi Emecheta.
Key Terms:
Alterity - "lack of identification with some part of one's personality or one's community, differentness, otherness"
Diaspora (dI-ASP-er-ah- "is used (without capitalization) to refer to any people or ethnic population forced or induced to leave their traditional ethnic homelands, being dispersed throughout other parts of the world, and the ensuing developments in their dispersal and culture" (Wikipedia).
Eurocentrism - "the practice, conscious or otherwise, of placing emphasis on European (and, generally, Western) concerns, culture and values at the expense of those of other cultures. It is an instance of ethnocentrism, perhaps especially relevant because of its alignment with current and past real power structures in the world" (Dictionary.LaborLawTalk.com)
Hybridity - "an important concept in post-colonial theory, referring to the integration (or, mingling) of cultural signs and practices from the colonizing and the colonized cultures ("integration" may be too orderly a word to represent the variety of stratagems, desperate or cunning or good-willed, by which people adapt themselves to the necessities and the opportunities of more or less oppressive or invasive cultural impositions, live into alien cultural patterns through their own structures of understanding, thus producing something familiar but new). The assimilation and adaptation of cultural practices, the cross-fertilization of cultures, can be seen as positive, enriching, and dynamic, as well as as oppressive" (from Dr. John Lye - see General Literary Theory Websites below).
Imperialism - "the policy of extending the control or authority over foreign entities as a means of acquisition and/or maintenance of empires, either through direct territorial control or through indirect methods of exerting control on the politics and/or economy of other countries. The term is used by some to describe the policy of a country in maintaining colonies and dominance over distant lands, regardless of whether the country calls itself an empire" (Dictionary.LaborLawTalk.com).
Literally, postcolonialism refers to the period following the decline of colonialism, e.g., the end or lessening of domination by European empires. Although the term postcolonialism generally refers to the period after colonialism, the distinction is not always made. In its use as a critical approach, postcolonialism refers to "a collection of theoretical and critical strategies used to examine the culture (literature, politics, history, and so forth) of former colonies of the European empires, and their relation to the rest of the world" (Makaryk 155 - see General Resources below). Among the many challenges facing postcolonial writers are the attempt both to resurrect their culture and to combat preconceptions about their culture. Edward Said, for example, uses the word Orientalism to describe the discourse about the East constructed by the West. Major figures include Edward Said (sah-EED), Homi Bhabha (bah-bah), Frantz Fanon (fah-NAWN), Gayatri Spivak, Chinua Achebe (ah-CHAY-bay) , Wole Soyinka, Salman Rushdie, Jamaica Kincaid, and Buchi Emecheta.
Key Terms:
Alterity - "lack of identification with some part of one's personality or one's community, differentness, otherness"
Diaspora (dI-ASP-er-ah- "is used (without capitalization) to refer to any people or ethnic population forced or induced to leave their traditional ethnic homelands, being dispersed throughout other parts of the world, and the ensuing developments in their dispersal and culture" (Wikipedia).
Eurocentrism - "the practice, conscious or otherwise, of placing emphasis on European (and, generally, Western) concerns, culture and values at the expense of those of other cultures. It is an instance of ethnocentrism, perhaps especially relevant because of its alignment with current and past real power structures in the world" (Dictionary.LaborLawTalk.com)
Hybridity - "an important concept in post-colonial theory, referring to the integration (or, mingling) of cultural signs and practices from the colonizing and the colonized cultures ("integration" may be too orderly a word to represent the variety of stratagems, desperate or cunning or good-willed, by which people adapt themselves to the necessities and the opportunities of more or less oppressive or invasive cultural impositions, live into alien cultural patterns through their own structures of understanding, thus producing something familiar but new). The assimilation and adaptation of cultural practices, the cross-fertilization of cultures, can be seen as positive, enriching, and dynamic, as well as as oppressive" (from Dr. John Lye - see General Literary Theory Websites below).
Imperialism - "the policy of extending the control or authority over foreign entities as a means of acquisition and/or maintenance of empires, either through direct territorial control or through indirect methods of exerting control on the politics and/or economy of other countries. The term is used by some to describe the policy of a country in maintaining colonies and dominance over distant lands, regardless of whether the country calls itself an empire" (Dictionary.LaborLawTalk.com).
Marxism
Marxism
A sociological approach to literature that viewed works of literature or art as the products of historical forces that can be analyzed by looking at the material conditions in which they were formed. In Marxist ideology, what we often classify as a world view (such as the Victorian age) is actually the articulations of the dominant class. Marxism generally focuses on the clash between the dominant and repressed classes in any given age and also may encourage art to imitate what is often termed an "objective" reality. Contemporary Marxism is much broader in its focus, and views art as simultaneously reflective and autonomous to the age in which it was produced. The Frankfurt School is also associated with Marxism (Abrams, p. 178, Childers and Hentzi, pp. 175-179). Major figures include Karl Marx, Terry Eagleton, Fredric Jameson, Raymond Williams, Louis Althusser (ALT-whos-sair), Walter Benjamin (ben-yeh-MEEN), Antonio Gramsci (GRAWM-shee), Georg Lukacs (lou-KOTCH), and Friedrich Engels, Theordor Adorno (a-DOR-no), Edward Ahern, Gilles Deleuze (DAY-looz) and Felix Guattari (GUAT-eh-ree).
Key Terms (note: definitions below taken from Ann B. Dobie's text, Theory into Practice: An Introduction to Literary Criticism - see General Resources below):
Commodificaion - "the attitude of valuing things not for their utility but for their power to impress others or for their resale possibilities" (92).
Conspicuous consumption - "the obvious acquisition of things only for their sign value and/or exchange value" (92).
Dialectical materialism - "the theory that history develops neither in a random fashion nor in a linear one but instead as struggle between contradictions that ultimately find resolution in a synthesis of the two sides. For example, class conflicts lead to new social systems" (92).
Material circumstances - "the economic conditions underlying the society. To understand social events, one must have a grasp of the material circumstances and the historical situation in which they occur" (92).
Reflectionism - associated with Vulgar Marxism - "a theory that the superstructure of a society mirrors its economic base and, by extension, that a text reflects the society that produced it" (92).
Superstructure - "The social, political, and ideological systems and institutions--for example, the values, art, and legal processes of a society--that are generated by the base" (92).
A sociological approach to literature that viewed works of literature or art as the products of historical forces that can be analyzed by looking at the material conditions in which they were formed. In Marxist ideology, what we often classify as a world view (such as the Victorian age) is actually the articulations of the dominant class. Marxism generally focuses on the clash between the dominant and repressed classes in any given age and also may encourage art to imitate what is often termed an "objective" reality. Contemporary Marxism is much broader in its focus, and views art as simultaneously reflective and autonomous to the age in which it was produced. The Frankfurt School is also associated with Marxism (Abrams, p. 178, Childers and Hentzi, pp. 175-179). Major figures include Karl Marx, Terry Eagleton, Fredric Jameson, Raymond Williams, Louis Althusser (ALT-whos-sair), Walter Benjamin (ben-yeh-MEEN), Antonio Gramsci (GRAWM-shee), Georg Lukacs (lou-KOTCH), and Friedrich Engels, Theordor Adorno (a-DOR-no), Edward Ahern, Gilles Deleuze (DAY-looz) and Felix Guattari (GUAT-eh-ree).
Key Terms (note: definitions below taken from Ann B. Dobie's text, Theory into Practice: An Introduction to Literary Criticism - see General Resources below):
Commodificaion - "the attitude of valuing things not for their utility but for their power to impress others or for their resale possibilities" (92).
Conspicuous consumption - "the obvious acquisition of things only for their sign value and/or exchange value" (92).
Dialectical materialism - "the theory that history develops neither in a random fashion nor in a linear one but instead as struggle between contradictions that ultimately find resolution in a synthesis of the two sides. For example, class conflicts lead to new social systems" (92).
Material circumstances - "the economic conditions underlying the society. To understand social events, one must have a grasp of the material circumstances and the historical situation in which they occur" (92).
Reflectionism - associated with Vulgar Marxism - "a theory that the superstructure of a society mirrors its economic base and, by extension, that a text reflects the society that produced it" (92).
Superstructure - "The social, political, and ideological systems and institutions--for example, the values, art, and legal processes of a society--that are generated by the base" (92).
Psychoanalytic Criticism
The application of specific psychological principles (particularly those of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan [zhawk lawk-KAWN]) to the study of literature. Psychoanalytic criticism may focus on the writer's psyche, the study of the creative process, the study of psychological types and principles present within works of literature, or the effects of literature upon its readers (Wellek and Warren, p. 81). In addition to Freud and Lacan, major figures include Shoshona Felman, Jane Gallop, Norman Holland, George Klein, Elizabeth Wright, Frederick Hoffman, and, Simon Lesser.
Key Terms:
Unconscious - the irrational part of the psyche unavailable to a person's consciousness except through dissociated acts or dreams.
Freud's model of the psyche:
* Id - completely unconscious part of the psyche that serves as a storehouse of our desires, wishes, and fears. The id houses the libido, the source of psychosexual energy.
* Ego - mostly to partially (<--a point of debate) conscious part of the psyche that processes experiences and operates as a referee or mediator between the id and superego.
* Superego - often thought of as one's "conscience"; the superego operates "like an internal censor [encouraging] moral judgments in light of social pressures" (123, Bressler - see General Resources below).
Lacan's model of the psyche:
* Imaginary - a preverbal/verbal stage in which a child (around 6-18 months of age) begins to develop a sense of separateness from her mother as well as other people and objects; however, the child's sense of sense is still incomplete.
* Symbolic - the stage marking a child's entrance into language (the ability to understand and generate symbols); in contrast to the imaginary stage, largely focused on the mother, the symbolic stage shifts attention to the father who, in Lacanian theory, represents cultural norms, laws, language, and power (the symbol of power is the phallus--an arguably "gender-neutral" term).
* Real - an unattainable stage representing all that a person is not and does not have. Both Lacan and his critics argue whether the real order represents the period before the imaginary order when a child is completely fulfilled--without need or lack, or if the real order follows the symbolic order and represents our "perennial lack" (because we cannot return to the state of wholeness that existed before language).
The application of specific psychological principles (particularly those of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan [zhawk lawk-KAWN]) to the study of literature. Psychoanalytic criticism may focus on the writer's psyche, the study of the creative process, the study of psychological types and principles present within works of literature, or the effects of literature upon its readers (Wellek and Warren, p. 81). In addition to Freud and Lacan, major figures include Shoshona Felman, Jane Gallop, Norman Holland, George Klein, Elizabeth Wright, Frederick Hoffman, and, Simon Lesser.
Key Terms:
Unconscious - the irrational part of the psyche unavailable to a person's consciousness except through dissociated acts or dreams.
Freud's model of the psyche:
* Id - completely unconscious part of the psyche that serves as a storehouse of our desires, wishes, and fears. The id houses the libido, the source of psychosexual energy.
* Ego - mostly to partially (<--a point of debate) conscious part of the psyche that processes experiences and operates as a referee or mediator between the id and superego.
* Superego - often thought of as one's "conscience"; the superego operates "like an internal censor [encouraging] moral judgments in light of social pressures" (123, Bressler - see General Resources below).
Lacan's model of the psyche:
* Imaginary - a preverbal/verbal stage in which a child (around 6-18 months of age) begins to develop a sense of separateness from her mother as well as other people and objects; however, the child's sense of sense is still incomplete.
* Symbolic - the stage marking a child's entrance into language (the ability to understand and generate symbols); in contrast to the imaginary stage, largely focused on the mother, the symbolic stage shifts attention to the father who, in Lacanian theory, represents cultural norms, laws, language, and power (the symbol of power is the phallus--an arguably "gender-neutral" term).
* Real - an unattainable stage representing all that a person is not and does not have. Both Lacan and his critics argue whether the real order represents the period before the imaginary order when a child is completely fulfilled--without need or lack, or if the real order follows the symbolic order and represents our "perennial lack" (because we cannot return to the state of wholeness that existed before language).
Archetypal/Myth Criticism
Archetypal/Myth Criticism
A form of criticism based largely on the works of C. G. Jung (YOONG) and Joseph Campbell (and myth itself). Some of the school's major figures include Robert Graves, Francis Fergusson, Philip Wheelwright, Leslie Fiedler, Northrop Frye, Maud Bodkin, and G. Wilson Knight. These critics view the genres and individual plot patterns of literature, including highly sophisticated and realistic works, as recurrences of certain archetypes and essential mythic formulae. Archetypes, according to Jung, are "primordial images"; the "psychic residue" of repeated types of experience in the lives of very ancient ancestors which are inherited in the "collective unconscious" of the human race and are expressed in myths, religion, dreams, and private fantasies, as well as in the works of literature (Abrams, p. 10, 112). Some common examples of archetypes include water, sun, moon, colors, circles, the Great Mother, Wise Old Man, etc. In terms of archetypal criticism, the color white might be associated with innocence or could signify death or the supernatural.
Key Terms:
Anima - feminine aspect - the inner feminine part of the male personality or a man's image of a woman.
Animus - male aspect - an inner masculine part of the female personality or a woman's image of a man.
Archetype - (from Makaryk - see General Resources below) - "a typical or recurring image, character, narrative design, theme, or other literary phenomenon that has been in literature from the beginning and regularly reappears" (508). Note - Frye sees archetypes as recurring patterns in literature; in contrast, Jung views archetypes as primal, ancient images/experience that we have inherited.
Collective Unconscious - "a set of primal memories common to the human race, existing below each person's conscious mind" (Jung)
Persona - the image we present to the world
Shadow - darker, sometimes hidden (deliberately or unconsciously), elements of a person's psyche
A form of criticism based largely on the works of C. G. Jung (YOONG) and Joseph Campbell (and myth itself). Some of the school's major figures include Robert Graves, Francis Fergusson, Philip Wheelwright, Leslie Fiedler, Northrop Frye, Maud Bodkin, and G. Wilson Knight. These critics view the genres and individual plot patterns of literature, including highly sophisticated and realistic works, as recurrences of certain archetypes and essential mythic formulae. Archetypes, according to Jung, are "primordial images"; the "psychic residue" of repeated types of experience in the lives of very ancient ancestors which are inherited in the "collective unconscious" of the human race and are expressed in myths, religion, dreams, and private fantasies, as well as in the works of literature (Abrams, p. 10, 112). Some common examples of archetypes include water, sun, moon, colors, circles, the Great Mother, Wise Old Man, etc. In terms of archetypal criticism, the color white might be associated with innocence or could signify death or the supernatural.
Key Terms:
Anima - feminine aspect - the inner feminine part of the male personality or a man's image of a woman.
Animus - male aspect - an inner masculine part of the female personality or a woman's image of a man.
Archetype - (from Makaryk - see General Resources below) - "a typical or recurring image, character, narrative design, theme, or other literary phenomenon that has been in literature from the beginning and regularly reappears" (508). Note - Frye sees archetypes as recurring patterns in literature; in contrast, Jung views archetypes as primal, ancient images/experience that we have inherited.
Collective Unconscious - "a set of primal memories common to the human race, existing below each person's conscious mind" (Jung)
Persona - the image we present to the world
Shadow - darker, sometimes hidden (deliberately or unconsciously), elements of a person's psyche
New Criticism
New Criticism
A literary movement that started in the late 1920s and 1930s and originated in reaction to traditional criticism that new critics saw as largely concerned with matters extraneous to the text, e.g., with the biography or psychology of the author or the work's relationship to literary history. New Criticism proposed that a work of literary art should be regarded as autonomous, and so should not be judged by reference to considerations beyond itself. A poem consists less of a series of referential and verifiable statements about the 'real' world beyond it, than of the presentation and sophisticated organization of a set of complex experiences in a verbal form (Hawkes, pp. 150-151). Major figures of New Criticism include I. A. Richards, T. S. Eliot, Cleanth Brooks, David Daiches, William Empson, Murray Krieger, John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, F. R. Leavis, Robert Penn Warren, W. K. Wimsatt, R. P. Blackmur, Rene Wellek, Ausin Warren, and Ivor Winters.
Key Terms:
Intentional Fallacy - equating the meaning of a poem with the author's intentions.
Affective Fallacy - confusing the meaning of a text with how it makes the reader feel. A reader's emotional response to a text generally does not produce a reliable interpretation.
Heresy of Paraphrase - assuming that an interpretation of a literary work could consist of a detailed summary or paraphrase.
Close reading (from Bressler - see General Resources below) - "a close and detailed analysis of the text itself to arrive at an interpretation without referring to historical, authorial, or cultural concerns" (263).
A literary movement that started in the late 1920s and 1930s and originated in reaction to traditional criticism that new critics saw as largely concerned with matters extraneous to the text, e.g., with the biography or psychology of the author or the work's relationship to literary history. New Criticism proposed that a work of literary art should be regarded as autonomous, and so should not be judged by reference to considerations beyond itself. A poem consists less of a series of referential and verifiable statements about the 'real' world beyond it, than of the presentation and sophisticated organization of a set of complex experiences in a verbal form (Hawkes, pp. 150-151). Major figures of New Criticism include I. A. Richards, T. S. Eliot, Cleanth Brooks, David Daiches, William Empson, Murray Krieger, John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, F. R. Leavis, Robert Penn Warren, W. K. Wimsatt, R. P. Blackmur, Rene Wellek, Ausin Warren, and Ivor Winters.
Key Terms:
Intentional Fallacy - equating the meaning of a poem with the author's intentions.
Affective Fallacy - confusing the meaning of a text with how it makes the reader feel. A reader's emotional response to a text generally does not produce a reliable interpretation.
Heresy of Paraphrase - assuming that an interpretation of a literary work could consist of a detailed summary or paraphrase.
Close reading (from Bressler - see General Resources below) - "a close and detailed analysis of the text itself to arrive at an interpretation without referring to historical, authorial, or cultural concerns" (263).
Sunday, September 11, 2011
DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY
CLASS 4: DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY
PREAMBLE: MORE DEFINITIONS
Negative definition of “derivational”: Suffixes that are not inflectional must be derivational.
The base is a partially complete word form to which a suffix attaches.
• one result is an inflected word form, the other a new lexeme (derivational)
• the base for an affixation process is what remains when an affix is removed
word class (C-McC) = part of speech (traditional) = lexical category (generative)
DERIVATIONS: THE BASICS
Derivational morphology deals with word formation (often resulting in a new word class):
(1) a.
b.
c.
d.
happy, unhappy, happiness, unhappiness
care, careless, carelessness, *carenessless
educate, education; generate, generation
custom, customize, customization
Affixes attach to roots or stems and form new words; better to say: they attach to bases.
Sometimes we may not see an overt morpheme (zero-derivation). This is called conversion:
(2) cut (N) – cut (V); fish (N) – fish (V)
Morphemes seem to come in a fixed order, so for example we have prefixes, suffixes etc.
However, they also seem to care what they attach to:
(3) a.
b.
c.
d.
quick – quickly; soft – softly; care – *carely
quick – quickness; soft – softness; care – *careness
care – careless – carelessness (*quickless, *softless)
joy – enjoy; danger – endanger
-ly:
-ness:
-less:
en-:
Adj Adv
Adj N
N Adj
N V
So -ly attaches to adjectives and forms adverbs, -ness attaches to adjectives and forms nouns, en-
attaches to nouns and gives us verbs. In all the above examples the meaning of the whole is
determined by the meaning of the parts, compositionality (but this is not always the case...).
(4) a.
•N
•X
•A
•X
•V
•X
amuse – amusement, enjoy – enjoyment
b.
cure – curable – incurable
N: ‘small X’, ‘female X’, inhabitant of X’, ‘state of being an X’, ‘devotee of/expert on X’
N: -ity, -ness, -ism — -ance/ence, -ment, -ing, -ion/tion/ation, -al, -er — stress, final C, V
A: un- + -able, -ful (English/Germanic) — in- + -ible, -al (Latinate/Romance)
A: passive/participle -ed, -en, -ing (test: very) — -able, -ent/ant, -ive — -ful, -less, -al, -ish
V: re-, un-, de-, dis- (all through prefixation!) — V-change: transitivity (causativity)
V: de-, -ise/ize, -fy/ify — final voicing/V-change — en-/em- (plus others, e.g. -en)
PREAMBLE: MORE DEFINITIONS
Negative definition of “derivational”: Suffixes that are not inflectional must be derivational.
The base is a partially complete word form to which a suffix attaches.
• one result is an inflected word form, the other a new lexeme (derivational)
• the base for an affixation process is what remains when an affix is removed
word class (C-McC) = part of speech (traditional) = lexical category (generative)
DERIVATIONS: THE BASICS
Derivational morphology deals with word formation (often resulting in a new word class):
(1) a.
b.
c.
d.
happy, unhappy, happiness, unhappiness
care, careless, carelessness, *carenessless
educate, education; generate, generation
custom, customize, customization
Affixes attach to roots or stems and form new words; better to say: they attach to bases.
Sometimes we may not see an overt morpheme (zero-derivation). This is called conversion:
(2) cut (N) – cut (V); fish (N) – fish (V)
Morphemes seem to come in a fixed order, so for example we have prefixes, suffixes etc.
However, they also seem to care what they attach to:
(3) a.
b.
c.
d.
quick – quickly; soft – softly; care – *carely
quick – quickness; soft – softness; care – *careness
care – careless – carelessness (*quickless, *softless)
joy – enjoy; danger – endanger
-ly:
-ness:
-less:
en-:
Adj Adv
Adj N
N Adj
N V
So -ly attaches to adjectives and forms adverbs, -ness attaches to adjectives and forms nouns, en-
attaches to nouns and gives us verbs. In all the above examples the meaning of the whole is
determined by the meaning of the parts, compositionality (but this is not always the case...).
(4) a.
•N
•X
•A
•X
•V
•X
amuse – amusement, enjoy – enjoyment
b.
cure – curable – incurable
N: ‘small X’, ‘female X’, inhabitant of X’, ‘state of being an X’, ‘devotee of/expert on X’
N: -ity, -ness, -ism — -ance/ence, -ment, -ing, -ion/tion/ation, -al, -er — stress, final C, V
A: un- + -able, -ful (English/Germanic) — in- + -ible, -al (Latinate/Romance)
A: passive/participle -ed, -en, -ing (test: very) — -able, -ent/ant, -ive — -ful, -less, -al, -ish
V: re-, un-, de-, dis- (all through prefixation!) — V-change: transitivity (causativity)
V: de-, -ise/ize, -fy/ify — final voicing/V-change — en-/em- (plus others, e.g. -en)
MORPHEMES AND ALLOMORPHS
ENG 235: Morphology and Syntax of English — Fall Semester 2003: MON & THU 1.30-3.00*
English Program, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures — University of Cyprus
Kleanthes K. Grohmann (Room 004, Phone x2106) — Email: kleanthes@punksinscience.org
October 23, 2003
CLASS 2: MORPHEMES AND ALLOMORPHS
SOME TERMINOLOGY: MORPH & CO.
A morpheme is the smallest string of sounds carrying information about meaning/function.
• free morphemes can stand on their own, i.e. be words
• bound morphemes need to attach to something
(1) a.
b.
house
house-s
• morphemes that are not words (i.e. those that are bound) are called affixes
• depending on their position, we have a prefix, suffix, infix, circumfix (?)
• affixes can be category-sensitive
(2) a.
b.
polite (adjective) – politeness (noun)
drive (verb) – driver (noun)
We can say that affixes attach to stems and that the most embedded stem in a complex word is
called the root (i.e. it is a simple stem). Note that while all affixes are bound (bound
morphemes) not all roots are free morphemes, some can be bound as well.
(3) a.
b.
leg-ible, aud-ience, magn-ify (associated with Romance roots)
cran-berry, huckle-berry, gorm-less (cranberry morphemes)
NB: What is a word? We might now have a better answer than last class: A word is the smallest
free form found in language. And yes, we can still distinguish simple from complex words.
• roots belong to lexical categories (i.e. nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions)
(4) a.
b.
care (verb, root) – careful (adjective)
careful (adjective, stem) – carefulness (noun)
MORE TERMINOLOGY: THE ALLOMORPH
Morphemes may come in more than one form:
(5) a.
b.
hand-s, dog-s, nun-s
cat-s, dock-s, trap-s
[z]
[s]
The plural morpheme –s is pronounced differently in (5a) and (5b). Is it the same or two
different morphemes? Answer: It is one morpheme with two different realizations
depending on the phonological environment. It is [÷s] after [t], [k], [p] and [÷z] after [d], [g], [n]
— What is it that makes these two sets different? The first is [-voice], the second [+voice].
1
(6) a.
b.
[Z] ‡ [s] / [-voice] ____
[Z] ‡ [z] / [+voice] ____
Vowels can be said to be inherently voiced, so they take the [z]-realization as well: day-s.
One further possibility of the realization of the plural morpheme is after sounds like [÷s], [÷z]:
(7) bus-es, box-es, maze-s
(6) c.
[Iz] (or [ ́z])
[Z] ‡ [Iz] / [coronal, fricative] ____
The rule in (6c) should actually apply before those in (6a,b). Why? Because if in the case of bus
for example, where –s is [-voice], we apply the rule in (6a) that would give us the plural
morpheme –s only, so we have no way of accounting for the presence of [Iz]. In other words,
we’ll get the wrong result. (Some sibilants are a subset of all voiceless consonants.)
(8) Allomorphic English plural rule
[Z] ‡ [Iz] / [coronal, fricative] ____
[s] / [-voice] ____
[z] / [+voice] ____
The three different realizations of the plural morpheme [Z] are called allomorphs. In most of
the cases allomorphs are predicted by the phonological environment (this is relevant for the
relation between morphology and phonology, which we will look at towards the end, class 10).
Something very similar can be said for the past tense morpheme -ed: [Id/ ́d], [d], [t]. [exercise]
But not only phonology determines allomorphy: the lexicon and grammar do as well.
(9) a. laugh, cliff — laughs, cliffs
b. wife, loaf — *wifes, *loafs
c. — wives, loaves
(10)
[s]
*[s]
[z]
my wife’s job ‹ ’s: [s]
It looks like the “word” wife e.g. comes in two allomorphs as well: free wife and bound wive.
Lastly, it must be pointed out that although intuitive, correlating morphemes with meaning is
not (always) accurate. (Class 1: “Morphemes are the smallest unit pairing sound and meaning.”)
Recall that we defined morphemes in terms of meaning or function above — for a good reason.
[rI], [r ́]
[rI], *[r ́]
(11) a. return, restore...
b. re-turn, re-store...
(12) a. involve, revolve
b. #involution / involvement, revolution /* revolvement
Further readings:
& Spencer, A. 1991. Morphological Theory. Oxford: Blackwell, Ch. 1
2
ENG 235: Morphology and Syntax of English — Fall Semester 2003: MON & THU 1.30-3.00*
English Program, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures — University of Cyprus
Kleanthes K. Grohmann (Room 004, Phone x2106) — Email: kleanthes@punksinscience.org
October 23, 2003
CLASS 2: MORPHEMES AND ALLOMORPHS
SOME TERMINOLOGY: MORPH & CO.
A morpheme is the smallest string of sounds carrying information about meaning/function.
• free morphemes can stand on their own, i.e. be words
• bound morphemes need to attach to something
(1) a.
b.
house
house-s
• morphemes that are not words (i.e. those that are bound) are called affixes
• depending on their position, we have a prefix, suffix, infix, circumfix (?)
• affixes can be category-sensitive
(2) a.
b.
polite (adjective) – politeness (noun)
drive (verb) – driver (noun)
We can say that affixes attach to stems and that the most embedded stem in a complex word is
called the root (i.e. it is a simple stem). Note that while all affixes are bound (bound
morphemes) not all roots are free morphemes, some can be bound as well.
(3) a.
b.
leg-ible, aud-ience, magn-ify (associated with Romance roots)
cran-berry, huckle-berry, gorm-less (cranberry morphemes)
NB: What is a word? We might now have a better answer than last class: A word is the smallest
free form found in language. And yes, we can still distinguish simple from complex words.
• roots belong to lexical categories (i.e. nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions)
(4) a.
b.
care (verb, root) – careful (adjective)
careful (adjective, stem) – carefulness (noun)
MORE TERMINOLOGY: THE ALLOMORPH
Morphemes may come in more than one form:
(5) a.
b.
hand-s, dog-s, nun-s
cat-s, dock-s, trap-s
[z]
[s]
The plural morpheme –s is pronounced differently in (5a) and (5b). Is it the same or two
different morphemes? Answer: It is one morpheme with two different realizations
depending on the phonological environment. It is [÷s] after [t], [k], [p] and [÷z] after [d], [g], [n]
— What is it that makes these two sets different? The first is [-voice], the second [+voice].
1
(6) a.
b.
[Z] ‡ [s] / [-voice] ____
[Z] ‡ [z] / [+voice] ____
Vowels can be said to be inherently voiced, so they take the [z]-realization as well: day-s.
One further possibility of the realization of the plural morpheme is after sounds like [÷s], [÷z]:
(7) bus-es, box-es, maze-s
(6) c.
[Iz] (or [ ́z])
[Z] ‡ [Iz] / [coronal, fricative] ____
The rule in (6c) should actually apply before those in (6a,b). Why? Because if in the case of bus
for example, where –s is [-voice], we apply the rule in (6a) that would give us the plural
morpheme –s only, so we have no way of accounting for the presence of [Iz]. In other words,
we’ll get the wrong result. (Some sibilants are a subset of all voiceless consonants.)
(8) Allomorphic English plural rule
[Z] ‡ [Iz] / [coronal, fricative] ____
[s] / [-voice] ____
[z] / [+voice] ____
The three different realizations of the plural morpheme [Z] are called allomorphs. In most of
the cases allomorphs are predicted by the phonological environment (this is relevant for the
relation between morphology and phonology, which we will look at towards the end, class 10).
Something very similar can be said for the past tense morpheme -ed: [Id/ ́d], [d], [t]. [exercise]
But not only phonology determines allomorphy: the lexicon and grammar do as well.
(9) a. laugh, cliff — laughs, cliffs
b. wife, loaf — *wifes, *loafs
c. — wives, loaves
(10)
[s]
*[s]
[z]
my wife’s job ‹ ’s: [s]
It looks like the “word” wife e.g. comes in two allomorphs as well: free wife and bound wive.
Lastly, it must be pointed out that although intuitive, correlating morphemes with meaning is
not (always) accurate. (Class 1: “Morphemes are the smallest unit pairing sound and meaning.”)
Recall that we defined morphemes in terms of meaning or function above — for a good reason.
[rI], [r ́]
[rI], *[r ́]
(11) a. return, restore...
b. re-turn, re-store...
(12) a. involve, revolve
b. #involution / involvement, revolution /* revolvement
Further readings:
& Spencer, A. 1991. Morphological Theory. Oxford: Blackwell, Ch. 1
2
English Program, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures — University of Cyprus
Kleanthes K. Grohmann (Room 004, Phone x2106) — Email: kleanthes@punksinscience.org
October 23, 2003
CLASS 2: MORPHEMES AND ALLOMORPHS
SOME TERMINOLOGY: MORPH & CO.
A morpheme is the smallest string of sounds carrying information about meaning/function.
• free morphemes can stand on their own, i.e. be words
• bound morphemes need to attach to something
(1) a.
b.
house
house-s
• morphemes that are not words (i.e. those that are bound) are called affixes
• depending on their position, we have a prefix, suffix, infix, circumfix (?)
• affixes can be category-sensitive
(2) a.
b.
polite (adjective) – politeness (noun)
drive (verb) – driver (noun)
We can say that affixes attach to stems and that the most embedded stem in a complex word is
called the root (i.e. it is a simple stem). Note that while all affixes are bound (bound
morphemes) not all roots are free morphemes, some can be bound as well.
(3) a.
b.
leg-ible, aud-ience, magn-ify (associated with Romance roots)
cran-berry, huckle-berry, gorm-less (cranberry morphemes)
NB: What is a word? We might now have a better answer than last class: A word is the smallest
free form found in language. And yes, we can still distinguish simple from complex words.
• roots belong to lexical categories (i.e. nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions)
(4) a.
b.
care (verb, root) – careful (adjective)
careful (adjective, stem) – carefulness (noun)
MORE TERMINOLOGY: THE ALLOMORPH
Morphemes may come in more than one form:
(5) a.
b.
hand-s, dog-s, nun-s
cat-s, dock-s, trap-s
[z]
[s]
The plural morpheme –s is pronounced differently in (5a) and (5b). Is it the same or two
different morphemes? Answer: It is one morpheme with two different realizations
depending on the phonological environment. It is [÷s] after [t], [k], [p] and [÷z] after [d], [g], [n]
— What is it that makes these two sets different? The first is [-voice], the second [+voice].
1
(6) a.
b.
[Z] ‡ [s] / [-voice] ____
[Z] ‡ [z] / [+voice] ____
Vowels can be said to be inherently voiced, so they take the [z]-realization as well: day-s.
One further possibility of the realization of the plural morpheme is after sounds like [÷s], [÷z]:
(7) bus-es, box-es, maze-s
(6) c.
[Iz] (or [ ́z])
[Z] ‡ [Iz] / [coronal, fricative] ____
The rule in (6c) should actually apply before those in (6a,b). Why? Because if in the case of bus
for example, where –s is [-voice], we apply the rule in (6a) that would give us the plural
morpheme –s only, so we have no way of accounting for the presence of [Iz]. In other words,
we’ll get the wrong result. (Some sibilants are a subset of all voiceless consonants.)
(8) Allomorphic English plural rule
[Z] ‡ [Iz] / [coronal, fricative] ____
[s] / [-voice] ____
[z] / [+voice] ____
The three different realizations of the plural morpheme [Z] are called allomorphs. In most of
the cases allomorphs are predicted by the phonological environment (this is relevant for the
relation between morphology and phonology, which we will look at towards the end, class 10).
Something very similar can be said for the past tense morpheme -ed: [Id/ ́d], [d], [t]. [exercise]
But not only phonology determines allomorphy: the lexicon and grammar do as well.
(9) a. laugh, cliff — laughs, cliffs
b. wife, loaf — *wifes, *loafs
c. — wives, loaves
(10)
[s]
*[s]
[z]
my wife’s job ‹ ’s: [s]
It looks like the “word” wife e.g. comes in two allomorphs as well: free wife and bound wive.
Lastly, it must be pointed out that although intuitive, correlating morphemes with meaning is
not (always) accurate. (Class 1: “Morphemes are the smallest unit pairing sound and meaning.”)
Recall that we defined morphemes in terms of meaning or function above — for a good reason.
[rI], [r ́]
[rI], *[r ́]
(11) a. return, restore...
b. re-turn, re-store...
(12) a. involve, revolve
b. #involution / involvement, revolution /* revolvement
Further readings:
& Spencer, A. 1991. Morphological Theory. Oxford: Blackwell, Ch. 1
2
ENG 235: Morphology and Syntax of English — Fall Semester 2003: MON & THU 1.30-3.00*
English Program, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures — University of Cyprus
Kleanthes K. Grohmann (Room 004, Phone x2106) — Email: kleanthes@punksinscience.org
October 23, 2003
CLASS 2: MORPHEMES AND ALLOMORPHS
SOME TERMINOLOGY: MORPH & CO.
A morpheme is the smallest string of sounds carrying information about meaning/function.
• free morphemes can stand on their own, i.e. be words
• bound morphemes need to attach to something
(1) a.
b.
house
house-s
• morphemes that are not words (i.e. those that are bound) are called affixes
• depending on their position, we have a prefix, suffix, infix, circumfix (?)
• affixes can be category-sensitive
(2) a.
b.
polite (adjective) – politeness (noun)
drive (verb) – driver (noun)
We can say that affixes attach to stems and that the most embedded stem in a complex word is
called the root (i.e. it is a simple stem). Note that while all affixes are bound (bound
morphemes) not all roots are free morphemes, some can be bound as well.
(3) a.
b.
leg-ible, aud-ience, magn-ify (associated with Romance roots)
cran-berry, huckle-berry, gorm-less (cranberry morphemes)
NB: What is a word? We might now have a better answer than last class: A word is the smallest
free form found in language. And yes, we can still distinguish simple from complex words.
• roots belong to lexical categories (i.e. nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions)
(4) a.
b.
care (verb, root) – careful (adjective)
careful (adjective, stem) – carefulness (noun)
MORE TERMINOLOGY: THE ALLOMORPH
Morphemes may come in more than one form:
(5) a.
b.
hand-s, dog-s, nun-s
cat-s, dock-s, trap-s
[z]
[s]
The plural morpheme –s is pronounced differently in (5a) and (5b). Is it the same or two
different morphemes? Answer: It is one morpheme with two different realizations
depending on the phonological environment. It is [÷s] after [t], [k], [p] and [÷z] after [d], [g], [n]
— What is it that makes these two sets different? The first is [-voice], the second [+voice].
1
(6) a.
b.
[Z] ‡ [s] / [-voice] ____
[Z] ‡ [z] / [+voice] ____
Vowels can be said to be inherently voiced, so they take the [z]-realization as well: day-s.
One further possibility of the realization of the plural morpheme is after sounds like [÷s], [÷z]:
(7) bus-es, box-es, maze-s
(6) c.
[Iz] (or [ ́z])
[Z] ‡ [Iz] / [coronal, fricative] ____
The rule in (6c) should actually apply before those in (6a,b). Why? Because if in the case of bus
for example, where –s is [-voice], we apply the rule in (6a) that would give us the plural
morpheme –s only, so we have no way of accounting for the presence of [Iz]. In other words,
we’ll get the wrong result. (Some sibilants are a subset of all voiceless consonants.)
(8) Allomorphic English plural rule
[Z] ‡ [Iz] / [coronal, fricative] ____
[s] / [-voice] ____
[z] / [+voice] ____
The three different realizations of the plural morpheme [Z] are called allomorphs. In most of
the cases allomorphs are predicted by the phonological environment (this is relevant for the
relation between morphology and phonology, which we will look at towards the end, class 10).
Something very similar can be said for the past tense morpheme -ed: [Id/ ́d], [d], [t]. [exercise]
But not only phonology determines allomorphy: the lexicon and grammar do as well.
(9) a. laugh, cliff — laughs, cliffs
b. wife, loaf — *wifes, *loafs
c. — wives, loaves
(10)
[s]
*[s]
[z]
my wife’s job ‹ ’s: [s]
It looks like the “word” wife e.g. comes in two allomorphs as well: free wife and bound wive.
Lastly, it must be pointed out that although intuitive, correlating morphemes with meaning is
not (always) accurate. (Class 1: “Morphemes are the smallest unit pairing sound and meaning.”)
Recall that we defined morphemes in terms of meaning or function above — for a good reason.
[rI], [r ́]
[rI], *[r ́]
(11) a. return, restore...
b. re-turn, re-store...
(12) a. involve, revolve
b. #involution / involvement, revolution /* revolvement
Further readings:
& Spencer, A. 1991. Morphological Theory. Oxford: Blackwell, Ch. 1
2
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formalism
Formalism (also known as New Criticism)
A Basic Approach to Reading and Understanding Literature
Formalist theory has dominated the American literary scene for most of the twentieth century and has
retained its great influence in many academic quarters. Its practitioners advocate methodical and systematic readings
of texts. The major premises of New Criticism include: literature exists as "art for art's sake," a written work's
"content = its form," and literary works are "texts in and for themselves." These premises lead to the development of
reading strategies that isolate and objectify the overt structures of texts as well as authorial techniques and language
usage. Through "isolated" and "objective" readings, New Criticism aims to classify, categorize, and catalog works
according to their "formal" attributes. Along the way, New Criticism wants to pull out and discuss any "universal"
truths that literary works might hold concerning what has been popularly called "the human condition." These truths
are considered by New Critics to be static, enduring, and applicable to all humanity. Leading new critics include I.A.
Richards, Cleanth Brooks, Northrop Frye, John Crowe Ransom, T.S. Eliot, and Roman Jacobsen. These thinkers
consider literature to be a "language game" in which communication becomes semi-transparent. They reject
Impressionism, moral tones, and philological studies, and believe that written works should work mostly on the
intellect. The rise of New Criticism coincides with that of modern literature, probably because of the popularity of
the "art for art's sake" maxim. Formalists value poetry rich in ambiguity, irony, and intention, and want to make
literary criticism a science. This last projection introduces the concept of "expert readers" into interpretive theory.
Current theorists tend to criticize Formalism for this and other symptoms of narrow-mindedness; still, they canot
deny that New Criticism has left a lasting impression on American literary scholarship. Its terminology continues as
the basis for most "literary" education in the United States, and other critical approaches to reading and critiquing
literature depend upon a reader's familiarity with these terms to articulate their findings.
Glossary of major Formalist literary terms
Character--creation and representation of fictional persons and entities
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
antagonist--the main villain
antihero--a central sympathetic character with significant personal flaws
dynamic--changing, growing, active
flat--not well-developed
protagonist--the main character the audience is expected to sympathize with
round--well-developed
static--not growing or changing, an inactive personality
symbolic--caricature that is representative of certain kinds of people
Figures of speech--various expressive devices used in lieu of plain prose for vivid depiction
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
allegory--parallel story with underlying moral or message
analogy--extended comparison of things or events with other things and events
irony--paradoxical events, ideas, or attitudes that are played off against each other
sarcasm--making serious fun of things, ideas, people, or events
satire--synthesis of heavily developed ironies and sarcasms
metaphor--brief or extended comparison of something with something else
metonymy--comparison/contrast of a part with the whole (as in "he gave up the sword" to indicate leaving a life
of warfare)
personification--comparing inanimate things to people
simile--something or someone is "as a" something else
symbolism--using inanimate or imagined things to stand for real situations
intangible--imaginary or "mental" symbols
tangible--physical or "actual" symbols
synecdoche--comparison of the whole with one or more of its parts (as in saying "the smiling year" to indicate
springtime)
Imagery--specific details used to describe characters, situations, things, ideas, or events
•
•
•
hearing--images that make you hear sounds in your mind
seeing--images that draw mental pictures
smelling--images that bring the memories of odors and aromas to mind
Writing Center
Armstrong Atlantic State University
last updated September 14, 2004
Formalism (also known as New Criticism)
A Basic Approach to Reading and Understanding Literature
•
•
•
tasting--images that make you recall or imagine how something might taste
touching--images that help you imagine how something might feel on your skin
extrasensory--images that take you to an imaginary world of sensations
Plot--a series of events or happenings that organize a text
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
climax--the main event in a text
complicated--characterized by many twists and turns
conflict--plot features that demonstrate human rivalries and difficulties
external--conflicts that are active, perhaps physical or overtly expressed
internal--conflicts that are passive, perhaps mental or covertly expressed
denouement--what happens as a result of the climax, the "fallout" or "payoff"
foreshadowing--plot features that predict other events, like the climax or denouement
implausible--fantastic plots that are not acceptable in the everyday sense of reality
plausible--believable, everyday plots
simple--arranged with few twists and turns
Point of view--perspective of the controlling narrative voice
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
first person--narrative voice that speaks with "I/we/us" pronouns
limited omniscience--narrator who doesn't know everything
objective--narrator who tries to tell story from an impersonal point of view
omniscient--narrator who presumes to know the ultimate truth of the story
reliable--narrator who can be trusted to tell the truth and be objective
subjective--narrator who admits that personal factors have affected interpretation
third person--narrative voice that uses "he/she/they" pronouns
unreliable--narrator who cannot be trusted to tell the truth or be objective
Setting--atmosphere, historical period, physical setting, or mood of text
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
place--physical or psychical locations of events, things, characters, and historical times
time--physical or psychical progression of events
ahistorical--not grounded in any "real" historical period; imaginary or fantasy
chronological--linear telling of events
backward--starting at the end and working toward the beginning
forward--starting at the beginning and working toward the end
circular--a reflection that begins anywhere, goes to the end, works its way to the beginning, and eventually gets
back to where it started
flashbacks--looking back into time
historical--grounded in a "real" historical time period
in media res--beginning more or less in the middle of events
projections--looking forward into time
fragmented--going back and forth in time with combinations of chronologies
atmosphere--physical and external descriptions that help us better understand the setting
mood--emotional and internal descriptions that help us better understand the setting
Theme--a major idea or message in the text
•
•
•
controlling idea--the major theme of a work
related ideas--subthemes that contribute to the development of the main idea
separate issues--ideas not directly related to the main idea or subthemes, but that are nevertheless important and
contribute to the overall success of the text
Writing Center
Armstrong Atlantic State University
last updated September 14, 2004
A Basic Approach to Reading and Understanding Literature
Formalist theory has dominated the American literary scene for most of the twentieth century and has
retained its great influence in many academic quarters. Its practitioners advocate methodical and systematic readings
of texts. The major premises of New Criticism include: literature exists as "art for art's sake," a written work's
"content = its form," and literary works are "texts in and for themselves." These premises lead to the development of
reading strategies that isolate and objectify the overt structures of texts as well as authorial techniques and language
usage. Through "isolated" and "objective" readings, New Criticism aims to classify, categorize, and catalog works
according to their "formal" attributes. Along the way, New Criticism wants to pull out and discuss any "universal"
truths that literary works might hold concerning what has been popularly called "the human condition." These truths
are considered by New Critics to be static, enduring, and applicable to all humanity. Leading new critics include I.A.
Richards, Cleanth Brooks, Northrop Frye, John Crowe Ransom, T.S. Eliot, and Roman Jacobsen. These thinkers
consider literature to be a "language game" in which communication becomes semi-transparent. They reject
Impressionism, moral tones, and philological studies, and believe that written works should work mostly on the
intellect. The rise of New Criticism coincides with that of modern literature, probably because of the popularity of
the "art for art's sake" maxim. Formalists value poetry rich in ambiguity, irony, and intention, and want to make
literary criticism a science. This last projection introduces the concept of "expert readers" into interpretive theory.
Current theorists tend to criticize Formalism for this and other symptoms of narrow-mindedness; still, they canot
deny that New Criticism has left a lasting impression on American literary scholarship. Its terminology continues as
the basis for most "literary" education in the United States, and other critical approaches to reading and critiquing
literature depend upon a reader's familiarity with these terms to articulate their findings.
Glossary of major Formalist literary terms
Character--creation and representation of fictional persons and entities
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
antagonist--the main villain
antihero--a central sympathetic character with significant personal flaws
dynamic--changing, growing, active
flat--not well-developed
protagonist--the main character the audience is expected to sympathize with
round--well-developed
static--not growing or changing, an inactive personality
symbolic--caricature that is representative of certain kinds of people
Figures of speech--various expressive devices used in lieu of plain prose for vivid depiction
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
allegory--parallel story with underlying moral or message
analogy--extended comparison of things or events with other things and events
irony--paradoxical events, ideas, or attitudes that are played off against each other
sarcasm--making serious fun of things, ideas, people, or events
satire--synthesis of heavily developed ironies and sarcasms
metaphor--brief or extended comparison of something with something else
metonymy--comparison/contrast of a part with the whole (as in "he gave up the sword" to indicate leaving a life
of warfare)
personification--comparing inanimate things to people
simile--something or someone is "as a" something else
symbolism--using inanimate or imagined things to stand for real situations
intangible--imaginary or "mental" symbols
tangible--physical or "actual" symbols
synecdoche--comparison of the whole with one or more of its parts (as in saying "the smiling year" to indicate
springtime)
Imagery--specific details used to describe characters, situations, things, ideas, or events
•
•
•
hearing--images that make you hear sounds in your mind
seeing--images that draw mental pictures
smelling--images that bring the memories of odors and aromas to mind
Writing Center
Armstrong Atlantic State University
last updated September 14, 2004
Formalism (also known as New Criticism)
A Basic Approach to Reading and Understanding Literature
•
•
•
tasting--images that make you recall or imagine how something might taste
touching--images that help you imagine how something might feel on your skin
extrasensory--images that take you to an imaginary world of sensations
Plot--a series of events or happenings that organize a text
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
climax--the main event in a text
complicated--characterized by many twists and turns
conflict--plot features that demonstrate human rivalries and difficulties
external--conflicts that are active, perhaps physical or overtly expressed
internal--conflicts that are passive, perhaps mental or covertly expressed
denouement--what happens as a result of the climax, the "fallout" or "payoff"
foreshadowing--plot features that predict other events, like the climax or denouement
implausible--fantastic plots that are not acceptable in the everyday sense of reality
plausible--believable, everyday plots
simple--arranged with few twists and turns
Point of view--perspective of the controlling narrative voice
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
first person--narrative voice that speaks with "I/we/us" pronouns
limited omniscience--narrator who doesn't know everything
objective--narrator who tries to tell story from an impersonal point of view
omniscient--narrator who presumes to know the ultimate truth of the story
reliable--narrator who can be trusted to tell the truth and be objective
subjective--narrator who admits that personal factors have affected interpretation
third person--narrative voice that uses "he/she/they" pronouns
unreliable--narrator who cannot be trusted to tell the truth or be objective
Setting--atmosphere, historical period, physical setting, or mood of text
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
place--physical or psychical locations of events, things, characters, and historical times
time--physical or psychical progression of events
ahistorical--not grounded in any "real" historical period; imaginary or fantasy
chronological--linear telling of events
backward--starting at the end and working toward the beginning
forward--starting at the beginning and working toward the end
circular--a reflection that begins anywhere, goes to the end, works its way to the beginning, and eventually gets
back to where it started
flashbacks--looking back into time
historical--grounded in a "real" historical time period
in media res--beginning more or less in the middle of events
projections--looking forward into time
fragmented--going back and forth in time with combinations of chronologies
atmosphere--physical and external descriptions that help us better understand the setting
mood--emotional and internal descriptions that help us better understand the setting
Theme--a major idea or message in the text
•
•
•
controlling idea--the major theme of a work
related ideas--subthemes that contribute to the development of the main idea
separate issues--ideas not directly related to the main idea or subthemes, but that are nevertheless important and
contribute to the overall success of the text
Writing Center
Armstrong Atlantic State University
last updated September 14, 2004
Travel Theory
Travel Theory
Interest in travel and travel writing has emerged as the result of an intellectual climate that is interrogating imperialism, colonialism, postcolonialism, ethnography, diaspora, multiculturalism, nationalism, identity, visual culture, and map theory. Travel theory's lexicon includes such words as transculturation, metropolitan center, "imperial eyes," contact zones, border crossing, tourist/traveler, imperial frontier, hybridity, margin, expatriation/repatriation, cosmopolitanism/localism, museology, displacement, home/abroad, arrival/return, road narrative, and diaspora, to name just a few. Major theorists include Sara Mills, James Clifford, Anne McClintock, Mary Louise Pratt, Homi Bhabha (bah-bah), Edward Said, Paul Fussell, Steven Clark, Inderpal Grewal, Guy Debord, Umberto Eco, Caren Kaplan, Dean McCannell, James Urry, Jean Baudrillard (boh-dree-YAHR), and David Spurr.
Interest in travel and travel writing has emerged as the result of an intellectual climate that is interrogating imperialism, colonialism, postcolonialism, ethnography, diaspora, multiculturalism, nationalism, identity, visual culture, and map theory. Travel theory's lexicon includes such words as transculturation, metropolitan center, "imperial eyes," contact zones, border crossing, tourist/traveler, imperial frontier, hybridity, margin, expatriation/repatriation, cosmopolitanism/localism, museology, displacement, home/abroad, arrival/return, road narrative, and diaspora, to name just a few. Major theorists include Sara Mills, James Clifford, Anne McClintock, Mary Louise Pratt, Homi Bhabha (bah-bah), Edward Said, Paul Fussell, Steven Clark, Inderpal Grewal, Guy Debord, Umberto Eco, Caren Kaplan, Dean McCannell, James Urry, Jean Baudrillard (boh-dree-YAHR), and David Spurr.
Autobiographical Theory
Autobiographical Theory
As the critical attention to biography waned in the mid-twentieth century, interest in autobiography increased. Autobiography paired well with theories such as structuralism and poststructuralism because autobiography was fertile ground for considering the divide between fact and fiction, challenging the possibility of presenting a life objectively, and examining how the shaping force of language prohibited any simple attempts at truth and reference. Classical autobiographies focused on public figures, were, largely, written by men, and works theorizing autobiography primarily treated men's life writing. Until the mid-1970s, little work was done on theorizing women's autobiographies. Major theorists include (and this list, I'm sure, excludes several important writers) Bella Brodski, Paul de Man (de-MAHN), Jacques Derrida (dair-ree-DAH), Paul John Eakin, Leigh Gilmore, Georges Gusdorf, Carolyn Heilbrun, Philippe Lejeune, Françoise Lionnet, Mary G. Mason, Nancy K. Miller, Shirley Neuman, Felicity Nussbaum, James Olney, Roy Pascal, Adrienne Rich, Sidonie Smith, Patricia Meyer Spacks, Domna Stanton, Julia Watson, and Karl Weintraub.
As the critical attention to biography waned in the mid-twentieth century, interest in autobiography increased. Autobiography paired well with theories such as structuralism and poststructuralism because autobiography was fertile ground for considering the divide between fact and fiction, challenging the possibility of presenting a life objectively, and examining how the shaping force of language prohibited any simple attempts at truth and reference. Classical autobiographies focused on public figures, were, largely, written by men, and works theorizing autobiography primarily treated men's life writing. Until the mid-1970s, little work was done on theorizing women's autobiographies. Major theorists include (and this list, I'm sure, excludes several important writers) Bella Brodski, Paul de Man (de-MAHN), Jacques Derrida (dair-ree-DAH), Paul John Eakin, Leigh Gilmore, Georges Gusdorf, Carolyn Heilbrun, Philippe Lejeune, Françoise Lionnet, Mary G. Mason, Nancy K. Miller, Shirley Neuman, Felicity Nussbaum, James Olney, Roy Pascal, Adrienne Rich, Sidonie Smith, Patricia Meyer Spacks, Domna Stanton, Julia Watson, and Karl Weintraub.
Genre Criticism
Genre Criticism
Study of different forms or types of literature. Genre studies often focus on the characteristics, structures, and conventions attributed to different forms of literature, e.g., the novel, short story, poem, drama, film, etc. More recent inquiry in genre criticism centers on the bias often inherent in genre criticism such as its latent (or overt) racism and sexism.
Study of different forms or types of literature. Genre studies often focus on the characteristics, structures, and conventions attributed to different forms of literature, e.g., the novel, short story, poem, drama, film, etc. More recent inquiry in genre criticism centers on the bias often inherent in genre criticism such as its latent (or overt) racism and sexism.
Feminism
Feminism
To speak of "Feminism" as a theory is already a reduction. However, in terms of its theory (rather than as its reality as a historical movement in effect for some centuries) feminism might be categorized into three general groups:
1. theories haaving an essentialist focus (including psychoanalytic and French feminism);
2. theories aimed at defining or establishing a feminist literary canon or theories seeking to re-interpret and re-vision literature (and culture and history and so forth) from a less patriarchal slant (including gynocriticism, liberal feminism); and
3. theories focusing on sexual difference and sexual politics (including gender studies, lesbian studies, cultural feminism, radical feminism, and socialist/materialist feminism).
Further, women (and men) needed to consider what it meant to be a woman, to consider how much of what society has often deemed inherently female traits, are culturally and socially constructed. Simone de Beauvoir's study, The Second Sex, though perhaps flawed by Beauvoir's own body politics, nevertheless served as a groundbreaking book of feminism, that questioned the "othering" of women by western philosophy. Early projects in feminist theory included resurrecting women's literature that in many cases had never been considered seriously or had been erased over time (e.g., Charlotte Perkins Gilman was quite prominent in the early 20th century but was virtually unknown until her work was "re-discovered" later in the century). Since the 1960s the writings of many women have been rediscovered, reconsidered, and collected in large anthologies such as The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women.
However, merely unearthing women's literature did not ensure its prominence; in order to assess women's writings the number of preconceptions inherent in a literary canon dominated by male beliefs and male writers needed to be re-evaluated. Betty Friedan's The Feminist Mystique (1963), Kate Millet's Sexual Politics (1970), Teresa de Lauretis's Alice Doesn't: Feminism, Semiotics, Cinema (1984), Annette Kolodny's The Lay of the Land (1975), Judith Fetterly's The Resisting Reader (1978), Elaine Showalter's A Literature of Their Own (1977), or Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar's The Madwoman in the Attic (1979) are just a handful of the many critiques that questioned cultural, sexual, intellectual, and/or psychological stereotypes about women.
Key Terms (this list is woefully inadequate; suggestions for additional terms would be appreciated):
Androgyny - taken from Women Studies page of Drew University - "'...suggests a world in which sex-roles are not rigidly defined, a state in which ‘the man in every woman' and the ‘woman in every man' could be integrated and freely expressed' (Tuttle 19). Used more frequently in the 1970's, this term was used to describe a blurring, or combination of gender roles so that neither masculinity or femininity is dominant."
Backlash - a term, which may have originated with Susan Faludi, referring to a movement ( ca. 1980s) away from or against feminism.
Écriture féminine - Écriture féminine, literally women's writing, is a philosophy that promotes women's experiences and feelings to the point that it strengthens the work. Hélène Cixous first uses this term in her essay, "The Laugh of the Medusa," in which she asserts, "Woman must write her self: must write about women and bring women to writing, from which they have been driven away as violently as from their bodies. Écriture féminine places experience before language, and privileges the anti-linear, cyclical writing so often frowned upon by patriarchal society' (Wikipedia).
Essentialism - taken from Women Studies page of Drew University - "The belief in a uniquely feminine essence, existing above and beyond cultural conditioning...the mirror image of biologism which for centuries justified the oppression of women by proclaiming the natural superiority of men (Tuttle 90)." Tong's use of the term is relative to the explanation of the division of radical feminism into radical-cultural and radical libertarian.
Gynocentrics - "a term coined by the feminist scholar-critic Elaine Showalter to define the process of constructing "a female framework for analysis of women's literature [in order] to develop new models [of interpretation] based on the study of female experience, rather than to adapt to male models and theories'" (Bressler 269, see General Resources below).
Jouissance - a term most commonly associated with Helene Cixous (seek-sou), whose use of the word may have derived from Jacques Lacan - "Cixous follows Lacan's psychoanalytic paradigm, which argues that a child must separate from its mother's body (the Real) in order to enter into the Symbolic. Because of this, Cixous says, the female body in general becomes unrepresentable in language; it's what can't be spoken or written in the phallogocentric Symbolic order. Cixous here makes a leap from the maternal body to the female body in general; she also leaps from that female body to female sexuality, saying that female sexuality, female sexual pleasure, feminine jouissance, is unrepresentable within the phallogocentric Symbolic order" (Dr. Mary Klages, "Postructuralist Feminist Theory")
Patriarchy - "Sexism is perpetuated by systems of patriarchy where male-dominated structures and social arrangements elaborate the oppression of women. Patriarchy almost by definition also exhibits androcentrism, meaning male centered. Coupled with patriarchy, androcentrism assumes that male norms operate through out all social institutions and become the standard to which all persons adhere" (Joe Santillan - University of California at Davis).
Phallologocentrism - "language ordered around an absolute Word (logos) which is “masculine” [phallic], systematically excludes, disqualifies, denigrates, diminishes, silences the “feminine” (Nikita Dhawan).
Second- and Third-Wave feminism - "Second-wave feminism refers to a period of feminist thought that originated around the 1960s and was mainly concerned with independence and greater political action to improve women's rights" (Wikipedia). "Third-wave feminism is a feminist movement that arguably began in the early 1990s. Unlike second-wave feminism, which largely focused on the inclusion of women in traditionally male-dominated areas, third-wave feminism seeks to challenge and expand common definitions of gender and sexuality" (Wikipedia).
Semiotic - "[Julia] Kristeva (kris-TAYV-veh) makes a distinction between the semiotic and symbolic modes of communication:
* Symbolic = how we normally think of language (grammar, syntax, logic etc.)
* Semiotic = non-linguistic aspects of language which express drives and affects
The semiotic level includes rhythms and sounds and the way they can convey powerful yet indefinable emotions" (Colin Wright - University of Nottingham).
To speak of "Feminism" as a theory is already a reduction. However, in terms of its theory (rather than as its reality as a historical movement in effect for some centuries) feminism might be categorized into three general groups:
1. theories haaving an essentialist focus (including psychoanalytic and French feminism);
2. theories aimed at defining or establishing a feminist literary canon or theories seeking to re-interpret and re-vision literature (and culture and history and so forth) from a less patriarchal slant (including gynocriticism, liberal feminism); and
3. theories focusing on sexual difference and sexual politics (including gender studies, lesbian studies, cultural feminism, radical feminism, and socialist/materialist feminism).
Further, women (and men) needed to consider what it meant to be a woman, to consider how much of what society has often deemed inherently female traits, are culturally and socially constructed. Simone de Beauvoir's study, The Second Sex, though perhaps flawed by Beauvoir's own body politics, nevertheless served as a groundbreaking book of feminism, that questioned the "othering" of women by western philosophy. Early projects in feminist theory included resurrecting women's literature that in many cases had never been considered seriously or had been erased over time (e.g., Charlotte Perkins Gilman was quite prominent in the early 20th century but was virtually unknown until her work was "re-discovered" later in the century). Since the 1960s the writings of many women have been rediscovered, reconsidered, and collected in large anthologies such as The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women.
However, merely unearthing women's literature did not ensure its prominence; in order to assess women's writings the number of preconceptions inherent in a literary canon dominated by male beliefs and male writers needed to be re-evaluated. Betty Friedan's The Feminist Mystique (1963), Kate Millet's Sexual Politics (1970), Teresa de Lauretis's Alice Doesn't: Feminism, Semiotics, Cinema (1984), Annette Kolodny's The Lay of the Land (1975), Judith Fetterly's The Resisting Reader (1978), Elaine Showalter's A Literature of Their Own (1977), or Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar's The Madwoman in the Attic (1979) are just a handful of the many critiques that questioned cultural, sexual, intellectual, and/or psychological stereotypes about women.
Key Terms (this list is woefully inadequate; suggestions for additional terms would be appreciated):
Androgyny - taken from Women Studies page of Drew University - "'...suggests a world in which sex-roles are not rigidly defined, a state in which ‘the man in every woman' and the ‘woman in every man' could be integrated and freely expressed' (Tuttle 19). Used more frequently in the 1970's, this term was used to describe a blurring, or combination of gender roles so that neither masculinity or femininity is dominant."
Backlash - a term, which may have originated with Susan Faludi, referring to a movement ( ca. 1980s) away from or against feminism.
Écriture féminine - Écriture féminine, literally women's writing, is a philosophy that promotes women's experiences and feelings to the point that it strengthens the work. Hélène Cixous first uses this term in her essay, "The Laugh of the Medusa," in which she asserts, "Woman must write her self: must write about women and bring women to writing, from which they have been driven away as violently as from their bodies. Écriture féminine places experience before language, and privileges the anti-linear, cyclical writing so often frowned upon by patriarchal society' (Wikipedia).
Essentialism - taken from Women Studies page of Drew University - "The belief in a uniquely feminine essence, existing above and beyond cultural conditioning...the mirror image of biologism which for centuries justified the oppression of women by proclaiming the natural superiority of men (Tuttle 90)." Tong's use of the term is relative to the explanation of the division of radical feminism into radical-cultural and radical libertarian.
Gynocentrics - "a term coined by the feminist scholar-critic Elaine Showalter to define the process of constructing "a female framework for analysis of women's literature [in order] to develop new models [of interpretation] based on the study of female experience, rather than to adapt to male models and theories'" (Bressler 269, see General Resources below).
Jouissance - a term most commonly associated with Helene Cixous (seek-sou), whose use of the word may have derived from Jacques Lacan - "Cixous follows Lacan's psychoanalytic paradigm, which argues that a child must separate from its mother's body (the Real) in order to enter into the Symbolic. Because of this, Cixous says, the female body in general becomes unrepresentable in language; it's what can't be spoken or written in the phallogocentric Symbolic order. Cixous here makes a leap from the maternal body to the female body in general; she also leaps from that female body to female sexuality, saying that female sexuality, female sexual pleasure, feminine jouissance, is unrepresentable within the phallogocentric Symbolic order" (Dr. Mary Klages, "Postructuralist Feminist Theory")
Patriarchy - "Sexism is perpetuated by systems of patriarchy where male-dominated structures and social arrangements elaborate the oppression of women. Patriarchy almost by definition also exhibits androcentrism, meaning male centered. Coupled with patriarchy, androcentrism assumes that male norms operate through out all social institutions and become the standard to which all persons adhere" (Joe Santillan - University of California at Davis).
Phallologocentrism - "language ordered around an absolute Word (logos) which is “masculine” [phallic], systematically excludes, disqualifies, denigrates, diminishes, silences the “feminine” (Nikita Dhawan).
Second- and Third-Wave feminism - "Second-wave feminism refers to a period of feminist thought that originated around the 1960s and was mainly concerned with independence and greater political action to improve women's rights" (Wikipedia). "Third-wave feminism is a feminist movement that arguably began in the early 1990s. Unlike second-wave feminism, which largely focused on the inclusion of women in traditionally male-dominated areas, third-wave feminism seeks to challenge and expand common definitions of gender and sexuality" (Wikipedia).
Semiotic - "[Julia] Kristeva (kris-TAYV-veh) makes a distinction between the semiotic and symbolic modes of communication:
* Symbolic = how we normally think of language (grammar, syntax, logic etc.)
* Semiotic = non-linguistic aspects of language which express drives and affects
The semiotic level includes rhythms and sounds and the way they can convey powerful yet indefinable emotions" (Colin Wright - University of Nottingham).
Reception and Reader-Response Theory
Reception and Reader-Response Theory
Reader-response theory may be traced initially to theorists such as I. A. Richards (The Principles of Literary Criticism, Practical Criticism and How to Read a Page) or Louise Rosenblatt (Literature as Exploration or The Reader, the Text, the Poem). For Rosenblatt and Richards the idea of a "correct" reading--though difficult to attain--was always the goal of the "educated" reader (armed, of course, with appropriate aesthetic apparatus). For Stanley Fish (Is There a Text in this Class?, Surprised by Sin: The Reader in "Paradise Lost" and Self-Consuming Artifacts: The Experience of the Seventeenth-Century Reader), the reader's ability to understand a text is also subject a reader's particular "interpretive community." To simplify, a reader brings certain assumptions to a text based on the interpretive strategies he/she has learned in a particular interpretive community. For Fish, the interpretive community serves somewhat to "police" readings and thus prohibit outlandish interpretations. In contrast Wolfgang Iser argued that the reading process is always subjective. In The Implied Reader, Iser sees reading as a dialectical process between the reader and text. For Hans-Robert Jauss, however (Toward an Aesthetic of Reception, and Aesthetic Experience and Literary Hermeneutics), a reader's aesthetic experience is always bound by time and historical determinants.
Key Terms:
Horizons of expectations - a term developed by Hans Robert Jauss to explain how a reader's "expectations" or frame of reference is based on the reader's past experience of literature and what preconceived notions about literature the reader possesses (i.e., a reader's aesthetic experience is bound by time and historical determinants). Jauss also contended that for a work to be considered a classic it needed to exceed a reader's horizons of expectations.
Implied reader - a term developed by Wolfgang Iser; the implied reader [somewhat akin to an "ideal reader"] is "a hypothetical reader of a text. The implied reader [according to Iser] "embodies all those predispositions necessary for a literary work to exercise its effect -- predispositions laid down, not by an empirical outside reality, but by the text itself. Consequently, the implied reader as a concept has his roots firmly planted in the structure of the text; he is a construct and in no way to be identified with any real reader" (Greig E. Henderson and Christopher Brown - Glossary of Literary Theory).
Interpretive communities - a concept, articulated by Stanley Fish, that readers within an "interpretive community" share reading strategies, values and interpretive assumptions (Barbara McManus).
Transactional analysis - a concept developed by Louise Rosenblatt asserting that meaning is produced in a transaction of a reader with a text. As an approach, then, the critic would consider "how the reader interprets the text as well as how the text produces a response in her" (Dobie 132 - see General Resources below).
Reader-response theory may be traced initially to theorists such as I. A. Richards (The Principles of Literary Criticism, Practical Criticism and How to Read a Page) or Louise Rosenblatt (Literature as Exploration or The Reader, the Text, the Poem). For Rosenblatt and Richards the idea of a "correct" reading--though difficult to attain--was always the goal of the "educated" reader (armed, of course, with appropriate aesthetic apparatus). For Stanley Fish (Is There a Text in this Class?, Surprised by Sin: The Reader in "Paradise Lost" and Self-Consuming Artifacts: The Experience of the Seventeenth-Century Reader), the reader's ability to understand a text is also subject a reader's particular "interpretive community." To simplify, a reader brings certain assumptions to a text based on the interpretive strategies he/she has learned in a particular interpretive community. For Fish, the interpretive community serves somewhat to "police" readings and thus prohibit outlandish interpretations. In contrast Wolfgang Iser argued that the reading process is always subjective. In The Implied Reader, Iser sees reading as a dialectical process between the reader and text. For Hans-Robert Jauss, however (Toward an Aesthetic of Reception, and Aesthetic Experience and Literary Hermeneutics), a reader's aesthetic experience is always bound by time and historical determinants.
Key Terms:
Horizons of expectations - a term developed by Hans Robert Jauss to explain how a reader's "expectations" or frame of reference is based on the reader's past experience of literature and what preconceived notions about literature the reader possesses (i.e., a reader's aesthetic experience is bound by time and historical determinants). Jauss also contended that for a work to be considered a classic it needed to exceed a reader's horizons of expectations.
Implied reader - a term developed by Wolfgang Iser; the implied reader [somewhat akin to an "ideal reader"] is "a hypothetical reader of a text. The implied reader [according to Iser] "embodies all those predispositions necessary for a literary work to exercise its effect -- predispositions laid down, not by an empirical outside reality, but by the text itself. Consequently, the implied reader as a concept has his roots firmly planted in the structure of the text; he is a construct and in no way to be identified with any real reader" (Greig E. Henderson and Christopher Brown - Glossary of Literary Theory).
Interpretive communities - a concept, articulated by Stanley Fish, that readers within an "interpretive community" share reading strategies, values and interpretive assumptions (Barbara McManus).
Transactional analysis - a concept developed by Louise Rosenblatt asserting that meaning is produced in a transaction of a reader with a text. As an approach, then, the critic would consider "how the reader interprets the text as well as how the text produces a response in her" (Dobie 132 - see General Resources below).
Reader-response theory may be traced initially to theorists such as I. A. Richards (The Principles of Literary Criticism, Practical Criticism and How to Read a Page) or Louise Rosenblatt (Literature as Exploration or The Reader, the Text, the Poem). For Rosenblatt and Richards the idea of a "correct" reading--though difficult to attain--was always the goal of the "educated" reader (armed, of course, with appropriate aesthetic apparatus). For Stanley Fish (Is There a Text in this Class?, Surprised by Sin: The Reader in "Paradise Lost" and Self-Consuming Artifacts: The Experience of the Seventeenth-Century Reader), the reader's ability to understand a text is also subject a reader's particular "interpretive community." To simplify, a reader brings certain assumptions to a text based on the interpretive strategies he/she has learned in a particular interpretive community. For Fish, the interpretive community serves somewhat to "police" readings and thus prohibit outlandish interpretations. In contrast Wolfgang Iser argued that the reading process is always subjective. In The Implied Reader, Iser sees reading as a dialectical process between the reader and text. For Hans-Robert Jauss, however (Toward an Aesthetic of Reception, and Aesthetic Experience and Literary Hermeneutics), a reader's aesthetic experience is always bound by time and historical determinants.
Key Terms:
Horizons of expectations - a term developed by Hans Robert Jauss to explain how a reader's "expectations" or frame of reference is based on the reader's past experience of literature and what preconceived notions about literature the reader possesses (i.e., a reader's aesthetic experience is bound by time and historical determinants). Jauss also contended that for a work to be considered a classic it needed to exceed a reader's horizons of expectations.
Implied reader - a term developed by Wolfgang Iser; the implied reader [somewhat akin to an "ideal reader"] is "a hypothetical reader of a text. The implied reader [according to Iser] "embodies all those predispositions necessary for a literary work to exercise its effect -- predispositions laid down, not by an empirical outside reality, but by the text itself. Consequently, the implied reader as a concept has his roots firmly planted in the structure of the text; he is a construct and in no way to be identified with any real reader" (Greig E. Henderson and Christopher Brown - Glossary of Literary Theory).
Interpretive communities - a concept, articulated by Stanley Fish, that readers within an "interpretive community" share reading strategies, values and interpretive assumptions (Barbara McManus).
Transactional analysis - a concept developed by Louise Rosenblatt asserting that meaning is produced in a transaction of a reader with a text. As an approach, then, the critic would consider "how the reader interprets the text as well as how the text produces a response in her" (Dobie 132 - see General Resources below).
Reader-response theory may be traced initially to theorists such as I. A. Richards (The Principles of Literary Criticism, Practical Criticism and How to Read a Page) or Louise Rosenblatt (Literature as Exploration or The Reader, the Text, the Poem). For Rosenblatt and Richards the idea of a "correct" reading--though difficult to attain--was always the goal of the "educated" reader (armed, of course, with appropriate aesthetic apparatus). For Stanley Fish (Is There a Text in this Class?, Surprised by Sin: The Reader in "Paradise Lost" and Self-Consuming Artifacts: The Experience of the Seventeenth-Century Reader), the reader's ability to understand a text is also subject a reader's particular "interpretive community." To simplify, a reader brings certain assumptions to a text based on the interpretive strategies he/she has learned in a particular interpretive community. For Fish, the interpretive community serves somewhat to "police" readings and thus prohibit outlandish interpretations. In contrast Wolfgang Iser argued that the reading process is always subjective. In The Implied Reader, Iser sees reading as a dialectical process between the reader and text. For Hans-Robert Jauss, however (Toward an Aesthetic of Reception, and Aesthetic Experience and Literary Hermeneutics), a reader's aesthetic experience is always bound by time and historical determinants.
Key Terms:
Horizons of expectations - a term developed by Hans Robert Jauss to explain how a reader's "expectations" or frame of reference is based on the reader's past experience of literature and what preconceived notions about literature the reader possesses (i.e., a reader's aesthetic experience is bound by time and historical determinants). Jauss also contended that for a work to be considered a classic it needed to exceed a reader's horizons of expectations.
Implied reader - a term developed by Wolfgang Iser; the implied reader [somewhat akin to an "ideal reader"] is "a hypothetical reader of a text. The implied reader [according to Iser] "embodies all those predispositions necessary for a literary work to exercise its effect -- predispositions laid down, not by an empirical outside reality, but by the text itself. Consequently, the implied reader as a concept has his roots firmly planted in the structure of the text; he is a construct and in no way to be identified with any real reader" (Greig E. Henderson and Christopher Brown - Glossary of Literary Theory).
Interpretive communities - a concept, articulated by Stanley Fish, that readers within an "interpretive community" share reading strategies, values and interpretive assumptions (Barbara McManus).
Transactional analysis - a concept developed by Louise Rosenblatt asserting that meaning is produced in a transaction of a reader with a text. As an approach, then, the critic would consider "how the reader interprets the text as well as how the text produces a response in her" (Dobie 132 - see General Resources below).
New Historicism
New Historicism
New Historicism (sometimes referred to as Cultural Poetics) emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, largely in reaction to the lingering effects of New Criticism and its ahistorical approach. "New" Historicism's adjectival emphasis highlights its opposition to the old historical-biographical criticism prevalent before the advent of New Criticism. In the earlier historical-biographical criticism, literature was seen as a (mimetic) reflection of the historical world in which it was produced. Further, history was viewed as stable, linear, and recoverable--a narrative of fact. In contrast, New Historicism views history skeptically (historical narrative is inherently subjective), but also more broadly; history includes all of the cultural, social, political, anthropological discourses at work in any given age, and these various "texts" are unranked - any text may yield information valuable in understanding a particular milieu. Rather than forming a backdrop, the many discourses at work at any given time affect both an author and his/her text; both are inescapably part of a social construct. Stephen Greenblatt was an early important figure, and Michel Foucault's (fou-KOH) intertextual methods focusing especially on issues such as power and knowledge proved very influential. Other major figures include Clifford Geertz, Louis Montrose, Catherine Gallagher, Jonathan Dollimore, and Jerome McCann.
Key Terms:
Discourse - [from Wolfreys - see General Resources below] - "defined by Michel Foucault as language practice: that is, language as it is used by various constituencies (the law, medicine, the church, for example) for purposes to do with power relationships between people"
Episteme - [from Wolfreys - see General Resources below] - "Michel Foucault employs the idea of episteme to indicate a particular group of knowledges and discourses which operate in concert as the dominant discourses in any given historical period. He also identifies epistemic breaks, radical shifts in the varieties and deployments of knowledge for ideological purposes, which take place from period to period"
Power - [from Wolfreys - see General Resources below] - "in the work of Michel Foucault, power constitutes one of the three axes constitutive of subjectification, the other two being ethics and truth. For Foucault, power implies knowledge, even while knowledge is, concomitantly, constitutive of power: knowledge gives one power, but one has the power in given circumstances to constitute bodies of knowledge, discourses and so on as valid or invalid, truthful or untruthful. Power serves in making the world both knowable and controllable. Yet, in the nature of power, as Foucault suggests in the first volume of his History of Sexuality, is essentially proscriptive, concerned more with imposing limits on its subjects."
Self-positioning - [from Lois Tyson - see General Resources below] - "new historicism's claim that historical analysis is unavoidably subjective is not an attempt to legitimize a self-indulgent, 'anything goes' attitude toward the writing of history. Rather, the inevitability of personal bias makes it imperative that new historicists be aware of and as forthright as possible about their own psychological and ideological positions relative to the material they analyze so that their readers can have some idea of the human 'lens' through which they are viewing the historical issues at hand."
Thick description - a term developed by Clifford Geertz; [from Charles Bressler - see General Resources below]: a "term used to describe the seemingly insignificant details present in any cultural practice. By focusing on these details, one can then reveal the inherent contradictory forces at work within culture. "
New Historicism (sometimes referred to as Cultural Poetics) emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, largely in reaction to the lingering effects of New Criticism and its ahistorical approach. "New" Historicism's adjectival emphasis highlights its opposition to the old historical-biographical criticism prevalent before the advent of New Criticism. In the earlier historical-biographical criticism, literature was seen as a (mimetic) reflection of the historical world in which it was produced. Further, history was viewed as stable, linear, and recoverable--a narrative of fact. In contrast, New Historicism views history skeptically (historical narrative is inherently subjective), but also more broadly; history includes all of the cultural, social, political, anthropological discourses at work in any given age, and these various "texts" are unranked - any text may yield information valuable in understanding a particular milieu. Rather than forming a backdrop, the many discourses at work at any given time affect both an author and his/her text; both are inescapably part of a social construct. Stephen Greenblatt was an early important figure, and Michel Foucault's (fou-KOH) intertextual methods focusing especially on issues such as power and knowledge proved very influential. Other major figures include Clifford Geertz, Louis Montrose, Catherine Gallagher, Jonathan Dollimore, and Jerome McCann.
Key Terms:
Discourse - [from Wolfreys - see General Resources below] - "defined by Michel Foucault as language practice: that is, language as it is used by various constituencies (the law, medicine, the church, for example) for purposes to do with power relationships between people"
Episteme - [from Wolfreys - see General Resources below] - "Michel Foucault employs the idea of episteme to indicate a particular group of knowledges and discourses which operate in concert as the dominant discourses in any given historical period. He also identifies epistemic breaks, radical shifts in the varieties and deployments of knowledge for ideological purposes, which take place from period to period"
Power - [from Wolfreys - see General Resources below] - "in the work of Michel Foucault, power constitutes one of the three axes constitutive of subjectification, the other two being ethics and truth. For Foucault, power implies knowledge, even while knowledge is, concomitantly, constitutive of power: knowledge gives one power, but one has the power in given circumstances to constitute bodies of knowledge, discourses and so on as valid or invalid, truthful or untruthful. Power serves in making the world both knowable and controllable. Yet, in the nature of power, as Foucault suggests in the first volume of his History of Sexuality, is essentially proscriptive, concerned more with imposing limits on its subjects."
Self-positioning - [from Lois Tyson - see General Resources below] - "new historicism's claim that historical analysis is unavoidably subjective is not an attempt to legitimize a self-indulgent, 'anything goes' attitude toward the writing of history. Rather, the inevitability of personal bias makes it imperative that new historicists be aware of and as forthright as possible about their own psychological and ideological positions relative to the material they analyze so that their readers can have some idea of the human 'lens' through which they are viewing the historical issues at hand."
Thick description - a term developed by Clifford Geertz; [from Charles Bressler - see General Resources below]: a "term used to describe the seemingly insignificant details present in any cultural practice. By focusing on these details, one can then reveal the inherent contradictory forces at work within culture. "
Postmodernism
Postmodernism
Though often used interchangeably with post-structuralism, postmodernism is a much broader term and encompasses theories of art, literature, culture, architecture, and so forth. In relation to literary study, the term postmodernism has been articulately defined by Ihab Hassan. In Hassan's formulation postmodernism differs from modernism in several ways:
In its simplest terms, postmodernism consists of the period following high modernism and includes the many theories that date from that time, e.g., structuralism, semiotics, post-structuralism, deconstruction, and so forth. For Jean Baudrillard, postmodernism marks a culture composed "of disparate fragmentary experiences and images that constantly bombard the individual in music, video, television, advertising and other forms of electronic media. The speed and ease of reproduction of these images mean that they exist only as image, devoid of depth, coherence, or originality" (Childers and Hentzi 235).
Though often used interchangeably with post-structuralism, postmodernism is a much broader term and encompasses theories of art, literature, culture, architecture, and so forth. In relation to literary study, the term postmodernism has been articulately defined by Ihab Hassan. In Hassan's formulation postmodernism differs from modernism in several ways:
In its simplest terms, postmodernism consists of the period following high modernism and includes the many theories that date from that time, e.g., structuralism, semiotics, post-structuralism, deconstruction, and so forth. For Jean Baudrillard, postmodernism marks a culture composed "of disparate fragmentary experiences and images that constantly bombard the individual in music, video, television, advertising and other forms of electronic media. The speed and ease of reproduction of these images mean that they exist only as image, devoid of depth, coherence, or originality" (Childers and Hentzi 235).
Post-Structuralism and Deconstruction
Post-Structuralism and Deconstruction
Post-Structuralism (which is often used synonymously with Deconstruction or Postmodernism) is a reaction to structuralism and works against seeing language as a stable, closed system. "It is a shift from seeing the poem or novel as a closed entity, equipped with definite meanings which it is the critic's task to decipher, to seeing literature as irreducibly plural, an endless play of signifiers which can never be finally nailed down to a single center, essence, or meaning" (Eagleton 120 - see reference below under "General References"). Jacques Derrida's (dair-ree-DAH) paper on "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences" (delivered in 1966) proved particularly influential in the creation of post-structuralism. Derrida argued against, in essence, the notion of a knowable center (the Western ideal of logocentrism), a structure that could organize the differential play of language or thought but somehow remain immune to the same "play" it depicts (Abrams, 258-9). Derrida's critique of structuralism also heralded the advent of deconstruction that--like post-structuralism--critiques the notion of "origin" built into structuralism. In negative terms, deconstruction--particularly as articulated by Derrida--has often come to be interpreted as "anything goes" since nothing has any real meaning or truth. More positively, it may posited that Derrida, like Paul de Man (de-MAHN) and other post-structuralists, really asks for rigor, that is, a type of interpretation that is constantly and ruthlessly self-conscious and on guard. Similarly, Christopher Norris (in "What's Wrong with Postmodernism?") launches a cogent argument against simplistic attacks of Derrida's theories:
On this question [the tendency of critics to read deconstruction "as a species of all-licensing sophistical 'freeplay'"), as on so many others, the issue has been obscured by a failure to grasp Derrida's point when he identifies those problematic factors in language (catachreses, slippages between 'literal' and 'figural' sense, subliminal metaphors mistaken for determinate concepts) whose effect--as in Husserl--is to complicate the passage from what the text manifestly means to say to what it actually says when read with an eye to its latent or covert signifying structures. This 'free-play' has nothing whatsoever to do with that notion of an out-and-out hermeneutic license which would finally come down to a series of slogans like "all reading is misreading," "all interpretation is misinterpretation," etc. If Derrida's texts have been read that way--most often by literary critics in quest of more adventurous hermeneutic models--this is just one sign of the widespread deformation professionelle that has attended the advent of deconstruction as a new arrival on the US academic scene. (151)
In addition to Jacques Derrida, key poststructuralist and deconstructive figures include Michel Foucault (fou-KOH), Roland Barthes (bart), Jean Baudrillard (zhon boh-dree-YAHR), Helene Cixous (seek-sou), Paul de Man (de-MAHN), J. Hillis Miller, Jacques Lacan (lawk-KAWN), and Barbara Johnson.
Key Terms :
Aporia (ah-por-EE-ah)- a moment of undecidability; the inherent contradictions found in any text. Derrida, for example, cites the inherent contradictions at work in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's use of the words culture and nature by demonstrating that Rousseau's sense of the self's innocence (in nature) is already corrupted by the concept of culture (and existence) and vice-versa.
Différance - a combination of the meanings in the word différance. The concept means 1) différer or to differ, 2) différance which means to delay or postpone (defer), and 3) the idea of difference itself. To oversimplify, words are always at a distance from what they signify and, to make matters worse, must be described by using other words.
Erasure (sous rature) - to highlight suspect ideologies, notions linked to the metaphysics of presence, Derrida put them under "erasure," metaphorically pointing out the absence of any definitive meaning. By using erasure, however, Derrida realized that a "trace" will always remain but that these traces do not indicate the marks themselves but rather the absence of the marks (which emphasize the absence of "univocal meaning, truth, or origin"). In contrast, when Heidegger similarly "crossed out" words, he assumed that meaning would be (eventually) recoverable.
Logocentrism - term associated with Derrida that "refers to the nature of western thought, language and culture since Plato's era. The Greek signifier for "word," "speech," and "reason," logos possesses connotations in western culture for law and truth. Hence, logocentrism refers to a culture that revolves around a central set of supposedly universal principles or beliefs" (Wolfreys 302 - see General Resources below).
Metaphysics of Presence - "beliefs including binary oppositions, logocentrism, and phonocentrism that have been the basis of Western philosophy since Plato" (Dobie 155, see General Resources below).
Supplement - "According to Derrida, Western thinking is characterized by the 'logic of supplementation', which is actually two apparently contradictory ideas. From one perspective, a supplement serves to enhance the presence of something which is already complete and self-sufficient. Thus, writing is the supplement of speech, Eve was the supplement of Adam, and masturbation is the supplement of 'natural sex'....But simultaneously, according to Derrida, the Western idea of the supplement has within it the idea that a thing that has a supplement cannot be truly 'complete in itself'. If it were complete without the supplement, it shouldn't need, or long-for, the supplement. The fact that a thing can be added-to to make it even more 'present' or 'whole' means that there is a hole (which Derrida called an originary lack) and the supplement can fill that hole. The metaphorical opening of this "hole" Derrida called invagination. From this perspective, the supplement does not enhance something's presence, but rather underscores its absence" (from Wikipedia - definition of supplement).
Trace - from Lois Tyson (see General Resources below): "Meaning seems to reside in words (or in things) only when we distinguish their difference from other words (or things). For example, if we believed that all objects were the same color, we wouldn't need the word red (or blue or green) at all. Red is red only because we believe it to be different from blue and green (and because we believe color to be different from shape). So the word red carries with it the trace of all the signifiers it is not (for it is in contrast to other signifiers that we define it)" (245). Tyson's explanation helps explain what Derrida means when he states "the trace itself does not exist."
Transcendental Signifier - from Charles Bressler (see General Resources below): a term introduced by Derrida who "asserts that from the time of Plato to the present, Western culture has been founded on a classic, fundamental error: the searching for a transcendental signified, an external point of reference on which one may build a concept or philosophy. Once found, this transcendental signified would provide ultimate meaning. It would guarantee a 'center' of meaning...." (287).
Post-Structuralism (which is often used synonymously with Deconstruction or Postmodernism) is a reaction to structuralism and works against seeing language as a stable, closed system. "It is a shift from seeing the poem or novel as a closed entity, equipped with definite meanings which it is the critic's task to decipher, to seeing literature as irreducibly plural, an endless play of signifiers which can never be finally nailed down to a single center, essence, or meaning" (Eagleton 120 - see reference below under "General References"). Jacques Derrida's (dair-ree-DAH) paper on "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences" (delivered in 1966) proved particularly influential in the creation of post-structuralism. Derrida argued against, in essence, the notion of a knowable center (the Western ideal of logocentrism), a structure that could organize the differential play of language or thought but somehow remain immune to the same "play" it depicts (Abrams, 258-9). Derrida's critique of structuralism also heralded the advent of deconstruction that--like post-structuralism--critiques the notion of "origin" built into structuralism. In negative terms, deconstruction--particularly as articulated by Derrida--has often come to be interpreted as "anything goes" since nothing has any real meaning or truth. More positively, it may posited that Derrida, like Paul de Man (de-MAHN) and other post-structuralists, really asks for rigor, that is, a type of interpretation that is constantly and ruthlessly self-conscious and on guard. Similarly, Christopher Norris (in "What's Wrong with Postmodernism?") launches a cogent argument against simplistic attacks of Derrida's theories:
On this question [the tendency of critics to read deconstruction "as a species of all-licensing sophistical 'freeplay'"), as on so many others, the issue has been obscured by a failure to grasp Derrida's point when he identifies those problematic factors in language (catachreses, slippages between 'literal' and 'figural' sense, subliminal metaphors mistaken for determinate concepts) whose effect--as in Husserl--is to complicate the passage from what the text manifestly means to say to what it actually says when read with an eye to its latent or covert signifying structures. This 'free-play' has nothing whatsoever to do with that notion of an out-and-out hermeneutic license which would finally come down to a series of slogans like "all reading is misreading," "all interpretation is misinterpretation," etc. If Derrida's texts have been read that way--most often by literary critics in quest of more adventurous hermeneutic models--this is just one sign of the widespread deformation professionelle that has attended the advent of deconstruction as a new arrival on the US academic scene. (151)
In addition to Jacques Derrida, key poststructuralist and deconstructive figures include Michel Foucault (fou-KOH), Roland Barthes (bart), Jean Baudrillard (zhon boh-dree-YAHR), Helene Cixous (seek-sou), Paul de Man (de-MAHN), J. Hillis Miller, Jacques Lacan (lawk-KAWN), and Barbara Johnson.
Key Terms :
Aporia (ah-por-EE-ah)- a moment of undecidability; the inherent contradictions found in any text. Derrida, for example, cites the inherent contradictions at work in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's use of the words culture and nature by demonstrating that Rousseau's sense of the self's innocence (in nature) is already corrupted by the concept of culture (and existence) and vice-versa.
Différance - a combination of the meanings in the word différance. The concept means 1) différer or to differ, 2) différance which means to delay or postpone (defer), and 3) the idea of difference itself. To oversimplify, words are always at a distance from what they signify and, to make matters worse, must be described by using other words.
Erasure (sous rature) - to highlight suspect ideologies, notions linked to the metaphysics of presence, Derrida put them under "erasure," metaphorically pointing out the absence of any definitive meaning. By using erasure, however, Derrida realized that a "trace" will always remain but that these traces do not indicate the marks themselves but rather the absence of the marks (which emphasize the absence of "univocal meaning, truth, or origin"). In contrast, when Heidegger similarly "crossed out" words, he assumed that meaning would be (eventually) recoverable.
Logocentrism - term associated with Derrida that "refers to the nature of western thought, language and culture since Plato's era. The Greek signifier for "word," "speech," and "reason," logos possesses connotations in western culture for law and truth. Hence, logocentrism refers to a culture that revolves around a central set of supposedly universal principles or beliefs" (Wolfreys 302 - see General Resources below).
Metaphysics of Presence - "beliefs including binary oppositions, logocentrism, and phonocentrism that have been the basis of Western philosophy since Plato" (Dobie 155, see General Resources below).
Supplement - "According to Derrida, Western thinking is characterized by the 'logic of supplementation', which is actually two apparently contradictory ideas. From one perspective, a supplement serves to enhance the presence of something which is already complete and self-sufficient. Thus, writing is the supplement of speech, Eve was the supplement of Adam, and masturbation is the supplement of 'natural sex'....But simultaneously, according to Derrida, the Western idea of the supplement has within it the idea that a thing that has a supplement cannot be truly 'complete in itself'. If it were complete without the supplement, it shouldn't need, or long-for, the supplement. The fact that a thing can be added-to to make it even more 'present' or 'whole' means that there is a hole (which Derrida called an originary lack) and the supplement can fill that hole. The metaphorical opening of this "hole" Derrida called invagination. From this perspective, the supplement does not enhance something's presence, but rather underscores its absence" (from Wikipedia - definition of supplement).
Trace - from Lois Tyson (see General Resources below): "Meaning seems to reside in words (or in things) only when we distinguish their difference from other words (or things). For example, if we believed that all objects were the same color, we wouldn't need the word red (or blue or green) at all. Red is red only because we believe it to be different from blue and green (and because we believe color to be different from shape). So the word red carries with it the trace of all the signifiers it is not (for it is in contrast to other signifiers that we define it)" (245). Tyson's explanation helps explain what Derrida means when he states "the trace itself does not exist."
Transcendental Signifier - from Charles Bressler (see General Resources below): a term introduced by Derrida who "asserts that from the time of Plato to the present, Western culture has been founded on a classic, fundamental error: the searching for a transcendental signified, an external point of reference on which one may build a concept or philosophy. Once found, this transcendental signified would provide ultimate meaning. It would guarantee a 'center' of meaning...." (287).
Structuralism and Semiotics
Structuralism and Semiotics
Structuralism
Structuralism is a way of thinking about the world which is predominantly concerned with the perceptions and description of structures. At its simplest, structuralism claims that the nature of every element in any given situation has no significance by itself, and in fact is determined by all the other elements involved in that situation. The full significance of any entity cannot be perceived unless and until it is integrated into the structure of which it forms a part (Hawkes, p. 11). Structuralists believe that all human activity is constructed, not natural or "essential." Consequently, it is the systems of organization that are important (what we do is always a matter of selection within a given construct). By this formulation, "any activity, from the actions of a narrative to not eating one's peas with a knife, takes place within a system of differences and has meaning only in its relation to other possible activities within that system, not to some meaning that emanates from nature or the divine" (Childers & Hentzi, p. 286.). Major figures include Claude Lévi-Strauss (LAY-vee-strows), A. J. Greimas (GREE-mahs), Jonathan Culler, Roland Barthes (bart), Ferdinand de Saussure (soh-SURR or soh-ZHOR), Roman Jakobson (YAH-keb-sen), Vladimir Propp, and Terence Hawkes.
Semiology
Semiotics, simply put, is the science of signs. Semiology proposes that a great diversity of our human action and productions--our bodily postures and gestures, the the social rituals we perform, the clothes we wear, the meals we serve, the buildings we inhabit--all convey "shared" meanings to members of a particular culture, and so can be analyzed as signs which function in diverse kinds of signifying systems. Linguistics (the study of verbal signs and structures) is only one branch of semiotics but supplies the basic methods and terms which are used in the study of all other social sign systems (Abrams, p. 170). Major figures include Charles Peirce, Ferdinand de Saussure, Michel Foucault (fou-KOH), Umberto Eco, Gérard Genette, and Roland Barthes (bart).
Structuralism
Structuralism is a way of thinking about the world which is predominantly concerned with the perceptions and description of structures. At its simplest, structuralism claims that the nature of every element in any given situation has no significance by itself, and in fact is determined by all the other elements involved in that situation. The full significance of any entity cannot be perceived unless and until it is integrated into the structure of which it forms a part (Hawkes, p. 11). Structuralists believe that all human activity is constructed, not natural or "essential." Consequently, it is the systems of organization that are important (what we do is always a matter of selection within a given construct). By this formulation, "any activity, from the actions of a narrative to not eating one's peas with a knife, takes place within a system of differences and has meaning only in its relation to other possible activities within that system, not to some meaning that emanates from nature or the divine" (Childers & Hentzi, p. 286.). Major figures include Claude Lévi-Strauss (LAY-vee-strows), A. J. Greimas (GREE-mahs), Jonathan Culler, Roland Barthes (bart), Ferdinand de Saussure (soh-SURR or soh-ZHOR), Roman Jakobson (YAH-keb-sen), Vladimir Propp, and Terence Hawkes.
Semiology
Semiotics, simply put, is the science of signs. Semiology proposes that a great diversity of our human action and productions--our bodily postures and gestures, the the social rituals we perform, the clothes we wear, the meals we serve, the buildings we inhabit--all convey "shared" meanings to members of a particular culture, and so can be analyzed as signs which function in diverse kinds of signifying systems. Linguistics (the study of verbal signs and structures) is only one branch of semiotics but supplies the basic methods and terms which are used in the study of all other social sign systems (Abrams, p. 170). Major figures include Charles Peirce, Ferdinand de Saussure, Michel Foucault (fou-KOH), Umberto Eco, Gérard Genette, and Roland Barthes (bart).
Avant-Garde/Surrealism/Dadaism
Avant-Garde/Surrealism/Dadaism
Avant-Garde literally meant the "most forwardly placed troops." The movement sought to eliminate or at least blur the distinction between art and life often by introducing elements of mass culture. These artists aimed to "make it new" and often represented themselves as alienated from the established order. Avant-garde literature and art challenged societal norms to "shock" the sensibilities of its audience (Childers & Hentzi, p.26 and Abrams, p.110).
Surrealism (also associated with the avant-garde and dadaism) was initiated in particular by André Breton, whose 1924 "Manifesto of Surrealism" defined the movement's "adherence to the imagination, dreams, the fantastic, and the irrational." Dada is a nonsense word and the movement, in many ways similar to the trends of avant-garde and surrealism, "emphasized absurdity, reflected a spirit of nihilism, and celebrated the function of chance" (Childers & Hentzi, p. 69). Major figures include André Breton (breh-TAWN), Georges Bataille (beh-TYE), Tristan Tzara, Jean Arp, Richard Huelsenbeck, Francis Picabia, Marcel Duchamp (dew-SHAHN), Man Ray, Raoul Hausmann, Max Ernst and Kurt Schwitters.
Avant-Garde literally meant the "most forwardly placed troops." The movement sought to eliminate or at least blur the distinction between art and life often by introducing elements of mass culture. These artists aimed to "make it new" and often represented themselves as alienated from the established order. Avant-garde literature and art challenged societal norms to "shock" the sensibilities of its audience (Childers & Hentzi, p.26 and Abrams, p.110).
Surrealism (also associated with the avant-garde and dadaism) was initiated in particular by André Breton, whose 1924 "Manifesto of Surrealism" defined the movement's "adherence to the imagination, dreams, the fantastic, and the irrational." Dada is a nonsense word and the movement, in many ways similar to the trends of avant-garde and surrealism, "emphasized absurdity, reflected a spirit of nihilism, and celebrated the function of chance" (Childers & Hentzi, p. 69). Major figures include André Breton (breh-TAWN), Georges Bataille (beh-TYE), Tristan Tzara, Jean Arp, Richard Huelsenbeck, Francis Picabia, Marcel Duchamp (dew-SHAHN), Man Ray, Raoul Hausmann, Max Ernst and Kurt Schwitters.
Russian Formalism/Prague Linguistic Circle/Linguistic Criticism/Dialogic Theory
Russian Formalism/Prague Linguistic Circle/Linguistic Criticism/Dialogic Theory
These linguistic movements began in the 1920s, were suppressed by the Soviets in the 1930s, moved to Czechoslovakia and were continued by members of the Prague Linguistic Circle (including Roman Jakobson (YAH-keb-sen), Jan Mukarovsky, and René Wellek). The Prague Linguistic Circle viewed literature as a special class of language, and rested on the assumption that there is a fundamental opposition between literary (or poetical) language and ordinary language. Formalism views the primary function of ordinary language as communicating a message, or information, by references to the world existing outside of language. In contrast, it views literary language as self-focused: its function is not to make extrinsic references, but to draw attention to its own "formal" features--that is, to interrelationships among the linguistic signs themselves. Literature is held to be subject to critical analysis by the sciences of linguistics but also by a type of linguistics different from that adapted to ordinary discourse, because its laws produce the distinctive features of literariness (Abrams, pp. 165-166). An important contribution made by Victor Schklovsky (of the Leningrad group) was to explain how language--through a period of time--tends to become "smooth, unconscious or transparent." In contrast, the work of literature is to defamiliarize language by a process of "making strange." Dialogism refers to a theory, initiated by Mikhail Bakhtin (bahk-TEEN), arguing that in a dialogic work of literature--such as in the writings of Dostoevsky--there is a "polyphonic interplay of various characters' voices ... where no worldview is given superiority over others; neither is that voice which may be identified with the author's necessarily the most engaging or persuasive of all those in the text" (Childers & Hentzi, p. 81).
Key Terms:
Carnival - "For Bakhtin, carnival reflected the 'lived life' of medieval and early modern peoples. In carnival, official authority and high culture were jostled 'from below' by elements of satire, parody, irony, mimicry, bodily humor, and grotesque display. This jostling from below served to keep society open, to liberate it from deadening..." (Bressler 276 - see General Resources below).
Heteroglossia - "refers, first, to the way in which every instance of language use - every utterance - is embedded in a specific set of social circumstances, and second, to the way the meaning of each particular utterance is shaped and influenced by the many-layered context in which it occurs" (Sarah Willen, "Dialogism and Heteroglossia")
Monologism - "having one single voice, or representing one single ideological stance or perspective, often used in opposition to the Bakhtinian dialogical. In a monological form, all the characters' voices are subordinated to the voice of the author" (Malcolm Hayward).
Polyphony - "a term used by Mikhail Bakhtin to describe a dialogical text which, unlike a monological text, does not depend on the centrality of a single authoritative voice. Such a text incorporates a rich plurality and multiplicity of voices, styles, and points of view. It comprises, in Bakhtin's phrase, "a plurality of independent and unmerged voices and consciousnesses, a genuine polyphony of fully valid voices" (Henderson and Brown - Glossary of Literary Theory).
These linguistic movements began in the 1920s, were suppressed by the Soviets in the 1930s, moved to Czechoslovakia and were continued by members of the Prague Linguistic Circle (including Roman Jakobson (YAH-keb-sen), Jan Mukarovsky, and René Wellek). The Prague Linguistic Circle viewed literature as a special class of language, and rested on the assumption that there is a fundamental opposition between literary (or poetical) language and ordinary language. Formalism views the primary function of ordinary language as communicating a message, or information, by references to the world existing outside of language. In contrast, it views literary language as self-focused: its function is not to make extrinsic references, but to draw attention to its own "formal" features--that is, to interrelationships among the linguistic signs themselves. Literature is held to be subject to critical analysis by the sciences of linguistics but also by a type of linguistics different from that adapted to ordinary discourse, because its laws produce the distinctive features of literariness (Abrams, pp. 165-166). An important contribution made by Victor Schklovsky (of the Leningrad group) was to explain how language--through a period of time--tends to become "smooth, unconscious or transparent." In contrast, the work of literature is to defamiliarize language by a process of "making strange." Dialogism refers to a theory, initiated by Mikhail Bakhtin (bahk-TEEN), arguing that in a dialogic work of literature--such as in the writings of Dostoevsky--there is a "polyphonic interplay of various characters' voices ... where no worldview is given superiority over others; neither is that voice which may be identified with the author's necessarily the most engaging or persuasive of all those in the text" (Childers & Hentzi, p. 81).
Key Terms:
Carnival - "For Bakhtin, carnival reflected the 'lived life' of medieval and early modern peoples. In carnival, official authority and high culture were jostled 'from below' by elements of satire, parody, irony, mimicry, bodily humor, and grotesque display. This jostling from below served to keep society open, to liberate it from deadening..." (Bressler 276 - see General Resources below).
Heteroglossia - "refers, first, to the way in which every instance of language use - every utterance - is embedded in a specific set of social circumstances, and second, to the way the meaning of each particular utterance is shaped and influenced by the many-layered context in which it occurs" (Sarah Willen, "Dialogism and Heteroglossia")
Monologism - "having one single voice, or representing one single ideological stance or perspective, often used in opposition to the Bakhtinian dialogical. In a monological form, all the characters' voices are subordinated to the voice of the author" (Malcolm Hayward).
Polyphony - "a term used by Mikhail Bakhtin to describe a dialogical text which, unlike a monological text, does not depend on the centrality of a single authoritative voice. Such a text incorporates a rich plurality and multiplicity of voices, styles, and points of view. It comprises, in Bakhtin's phrase, "a plurality of independent and unmerged voices and consciousnesses, a genuine polyphony of fully valid voices" (Henderson and Brown - Glossary of Literary Theory).
Phenomenology and Hermeneutics
Phenomenology and Hermeneutics
Phenomenology
Phenomenology is a philosophical method, first developed by Edmund Husserl (HUHSS-erel), that proposed "phenomenological reduction" so that everything not "immanent" to consciousness must be excluded; all realities must be treated as pure "phenomena" and this is the only absolute data from which we can begin. Husserl viewed consciousness always as intentional and that the act of consciousness, the thinking subject and the object it "intends," are inseparable. Art is not a means of securing pleasure, but a revelation of being. The work is the phenomenon by which we come to know the world (Eagleton, p. 54; Abrams, p. 133, Guerin, p. 263).
Hermeneutics
Hermeneutics sees interpretation as a circular process whereby valid interpretation can be achieved by a sustained, mutually qualifying interplay between our progressive sense of the whole and our retrospective understanding of its component parts. Two dominant theories that emerged from Wilhelm Dilthey's original premise were that of E. D. Hirsch who, in accord with Dilthey, felt a valid interpretation was possible by uncovering the work's authorial intent (though informed by historical and cultural determinants), and in contrast, that of Martin Heidegger (HIGH-deg-er) who argued that a reader must experience the "inner life" of a text in order to understand it at all. The reader's "being-in-the-world" or dasein is fraught with difficulties since both the reader and the text exist in a temporal and fluid state. For Heidegger or Hans Georg Gadamer (GAH-de-mer), then, a valid interpretation may become irrecoverable and will always be relative.
Key Terms:
Dasein - simply, "being there," or "being-in-the world" - Heidegger argued that "what is distinctive about human existence is its Dasein ('givenness'): our consciousness both projects the things of the world and at the same time is subjected to the world by the very nature of existence in the world" (Selden and Widdowson 52 - see General Resources below).
Intentionality - "is at the heart of knowing. We live in meaning, and we live 'towards,' oriented to experience. Consequently there is an intentional structure in textuality and expression, in self-knowledge and in knowledge of others. This intentionality is also a distance: consciousness is not identical with its objects, but is intended consciousness" (quoted from Dr. John Lye's website - see suggested resources below).
Phenomenological Reduction - a concept most frequently associated with Edmund Husserl; as explained by Terry Eagleton (see General Resources below) "To establish certainty, then, we must first of all ignore, or 'put in brackets,' anything which is beyond our immediate experience: we must reduce the external world to the contents of our consciousness alone....Everything not 'immanent' to consciousness must be rigorously excluded: all realities must be treated as pure 'phenomena,' in terms of their appearances in our mind, and this is the only absolute data from which we can begin" (55).
Phenomenology
Phenomenology is a philosophical method, first developed by Edmund Husserl (HUHSS-erel), that proposed "phenomenological reduction" so that everything not "immanent" to consciousness must be excluded; all realities must be treated as pure "phenomena" and this is the only absolute data from which we can begin. Husserl viewed consciousness always as intentional and that the act of consciousness, the thinking subject and the object it "intends," are inseparable. Art is not a means of securing pleasure, but a revelation of being. The work is the phenomenon by which we come to know the world (Eagleton, p. 54; Abrams, p. 133, Guerin, p. 263).
Hermeneutics
Hermeneutics sees interpretation as a circular process whereby valid interpretation can be achieved by a sustained, mutually qualifying interplay between our progressive sense of the whole and our retrospective understanding of its component parts. Two dominant theories that emerged from Wilhelm Dilthey's original premise were that of E. D. Hirsch who, in accord with Dilthey, felt a valid interpretation was possible by uncovering the work's authorial intent (though informed by historical and cultural determinants), and in contrast, that of Martin Heidegger (HIGH-deg-er) who argued that a reader must experience the "inner life" of a text in order to understand it at all. The reader's "being-in-the-world" or dasein is fraught with difficulties since both the reader and the text exist in a temporal and fluid state. For Heidegger or Hans Georg Gadamer (GAH-de-mer), then, a valid interpretation may become irrecoverable and will always be relative.
Key Terms:
Dasein - simply, "being there," or "being-in-the world" - Heidegger argued that "what is distinctive about human existence is its Dasein ('givenness'): our consciousness both projects the things of the world and at the same time is subjected to the world by the very nature of existence in the world" (Selden and Widdowson 52 - see General Resources below).
Intentionality - "is at the heart of knowing. We live in meaning, and we live 'towards,' oriented to experience. Consequently there is an intentional structure in textuality and expression, in self-knowledge and in knowledge of others. This intentionality is also a distance: consciousness is not identical with its objects, but is intended consciousness" (quoted from Dr. John Lye's website - see suggested resources below).
Phenomenological Reduction - a concept most frequently associated with Edmund Husserl; as explained by Terry Eagleton (see General Resources below) "To establish certainty, then, we must first of all ignore, or 'put in brackets,' anything which is beyond our immediate experience: we must reduce the external world to the contents of our consciousness alone....Everything not 'immanent' to consciousness must be rigorously excluded: all realities must be treated as pure 'phenomena,' in terms of their appearances in our mind, and this is the only absolute data from which we can begin" (55).
Existentialism
Existentialism
Existentialism is a philosophy (promoted especially by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus) that views each person as an isolated being who is cast into an alien universe, and conceives the world as possessing no inherent human truth, value, or meaning. A person's life, then, as it moves from the nothingness from which it came toward the nothingness where it must end, defines an existence which is both anguished and absurd (Guerin). In a world without sense, all choices are possible, a situation which Sartre viewed as human beings central dilemma: "Man [woman] is condemned to be free." In contrast to atheist existentialism, Søren Kierkegaard theorized that belief in God (given that we are provided with no proof or assurance) required a conscious choice or "leap of faith." The major figures include Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre (sart or SAR-treh), Albert Camus (kah-MUE or ka-MOO) , Simone de Beauvoir (bohv-WAHR) , Martin Buber, Karl Jaspers (YASS-pers), and Maurice Merleau-Ponty (mer-LOH pawn-TEE).
Key Terms:
Absurd - a term used to describe existence--a world without inherent meaning or truth.
Authenticity - to make choices based on an individual code of ethics (commitment) rather than because of societal pressures. A choice made just because "it's what people do" would be considered inauthentic.
"Leap of faith" - although Kierkegaard acknowledged that religion was inherently unknowable and filled with risks, faith required an act of commitment (the "leap of faith"); the commitment to Christianity would also lessen the despair of an absurd world.
Existentialism is a philosophy (promoted especially by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus) that views each person as an isolated being who is cast into an alien universe, and conceives the world as possessing no inherent human truth, value, or meaning. A person's life, then, as it moves from the nothingness from which it came toward the nothingness where it must end, defines an existence which is both anguished and absurd (Guerin). In a world without sense, all choices are possible, a situation which Sartre viewed as human beings central dilemma: "Man [woman] is condemned to be free." In contrast to atheist existentialism, Søren Kierkegaard theorized that belief in God (given that we are provided with no proof or assurance) required a conscious choice or "leap of faith." The major figures include Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre (sart or SAR-treh), Albert Camus (kah-MUE or ka-MOO) , Simone de Beauvoir (bohv-WAHR) , Martin Buber, Karl Jaspers (YASS-pers), and Maurice Merleau-Ponty (mer-LOH pawn-TEE).
Key Terms:
Absurd - a term used to describe existence--a world without inherent meaning or truth.
Authenticity - to make choices based on an individual code of ethics (commitment) rather than because of societal pressures. A choice made just because "it's what people do" would be considered inauthentic.
"Leap of faith" - although Kierkegaard acknowledged that religion was inherently unknowable and filled with risks, faith required an act of commitment (the "leap of faith"); the commitment to Christianity would also lessen the despair of an absurd world.
Postcolonialism
Postcolonialism
Literally, postcolonialism refers to the period following the decline of colonialism, e.g., the end or lessening of domination by European empires. Although the term postcolonialism generally refers to the period after colonialism, the distinction is not always made. In its use as a critical approach, postcolonialism refers to "a collection of theoretical and critical strategies used to examine the culture (literature, politics, history, and so forth) of former colonies of the European empires, and their relation to the rest of the world" (Makaryk 155 - see General Resources below). Among the many challenges facing postcolonial writers are the attempt both to resurrect their culture and to combat preconceptions about their culture. Edward Said, for example, uses the word Orientalism to describe the discourse about the East constructed by the West. Major figures include Edward Said (sah-EED), Homi Bhabha (bah-bah), Frantz Fanon (fah-NAWN), Gayatri Spivak, Chinua Achebe (ah-CHAY-bay) , Wole Soyinka, Salman Rushdie, Jamaica Kincaid, and Buchi Emecheta.
Key Terms:
Alterity - "lack of identification with some part of one's personality or one's community, differentness, otherness"
Diaspora (dI-ASP-er-ah- "is used (without capitalization) to refer to any people or ethnic population forced or induced to leave their traditional ethnic homelands, being dispersed throughout other parts of the world, and the ensuing developments in their dispersal and culture" (Wikipedia).
Eurocentrism - "the practice, conscious or otherwise, of placing emphasis on European (and, generally, Western) concerns, culture and values at the expense of those of other cultures. It is an instance of ethnocentrism, perhaps especially relevant because of its alignment with current and past real power structures in the world" (Dictionary.LaborLawTalk.com)
Hybridity - "an important concept in post-colonial theory, referring to the integration (or, mingling) of cultural signs and practices from the colonizing and the colonized cultures ("integration" may be too orderly a word to represent the variety of stratagems, desperate or cunning or good-willed, by which people adapt themselves to the necessities and the opportunities of more or less oppressive or invasive cultural impositions, live into alien cultural patterns through their own structures of understanding, thus producing something familiar but new). The assimilation and adaptation of cultural practices, the cross-fertilization of cultures, can be seen as positive, enriching, and dynamic, as well as as oppressive" (from Dr. John Lye - see General Literary Theory Websites below).
Imperialism - "the policy of extending the control or authority over foreign entities as a means of acquisition and/or maintenance of empires, either through direct territorial control or through indirect methods of exerting control on the politics and/or economy of other countries. The term is used by some to describe the policy of a country in maintaining colonies and dominance over distant lands, regardless of whether the country calls itself an empire" (Dictionary.LaborLawTalk.com).
Literally, postcolonialism refers to the period following the decline of colonialism, e.g., the end or lessening of domination by European empires. Although the term postcolonialism generally refers to the period after colonialism, the distinction is not always made. In its use as a critical approach, postcolonialism refers to "a collection of theoretical and critical strategies used to examine the culture (literature, politics, history, and so forth) of former colonies of the European empires, and their relation to the rest of the world" (Makaryk 155 - see General Resources below). Among the many challenges facing postcolonial writers are the attempt both to resurrect their culture and to combat preconceptions about their culture. Edward Said, for example, uses the word Orientalism to describe the discourse about the East constructed by the West. Major figures include Edward Said (sah-EED), Homi Bhabha (bah-bah), Frantz Fanon (fah-NAWN), Gayatri Spivak, Chinua Achebe (ah-CHAY-bay) , Wole Soyinka, Salman Rushdie, Jamaica Kincaid, and Buchi Emecheta.
Key Terms:
Alterity - "lack of identification with some part of one's personality or one's community, differentness, otherness"
Diaspora (dI-ASP-er-ah- "is used (without capitalization) to refer to any people or ethnic population forced or induced to leave their traditional ethnic homelands, being dispersed throughout other parts of the world, and the ensuing developments in their dispersal and culture" (Wikipedia).
Eurocentrism - "the practice, conscious or otherwise, of placing emphasis on European (and, generally, Western) concerns, culture and values at the expense of those of other cultures. It is an instance of ethnocentrism, perhaps especially relevant because of its alignment with current and past real power structures in the world" (Dictionary.LaborLawTalk.com)
Hybridity - "an important concept in post-colonial theory, referring to the integration (or, mingling) of cultural signs and practices from the colonizing and the colonized cultures ("integration" may be too orderly a word to represent the variety of stratagems, desperate or cunning or good-willed, by which people adapt themselves to the necessities and the opportunities of more or less oppressive or invasive cultural impositions, live into alien cultural patterns through their own structures of understanding, thus producing something familiar but new). The assimilation and adaptation of cultural practices, the cross-fertilization of cultures, can be seen as positive, enriching, and dynamic, as well as as oppressive" (from Dr. John Lye - see General Literary Theory Websites below).
Imperialism - "the policy of extending the control or authority over foreign entities as a means of acquisition and/or maintenance of empires, either through direct territorial control or through indirect methods of exerting control on the politics and/or economy of other countries. The term is used by some to describe the policy of a country in maintaining colonies and dominance over distant lands, regardless of whether the country calls itself an empire" (Dictionary.LaborLawTalk.com).
Marxism
Marxism
A sociological approach to literature that viewed works of literature or art as the products of historical forces that can be analyzed by looking at the material conditions in which they were formed. In Marxist ideology, what we often classify as a world view (such as the Victorian age) is actually the articulations of the dominant class. Marxism generally focuses on the clash between the dominant and repressed classes in any given age and also may encourage art to imitate what is often termed an "objective" reality. Contemporary Marxism is much broader in its focus, and views art as simultaneously reflective and autonomous to the age in which it was produced. The Frankfurt School is also associated with Marxism (Abrams, p. 178, Childers and Hentzi, pp. 175-179). Major figures include Karl Marx, Terry Eagleton, Fredric Jameson, Raymond Williams, Louis Althusser (ALT-whos-sair), Walter Benjamin (ben-yeh-MEEN), Antonio Gramsci (GRAWM-shee), Georg Lukacs (lou-KOTCH), and Friedrich Engels, Theordor Adorno (a-DOR-no), Edward Ahern, Gilles Deleuze (DAY-looz) and Felix Guattari (GUAT-eh-ree).
Key Terms (note: definitions below taken from Ann B. Dobie's text, Theory into Practice: An Introduction to Literary Criticism - see General Resources below):
Commodificaion - "the attitude of valuing things not for their utility but for their power to impress others or for their resale possibilities" (92).
Conspicuous consumption - "the obvious acquisition of things only for their sign value and/or exchange value" (92).
Dialectical materialism - "the theory that history develops neither in a random fashion nor in a linear one but instead as struggle between contradictions that ultimately find resolution in a synthesis of the two sides. For example, class conflicts lead to new social systems" (92).
Material circumstances - "the economic conditions underlying the society. To understand social events, one must have a grasp of the material circumstances and the historical situation in which they occur" (92).
Reflectionism - associated with Vulgar Marxism - "a theory that the superstructure of a society mirrors its economic base and, by extension, that a text reflects the society that produced it" (92).
Superstructure - "The social, political, and ideological systems and institutions--for example, the values, art, and legal processes of a society--that are generated by the base" (92).
A sociological approach to literature that viewed works of literature or art as the products of historical forces that can be analyzed by looking at the material conditions in which they were formed. In Marxist ideology, what we often classify as a world view (such as the Victorian age) is actually the articulations of the dominant class. Marxism generally focuses on the clash between the dominant and repressed classes in any given age and also may encourage art to imitate what is often termed an "objective" reality. Contemporary Marxism is much broader in its focus, and views art as simultaneously reflective and autonomous to the age in which it was produced. The Frankfurt School is also associated with Marxism (Abrams, p. 178, Childers and Hentzi, pp. 175-179). Major figures include Karl Marx, Terry Eagleton, Fredric Jameson, Raymond Williams, Louis Althusser (ALT-whos-sair), Walter Benjamin (ben-yeh-MEEN), Antonio Gramsci (GRAWM-shee), Georg Lukacs (lou-KOTCH), and Friedrich Engels, Theordor Adorno (a-DOR-no), Edward Ahern, Gilles Deleuze (DAY-looz) and Felix Guattari (GUAT-eh-ree).
Key Terms (note: definitions below taken from Ann B. Dobie's text, Theory into Practice: An Introduction to Literary Criticism - see General Resources below):
Commodificaion - "the attitude of valuing things not for their utility but for their power to impress others or for their resale possibilities" (92).
Conspicuous consumption - "the obvious acquisition of things only for their sign value and/or exchange value" (92).
Dialectical materialism - "the theory that history develops neither in a random fashion nor in a linear one but instead as struggle between contradictions that ultimately find resolution in a synthesis of the two sides. For example, class conflicts lead to new social systems" (92).
Material circumstances - "the economic conditions underlying the society. To understand social events, one must have a grasp of the material circumstances and the historical situation in which they occur" (92).
Reflectionism - associated with Vulgar Marxism - "a theory that the superstructure of a society mirrors its economic base and, by extension, that a text reflects the society that produced it" (92).
Superstructure - "The social, political, and ideological systems and institutions--for example, the values, art, and legal processes of a society--that are generated by the base" (92).
Psychoanalytic Criticism
The application of specific psychological principles (particularly those of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan [zhawk lawk-KAWN]) to the study of literature. Psychoanalytic criticism may focus on the writer's psyche, the study of the creative process, the study of psychological types and principles present within works of literature, or the effects of literature upon its readers (Wellek and Warren, p. 81). In addition to Freud and Lacan, major figures include Shoshona Felman, Jane Gallop, Norman Holland, George Klein, Elizabeth Wright, Frederick Hoffman, and, Simon Lesser.
Key Terms:
Unconscious - the irrational part of the psyche unavailable to a person's consciousness except through dissociated acts or dreams.
Freud's model of the psyche:
* Id - completely unconscious part of the psyche that serves as a storehouse of our desires, wishes, and fears. The id houses the libido, the source of psychosexual energy.
* Ego - mostly to partially (<--a point of debate) conscious part of the psyche that processes experiences and operates as a referee or mediator between the id and superego.
* Superego - often thought of as one's "conscience"; the superego operates "like an internal censor [encouraging] moral judgments in light of social pressures" (123, Bressler - see General Resources below).
Lacan's model of the psyche:
* Imaginary - a preverbal/verbal stage in which a child (around 6-18 months of age) begins to develop a sense of separateness from her mother as well as other people and objects; however, the child's sense of sense is still incomplete.
* Symbolic - the stage marking a child's entrance into language (the ability to understand and generate symbols); in contrast to the imaginary stage, largely focused on the mother, the symbolic stage shifts attention to the father who, in Lacanian theory, represents cultural norms, laws, language, and power (the symbol of power is the phallus--an arguably "gender-neutral" term).
* Real - an unattainable stage representing all that a person is not and does not have. Both Lacan and his critics argue whether the real order represents the period before the imaginary order when a child is completely fulfilled--without need or lack, or if the real order follows the symbolic order and represents our "perennial lack" (because we cannot return to the state of wholeness that existed before language).
The application of specific psychological principles (particularly those of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan [zhawk lawk-KAWN]) to the study of literature. Psychoanalytic criticism may focus on the writer's psyche, the study of the creative process, the study of psychological types and principles present within works of literature, or the effects of literature upon its readers (Wellek and Warren, p. 81). In addition to Freud and Lacan, major figures include Shoshona Felman, Jane Gallop, Norman Holland, George Klein, Elizabeth Wright, Frederick Hoffman, and, Simon Lesser.
Key Terms:
Unconscious - the irrational part of the psyche unavailable to a person's consciousness except through dissociated acts or dreams.
Freud's model of the psyche:
* Id - completely unconscious part of the psyche that serves as a storehouse of our desires, wishes, and fears. The id houses the libido, the source of psychosexual energy.
* Ego - mostly to partially (<--a point of debate) conscious part of the psyche that processes experiences and operates as a referee or mediator between the id and superego.
* Superego - often thought of as one's "conscience"; the superego operates "like an internal censor [encouraging] moral judgments in light of social pressures" (123, Bressler - see General Resources below).
Lacan's model of the psyche:
* Imaginary - a preverbal/verbal stage in which a child (around 6-18 months of age) begins to develop a sense of separateness from her mother as well as other people and objects; however, the child's sense of sense is still incomplete.
* Symbolic - the stage marking a child's entrance into language (the ability to understand and generate symbols); in contrast to the imaginary stage, largely focused on the mother, the symbolic stage shifts attention to the father who, in Lacanian theory, represents cultural norms, laws, language, and power (the symbol of power is the phallus--an arguably "gender-neutral" term).
* Real - an unattainable stage representing all that a person is not and does not have. Both Lacan and his critics argue whether the real order represents the period before the imaginary order when a child is completely fulfilled--without need or lack, or if the real order follows the symbolic order and represents our "perennial lack" (because we cannot return to the state of wholeness that existed before language).
Archetypal/Myth Criticism
Archetypal/Myth Criticism
A form of criticism based largely on the works of C. G. Jung (YOONG) and Joseph Campbell (and myth itself). Some of the school's major figures include Robert Graves, Francis Fergusson, Philip Wheelwright, Leslie Fiedler, Northrop Frye, Maud Bodkin, and G. Wilson Knight. These critics view the genres and individual plot patterns of literature, including highly sophisticated and realistic works, as recurrences of certain archetypes and essential mythic formulae. Archetypes, according to Jung, are "primordial images"; the "psychic residue" of repeated types of experience in the lives of very ancient ancestors which are inherited in the "collective unconscious" of the human race and are expressed in myths, religion, dreams, and private fantasies, as well as in the works of literature (Abrams, p. 10, 112). Some common examples of archetypes include water, sun, moon, colors, circles, the Great Mother, Wise Old Man, etc. In terms of archetypal criticism, the color white might be associated with innocence or could signify death or the supernatural.
Key Terms:
Anima - feminine aspect - the inner feminine part of the male personality or a man's image of a woman.
Animus - male aspect - an inner masculine part of the female personality or a woman's image of a man.
Archetype - (from Makaryk - see General Resources below) - "a typical or recurring image, character, narrative design, theme, or other literary phenomenon that has been in literature from the beginning and regularly reappears" (508). Note - Frye sees archetypes as recurring patterns in literature; in contrast, Jung views archetypes as primal, ancient images/experience that we have inherited.
Collective Unconscious - "a set of primal memories common to the human race, existing below each person's conscious mind" (Jung)
Persona - the image we present to the world
Shadow - darker, sometimes hidden (deliberately or unconsciously), elements of a person's psyche
A form of criticism based largely on the works of C. G. Jung (YOONG) and Joseph Campbell (and myth itself). Some of the school's major figures include Robert Graves, Francis Fergusson, Philip Wheelwright, Leslie Fiedler, Northrop Frye, Maud Bodkin, and G. Wilson Knight. These critics view the genres and individual plot patterns of literature, including highly sophisticated and realistic works, as recurrences of certain archetypes and essential mythic formulae. Archetypes, according to Jung, are "primordial images"; the "psychic residue" of repeated types of experience in the lives of very ancient ancestors which are inherited in the "collective unconscious" of the human race and are expressed in myths, religion, dreams, and private fantasies, as well as in the works of literature (Abrams, p. 10, 112). Some common examples of archetypes include water, sun, moon, colors, circles, the Great Mother, Wise Old Man, etc. In terms of archetypal criticism, the color white might be associated with innocence or could signify death or the supernatural.
Key Terms:
Anima - feminine aspect - the inner feminine part of the male personality or a man's image of a woman.
Animus - male aspect - an inner masculine part of the female personality or a woman's image of a man.
Archetype - (from Makaryk - see General Resources below) - "a typical or recurring image, character, narrative design, theme, or other literary phenomenon that has been in literature from the beginning and regularly reappears" (508). Note - Frye sees archetypes as recurring patterns in literature; in contrast, Jung views archetypes as primal, ancient images/experience that we have inherited.
Collective Unconscious - "a set of primal memories common to the human race, existing below each person's conscious mind" (Jung)
Persona - the image we present to the world
Shadow - darker, sometimes hidden (deliberately or unconsciously), elements of a person's psyche
New Criticism
New Criticism
A literary movement that started in the late 1920s and 1930s and originated in reaction to traditional criticism that new critics saw as largely concerned with matters extraneous to the text, e.g., with the biography or psychology of the author or the work's relationship to literary history. New Criticism proposed that a work of literary art should be regarded as autonomous, and so should not be judged by reference to considerations beyond itself. A poem consists less of a series of referential and verifiable statements about the 'real' world beyond it, than of the presentation and sophisticated organization of a set of complex experiences in a verbal form (Hawkes, pp. 150-151). Major figures of New Criticism include I. A. Richards, T. S. Eliot, Cleanth Brooks, David Daiches, William Empson, Murray Krieger, John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, F. R. Leavis, Robert Penn Warren, W. K. Wimsatt, R. P. Blackmur, Rene Wellek, Ausin Warren, and Ivor Winters.
Key Terms:
Intentional Fallacy - equating the meaning of a poem with the author's intentions.
Affective Fallacy - confusing the meaning of a text with how it makes the reader feel. A reader's emotional response to a text generally does not produce a reliable interpretation.
Heresy of Paraphrase - assuming that an interpretation of a literary work could consist of a detailed summary or paraphrase.
Close reading (from Bressler - see General Resources below) - "a close and detailed analysis of the text itself to arrive at an interpretation without referring to historical, authorial, or cultural concerns" (263).
A literary movement that started in the late 1920s and 1930s and originated in reaction to traditional criticism that new critics saw as largely concerned with matters extraneous to the text, e.g., with the biography or psychology of the author or the work's relationship to literary history. New Criticism proposed that a work of literary art should be regarded as autonomous, and so should not be judged by reference to considerations beyond itself. A poem consists less of a series of referential and verifiable statements about the 'real' world beyond it, than of the presentation and sophisticated organization of a set of complex experiences in a verbal form (Hawkes, pp. 150-151). Major figures of New Criticism include I. A. Richards, T. S. Eliot, Cleanth Brooks, David Daiches, William Empson, Murray Krieger, John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, F. R. Leavis, Robert Penn Warren, W. K. Wimsatt, R. P. Blackmur, Rene Wellek, Ausin Warren, and Ivor Winters.
Key Terms:
Intentional Fallacy - equating the meaning of a poem with the author's intentions.
Affective Fallacy - confusing the meaning of a text with how it makes the reader feel. A reader's emotional response to a text generally does not produce a reliable interpretation.
Heresy of Paraphrase - assuming that an interpretation of a literary work could consist of a detailed summary or paraphrase.
Close reading (from Bressler - see General Resources below) - "a close and detailed analysis of the text itself to arrive at an interpretation without referring to historical, authorial, or cultural concerns" (263).
DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY
CLASS 4: DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY
PREAMBLE: MORE DEFINITIONS
Negative definition of “derivational”: Suffixes that are not inflectional must be derivational.
The base is a partially complete word form to which a suffix attaches.
• one result is an inflected word form, the other a new lexeme (derivational)
• the base for an affixation process is what remains when an affix is removed
word class (C-McC) = part of speech (traditional) = lexical category (generative)
DERIVATIONS: THE BASICS
Derivational morphology deals with word formation (often resulting in a new word class):
(1) a.
b.
c.
d.
happy, unhappy, happiness, unhappiness
care, careless, carelessness, *carenessless
educate, education; generate, generation
custom, customize, customization
Affixes attach to roots or stems and form new words; better to say: they attach to bases.
Sometimes we may not see an overt morpheme (zero-derivation). This is called conversion:
(2) cut (N) – cut (V); fish (N) – fish (V)
Morphemes seem to come in a fixed order, so for example we have prefixes, suffixes etc.
However, they also seem to care what they attach to:
(3) a.
b.
c.
d.
quick – quickly; soft – softly; care – *carely
quick – quickness; soft – softness; care – *careness
care – careless – carelessness (*quickless, *softless)
joy – enjoy; danger – endanger
-ly:
-ness:
-less:
en-:
Adj Adv
Adj N
N Adj
N V
So -ly attaches to adjectives and forms adverbs, -ness attaches to adjectives and forms nouns, en-
attaches to nouns and gives us verbs. In all the above examples the meaning of the whole is
determined by the meaning of the parts, compositionality (but this is not always the case...).
(4) a.
•N
•X
•A
•X
•V
•X
amuse – amusement, enjoy – enjoyment
b.
cure – curable – incurable
N: ‘small X’, ‘female X’, inhabitant of X’, ‘state of being an X’, ‘devotee of/expert on X’
N: -ity, -ness, -ism — -ance/ence, -ment, -ing, -ion/tion/ation, -al, -er — stress, final C, V
A: un- + -able, -ful (English/Germanic) — in- + -ible, -al (Latinate/Romance)
A: passive/participle -ed, -en, -ing (test: very) — -able, -ent/ant, -ive — -ful, -less, -al, -ish
V: re-, un-, de-, dis- (all through prefixation!) — V-change: transitivity (causativity)
V: de-, -ise/ize, -fy/ify — final voicing/V-change — en-/em- (plus others, e.g. -en)
PREAMBLE: MORE DEFINITIONS
Negative definition of “derivational”: Suffixes that are not inflectional must be derivational.
The base is a partially complete word form to which a suffix attaches.
• one result is an inflected word form, the other a new lexeme (derivational)
• the base for an affixation process is what remains when an affix is removed
word class (C-McC) = part of speech (traditional) = lexical category (generative)
DERIVATIONS: THE BASICS
Derivational morphology deals with word formation (often resulting in a new word class):
(1) a.
b.
c.
d.
happy, unhappy, happiness, unhappiness
care, careless, carelessness, *carenessless
educate, education; generate, generation
custom, customize, customization
Affixes attach to roots or stems and form new words; better to say: they attach to bases.
Sometimes we may not see an overt morpheme (zero-derivation). This is called conversion:
(2) cut (N) – cut (V); fish (N) – fish (V)
Morphemes seem to come in a fixed order, so for example we have prefixes, suffixes etc.
However, they also seem to care what they attach to:
(3) a.
b.
c.
d.
quick – quickly; soft – softly; care – *carely
quick – quickness; soft – softness; care – *careness
care – careless – carelessness (*quickless, *softless)
joy – enjoy; danger – endanger
-ly:
-ness:
-less:
en-:
Adj Adv
Adj N
N Adj
N V
So -ly attaches to adjectives and forms adverbs, -ness attaches to adjectives and forms nouns, en-
attaches to nouns and gives us verbs. In all the above examples the meaning of the whole is
determined by the meaning of the parts, compositionality (but this is not always the case...).
(4) a.
•N
•X
•A
•X
•V
•X
amuse – amusement, enjoy – enjoyment
b.
cure – curable – incurable
N: ‘small X’, ‘female X’, inhabitant of X’, ‘state of being an X’, ‘devotee of/expert on X’
N: -ity, -ness, -ism — -ance/ence, -ment, -ing, -ion/tion/ation, -al, -er — stress, final C, V
A: un- + -able, -ful (English/Germanic) — in- + -ible, -al (Latinate/Romance)
A: passive/participle -ed, -en, -ing (test: very) — -able, -ent/ant, -ive — -ful, -less, -al, -ish
V: re-, un-, de-, dis- (all through prefixation!) — V-change: transitivity (causativity)
V: de-, -ise/ize, -fy/ify — final voicing/V-change — en-/em- (plus others, e.g. -en)
MORPHEMES AND ALLOMORPHS
ENG 235: Morphology and Syntax of English — Fall Semester 2003: MON & THU 1.30-3.00*
English Program, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures — University of Cyprus
Kleanthes K. Grohmann (Room 004, Phone x2106) — Email: kleanthes@punksinscience.org
October 23, 2003
CLASS 2: MORPHEMES AND ALLOMORPHS
SOME TERMINOLOGY: MORPH & CO.
A morpheme is the smallest string of sounds carrying information about meaning/function.
• free morphemes can stand on their own, i.e. be words
• bound morphemes need to attach to something
(1) a.
b.
house
house-s
• morphemes that are not words (i.e. those that are bound) are called affixes
• depending on their position, we have a prefix, suffix, infix, circumfix (?)
• affixes can be category-sensitive
(2) a.
b.
polite (adjective) – politeness (noun)
drive (verb) – driver (noun)
We can say that affixes attach to stems and that the most embedded stem in a complex word is
called the root (i.e. it is a simple stem). Note that while all affixes are bound (bound
morphemes) not all roots are free morphemes, some can be bound as well.
(3) a.
b.
leg-ible, aud-ience, magn-ify (associated with Romance roots)
cran-berry, huckle-berry, gorm-less (cranberry morphemes)
NB: What is a word? We might now have a better answer than last class: A word is the smallest
free form found in language. And yes, we can still distinguish simple from complex words.
• roots belong to lexical categories (i.e. nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions)
(4) a.
b.
care (verb, root) – careful (adjective)
careful (adjective, stem) – carefulness (noun)
MORE TERMINOLOGY: THE ALLOMORPH
Morphemes may come in more than one form:
(5) a.
b.
hand-s, dog-s, nun-s
cat-s, dock-s, trap-s
[z]
[s]
The plural morpheme –s is pronounced differently in (5a) and (5b). Is it the same or two
different morphemes? Answer: It is one morpheme with two different realizations
depending on the phonological environment. It is [÷s] after [t], [k], [p] and [÷z] after [d], [g], [n]
— What is it that makes these two sets different? The first is [-voice], the second [+voice].
1
(6) a.
b.
[Z] ‡ [s] / [-voice] ____
[Z] ‡ [z] / [+voice] ____
Vowels can be said to be inherently voiced, so they take the [z]-realization as well: day-s.
One further possibility of the realization of the plural morpheme is after sounds like [÷s], [÷z]:
(7) bus-es, box-es, maze-s
(6) c.
[Iz] (or [ ́z])
[Z] ‡ [Iz] / [coronal, fricative] ____
The rule in (6c) should actually apply before those in (6a,b). Why? Because if in the case of bus
for example, where –s is [-voice], we apply the rule in (6a) that would give us the plural
morpheme –s only, so we have no way of accounting for the presence of [Iz]. In other words,
we’ll get the wrong result. (Some sibilants are a subset of all voiceless consonants.)
(8) Allomorphic English plural rule
[Z] ‡ [Iz] / [coronal, fricative] ____
[s] / [-voice] ____
[z] / [+voice] ____
The three different realizations of the plural morpheme [Z] are called allomorphs. In most of
the cases allomorphs are predicted by the phonological environment (this is relevant for the
relation between morphology and phonology, which we will look at towards the end, class 10).
Something very similar can be said for the past tense morpheme -ed: [Id/ ́d], [d], [t]. [exercise]
But not only phonology determines allomorphy: the lexicon and grammar do as well.
(9) a. laugh, cliff — laughs, cliffs
b. wife, loaf — *wifes, *loafs
c. — wives, loaves
(10)
[s]
*[s]
[z]
my wife’s job ‹ ’s: [s]
It looks like the “word” wife e.g. comes in two allomorphs as well: free wife and bound wive.
Lastly, it must be pointed out that although intuitive, correlating morphemes with meaning is
not (always) accurate. (Class 1: “Morphemes are the smallest unit pairing sound and meaning.”)
Recall that we defined morphemes in terms of meaning or function above — for a good reason.
[rI], [r ́]
[rI], *[r ́]
(11) a. return, restore...
b. re-turn, re-store...
(12) a. involve, revolve
b. #involution / involvement, revolution /* revolvement
Further readings:
& Spencer, A. 1991. Morphological Theory. Oxford: Blackwell, Ch. 1
2
ENG 235: Morphology and Syntax of English — Fall Semester 2003: MON & THU 1.30-3.00*
English Program, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures — University of Cyprus
Kleanthes K. Grohmann (Room 004, Phone x2106) — Email: kleanthes@punksinscience.org
October 23, 2003
CLASS 2: MORPHEMES AND ALLOMORPHS
SOME TERMINOLOGY: MORPH & CO.
A morpheme is the smallest string of sounds carrying information about meaning/function.
• free morphemes can stand on their own, i.e. be words
• bound morphemes need to attach to something
(1) a.
b.
house
house-s
• morphemes that are not words (i.e. those that are bound) are called affixes
• depending on their position, we have a prefix, suffix, infix, circumfix (?)
• affixes can be category-sensitive
(2) a.
b.
polite (adjective) – politeness (noun)
drive (verb) – driver (noun)
We can say that affixes attach to stems and that the most embedded stem in a complex word is
called the root (i.e. it is a simple stem). Note that while all affixes are bound (bound
morphemes) not all roots are free morphemes, some can be bound as well.
(3) a.
b.
leg-ible, aud-ience, magn-ify (associated with Romance roots)
cran-berry, huckle-berry, gorm-less (cranberry morphemes)
NB: What is a word? We might now have a better answer than last class: A word is the smallest
free form found in language. And yes, we can still distinguish simple from complex words.
• roots belong to lexical categories (i.e. nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions)
(4) a.
b.
care (verb, root) – careful (adjective)
careful (adjective, stem) – carefulness (noun)
MORE TERMINOLOGY: THE ALLOMORPH
Morphemes may come in more than one form:
(5) a.
b.
hand-s, dog-s, nun-s
cat-s, dock-s, trap-s
[z]
[s]
The plural morpheme –s is pronounced differently in (5a) and (5b). Is it the same or two
different morphemes? Answer: It is one morpheme with two different realizations
depending on the phonological environment. It is [÷s] after [t], [k], [p] and [÷z] after [d], [g], [n]
— What is it that makes these two sets different? The first is [-voice], the second [+voice].
1
(6) a.
b.
[Z] ‡ [s] / [-voice] ____
[Z] ‡ [z] / [+voice] ____
Vowels can be said to be inherently voiced, so they take the [z]-realization as well: day-s.
One further possibility of the realization of the plural morpheme is after sounds like [÷s], [÷z]:
(7) bus-es, box-es, maze-s
(6) c.
[Iz] (or [ ́z])
[Z] ‡ [Iz] / [coronal, fricative] ____
The rule in (6c) should actually apply before those in (6a,b). Why? Because if in the case of bus
for example, where –s is [-voice], we apply the rule in (6a) that would give us the plural
morpheme –s only, so we have no way of accounting for the presence of [Iz]. In other words,
we’ll get the wrong result. (Some sibilants are a subset of all voiceless consonants.)
(8) Allomorphic English plural rule
[Z] ‡ [Iz] / [coronal, fricative] ____
[s] / [-voice] ____
[z] / [+voice] ____
The three different realizations of the plural morpheme [Z] are called allomorphs. In most of
the cases allomorphs are predicted by the phonological environment (this is relevant for the
relation between morphology and phonology, which we will look at towards the end, class 10).
Something very similar can be said for the past tense morpheme -ed: [Id/ ́d], [d], [t]. [exercise]
But not only phonology determines allomorphy: the lexicon and grammar do as well.
(9) a. laugh, cliff — laughs, cliffs
b. wife, loaf — *wifes, *loafs
c. — wives, loaves
(10)
[s]
*[s]
[z]
my wife’s job ‹ ’s: [s]
It looks like the “word” wife e.g. comes in two allomorphs as well: free wife and bound wive.
Lastly, it must be pointed out that although intuitive, correlating morphemes with meaning is
not (always) accurate. (Class 1: “Morphemes are the smallest unit pairing sound and meaning.”)
Recall that we defined morphemes in terms of meaning or function above — for a good reason.
[rI], [r ́]
[rI], *[r ́]
(11) a. return, restore...
b. re-turn, re-store...
(12) a. involve, revolve
b. #involution / involvement, revolution /* revolvement
Further readings:
& Spencer, A. 1991. Morphological Theory. Oxford: Blackwell, Ch. 1
2
English Program, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures — University of Cyprus
Kleanthes K. Grohmann (Room 004, Phone x2106) — Email: kleanthes@punksinscience.org
October 23, 2003
CLASS 2: MORPHEMES AND ALLOMORPHS
SOME TERMINOLOGY: MORPH & CO.
A morpheme is the smallest string of sounds carrying information about meaning/function.
• free morphemes can stand on their own, i.e. be words
• bound morphemes need to attach to something
(1) a.
b.
house
house-s
• morphemes that are not words (i.e. those that are bound) are called affixes
• depending on their position, we have a prefix, suffix, infix, circumfix (?)
• affixes can be category-sensitive
(2) a.
b.
polite (adjective) – politeness (noun)
drive (verb) – driver (noun)
We can say that affixes attach to stems and that the most embedded stem in a complex word is
called the root (i.e. it is a simple stem). Note that while all affixes are bound (bound
morphemes) not all roots are free morphemes, some can be bound as well.
(3) a.
b.
leg-ible, aud-ience, magn-ify (associated with Romance roots)
cran-berry, huckle-berry, gorm-less (cranberry morphemes)
NB: What is a word? We might now have a better answer than last class: A word is the smallest
free form found in language. And yes, we can still distinguish simple from complex words.
• roots belong to lexical categories (i.e. nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions)
(4) a.
b.
care (verb, root) – careful (adjective)
careful (adjective, stem) – carefulness (noun)
MORE TERMINOLOGY: THE ALLOMORPH
Morphemes may come in more than one form:
(5) a.
b.
hand-s, dog-s, nun-s
cat-s, dock-s, trap-s
[z]
[s]
The plural morpheme –s is pronounced differently in (5a) and (5b). Is it the same or two
different morphemes? Answer: It is one morpheme with two different realizations
depending on the phonological environment. It is [÷s] after [t], [k], [p] and [÷z] after [d], [g], [n]
— What is it that makes these two sets different? The first is [-voice], the second [+voice].
1
(6) a.
b.
[Z] ‡ [s] / [-voice] ____
[Z] ‡ [z] / [+voice] ____
Vowels can be said to be inherently voiced, so they take the [z]-realization as well: day-s.
One further possibility of the realization of the plural morpheme is after sounds like [÷s], [÷z]:
(7) bus-es, box-es, maze-s
(6) c.
[Iz] (or [ ́z])
[Z] ‡ [Iz] / [coronal, fricative] ____
The rule in (6c) should actually apply before those in (6a,b). Why? Because if in the case of bus
for example, where –s is [-voice], we apply the rule in (6a) that would give us the plural
morpheme –s only, so we have no way of accounting for the presence of [Iz]. In other words,
we’ll get the wrong result. (Some sibilants are a subset of all voiceless consonants.)
(8) Allomorphic English plural rule
[Z] ‡ [Iz] / [coronal, fricative] ____
[s] / [-voice] ____
[z] / [+voice] ____
The three different realizations of the plural morpheme [Z] are called allomorphs. In most of
the cases allomorphs are predicted by the phonological environment (this is relevant for the
relation between morphology and phonology, which we will look at towards the end, class 10).
Something very similar can be said for the past tense morpheme -ed: [Id/ ́d], [d], [t]. [exercise]
But not only phonology determines allomorphy: the lexicon and grammar do as well.
(9) a. laugh, cliff — laughs, cliffs
b. wife, loaf — *wifes, *loafs
c. — wives, loaves
(10)
[s]
*[s]
[z]
my wife’s job ‹ ’s: [s]
It looks like the “word” wife e.g. comes in two allomorphs as well: free wife and bound wive.
Lastly, it must be pointed out that although intuitive, correlating morphemes with meaning is
not (always) accurate. (Class 1: “Morphemes are the smallest unit pairing sound and meaning.”)
Recall that we defined morphemes in terms of meaning or function above — for a good reason.
[rI], [r ́]
[rI], *[r ́]
(11) a. return, restore...
b. re-turn, re-store...
(12) a. involve, revolve
b. #involution / involvement, revolution /* revolvement
Further readings:
& Spencer, A. 1991. Morphological Theory. Oxford: Blackwell, Ch. 1
2
ENG 235: Morphology and Syntax of English — Fall Semester 2003: MON & THU 1.30-3.00*
English Program, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures — University of Cyprus
Kleanthes K. Grohmann (Room 004, Phone x2106) — Email: kleanthes@punksinscience.org
October 23, 2003
CLASS 2: MORPHEMES AND ALLOMORPHS
SOME TERMINOLOGY: MORPH & CO.
A morpheme is the smallest string of sounds carrying information about meaning/function.
• free morphemes can stand on their own, i.e. be words
• bound morphemes need to attach to something
(1) a.
b.
house
house-s
• morphemes that are not words (i.e. those that are bound) are called affixes
• depending on their position, we have a prefix, suffix, infix, circumfix (?)
• affixes can be category-sensitive
(2) a.
b.
polite (adjective) – politeness (noun)
drive (verb) – driver (noun)
We can say that affixes attach to stems and that the most embedded stem in a complex word is
called the root (i.e. it is a simple stem). Note that while all affixes are bound (bound
morphemes) not all roots are free morphemes, some can be bound as well.
(3) a.
b.
leg-ible, aud-ience, magn-ify (associated with Romance roots)
cran-berry, huckle-berry, gorm-less (cranberry morphemes)
NB: What is a word? We might now have a better answer than last class: A word is the smallest
free form found in language. And yes, we can still distinguish simple from complex words.
• roots belong to lexical categories (i.e. nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions)
(4) a.
b.
care (verb, root) – careful (adjective)
careful (adjective, stem) – carefulness (noun)
MORE TERMINOLOGY: THE ALLOMORPH
Morphemes may come in more than one form:
(5) a.
b.
hand-s, dog-s, nun-s
cat-s, dock-s, trap-s
[z]
[s]
The plural morpheme –s is pronounced differently in (5a) and (5b). Is it the same or two
different morphemes? Answer: It is one morpheme with two different realizations
depending on the phonological environment. It is [÷s] after [t], [k], [p] and [÷z] after [d], [g], [n]
— What is it that makes these two sets different? The first is [-voice], the second [+voice].
1
(6) a.
b.
[Z] ‡ [s] / [-voice] ____
[Z] ‡ [z] / [+voice] ____
Vowels can be said to be inherently voiced, so they take the [z]-realization as well: day-s.
One further possibility of the realization of the plural morpheme is after sounds like [÷s], [÷z]:
(7) bus-es, box-es, maze-s
(6) c.
[Iz] (or [ ́z])
[Z] ‡ [Iz] / [coronal, fricative] ____
The rule in (6c) should actually apply before those in (6a,b). Why? Because if in the case of bus
for example, where –s is [-voice], we apply the rule in (6a) that would give us the plural
morpheme –s only, so we have no way of accounting for the presence of [Iz]. In other words,
we’ll get the wrong result. (Some sibilants are a subset of all voiceless consonants.)
(8) Allomorphic English plural rule
[Z] ‡ [Iz] / [coronal, fricative] ____
[s] / [-voice] ____
[z] / [+voice] ____
The three different realizations of the plural morpheme [Z] are called allomorphs. In most of
the cases allomorphs are predicted by the phonological environment (this is relevant for the
relation between morphology and phonology, which we will look at towards the end, class 10).
Something very similar can be said for the past tense morpheme -ed: [Id/ ́d], [d], [t]. [exercise]
But not only phonology determines allomorphy: the lexicon and grammar do as well.
(9) a. laugh, cliff — laughs, cliffs
b. wife, loaf — *wifes, *loafs
c. — wives, loaves
(10)
[s]
*[s]
[z]
my wife’s job ‹ ’s: [s]
It looks like the “word” wife e.g. comes in two allomorphs as well: free wife and bound wive.
Lastly, it must be pointed out that although intuitive, correlating morphemes with meaning is
not (always) accurate. (Class 1: “Morphemes are the smallest unit pairing sound and meaning.”)
Recall that we defined morphemes in terms of meaning or function above — for a good reason.
[rI], [r ́]
[rI], *[r ́]
(11) a. return, restore...
b. re-turn, re-store...
(12) a. involve, revolve
b. #involution / involvement, revolution /* revolvement
Further readings:
& Spencer, A. 1991. Morphological Theory. Oxford: Blackwell, Ch. 1
2
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