Literary theory

- emerged in 1910s/1920s in Russia (influenced by Machine Age)

- intrinsic approach: formal analysis

- taking apart text like machines —> uncover material facts

- Goal: more scientific & objective literary analysis

- Deviation & Defamiliarization:

—> Deviation: literary language deviates from ordinary language

   —> Defamiliarization: literature defamiliarizes habitual phenomena & experiences

- emerged 1920s in England

- objective & scientific method for interpreting & analyzing texts

- intrinsic approach

- close reading:

• method for reading & interpreting text

• focus: unity & coherence of form & content

• affective fallacy (emotionale Wirkung auf Leser) & intentional fallacy (Reconstructing: authors intention writing text) (to be strictly avoided)

• denotative (primary meaning of word) & connotative (secondary association with this word)

- emerged in France (1950s & 60s)

- make sense of a text: insert it into larger spectrum/structure of texts

- Saussure’s structural linguistics:

• langue (signifier) vs. parole (signified)

• linguistic signs: arbitrary —> cultural conventions determine meaning we give to word

- meaning is relational/gain of meaning through system of relations & opposites:

• paradigmatic chain (hut cottage house mansion palace)

• binary opposites (day/night)

• words have meaning because of what they aren’t

- structuralism’s approach to language:

• interpretation of world as function of language

• production of reality through language

  • meaning not universal/natural —> product of shared system of signification

  • interpretation of world is determined by language we learned as a child

- pro:

• focuses on ideas, concepts, aesthetic ideals & artistic principles available to author at particular moment in time

• creates comparison

• focuses attention on literature’s response to historical events & developments

- contra:

• act of interpretation

• never neutral

• provide particular lens shaping reading of all texts (of specific period)

• little attention given to nuances

• generalising summary of historical developments is offered as context for the interpretation of literary texts

• no engagement with primary sources

• historical background & literary analysis —> kept seperate

• emerged in US in 1980s

• idea: literature should be studied & intrepreted within the context: history of the author & the history of the critic

• introduced new understanding of the relationship between literature and historical material

• Important differences between “old” Historicism & New Historicism:

  • approach to relationship between literary & historical material

  • different views of historical sources & their connections to the texts

  • understanding of history & of the way in which we can “know” the past

• Louis Montrose: “the historicity of texts & the textuality of history”

  • don’t just look at texts without looking at history

• Hayden White: use of narrative techniques and plot patterns in historiography

• Stephen Greenblatt: literature & culture are inextricably intertwined and cannot be analysed separately

  • follow an external approach by looking at co-texts

- origins in Germany

- Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels

- political & philosophical foundation

- basics of Marx’s thoughts:

• based on materialism: no existence of transcendental world

• history as class struggle: class system problem —> history moving towards classless society

• Alienated labor

- bourgeoisies: “class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of social production & employers of wage labor”

- proletariat: “class of modern wage laborers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labor in order to live”

- Marxist model of society:

• Base: materialism

• superstructure: world of ideas, art, media, politics, … —> ideology

• economic determinism: society’s superstructure is determined by economic base upon which it rests

- Marxist view of ideology:

• belief system: maintaining power structures

• Ideology …

  • … “explains” a culture, its position & relation to other groups

  • … rationalizes its value, social arrangements, priorities

  • … promotes a particular way of life, set of social arrangements, political program (function)

  • it makes you act

• deceptive ideology: expresses interests of those in power (covers up conflicts in society + legitimizes status quo)

- Mikhail Bakhtin: Ideology & aesthetic form:

• I is absorbed into & interrogated by aesthetic structures of literary works

• Distinction monologic & dialogic texts:

  • monologic: attempt of indoctrination (1 system of unqualified moral/political messages only 1 pov) —> aesthetic failure

  • dialogic: representation of many different viewpoints & struggle between them

• Concept of heteroglossia:

  • presence of multiple, contradictory voices within a text

  • representation of coexistence of socio-ideological contradictions

• concept of double-voiced discourse:

  • two voices are present in same utterance —> subversive effect exposing ideology

• distinction between authoritative & internally persuasive discourse:

  • authoritative: laws & regulations we need to obey

  • internally persuasive: ideological norms/ideas adopted willingly since they correlate with one’s own beliefs

- Louis Althusser: ideological state apparatuses & interpellation:

• how we engage with superstructure —> ideologies as connection to everyday life, lived reality

• ideological state apparatuses:

  • maintain state power “from the inside”: institutions perpetuating & fostering ideology —> encourage individuals to accept/participate in ideology

• process of interpellation:

  • unconscious process

  • subjective constituted by ideology

  • individuals can’t act/express themselves as subject outside of ideological state apparatuses

- gender:

• cultural & social constitution of femininity & masculinity

• appropriate traits for either gender (gender norm)

- biological sex vs. gender:

• sex: anatomical & physiological markers (one is born with)

• gender: c & s of f & m that are attached but not inherent to biological markers

- Historicizing discourses on sexuality (Foucault):

• discourses on sexuality are shaped by power relations in a society (men have more power in a relationship, but: when it comes to sex they want something from a woman —> gives them power)

• is interested in discursive formation of historical discourses on sexuality

  • (Allosexual, Asexual, Bigender, Gisgender, Pansexual & Omnisexual)

- feminist thinkers before Women’s Movement (1960s):

- Virginia Woolf

• “A room of one’s own”:

  • interest: women’s role in society

  • women’s need for room of their own —> be able to express themselves freely

- Simone de Beauvoir

• “The Second Sex”:

  • “One is not, but rather becomes a woman”

  • belief: distinction between biological sex & gender identity

- Women’s Movement (1960s):

• American & European movement: want for equal pay/opportunity, end of discrimination, access to birth control

• Alongside: emergence of feminist literary criticism —> interest: representation of women in patriarchal structures/texts + development

- Feminist criticism (1970s):

• focus:

  • Goal: exposing power structures & mechanisms of patriarchy

  • representation of women in male-authored texts & on literature as a means of society

• Mulvey: “male gaze”: men = “active controllers of the look”, women = “displayed for the gaze & enjoyment of men”

- Feminist criticism (1980s):

• focus:

  • female-authored texts —> recovery of female literary tradition & female techniques of writing

• Elaine Showalter:

  • androtexts (male authored) & gynotexts (female authored)

  • gynocriticism: literary historical research: seek (siehe focus)

• Hélène Cixous:

  • Phallo(logo)centrism: language as reflection of society’s patriarchal organization (male-coded)

  • écriture feminine:

    • female writing style (operates outside of phallo(logo)centrism)

    • inspiration from female (physiological) experience

- emerged in 1990s

- focus:

• literary & cultural constructions of femininity & masculinity

• intersection between race, class, gender & sexuality

• queer sexual identities, exposing & rejecting heteronormativity (heterosexuality = norm)

- Judith Butler:

• gender performance: the perpetuation of gender ideology through the enactment of normative gender roles

• performativity: subversion of normative gender roles through a restaging of these roles that reveals that these roles are not “natural” & “innate” but culturally conditioned

  • Gender Performance & performativity: Lady Gaga (alter: ego Jo Calderone)

- the discursive formation of queer identities – Then & now

• same sex desires challenge (in past)

• non-heteronormative identities & relationship (did not exist in past)

• writers expressed same-sex desires —> coded forms

Now:

• emergence of mainstream genre “the queer coming-of-age novel/film”

  • genre might explore: narrative strategies & genres (fantasy; tragedy; romantic comedy; …) authors & film makers use to tell queer stories

  • they might ask:

    • how do these texts/films situate their affirmative stories in a particular social milieu (often white, middle-class)

    • how do the stories configure relationship between queer identities & local, regional & national communities

Britain’s imperial history

• 17th century: 1st permanent english colonies

• 17th/18th century: unorganised imperial expansion by individual companies - participation in slave trade (abolished 1803)

• 19th century: peak of Britain’s imperial power

• 20th century: slow process of decolonialisation (weakened empire after WW2, independence movements)

• 20th century - today: Commonwealth, era of postcolonialism

• Imperialism:

  • ideology & policy of establishing political power over a foreign nation/territory

• Colonialism:

  • specific practice of imperialism

  • settlement of territory, exploitation or development of resources & attempt to govern indigenous inhabitants

  • physical present & active attempt of expoitation

• Race:

  • social & cultural construct

  • used to empower & disempower certain groups

  • racism: ideology that legitimises discrimination against certain people on ground of racial differences

• Ethnicity:

  • collective identity of a group: language, traditions, social structures, …

  • used to legitimise oppression —> Europe as standard

    
    

• concept of “othering”: function of race as means of definition based on binary oppostions

• whites as “the” human race

• Historicising racial discourse:

  • Mid-Victorian discourses:

    • British as born imperialists; superior in spirit, knowledge, intellect, strength —> “non-whites” cannot match

  • Mid-Victorian discourse shift:

    • positive stereotypes (“Noble Savage”) negated by rise of xenophobia (19th century)

      
      

• emerged 1978, influenced by structuralism

• orient itself: construction of middle-east, south & east Asia; Western fantasy

• orientalism —> Western style for dominating, restructing & having authority over Orient

• Discourse analysis: turning East into West’s “Other”

  • process of “othering”: projecting fears & desires of western culture onto Orient —> binary oppositions

  • auto- & heterostereotypes: binary oppositions between self/identity (enlightened, cultured, liberal) & other/alterity (lazy, irrational, violent, in need of enlightment)

• focus: ambivalences & instability in relationship between coloniser & colonised

• Hybridity:

  • cultural identity emerges into “third space” in between cultures (mixing cultural elements)

  • constitution of subject in colonial, postcolonial & diasporic contexts —> shaped by H

  • literary hybridity:

    • style of writing: found in anglophone foreign (colonial) literary texts (western style)

    • use & incooperation of foreign elements in E language

• Mimicry:

  • practices performed by colonised —> imitation of colonisers behaviour

  • subversive potential of cultural performance: idea of ierarchy collapses —> threat to colonisers

  • double-edged sword: does not generate equality

Key Concerns & Methods:

• media studies, communication studies, library & information studies, literary history, digital humanities, culutral history

• codex: written or printed work (pages glued or sewn together)

• text: paratextual elements = everything but authors writing (cover, summary)

• cultural transaction: in political, social, economical & cultural context (book bans USA)

• Experience: engagement with book/author —> people wrote author (ending is bad)

• Major Interventions:

  • printing revolution:

    • Elizabeth Eisenstein:

      • —> European Modernity

    • Benedict Anderson:

      • —> National Identities

    • Robert Fraser:

      • —> Postcolonial book history

• Gothic fiction:

  • genre for women, inappropriate content, trashy

• Circulating librarys:

  • first public librarys —> borrow books

  • Wiliam Lane

  • Susanna Oaks