CU-MA-English-SEM-III-Literary Theory-Second draft

MASTER OF ARTSENGLISH SEMESTER-III LITERARY THEORY I MAE-613

CHANDIGARH UNIVERSITY Institute of Distance and Online Learning Course Development Committee Prof. (Dr.) R.S.Bawa Pro Chancellor, Chandigarh University, Gharuan, Punjab Advisors Prof. (Dr.) Bharat Bhushan, Director – IGNOU Prof. (Dr.) Majulika Srivastava, Director – CIQA, IGNOU Programme Coordinators & Editing Team Master of Business Administration (MBA) Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) Coordinator – Dr. Rupali Arora Coordinator – Dr. Simran Jewandah Master of Computer Applications (MCA) Bachelor of Computer Applications (BCA) Coordinator – Dr. Raju Kumar Coordinator – Dr. Manisha Malhotra Master of Commerce (M.Com.) Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.) Coordinator – Dr. Aman Jindal Coordinator – Dr. Minakshi Garg Master of Arts (Psychology) Bachelor of Science (Travel &TourismManagement) Coordinator – Dr. Samerjeet Kaur Coordinator – Dr. Shikha Sharma Master of Arts (English) Bachelor of Arts (General) Coordinator – Dr. Ashita Chadha Coordinator – Ms. Neeraj Gohlan Academic and Administrative Management Prof. (Dr.) R. M. Bhagat Prof. (Dr.) S.S. Sehgal Executive Director – Sciences Registrar Prof. (Dr.) Manaswini Acharya Prof. (Dr.) Gurpreet Singh Executive Director – Liberal Arts Director – IDOL © No part of this publication should be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording and/or otherwise without the prior written permission of the authors and the publisher. SLM SPECIALLY PREPARED FOR CU IDOL STUDENTS Printed and Published by: TeamLease EdtechLimited www.teamleaseedtech.com CONTACT NO:01133002345 For: CHANDIGARH UNIVERSITY Institute of Distance and Online Learning 2 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

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CONTENT unit - 1: Introduction To Critical Approaches ...................................................................... 5 Unit - 2: Modernism And Post-Modernism........................................................................ 39 Unit – 3 Roland Barthes: “The Death Of The Author”....................................................... 67 Unit – 4: Michel Foucault: An Introduction ....................................................................... 80 Unit – 5: Michel Foucault: ‘What Is An Author?’............................................................ 103 Unit – 6: Jacques Derrida. \"Letter To A Japanese Friend ................................................. 129 Unit – 7: M. H. Abrams: “The Deconstructive Angel”..................................................... 142 Unit – 8: Introduction To Marxism.................................................................................. 168 Unit-9: Raymond Williams : “Base And Superstructure” And “Dominant, Residual And Emergent” ....................................................................................................................... 180 Unit – 10: Antonio Gramsci: ‘The Formation Of The Intellectuals’ And ‘Hegemony (Civil Society) And Seperation Of Powers’ ............................................................................... 212 4 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

UNIT - 1: INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL APPROACHES Structure 1.0 Learning Objectives 1.1 Introduction 1.1.1 What is Literature? 1.2 Literary Criticism 1.3 Critical approaches to literature 1.3.1 Classical Criticism 1.3.2 Romantic Criticism 1.3.3 New Criticism 1.3.4 Marxism / Marxist View 1.3.5 Feminist Criticism 1.3.6 Deconstruction Criticism 1.3.7 Contemporary Literary theory 1.4 Summary 1.5 Keywords 1.6 Learning activity 1.7 Unit End Questions 1.8 References 1.0 LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this unit, you will be able to:  Describe what is Literature?  Explain the concept of Literary Criticism.  Explain the various critical approaches to Literature.  Describe the contribution of Greco-Roman in development of Literary Criticism.  Explain the phases in Literary Criticism. 5 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

1.1 INTRODUCTION In this unit you will be introduced to the concept of various critical approaches to Literature. But here the question of utmost importance is “what does literary criticism mean?” Literary criticism is the method used to interpret any given work of literature. The different schools of literary criticism provide us with lenses which ultimately reveal important aspects of the literary work. But before going further and to have clear understanding of different critical approaches to Literature, it becomes pertinent to understand the concept of Literature, literary criticism and its approaches or theories. 1.1.1 What is Literature? Etymologically, the term derives from Latin word literature/ literature, which means “writing formed with letters”. Literature is a form of human expression, and in a broad sense literature means anything that is printed in a book. Literature is composed of those books which by reason of their subject-matter and style are of general human interest. Literature is mainly mean for giving pleasure. Fundamentally, literature is the representation of life through the medium of language. Literature was first produced by some of the world’s earliest civilizations - those of Ancient Egypt and Sumerian as early as the 4000 BC. It originated even earlier, and some of the first written works may have been based on a pre- existing oral tradition. As urban cultures and societies developed, there was a proliferation in the forms of literature. Developments in print technology allowed for literature to be distributed and experienced on an unprecedented scale, which has culminated in the twenty- first century in electronic literature. There is no real consensus on definition of the term Literature. In Western Europe prior to the eighteenth century, literature as a term indicated all books and writing, a more restricted sense of the term emerged during the Romantic period, in which it began to demarcate imaginative literature. In Literature, there is the artist’s mind on the one side, and art on the other side. Here is a collection of thoughts from eminent writers on what literature means to them. Henry James states that, “It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.\" 6 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Oscar Wilde is of the opinion that, \"Literature always anticipates life. It does not copy it but moulds it to its purpose. The nineteenth century, as we know it, is largely an invention of Balzac.\" Literature springs from our in born love of telling a story, of arranging words in pleasing patterns, of expression in words some special aspects of our human experience. Literature, like other arts, is essentially an imaginative act, that is, an act of the writer’s imagination in selecting, ordering and interpreting life-experience, in the case of literature, words are the medium of expression and it makes little difference whether those words are recorded in the living memory of a people or by some mechanical means such as writing, sound recording, etc. Literature is imaginative, expresses thoughts and feelings, deals with life experiences, uses words in a powerful, effective and yet captivating manner and promotes recreation and revelation of hidden facts. Distinction between the types of literature is mainly depends upon the difference of function which they fulfil. The literature of knowledge is meant for teaching; while the literature of power has the function is moving and inspiring the readers. The literature of knowledge appeals to the reasoning faculties while the literature of power appeals to higher understanding through the emotions of pleasure and sympathy, ultimately it makes for wisdom, but it works through human passions and genial emotions. Literature of knowledge gives us information which is new but literature of power gives us the highest truth which is eternal. Literature can thus be summed up as a reflection of life with a perfect fidelity to truth, without any preconceived object or philosophy. The supreme literary artist is he who has seen much of life and has a wonderfully varied experience of the men and women around him. This knowledge of life is fashioned into beauty by the artist’s imagination, feeling, and language and so on. The term “Genre” is used in literary discourse to denote types or classes of literature, such as poetry, fiction and drama. A literary genre follows certain common compositions which distinguish it from another literary genre. Each of the literary genres is distinguished by its form: Fiction is written in sentences and paragraphs. Poetry is written in lines and stanzas. Drama is written in dialogue. A literary genre is a recognizable and established category of written work which employs certain identifiable conventions which prevent readers from mistaking it for another genre. 7 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

When we see a written composition using line-breaks and containing sentences that do not run to the right margin of the page we immediately recognize the composition as belonging to the class of literature called poetry. Poetry is the oldest of the three major forms of literature. Poetry can be characterized as, imagery, sound, rhythm and diction. Fiction is derived from Latin word fictum which means “created”. Fiction is a term used to denote anything, mainly stories or accounts that are imagined and are not real. Thus, fiction is therefore any form of narrative which deals, in part or in whole, with events that are not factual, but rather, are imaginary and invented by its author. Fiction can be organized into three categories based on length: short stories, novellas and novels. Short story, which ranges in length from a handful of pages to over thirty pages and has its origins in fables and myths. Novellas generally run between 50-150 pages, halfway between a story and a novel, whereas Novels don’t have a prescribed length. Because they are a longer form of fiction, an author has more freedom to work with plot and characters, as well as develop sub-plots and move freely through time. Drama can be described as a “staged art”. Characters are assigned roles and they act out their roles as the action is enacted on stage. These characters can be human beings, dead or spiritual beings, animals, or abstract qualities. Drama is an adaptation, recreation and reflection of reality on stage. The major types of Drama are: tragedy, comedy and satire etc. 1.2 LITERARY CRITICISM The word criticism originates from the Greek word krisis, which includes several connotations such as ‘separation’, ‘selection’ and ‘judgement’. Literary criticism is the discipline of interpreting, analysing and evaluating works of literature. For centuries literary criticism was considered as an art of writing poetry; it was an advice to the poet rather than the reader. Literary criticism has been applied since the seventeenth century to the description, justification, analysis, or judgments of works arts. Criticism in modern times is classified in different ways. When the critic views art in terms of the universe or what is imitated, he is using the mimetic theory. When the emphasis is shifted to the reader, and the critic views art in terms of its effect on the audience, he is using a pragmatic theory that was dominant up to the end of the eighteenth century. But in the nineteenth century the emphasis shifted to the poet, and poetry became a spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling of the poet. Therefore, when a critic views art in terms of the artist, he is using the expressive theory. In the 20th century, the emphasis shifted to the work of art, especially under the 8 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

influence of the New Criticism. When the critic views art basically in its own terms, seeing the work as a self-contained entity, he is using the objective theory. Most of the literary theorists and critics of classical antiquity who are still studied today namely, Plato, Aristotle, ‘Longinus’, are Greeks. Aristotle’s Poetics is mostly devoted to drama; and Plato’s theories of literature are scarcely literary criticism. The Romans, who by reputation came late to literature and lacked a theoretical cast of minds, are not generally accorded a prominent place in the development of literary criticism. However, the critical discussion of literature was a popular social activity among the Roman elite. From the Romans the major works are Horace’s ArsPoetica and the works on rhetoric composed by Cicero and Quintilian. The Renaissance writers and critics for the most part followed the Classical rules on the principle that the ancients were bound to have been right; but there were some attempts at originality, such as, Vida’s Poetica, a treatise on the art of poetry. For nearly a hundred years the major critical works to appear tended to reinforce the classical tradition and rules. During eighteenth century G.B. Vico, the Italian critic and philosopher, was the pioneer of the historical approach to literature. It enabled people to realize that the rules that held good for the Classical writers do not necessarily hold good in a later age, and that there were not absolute principles and rules by which literature could be judged. In the late nineteenth century different critical theories had begun to build up, there were fewer rules of any kind as more and more writers experimented. At the same time the work of the best critics continued in the tradition. However, recent criticism has tended to be more and more closely analytical in the evaluation and interpretation of literature. Critics of different schools of thought from time to time have attempted to define literary criticism. Sometimes the word criticism puts people off, because in everyday use it has negative connotations. However, the word means more than that. In its original sense, a critic is simply a person who expresses an informed judgment or opinion about the meaning, value, truth, artistry etc. of something. Literary criticism helps us to understand the relationship between authors, readers, and texts, the act of literary criticism ultimately enhances the enjoyment of our reading of the literary work. Literary criticism has two main functions namely, to analyse, study, and evaluate works of literature and to form general principles for the examination of works of literature. In order to present the systematic study on literary criticism some definitions by the eminent scholars have been taken into consideration. 9 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

M. H. Abrams - “Criticism is the overall term for studies concerned with defining, classifying, analysing, interpreting and evaluating works of Literature.” J. A Cuddon– “The art or science of literary criticism is devoted to the comparison and analysis to the interpretation and evaluation of works of literature.” G.N. Devy – “Literary criticism is not a set of abstract values, techniques, standards and notions. If literary criticism does not grow organically from the native sort, or take root in it when it is of alien origin, it will fail to function as criticism.” 10 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

From the above definitions it can be gathered that, literary criticism examines the matter, manner, technique and language of the literature. Certain rules may be formed and literary work tested against them, with reference to other similar works of literature. Thus, reader is helped by critic in formation of idea of literary merit. Evaluation, interpretation and explanation are now considered as the chief functions of literary criticism. Every literary work has three elements; matter, manner and aesthetic pleasure. Earlier, critics devised rules by which technical excellence such as, plot construction, diction, style, meter and language of literary work were assessed. These rules have always changed with time. Essential quality of literature is not how rigidly such rules are followed but appeal to the imagination. Human nature and subsequently principles of literature are held universal and permanent. One must remember truth of literature is different than truth of science or logic. Poetic truth is the truth of idea. Writer should select certain aspects of reality and not all reality and then his material should be so arranged as to throw the selected aspects of reality into sharp relief. The critic must examine if the various parts of the composition are originally related to each other or not, whether they are proportionate to each other and to the composition as whole or not. 1.3 CRITICAL APPROACHES TO LITERATURE Literary criticism is basically a viewpoint through which we look at a piece of literature. Throughout the centuries, literary criticism has been confined to some fundamental approaches, which involves historical, moral and biographical perspectives. But during the 20th century, critical approaches have become much more varied due to the huge increase of educated people and their widely diverse reactions to literature. Literary theory can be defined as a systematic study of literature and of the methods for literary analysis, it took the shape of profession during 20th century, but it has historical roots that run as distant as ancient Greece, ancient India and ancient Rome. However, the modern literary theory dates back to the late of nineteenth century. Throughout centuries, the fundamental question of literary theories has been “what is literature?” and different schools of literary criticism tried to answer the question in their own way. There are numerous literary theories. Some you may find useful, some not so useful. That’s for you to judge. But you should learn how each theory or approach works before you make your final judgment. 11 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Major critical approaches to literature that have historically been important are discussed here. 1.3.1 Classical Criticism Literary criticism has its root as far back as archaic Greece, which begins around 800 years before the birth of Christ. The 8th to 4th centuries B.C. a period yet to be paralleled in the history of human civilization, for its brilliance in literature, philosophy and the visual arts, is normally known as the 'classical age'. The contribution of the Greek, Roman and Italian scholars, philosophers, and critics is considered the initial landmark of serious critical activity grounded on philosophical precepts and theoretical formulations. Classical literature or Greco-Roman literature encompasses a time span of more than 1000 years. It spreads from Archaic Age (776 BC to 479 BC) to Roman or Latin Literature (31BC to fourth century AD). This conventional classification is an arbitrary divide because several overlaps are evident. However, this categorisation has to be seen as the start point for a better understanding of literary history and the history of criticism. Classicism more specifically it refers to the art and literature of Greece and Rome and in India even Sanskrit. Long before the term literary criticism came into practice, literary theory existed as far back as fourth century B.C. In fact, the earliest work of literary theory is considered to be Aristotle's Poetics, wherein he offers his famous definition of tragedy. Plato and Aristotle in Greece and Horace and Longinus in Rome formed the core of classical criticism in ancient times. Criticism actually took its roots with the appearance of Poetics in which certain rules were laid down for writing serious dramas. Aristotle’s poetics became the touchstone of all arts in the succeeding years, Critics all over the world pronounced their judgments according to the direction set out in it with poetics began the classical criticism. The classical critics further believed that the primary aim of all arts is didactic and pleasure and entertainment comes in second phase. The classical critics were men with established values and morals and the artists to be so. The classical critics disproved of any experiment in form contradictory to the classical rules. They also rejected the fight of imagination a work of art. Hence Aristotle’s rules were considered to be the last word in every field of art and these rules were looked upon with awe. 12 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Plato (428/427 BC – 348/347 BC) was the early literary philosopher who had given a systematic shape to criticism. He is widely considered to be the pivotal figure in the history of Ancient Greek and Western philosophy, along with his teacher, Socrates, and his most famous student, Aristotle. He was the most celebrated disciple of Socrates. He was not a professed critic of literature and there is no single work that contains his critical observations. His ideas are expressed in several books, chief among them being the ‘Dialogues’ and the ‘Republic’. Though not primarily a critic is an acknowledged idealistic philosopher who is interested in philosophical enquiry, which forms the basis of his celebrated Dialogues. This work, written in the form of scholarly exchanges between himself and his teacher Socrates, propounds Plato’s ideas on philosophy. Plato’s view of art is closely related to his theory of ideas. Ideas, he says are the ultimate reality and things are conceived as ideas before they take practical shape as things. Plato condemns poetry on three grounds; Poetic inspiration, the emotional appeal of poetry and its non-moral character. Poet writes not because he has thought long over but because he is inspired. It is a spontaneous overflow or a sudden outpouring of the soul. No one can rely on such sudden outpourings. It might have certain profound truth, but it should be suspected to the test of reason. Then only it will be acceptable. Poetry appeals to the emotions and not to the reason. Its pictures of life are therefore misleading. Poetry is the product of inspiration. Hence it cannot be safe guide as reason. Plato illustrates this with reference to the tragic poetry. In tragedy, there is much weeping and wailing. This moves the heart of the spectators. It is harmful in its effect. Poetry lacks concern with morality. It treats both virtue and vice alike. Virtue often comes to grief in literature. Many evil 13 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

characters are happy and many virtuous men are seen unhappy. The portraits of Gods and Heroes are also objectionable. Gods are presented as unjust or revengeful or guilty and heroes are full of pride, anger, grief and so on. Such literature corrupted both the citizen and the state. Truth is the test of poetry. Pleasure ranks low in Plato’s scale of values. A poet is a good artist in so far as he a good teacher. Poetic truth must be the ideal forms of justice, goodness and beauty. Drama is meant to be staged. Its success depends upon a heterogeneous multitude. In order to please them all, the dramatist often introduces what they like. This is likely to lead to the arousal of baser instincts. It may affect morality. Hence such plays should be banished. According to Plato acting is not a healthy exercise. It represses individuality and leads to the weakness of character. However, Plato admits that if the actors impersonate virtuous characters, the same qualities are stimulated in them by the force of habit. Plato is an astute critic in both poetry and drama. He insists on truth as the test of poetry. He says that poetry is twice removed from reality. He disapproves of the non- moral character of poetry. He makes a distinction between the function of poetry and that of philosophy. He also derides the emotional appeal of poetry. He makes valuable observations on the source of comic and tragic pleasure. He was also, perhaps, the first to see that all art is imitation of mimesis. 14 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Aristotle (384 BC to 322 BC) was the illustrious disciple of Plato. He went to Athens in his seventeenth year and stayed there for twenty years as a student and a teacher in Plato’s academy. Among his critical treatise, ‘Poetics’ probably the response to Plato’s charges against poets, artists and art. Aristotle considers poetry the representation of the universal truth of life that gives a particular type of pleasure that purges the spectators of the emotions such as pity and fear. Although literary criticism cannot be said to have begun with Aristotle, the first systematic treatise extant on the subject is his ‘Poetics’ and it was written neither by a poet nor by a professional critic, but by a philosopher who, in his pursuit of universal knowledge, had to reckon with poetry as it happened to be one of the objects met with in life. ‘The poetics of Aristotle is in a class by itself among critical works. It contains twenty-six chapters, first four chapters and the twenty fifth are devoted to poetry; the fifth in general way to comedy, epic, and tragedy; the following fourteen exclusively to tragedy; the next three to poetic diction; the next to epic poetry; and the last to a comparison of epic poetry and tragedy. Aristotle’s main concern thus appears to be tragedy, which was considered the most developed form of poetry in his day. Poetry, comedy, and epic come in for consideration because a discussion of tragedy would be incomplete without some reference to its parent and sister forms. According to Aristotle, poet imitates what is past or present, what is commonly believed, and what is ideal. He believes that there is a natural pleasure in imitation. But unlike Plato, Aristotle does not consider the poet’s imitations of life as twice removed from reality, but reveal universal truths. To prove this, Aristotle makes a comparison between poetry and history. The poet does not relate what has happened, but what may happen. The historian relates what has happened. Poetry therefore is more philosophical and higher than history. Poetry springs from the instincts of imitation and rhythm and harmony. They are indulged in for the pleasure they give. Poetry is pleasing both to the poet and to the reader. Aristotle nowhere states that the function of poetry is to teach. Aristotle classifies the various genres of poetry, discusses their nature, the goals to be followed, and the appropriate effect of tragedy and then goes on to talk about the, type of tragic hero who could produce this effect. The description of the tragic hero is to be found discussed at length in his Poetics. According to Aristotle, tragedy is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete and of certain magnitude, in a language embellished in with each kind of artistic ornaments, the several kinds being found in the separate part of the play, in the form of action, not of narrative, through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions. Aristotle finds six constituent parts in tragedy. They are: Plot, character, thought, diction, song and spectacle. plot is meant the arrangement of the incidents in the 15 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

play in a logical and coherent way. Character, determines men’s qualities, but it is by their action that they are happy or sad. It is by their deeds that we know them, character; it is thus next only in importance to plot. Thought refers to what the character thinks or feels. It reveals itself in speech. All these three i.e., plot, character and thought constitutes the poet’s objects in imitation in tragedy. To accomplish them, he employs the medium diction. By diction is meant, words embellished with each kind of artistic ornament. Song is one of them. Spectacle, the last of the six parts, is in fact the work of the stage mechanic. But it constitutes the manner in which the tragedy is presented to the audience. Aristotle regards comedy as inferior to tragedy. He traces its roots to satire. Satiric verse originated in phallic songs sung in honour of Dionysus, the god of fertility, as epic originated from hymns to gods and praises of famous men. Consequently, tragedy represents men as noble as they can be, and comedy taking its origin from satirical verse, represents men as worse than they are, but satire ridicules personality or rather the “sinner’ while comedy ridicules sin or rather human vices. Aristotle's discourse is all about the establishing of set goals, and once that has been achieved; he imparts instructions on how to achieve them. The two, Master and Pupil differ largely in their perceptions and understanding of the notion of mimesis. Aristotle wanted literature to be an art and not to do the work of morality. He points the difference between politics and poetry. Politics is a social science; therefore, it should be judged by the contribution it makes to social well-being. Poetry, on the other hand, should be judged by its capacity to please the audience. He judges literature by aesthetic standards alone. Unlike Plato, he does not regard poetry as twice removed from reality. Instead, he considers the representations in poetry as true to the facts of human life. He points out its capacity to see the permanent features of life. He suggests what kind of plot, character and style please men. in criticism his attitude of the scientist who while dissecting a frog is rightly blind to its exotic beauty. The soul of poetry and drama lies beyond the reach of his anatomical method but without any predecessor in the same field he successfully achieved almost all that criticism can achieve on inductive principles of observation, analysis, classification and generalization. Quintus HoratiusFlaccus or Horace (64 BC – 8 BC), was a prominent Roman lyric poet. He can be regarded as the world’s first auto biographer. In his writings, he tells us far more about himself, his character, his development, and his way of life, than any other 16 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

great-poet of antiquity. Horace’s two books of Satires, four books of Odes, and three books of Epistles, the last of which, the Epistle to the Pisos, is generally called the ArsPoetica. are discussions on poetry, poetic style and drama. He revived the ancient Greek tradition instead of the prevalent Alexandrin and the burgeoning old Latin. Since Horace is both critic and orator, there is affinity between what he practices and what he preaches. Longinus (213 AD – 273 AD), composed a great number of works, which appear to have been held in the highest estimation, all of which have perished. Longinus in his study of philosophy made himself thoroughly familiar with Plato's works; and that he himself was a genuine Platonist is evident from the fragments still extant, as well as from the commentaries he wrote on several of Plato's dialogues. On the Sublime is commonly called Longinus on the Sublime. Written in Greek, it is addressed to one PostumiusTerentianus, a Roman whose identity remains unknown. The work elaborates the value of literature that lies in its ability to transport the reader and lift him out of himself. Longinus emphasizes the importance of emotions in literature and advocates delighted ecstasy rather than persuasiveness to be the aim of great writing. While the subject of the book is rhetoric, its pivotal argument is cantered on the notion of sublimity. Hence, ancient world literary compositions were not entirely secular, but often part of religious or semi-religious activities, the spoken word was constantly associated with the Physical movements of the orator, minstrel or the actor, the dancing chorus, the religious procession or a political assembly. The lone reader pouring over a manuscript was an exceptional situation and discussion among the intellectuals was again very limited. Literature as dialogue as we shall see in the last unit was a development of the symposium situation which was dominated by the orator in the beginning but came to be commanded by the teaching analyst after Socrates. In classical times the main issues were different from our modem concerns not only because of major cultural differences but because of a different technology that governed the conditions of communication. 1.3.2 Romantic Criticism 17 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Romanticism is generally treated under the head 'the Romantic Movement' or ' Romantic Revival'. The stress was mainly on freedom of individual self-expression. During this period the turn was towards emotion and inspiration seeing the artist as a kind of prophet or a genius also came in the wake of such a general thrust. Most of the Romantic poets saw themselves as free spirits expressing their own imaginative truth. Long before William Wordsworth started writing, the early Romantic poets like James Thomson, Oliver Goldsmith, Thomas Chatterton, William Collins, Robert Burns and William Blake from the neo-classic insistence on rules. Wordsworth is perhaps the only romantic poet who made his poetic experiences the locus of his critical discourse. He unravelled before us the workings of the mind of the poet, and therefore, Wordsworth’s literary criticism ceases to be criticism in its most literal sense. The strongholds of the Romantic Movement were England and Germany, not the countries of the romance languages themselves. Thus, it is from the historians of English and German literature that we inherit the convenient set of terminal 18 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

dates for the Romantic period, beginning in 1798, the year of the first edition of Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge and of the composition of Hymns to the Night by Novalis, and ending in 1832, what is now called the Romantic age. Samuel Taylor Coleridge described “three silent revolutions in England: one, when the Professions fell off from the Church; two, when Literature fell off from the Professions; three, when the Press fell off from Literature”. These fallings were, so to speak, “revolutions” within the revolution, the larger revolution of capitalist modernity from the seventeenth to the early nineteenth century. To Coleridge and other Romantic theorists, the emergence of the “professions,” “literature,” and the “press” mirrored the English Civil War (1642), American Revolution (1775), and French Revolution (1789). William Wordsworth in his “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” of 1800, had similarly proposed a transformation of poetry that would correspond to the “revolutions not of literature alone, but likewise of society itself”. Such thinking presupposed an already formed separation between the categories of politics and literature by the end of the eighteenth century. The Romantics were not the first to separate literature from politics, but they were the first to confront self-consciously the modern separation between these realms and to attempt to mediate it. The question of the definition of the term 'Romanticism' has occasioned a good deal of controversy among literary critics. There are many critics who believe that in literary theorizing and imaginative literature we come across not one particular Romanticism but several Romanticisms. Romanticism places the greatest emphasis on individuality and the subjective dimension of human experience. This stress on individuality implies the autonomy of every individual and the consequent variety and difference. The cardinal Romantic belief that every individual is different from every other individual justifies the assertion that there cannot be any one Romanticism but several Romanticisms. by the middle of the 18th century \"romantic\" in English and “romantique” in French were both in common use as adjectives of praise for natural phenomena such as views and sunsets, in a sense close to modern English usage but without the implied sexual element. The application of the term to literature first became common in Germany, where the circle around the Schlegel brothers, critics August and Friedrich, began to speak of “romantischePoesie” (romantic poetry) in the 1790s, contrasting it with \"classic\" but in terms of spirit rather than merely dating. In both French and German, the closeness of the adjective to roman, meaning the fairly new literary form of the novel, had some effect on the sense of the word in those languages. The end of the Romantic era is marked in some areas 19 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

by a new style of Realism, which affected literature, especially the novel and drama, painting, and even music, through Verismo opera. However, Romantic styles, now often representing the established and safe style against which Realists rebelled, continued to flourish in many fields for the rest of the century and beyond. William Wordsworth (7 April 1770 – 23 April 1850) was Romantic poet from England, along with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the first volume of Lyrical Ballads was issued in the year 1798. It was in the year 1795Wordsworth met Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Somerset and there was a mutual recognition of genius. Both poets believed that verse stripped of high literary contrivance and written in the language of the lower and middle classes could express the fundamentals of human nature. The content of the Preface can be discussed as, meaning of poetry, characteristics of a poet, value of poetry and poetic diction. According to William Wordsworth, all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity. Hence two things arc to be observed: spontaneity and powerful feeling. The one ensures unhindered experience of the other an energy which conveys feeling 'spontaneously'. Wordsworth sticks to the basic Romantic belief that sincere feeling and passionate expression alone can redeem 20 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

poetry but he simultaneously reconciles it with his faith in universal human nature. Wordsworth recognizes three main attributes or characteristics of a poet. First, he is exceptionally sensitive 'endued with more than lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness. Second, he is a man speaking to men, that is to say, poetry is not mere self- indulgence and that the poet is a social being with a responsibility. Third, the poet is endowed with an extraordinarily strong imagination so that he is affected by absent things as if they were present. From Wordsworth's point of view the poet has a positive role to play though he does it indirectly by manipulating the medium of language: the medium through which, in poetry, the heart is to be affected, is language; a thing subject to endless fluctuations and arbitrary associations. The genius of the poet melts down these to his purpose. As Wordsworth wrote in his 'Essay on Epitaphs', language is not the dress of thought but its incarnation. Since every poet's mode of experience is peculiar to him, it will find expression in a style appropriate to it. Consequently, no general poetic style can be prescribed for all poets to follow It has been generally supposed that Wordsworth’s theory of poetic language is merely a reaction against, and a criticism of, ‘the Pseudo Classical’ theory of poetic diction. But such a view is partially true. His first impulse was less a revolt against Pseudo-classical diction, “than a desire to find a suitable language for the new territory of human life which he was conquering for poetic treatment”. His aim was to deal in his poetry with rustic and humble life and to advocate simplicity of theme. Moreover, he believed that the poet is essentially a man speaking to men and so he must use such a language as is used by men. The pseudo classical advocated that the language of poetry is different form the language of prose while Wordsworth believes that there is no essential difference between them. The poet can communicate best in the language which is really used by men. He condemns the artificial language. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (21 October 1772 – 25 July 1834), was am English poet of Romantic period, who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England. BiographiaLiterariais the major critical studies by Coleridge. In this work, he discussed the elements of writing and what writing should be to be considered genius. Although the work is not written from Coleridge's poetic mind, it is still written with the qualities and rhythm of the poetic. Not only does he discuss literature itself he discusses the many variables that influence and inspire writers. Through this discussion, he makes many value judgments, leaving his audience with a clear understand of his stance on certain 21 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

issues. Some of the issues he tackles include politics, religion, social values, and human identity. His treatment of these issues tends to be conservative in its foundation, yet also blatant and original. Samuel Taylor Coleridge propounds his theory on the basic distinction between Fancy and Imagination. He uses the term 'Fancy' for the eighteenth-century view of imagination which was essentially mechanical and determined by the law of association. Imagination, on this view, does not modify, much less does it transform the materials that it deals with but merely reproduces them. In contrast to Fancy, Imagination is essentially creative and it is divided into Primary and the Secondary Imagination: Primary Imagination is the elemental power of basic human perception which enables us to identify, to discriminate, to synthesize and thus to produce order out of disorder. Secondary or artistic Imagination co-exists with the conscious will and is different in degree and mode of operation from the Primary Imagination. Coleridge views poetry and the poet are naturally arising from imagination. Poetry is a term of wider connotation which he uses to cover most of the forms of imaginative literature and other fine arts whose immediate purpose is to impart pleasure through the medium of beauty. According to him, “all the fine arts are different species of poetry”. Poet, 22 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

described in ideal perfection, brings the whole soul of man into activity, with subordination of its faculties to each other, according to their worth or dignity. He diffuses a tone and spirit of unity that blends and (as it were) fuses, each into each, by that synthetic and magical power to which we have exclusively appropriated the name of imagination. Wordsworth's criticism was limited in scope whereas the range of Coleridge as a critic was vast. In his own way he was a system builder and always thought within a larger philosophical context. He considered criticism to be an important part of literary Study. 1.3.3 New Criticism New Criticism was created out of the formalist movement. It was formalist movement in literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned as a self-contained, self-referential aesthetic object. John Crowe Ransom in his book The New Criticism (1941), states that ‘Discussion of The New Criticism must start with Mr. Richards. The New Criticism very nearly began with him.’ New Criticism varied from formalism in that New Criticism focuses on image, symbol, and meaning. Traditional formalists often attacked New Critics for their lack of attention to the form of the work. New Criticism emphasizes that Meaning resides in the text not in reader, author, or world. Texts may contain numerous messages, but must have a unifying central theme created by the perfect union of all artistic elements. Close reading is the basis of new critical analysis. 23 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

I. A. Richards (1893-1979), English critic, poet, and teacher who was highly influential in developing a new way of reading poetry that led to the New Criticism is generally considered the most important theoretician in the first half of the 20th century. He is also regarded as father of New Criticism along with T. S. Eliot. Richards believed that literary criticism should be objective. He was fascinated by the newly developing science of psychology, and wanted to evaluate art in tams of the state of mind induced by it. He promoted a psychological theory of value. This theory has become outdated due to later researches in psychology. But his comments on language, and on the practical analysis of poetry, are still valid, and have had an enormous influence on Anglo-American literary criticism in the twentieth century. In his book ‘Principles of Literary Criticism’ he established a theoretical framework for criticism which would free it from subjectivity and emotionalism. Richards believes that, the two pillars upon which a theory of criticism must rest are an account of value and an account of communication. Criticism should not concern itself with the avowed or undeclared motives of the artist. Richards believes that the mental processes of the poet are not a very profitable field for investigation. It is dangerous to try to analyse the inner workings of the artist's mind by the evidence of his artistic work. It is not 24 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

possible to verify what went on in the artist's mind, just as we cannot be sure what goes on ln a dreamer's mind. Thomas Stearns Eliot (26th September, 1888 – 4th January, 1965), was an American-English poet, playwright, literary critic, and editor. Eliot exercised a strong influence on Anglo- American culture from the 1920s until late in the century. His experiments in diction, style, and versification revitalized English poetry, and in a series of critical essays he shattered old orthodoxies and erected new ones. With the publication in 1922 of his poems. The Waste Land’, Eliot rose to prominence. The Waste Land expresses with great power the disenchantment, disillusionment, and disgust of the period after World War I. His influence as a poet and critic has done a lot to establish a climate favourable to objective criticism. His best critical writing analyses and clarifies the theoretical and technical problems which had a bearing on his writing of poetry. Eliot as a critic can be considered a successor of Matthew hold, because he assumed the role of a guardian of culture; like Arnold, he laid stress on impartiality, and proper evaluation of a poet. Many fellow critics have expressed their dissatisfaction with Eliot's criticism in spite of its great influence. Eliot’s critical pronouncements stimulated a revaluation of various literary reputations. His successful practice as a poet gave special weight to his pronouncement as a critic. He used the phrase \"the objective correlative'' to describe how emotion can be represented in literature. John Crowe Ransom 25 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Cleanth Brooks John Crowe Ransom and Cleanth Brooks contribution to New Literary Criticism is unparalleled. John Crowe Ransom can be considered the father of New Criticism in America not just for his books, The World's Body and The New Criticism, but because of his influence as a teacher and poet. Leading critics of that time Cleanth Brooks was his student. J. C. Ransom founded School of Letters at Kenyon College in Ohio and used to invite leading critics of the day to conduct classes each summer in the theoretical and practical criticism of literature; he did a lot to make literary criticism an accepted academic discipline. Ransom was not only a great critic but also an s outstanding theoretician. He used the word \"ontology\" in a new sense. Ontology deals with the general formal categories or characteristics, a concern which is almost opposite to Ransom's concern with the qualitative aspects of the world. Ransom uses \"ontology\" as a synonym for any concern with actual reality. Cleanth Brooks is best known for his brilliant and sensitive close readings of the text presented in books like The Well- Wrought Urn and Modern Poetry and the Tradition. He believes in the unity of a poem not as something mechanical, but as something organic, with each part modifying and being modified by the whole. Brooks as a critic of fiction and criticism also deserves a mention. r. He wrote extensively on other critics, in essays and articles and in Literary Criticism a Short History. 26 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

1.3.4 Marxism / Marxist View In literature, we use Marxism as essentially a world outlook, something that tells us about the author's mind and the nature of his thought. Marxism as a theory would be more appropriately explained as a critical method with whose help, we raise pertinent questions about the actual practice of an author, when we examine his or her ideology o find out how much of it is real, rational and, therefore, acceptable. Marxist criticism is not merely a 'sociology of literature', concerned with how novels get published and whether they mention the working class. Its aim is to explain the literary work more fully; and this means a sensitive attention to its forms, styles and, meanings. But it also means grasping those forms, styles and meanings as the product of a particular history. Marxism is a materialist philosophy which tried to interpret the world based on the concrete, natural world around us and the society we live in. It is opposed to idealist philosophy which conceptualizes a spiritual world elsewhere that influences and controls the material world. According to Karl Marx, the philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it. It is true that while other philosophies tried to understand the world, Marxism tried to change it. Marxism tells us that class struggle is the essence of a society and nothing happening in society can be adequately explained without reference to this fact. At the philosophical level, Marxism provides investigative-analytical methods, superior, objective and scientific, to' study and assess the phenomena of history. Marxism propounds that, society progresses through the struggle between opposing forces. It is this struggle between opposing classes that result in social transformation. History progresses through this class struggle. Class struggle originates out of the exploitation of one class by another throughout history. During the feudal period the tension was between the feudal lords and the peasants, and in the Industrial age the struggle was between the capitalist class and the industrial working class. It is through the theories of class struggle, politics and economics that Marxist literary criticism emerged. In the area of Literature, Marxism has affected numerous critics in the twentieth century and has helped in the development of a cogent and full-fledged literary theory. It is because of the growing influence of Marxism on literary criticism that the great nineteenth century fiction writers have been pulled out of an abstract appreciation and their writings have been placed in a concrete context. Marxism has compelled the contemporary thinker and critic to reconsider his narrow individual cantered stand of helplessness or the abstract moralist 27 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

notion of decay in the modem world. Marxist criticism has evolved still more sophisticated arguments to address fresh questions. This is manifest in the writings of Marxist critics such as Raymond Williams, Frederic Jameson and Teny Eagleton who usefully link the literary work with its author. Marxism has also helped literary criticism in evolving new materialist concepts of culture, ideology, realism, modernism, political unconscious, etc. with which to effectively counter the onslaught of bourgeois theorists. Marxist criticism also tells us about the need to combine the efforts of the writer and the reader around a literary work. Marxist criticism goes to both points of time irrespective of whether the author-text or the reader- text is chosen for foregrounding, whether the time and context of the author is used to understand the text or that of the reader to interpret it. Marxist criticism belongs both to the past and the present and should be made to serve those needs of the present which are linked up with the idea of radical change. Dissimilar to other philosophies which consider a transcendental force or which is called idea, mind, spirit, supreme being, etc. to be at the centre of human and natural existence, Marxism asserts that it is matter which is of prime significance and whose different manifestation are idea, mind, spirit, etc. While earlier philosophies can be termed idealistic, spiritualistic and other-worldly, Marxism claims to be materialistic and this-worldly. Materialism should not be confused with utilitarianism, consumerism or hedonism. 1.3.5 Feminist Criticism Feminism is a political perception based on two fundamental premises, first, that gender difference is the foundation of a structural inequality between women and men, by which women suffer systematic social injustice, and second, that the inequality between the sexes is not the result of biological necessity but is produced by the cultural construction of gender differences. Feminist literary criticism helps us look at literature in a different light. Feminist criticism's roots are in women's social, political, economic and psychological oppression. By seeking to view women in a new perspective and discover women's contributions to literary history, feminist criticism aims to reinterpret the old texts and establish the importance of women's writing to save it from being lost or ignored in the male-dominated world. Feminist criticism concerns itself with stereotypical representations of genders. Feminism uses the principles and ideology of feminism to critique the language of literature. This school of thought seeks to analyse and describe the ways in which 28 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

literature portrays the narrative of male domination by exploring the economic, social, political, and psychological forces embedded within literature. There are many different kinds of feminist literary theory. Some theorists examine the language and symbols that are used and how that language and use of symbols is “gendered.” Others remind us that men and women write differently and analyse at how the gender of the author affects how literature is written. Many feminist critics look at how the characters, especially the female characters, are portrayed and ask us to consider how the portrayal of female characters “reinforces or undermines sexual stereotypes. Feminist literary theory also suggests that the gender of the reader often affects our response to a text. For example, feminist critics may claim that certain male writers address their readers as if they were all men and exclude the female reader. Mary Wollstonecraft (1759- 1797), was an active supporter of revolutionary ideals and fervour. Her first publication was on the same subject to which she would return in 'Vindication', namely, the education of women. This was titled Thoughts on the Education of Daughters, and was followed by A Vindication of the Rights of Man in which she supported the cause of the French revolution. Mary Wollstonecraft went further than her contemporaries in late eighteenth-century England by demanding that the twin values of reason and revolution which they cherished be applied to the cause of women's education. Given that the association of ideas shapes individual identity Wollstonecraft argues that education is essential to train the minds of women away from enslavement to early impressions. She highlights the inferiority of contemporary literature and life to show that defective education of women is the cause of social and personal ills. 29 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Virginia Woolf (1882 – 1941), is considered one of the most important modernist 20th century authors and also a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Virginia Woolf was a novelist and theorist based in Edwardian London at a time of historic change. World of Woolf in a sense is light years away from Wollstonecraft. The rise of the British Empire overseas, its peak during the Victorian age and the long twilight of its decline during which Woolf was to write. This is a slight outline of some of the paradigm-shifts that took place between our previous theorist and Woolf. The major political change in the position of women came about with the Suffragette movement which campaigned steadily for women to be given the right to vote. A Room of One's Own argues that women writers should be enabled by a guarantee of economic independence and privacy. Contemporaries found her theory insufficiently radical in terms of the class struggle and the women's movement. Later theorists though have been able to apply and extend her work by reconstructing the canon and rewriting literary history. 30 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Feminist theories took shape as manifestation of an ongoing dialogue between women and men. They illustrate the way in which the world and the academy intervene in the lives and processes of each other. The revolutions that make feminist theories possible do not always happen in the public domain. Education, history and literature, which are public institutions have belonged to men for much longer than to women. Feminist literary theories identify the gender-biases of literature and thus help both women and men defeat these biases by reading against them. The argument is not so much between women and men as it is between feminists and anti-feminists. Politics refers to the power structures feminist theories try to combat and ideology to the invisible but inherent theoretical assumptions that govern a society. Patriarchy is the ideology committed to male supremacy and is combated by feminist theories which show up gender biases in the reading and writing of literatures. Feminist theories negotiate problems of cultural difference and of relationship with other forms of criticism such as Marxism and new historicism. 1.3.5 Deconstruction Criticism Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida introduced the concept of ‘deconstruction’ in his book Of Grammatology, published in France in 1967 and translated into English in 1976. It allows the reader to ‘take apart’ a text in order to decipher a new meaning. It rejects traditional readings and instead, calls readers to seek out contradictory viewpoints and analysis. There is a focus on the 31 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

actual rhetoric and verbiage of the text as opposed to looking for the author’s intent. Deconstructionism is basically a theory of textual criticism or interpretation that denies there is any single correct meaning or interpretation of a passage or text. The two important critical / theoretical movements, which precede Deconstruction and, in a sense, provide the soil from which it grows are New Criticism and Structuralism. With New Criticism started a project of reading literature systematically by breaking it into its constituent units. This project was limited in many senses. Two of the important limitations were the privileging of the images and the single-text approach. It was I only with Structuralism that the project of studying literature in a systematic and I structural way really began. Structuralism had a relatively short span, it flourished bout two decades or so. In the late 1960s, another movement, deriving its name from Structuralism began to emerge poststructuralism. Poststructuralism can be seen carrying forward certain ideas and issues within Structuralism to their supposedly logical end. However, when the term 'post' is interpreted as 'after' in the thematic sense, Poststructuralism begins to emerge as a break away from conventional Structuralism. Deconstruction has been variously presented as a philosophical position, a political or intellectual stance or just simply as a strategy of reading. Derrida describes a general strategy of Deconstruction as: Every philosophical argument is structured in terms of oppositions and in this \"traditional philosophical opposition we have not a peaceful co-existence of facing terms but a violent hierarchy. One of the terms dominates the other (axiologically, logically etc.), occupies the commanding position. To deconstruct the opposition is above all, at a particular moment to reverse the hierarchy\". The oppositions challenged by deconstruction, which have been inherent in Western philosophy since the time of the ancient Greeks, are characteristically “binary” and “hierarchical,” involving a pair of terms in which one member of the pair is assumed to be primary or fundamental, the other secondary or derivative. Examples include nature and culture, speech and writing, mind and body, presence and absence, inside and outside, literal and metaphorical, intelligible and sensible, and form and meaning, among many others. For Derrida, the most telling and pervasive opposition is the one that treats writing as secondary to or derivative of speech. According to this opposition, speech is a more authentic form of language, because in speech the ideas and intentions of the speaker are immediately “present”, whereas in writing they are more remote or “absent” from the speaker or author and thus more liable to misunderstanding. Deconstruction’s reception was 32 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

coloured by its intellectual predecessors, most notably structuralism and New Criticism. Beginning in France in the 1950s, the structuralist movement in anthropology analysed various cultural phenomena as general systems of “signs” and attempted to develop “metalanguages” of terms and concepts in which the different sign systems could be described. Structuralist methods were soon applied to other areas of the social sciences and humanities, including literary studies. Deconstruction offered a powerful critique of the possibility of creating detached, scientific metalanguages and was thus categorized as ‘post- structuralist’. New Criticism sought to understand verbal works of art as complex constructions made up of different and contrasting levels of literal and nonliteral meanings, and it emphasized the role of paradox and irony in these artifacts. Deconstructive readings, in contrast, treated works of art not as the harmonious fusion of literal and figurative meanings but as instances of the intractable conflicts between meanings of different types. They generally examined the individual work not as a self-contained artifact but as a product of relations with other texts or discourses, literary and non-literary. The working idea that emerges from the foregoing discussion is that deconstruction is a \"searching out\" or dismantling operation conducted on a discourse to show how the discourse itself undermines the argument (philosophy) it asserts. One way of doing it is to see how the argument is structured, that is identify the terms presented as superior and inferior in it. Deconstruction then pulls the carpet from below the superior by showing the faulty basis of its superiority and thus reverses the hierarchy, making the superior, inferior. This reversed hierarchy is again open to the same deconstructive operation. But deconstruction is not solely a matter of reversing hierarchies. Fundamentally, it involves looking into the structure of a discourse and revealing the moments when certain assumptions become its controlling centre. 1.3.5 Contemporary Literary theory Postmodernism- Modernism was an impulse for novelty in the early 2oth century literature and arts. It flowered between 1910 and 1930 mainly through the work of the high Modernists like James Joyce and T.S. Eliot. Postmodernism concern is with surface style and postmodern writing has greater self-reflexivity. Salman Rushdie's Midnight Children is a representative postmodernist text. It has self-reflexivity, magic realism, fictionality, parody and hybridity of styles. It also makes full use of 'play' and takes liberties with 'history' as it is generally understood. Poststmcturalism and postmodernism have reinforced 33 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

each other in the area of the 'logics of disintegration'. Subjectivity and agency and the possibilities of change have suffered erosion in the face of their onslaught. A number of things which postmodernism stands for are not very palatable to peoples of the so called 'Third World' where suffering is a real thing and not part of some virtual or discursive reality. Psychoanalysis- a form of literary criticism which uses some of the techniques of psychoanalysis in the interpretation of literature. Freud had developed certain theories about how the mind works and how sexual instincts impact on human behaviour. By interpreting dreams and allowing patients to make free associations of ideas, the psychoanalyst could get some glimpse of the working of the unconscious side of the mind. Broadly then, the psychoanalytic critic would also try to unravel the unconscious elements in the mind of the author, the characters. However, psychoanalytic criticism is much more complex than this simple description would have you believe. Psychoanalysis has been helpful in an understanding of works such as Shakespeare's Hamlet and D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers. A considerable part of literary language relies heavily on 'displacement', 'condensation' and on the metaphorical dimensions provided by them. A number of feminist critics find Freud's and Lacan's ideas problematic. There is a biologism in Freud's theories. What has been seen as especially objectionable is the Freudian notion that women on account of suffering from 'penis envy' and 'castration complex' get defined negatively, in relation to a male norm. Both Freud and Lacan are concerned with identity, growth, sexuality and with psychoanalysis as therapy. Lacan adds a linguistic dimension to Freud's insights. The unconscious is crucial to the thought of both these thinkers. Freud sees 'the ego' the 'id' and 'the superego' as three psychic zones. They tie up with the pleasure principle, the reality principle, and the morality principle. Lacan's main contribution has been in spelling out notions like 'lack', 'desire' and 'otherness'. 1.4 SUMMARY  Critical approaches to literature point out that, there is no single right method of handling literary problems. There is no single approach to works of literary art that will yield all the significant truths about them. Like in Classicist approach literary principles are guided by admiration of the qualities of formal balance, proportion, and decorum and restrained attributed to the major works of ancient Greek and 34 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Roman literature, whereas the romantic poets democratized poetry. According to words worth ‘a poet is a man speaking to men” and hence should relate incidents and situations taken from ordinary life in a language really used by men. Marxist critic typically undertakes to explain the literature in any historical era, not as words created in accordance with timeless artistic criteria, but as ‘products’ of the economic and ideological determinants specific to the era. Post modernism in literature and the arts has parallels with the movement known as post structuralism on linguistic and literary theory. Last but not the least, major interest of feminist critics is to reconstruct the ways we deal with literature in order to do justice to female points of view, concerns, and values.  From the concepts defined above, it can be inferred that, Criticism has its own charm, challenge and fascination, only when it is put at the service of understanding, discrimination and appreciation can it claim a place in the liberal world of letters. 1.5 KEWORDS  Psychoanalysis- a form of literary criticism which uses some of the techniques of psychoanalysis in the interpretation of literature.  Poststmcturalism- a term for philosophical, theoretical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it.  CULTURAL CRITICISM :A critical approach that is sometimes referred to as \"cultural studies\" or \"cultural critique.\" 1.6LEARNING ACTIVITY 1. Find out more about the feminist criticismin literature. __________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 2. Find more about authors who wrote on deconstructive criticism. __________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 35 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

1.7UNIT END QUESTIONS A. Descriptive Questions Short Questions 1. William Wordsworth’s view on Poetry. 2. New criticism. 3. Poetic diction. 4. Marxism. 5. Factors attributed to the rise of Feminism. Long Questions 1. Explain the concept of literature and its genre? 2. What do you mean by Literary Criticism and theory? 3. Discuss the grounds on which Plato condemns poetry? 4. Contribution of William Wordsworth in Romantic Criticism? 5. Define Deconstruction approach of literary criticism. B. Multiple Choice Questions 1. Which of the following is not an Aristotle’s work? a. Metafisica b. Rhetoric c. The Nicomachean Ethics d. The Republic 2. Which one of the following writers doesn’t belong to the Romantic literary movement? a. Robert Burns b. P.B. Shelly c. Quintus HoratiusFlaccus or Horace. d. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 3. Which of the following is incorrectly matched? 36 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

a. Principles of Literary Criticism - I. A. Richards. b. The Waste Land – T. S. Eliot. c. Thoughts on the Education of Daughters - Virginia Woolf. d. A Vindication of the Rights of Man - Mary Wollstonecraft. 4. Who introduced the concept of Deconstruction? a. Daniel De Leon b. Jacques Derrida. c. John Crowe Ransom. d. Cleanth Brooks. 5. Which one of the Plato’s books’ description is incorrectly matched? a. Apology - Death of Socrates. b. Symposium - Platonic philosophy of love. c. Meno – Socratic dialogue d. Crito - Problems of the city- states Answer: 1-d, 2-c, 3-c. 4-b, 5-d 1.8 REFERENCES Reference’s book  Peter Barry: Beginning Theory (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1995).  Raman Selden: A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1985).  Ann Jefferson & David Robey, eds.: Modern Literary Theory (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1982).  Terry Eagleton: Literary Theory: An Introduction (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1983).  Marxism and Literary Criticism (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1976). 37 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

 Krishnaswamy et al.: Contemporary Literary Theory: A Student’s Companion (New Delhi: Macmillan, 2000).  Jonathan Culler: Barthes (Great Britain: Fontana, 1983). Website  https://www.britannica.com/art/Greek-literature  https://www.ancient.eu/Greek_Literature/  https://www.edutry.com/Study-material/  https://www.ancient.eu/aristotle/  https://www.iep.utm.edu/aris-poe/  https://www.britannica.com/topic/Poetics  http://ignou.ac.in/  https://www.uoc.ac.in/  http://www.tmv.edu.in/ 38 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

UNIT - 2: MODERNISM AND POST-MODERNISM Structure 2.0 Learning Objectives 2.1 Introduction 2.2Origins and precursors 2.3 Early Writers of Modern Literature 2.4 The Main Characteristics of Modern Literature 2.5Postmodern literature 2.6 Shift to postmodernism 2.7Common Themes and Techniques 2.8 Summary 2.9Keywords 2.10 Learning Activity 2.11Unit End Questions 2.12 References 2.0 LEARNING OBJECTIVES  After studying this unit, you will be able:  Explain the concepts of Modernism and Post-Modernism  State the modern critical thought  Explain the origin of Modern Literature  Explain Themes and Techniques used in writings 2.1 INTRODUCTION Modernist period in literature flourished around 1900. Modernism is pointed by a strong and international break with tradition. This break manifeststrong reaction against established 39 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

religious, political and social habits of 19th century. Modernism as a literary movement is typically associated with the period after World War I. Modernism, in literature is a literary movement in which the writers experimented with new forms of poetry and prose. Modernist literature came into existence due to increasing industrialization and globalization. The main influencers of this form of literature were influenced by Sigmund Freud and Charles Darwin.Horrors of world war I became the catalyst for modernist movement.Modernism rejects traditional ideas and pursue new form of expression. The literature which relies on narrative techniques like fragmentation, paradox, and the unreliable narrator; and the use of metafictionself-reflexivity and intertextualityas come to be known as Postmodern literature. This trend emerged in the post–World War II era. Postmodernist literature is seen as a response against dogmatic following of Enlightenment thinking and Modernist approaches to literature. In previous literary, focus was on external reality but modernism and Postmodern literature shifted the focus to inner state of consciousness. The literary modernist experimented with literary forms and expressions. They want to change traditional mode of the presentation. On the other post-modernist strongly depended on new literary techniques like fragmentation and unreliable narration. 2.2 ORIGIN AND PRECURSORS OF MODERN LITERATURE: In the 1880s, increased attention was given to the idea that it was necessary to push aside previous norms entirely, instead of merely revising past knowledge in light of contemporary techniques. The theories of Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), and Ernst Mach (1838–1916) influenced early Modernist literature. Ernst Mach argued that the mind had a fundamental structure, and that subjective experience was based on the interplay of parts of the mind in The Science of Mechanics (1883). Freud's first major work was Studies on Hysteria (with Josef Breuer) (1895). According to Freud, all subjective reality was based on the play of basic drives and instincts, through which the outside world was perceived. As a philosopher of science, Ernst Mach was a major influence on logical positivism, and through his criticism of Isaac Newton, a forerunner of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. Many prior theories about epistemology argued that external and absolute reality could impress itself, as it were, on an individual, as, for example, John Locke's (1632–1704) 40 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

empiricism, which saw the mind beginning as a tabula rasa, a blank slate (An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, 1690). Freud's description of subjective states, involving an unconscious mind full of primal impulses and counterbalancing self-imposed restrictions, was combined by Carl Jung (1875–1961) with the idea of the collective unconscious, which the conscious mind either fought or embraced. While Charles Darwin's work remade the Aristotelian concept of \"man, the animal\" in the public mind, Jung suggested that human impulses toward breaking social norms were not the product of childishness or ignorance, but rather derived from the essential nature of the human animal. Another major precursor of modernism was Friedrich Nietzsche, especially his idea that psychological drives, specifically the \"will to power\", were more important than facts, or things. Henri Bergson (1859–1941), on the other hand, emphasized the difference between scientific clock time and the direct, subjective, human experience of time. His work on time and consciousness \"had a great influence on twentieth-century novelists,\" especially those modernists who used the stream of consciousness technique, such as Dorothy Richardson for the book Pointed Roofs (1915), James Joyce for Ulysses (1922) and Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) for Mrs Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927). Also important in Bergson's philosophy was the idea of élan vital, the life force, which \"brings about the creative evolution of everything.\" His philosophy also placed a high value on intuition, though without rejecting the importance of the intellect. These various thinkers were united by a distrust of Victorian positivism and certainty. Modernism as a literary movement can also be seen as a reaction to industrialization, urbanization and new technologies. Important literary precursors of modernism were Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–81) (Crime and Punishment (1866), The Brothers Karamazov (1880)); Walt Whitman (1819–92) (Leaves of Grass) (1855–91); Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) (Les Fleurs du mal), Rimbaud (1854–91) (Illuminations, 1874); August Strindberg (1849–1912), especially his later plays, including the trilogy To Damascus 1898–1901, A Dream Play (1902), The Ghost Sonata (1907). Modernist literature scholar David Thorburn saw connections between literary style and impressionist painters such as Claude Monet. Modernist writers, like Monet's paintings of 41 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

water lilies, suggested an awareness of art as art, rejected realistic interpretations of the world and dramatized \"a drive towards the abstract\". Initially, some modernists fostered a utopian spirit, stimulated by innovations in anthropology, psychology, philosophy, political theory, physics and psychoanalysis. The poets of the Imagist movement, founded by Ezra Pound in 1912 as a new poetic style, gave modernism its early start in the 20th century, and were characterized by a poetry that favoured a precision of imagery, brevity and free verse. This idealism, however, ended with the outbreak of World War I, and writers created more cynical works that reflected a prevailing sense of disillusionment. Many modernist writers also shared a mistrust of institutions of power such as government and religion, and rejected the notion of absolute truths. Modernist works such as T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land (1922) were increasingly self-aware, introspective, and explored the darker aspects of human nature. The term modernism covers a number of related, and overlapping, artistic and literary movements, including Imagism, Symbolism, Futurism, Vorticism, Cubism, Surrealism, Expressionism, and Dada. 2.3 EARLY WRITERS OF MODERN LITERATURE Early modernist writers, especially those writing after World War I and the disillusionment that followed, broke the implicit contract with the general public that artists were the reliable interpreters and representatives of mainstream (\"bourgeois\") culture and ideas, and, instead, developed unreliable narrators, exposing the irrationality at the roots of a supposedly rational world. They also attempted to address the changing ideas about reality developed by Charles Darwin, Ernst Mach, Freud, Albert Einstein, Nietzsche, Bergson and others. From this developed innovative literary technique such as stream-of-consciousness, interior monologue, as well as the use of multiple points-of-view. This can reflect doubts about the philosophical basis of realism, or alternatively an expansion of our understanding of what is meant by realism. For example, the use of stream-of-consciousness or interior monologue reflects the need for greater psychological realism. 42 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

It is debatable when the modernist literary movement began, though some have chosen 1910 as roughly marking the beginning and quote novelist Virginia Woolf, who declared that human nature underwent a fundamental change \"on or about December 1910\". But modernism was already stirring by 1902, with works such as Joseph Conrad's (1857–1924) Heart of Darkness, while Alfred Jarry's (1873–1907) absurdist play, UbuRoi appeared even earlier, in 1896. Among early modernist non-literary landmarks is the atonal ending of Arnold Schoenberg's Second-String Quartet in 1908, the Expressionist paintings of Wassily Kandinsky starting in 1903 and culminating with his first abstract painting and the founding of the Expressionist Blue Rider group in Munich in 1911, the rise of fauvism, and the introduction of cubism from the studios of Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and others between 1900 and 1910. Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio (1919) is known as an early work of modernism for its plain-spoken prose style and emphasis on psychological insight into characters. James Joyce was a major modernist writer whose strategies employed in his novel Ulysses (1922) for depicting the events during a twenty-four-hour period in the life of his protagonist, Leopold Bloom, have come to epitomize modernism's approach to fiction. The poet T.S. Eliot described these qualities in 1923, noting that Joyce's technique is \"a way of controlling, of ordering, of giving a shape and a significance to the immense panorama of futility and anarchy which is contemporary history. Instead of narrative method, we may now use the mythical method. It is, I seriously believe, a step toward making the modern world possible for art.\" Eliot's own modernist poem The Waste Land (1922) mirrors \"the futility and anarchy\" in its own way, in its fragmented structure, and the absence of an obvious central, unifying narrative. This is in fact a rhetorical technique to convey the poem's theme: \"The decay and fragmentation of Western Culture\". The poem, despite the absence of a linear narrative, does have a structure: this is provided by both fertility symbolism derived from anthropology, and other elements such as the use of quotations and juxtaposition. In Italian literature, the generation of poets represented by Eugenio Montale (with his Ossi di seppia), Giuseppe Ungaretti (with his Allegria di naufragi), and Umberto Saba (with his Canzoniere) embodies modernism. This new generation broke with the tradition of Giosuè Carducci, Giovanni Pascoli, and Gabriele D'Annunzio in terms of style, language and tone. 43 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

They were aware of the crisis deriving from the decline of the traditional role of the poet as foreseer, teacher, prophet. In a world that has absorbed Friedrich Nietzsche's lesson, these poets want to renew literature according to the new cultural world of the 20th century. For example, Montale utilizes epiphany to reconstruct meaning, while Saba incorporates Freudian concepts of psychoanalysis. Modernist literature addressed similar aesthetic problems as contemporary modernist art. Gertrude Stein's abstract writings, such as Tender Buttons (1914), for example, have been compared to the fragmentary and multi-perspective Cubist paintings of her friend Pablo Picasso. The questioning spirit of modernism, as part of a necessary search for ways to make sense of a broken world, can also be seen in a different form in the Scottish poet Hugh MacDiarmid's A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle (1928). In this poem, MacDiarmid applies Eliot's techniques to respond to the question of nationalism, using comedic parody, in an optimistic (though no less hopeless) form of modernism in which the artist as \"hero\" seeks to embrace complexity and locate new meanings. Regarding technique, modernist works sought to obfuscate the boundaries between genres. Thus, prose works tended to be poetical and poetry prose-like. T. S. Eliot's poetry scarified lyrical grace for the sake of fragmented narrative while Virginia Woolf's novels (such as Mrs Dalloway and The Waves) have been described as poetical. Other early modernist writers and selected works include: 44 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

KonstantineGamsakhurdia (1893–1975): The Smile of Dionysus (1925), Kidnapping the Moon (1935—1936), The Right Hand of the Grand Master (1939); GrigolRobakidze (1880–1962): The Snake's Skin (1926); 45 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

MiroslavKrleža (1893–1981), KristoforKolumbo (1918), Michelangelo Buonarroti (1919), 46 PovratakFilipaLatinovicza (1932); CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957): Tarr (1918); 47 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Knut Hamsun (1859–1952): Hunger (1890); Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936): The Late Mattia Pascal (1904), Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921); 48 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926): The Notebooks of MalteLauridsBrigge (1910), Sonnets to Orpheus (1922), Duino Elegies (1922); Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918): Alcools (1913); Andrei Bely (1880–1934): Petersburg (1913); 49 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Hope Mirrlees (1887–1978): Paris: A Poem (1919); Karel Capek (1890–1938): R.U.R. (1920); 50 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)