Literary theory offers systematic ways to study literature and explain how readers make meaning from texts. This lesson introduces its central questions, its historical roots, and the expansion of theory into a modern academic field.
Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and the methods used to analyze it. A theory is more than an opinion about a particular poem or novel: it provides concepts and assumptions that guide how texts are read and what kinds of evidence matter.
All flashcards
How does literary theory differ from literary criticism?
Theory provides concepts and assumptions guiding interpretation; criticism applies interpretive approaches to particular works.
What is authorial intentionality in literary interpretation?
It concerns how much weight a critic gives an author's opinions and intentions when interpreting a work.
What does reader-response criticism emphasize?
A reader's active role in shaping meaning through the encounter between reader and text.
What is the central concern of Marxist literary criticism?
How literature reflects or disguises class relations and social power.
What did Northrop Frye seek to do in *Anatomy of Criticism*?
Connect historical criticism and New Criticism while addressing other approaches, including psychological and reader-response criticism.
Quiz questions
What does new historicism do when interpreting literary works?Answer: Reads works in historical context and investigates cultural and intellectual history.
How may a post-structuralist approach understand language and meaning?Answer: Language can complicate stable reference and make a final meaning difficult to secure.
What did New Criticism reject as the primary guide to interpretation?Answer: The author's biography or stated intentions.
What challenge did Bakhtin's comments about the novel highlight?Answer: The novel is still developing, complicating attempts to classify literature by fixed rules.
Based on the Wikipedia article Literary theory, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Adapted into a summary, flashcards and quizzes.