Prater 1 Marxist viewpoint: Within Marx's dialectical account of history is the idea that larger political and economic

forces determine a given individuals social being. Simply stated, the social class into which a person is born determines his/her outlook and viewpoints. The Marxist critic simply is a careful reader or viewer who keeps in mind issues of power and money, and any of the following kinds of questions: What role does class play in the work; what is the author's analysis of class relations? How do characters overcome oppression/conflicts? What does the work say about oppression; or are social conflicts ignored or blamed elsewhere? Does the work propose some form of utopian vision as a solution to the problems encountered in the work? Is the wicked peasant woman a product of her circumstance? HOW? Points to consider The society and its stratifications must reflect the government. Ask the questions as to whether the peasants are a product of government. Consider whether economic and social conditions are the determiners religious beliefs. If art is a political tool, can religion also be part of this political tool? New Historicism: New Historicism treats literature almost as if it were an organized, scientific body.
y

As with traditional historicism, new historicists argue that we cannot know texts separate from their historical context

Unlike traditional historicists, new historicists insist that all interpretation is subjectively filtered through one's own set of historically conditioned viewpoints. There is no "objective" history.

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y

From Foucault, history is an intersection of discourses that establish an episteme, a dominant ideology.

The real center of inquiry is not the text, but history.

New Historicists investigate

y y y y

the life of the author social rules found within the text the manner in which the text reveals an historical situation the ways in which other historical texts can help us understand the texts

Psychological Approach: Using the theories of a particular psychoanalytic thinker (Freud, Jung, Lacan), these critics see the text as if it were a kind of dream. This means that the text hides, represses its real content behind manifest content. Dream work involves (Freud) condensation, displacement. The interpreter must make his or her way through the literal level to the symbolic import, the meaning the writer cannot say overtly because it would be too painful. Such a critic will:
y

Look not to the author but to characters in the text, applying psychoanalytical theory to explain their hidden motives or psychological makeup. Such a critic might use theoretical templates such as Freudian, Jung, Lacanian psychoanalysis, among others.

Look at ways in which specific readers reveal their own obsessions, neuroses, etc. as they read a particular text.

When the psychoanalytical critic looks closely at the text s/he usually:

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y

treats the text like a dream, looking carefully at images to uncover latent content, expressions of repressed fears or desires either on the part of the author or on the part of character(s).

y y

following Freud, looks for evidence of Oedipal conflicts in characters following Freud, looks for libidinal imagery: yonic or phallic images

You may encounter a psychoanalytic critic who interprets a text to accommodate a particular theoretical grid (e.g. Freudian or Lacanian psychoanalytical theory). You may also encounter Feminist, Marxist critics, among others, who use psychoanalytical theory in support of these other approaches.

Gender/sex Approach: Grew out of women's movement following WW II, this approach analyzes the representation of women in literature. Though the projects of individual critics differ, there is general agreement that interpretation of literature involves critique of patriarchy. Patriarchy = ideology that privileges masculine ways of thinking/points of view and marginalizes women politically, economically and psychologically. Critical writers of this approach y For some (French influence), project of interpretation is to expose patriarchal nature of language itself. This involves usage that denigrates or ignores women. It also includes the deeper view that a masculine style of language has suppressed a feminine one. y Some authors (American) explore texts in detail, demonstrating patriarchal patterns, or the complex response of women writers to their own authorial status.

Prater 4 y Some explore challenges to a literary canon that is so dominated by men. This means the insertion of ignored female writers (e.g. Kate Chopin, Charlotte Perkins Gilman) into the canon. It also entails the study of a literary tradition of women writers. o In the sense that this criticism often explores less what the text overtly says but what it hides (e.g. unquestioning attitude toward ideologically entrenched ideas about women)