Introduction to Literary Critical Theory

1. Introduction to Literary Critical Theory Learning Goal: To understand and apply the critical theories used in literary studies. Agenda: The Basics of Psychoanalytic Criticism and Marxist Criticism Applying Psychoanalytic, Marxist, and Postcolonial Theories to “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” 3) Food for Thought on Shakespeare

2. In every area of the humanities (e.g. literature, history, art history, and film) scholars have used different theoretical lenses to interpret a work of art. Why are these varied theoretical approaches important to the study of these disciplines? http://www.thephoblographer.com/2013/04/14/hankering-for-a-new-lens-weve-just-updated-five-of-our-lens-guides/

3. PSYCHOANALYSIS Psychoanalytic theory is based primarily upon the works of the psychologists Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Though both believed in the concept of the unconscious and the conscious minds, there are many differences in their theories. http://www.muezart.com/example-use-iceberg-diagram-keynote/

4. KEY CONCEPTS FROM FREUD The Division of the Human Psyche • Freud argues that it is our unconscious, rather than the conscious, that governs most of our actions • The conscious mind observes and stores experiences from external reality. • The unconscious receives, processes, and stores hidden desires, fears, fantasies, impulses, and irrational thoughts • “the unconscious is the storehouse of disguised truths and desires that want to be revealed in and through the conscious” (Bressler 121).

5. The Id, Ego, and Superego ID: the irrational, instinctual, unknown, unconscious; works to fulfill the needs of the pleasure principle EGO: the rational, logical section of the mind; part of conscious mind, but many inner workings take place in the unconscious. Aligned with reality principle and works to regulate the id’s impulses. SUPEREGO: internal regulator, maker of moral judgements. Works within the morality principle and towards protecting ourselves and society from potentially destructive behaviours of id. Suppresses instincts into the unconscious. http://mondayramble.com/2012/01/03/monday-ramble-59-angels-demons/

6. KEY CONCEPTS FROM FREUD The Oedipus, Castration, and Electra Complexes • With the Oedipus Complex, Freud maintains that the little boy is in competition with his father for his mother’s sexual attention. The little boy has an unconscious desire to have sexual union with his mother and kill his father. He must repress these desires, however, or else face punishment in the form of castration by his father. The boy must learn to identify with his father and to someday possess a woman. If he does not, he will have “unresolved issues.” • Little girls must similarly progress through a stage, the Electra Complex, in order to develop a “normal,” healthy female sexuality. For Freud, girls recognize that they are castrated, and in their desire for a penis, turn their attention toward the father and away from the mother. After she learns that she cannot seduce her father, she learns to identify with her motherand recognizes that she will possess a man as her mother did. In her relationships with men, the woman’s unfulfilled desire for a penis will be repressed and alleviated. Throughout these processes, the child learns to control the pleasure principle (repressing the need for immediate gratification) and to govern him/herself according to the reality principle.

7. KEY CONCEPTS FROM JUNG Personal Conscious, Personal Unconscious, Collective Unconscious, Archetypes • Similar to Freud’s concept of the conscious, the personal conscious is the observation of reality that we make from moment to moment. Once the observation has passed, it moves from the personal conscious to the personal unconscious. Jung holds that everyone’s personal unconscious is unique. • The collective unconscious is an area of the psyche that cannot be accessed by the personal conscious. This area “houses the cumulative knowledge, experiences, and images of the entire human species” (Bressler127). • A set of collective memories exists here that are known as archetypes: patterns or images of repeated human experiences that emerge in our stories, myths, dreams, religions, and fantasies (Bressler, 127). • Archetypes emerge in literature in the form of common plot patterns, symbols, images, and character types. They stir deep emotions in the reader since they tap into the collective unconscious.

8. What psychoanalytic approaches might notice: • How the author’s biography plays a role in how scholars and readers interpret the text’s meaning. This is known as psychobiography. This form of analysis is no longer widely practised. • Individual characters become the focus of the reader’s analysis. A character’s motivations, actions, and desires are interpreted by the reader, and are no longer seen simply as the author’s creation. • Sexual interpretation: Images and symbols in a text are interpreted sexually, either as yonic (female; a cup, vase, cave, flower) or phallic (masculine; pen, sword, knife, tower). • Archetypal criticism: The text is analyzed according to the archetypes that are seen to appear in it (red=danger; water=life). The reader attributes meaning to the text based on these archetypes.

9. Phallic and Yonic Imagery

10. MARXIST CRITICISM Marxist theory emerged from the publications The German Ideology (1845)by Karl Marx and The Communist Manifesto (1848)by both Marx and Friedrich Engels. In The German Ideology, Marx presents the concept of dialectical materialism: “a person’s consciousness is not shaped by any spiritual entity or means; through daily living and interacting with each other, humans define themselves” (Bressler 163). For Marx, the base (economic means of production) creates the superstructure. http://gatheringforces.org/2013/03/11/for-herself/

11. KEY MARXIST CONCEPTS • Marx and Engels further develop these ideas in The Communist Manifesto. • All societies are developing towards communism. As society advances technologically from a feudal to capitalist economy, the means of production will isolate individuals from one another and will create separate classes. These classes will be in constant conflict with one another. A revolution will be needed to move society from capitalism to socialism (transition stage), and then ultimately to communism. • Capitalists (the bourgeoisie) have reduced the working class, or the proletariat, to enslavement. The revolution of the working classes will overthrow the elite and place their property into the hands of the government, who will then redistribute this wealth equally. • The capitalist system leads to a division of labour that isolates and alienates the proletariat not only from the value of their work, but from each other. • The more the bourgeoisie buys, the more its power and dominance over the proletariat will be consolidated.

12. ANOTHER KEY CONCEPT . . . Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) argued that the bourgeoisie maintains hegemony, or dominance, over the proletariat in all areas of life. The elite classes are thus able to force their ideologies, laws, and beliefs upon the proletariat. “Almost without their knowing it, the working classes have become trapped in an economic system that decrees how much money they will earn, when they will take vacations, how they will spend their leisure time, what entertainment they will enjoy, and even what they believe concerning the nature of humanity itself” (Bressler171).

13. What Marxist theorists might look for . . . • A Marxist theorist will move beyond an analysis of theme, plot, and characterization towards examining the historical context in which a text was produced as well as the author’s particular worldview and ideology. • A Marxist approach looks primarily to do three things: • 1) to expose the dominant class • 2) to demonstrate how the bourgeoisie’s ideology controls and oppresses • the working class • 3) to highlight those elements of society most affected by such oppression • (Bressler173) Marxist critics are not interested in the formal elements of a text (structure; symbols and other literary devices).

14. Questions that a Marxist critic might ask: • Is there an outright rejection of socialism in the work? • Does the text raise fundamental criticism about the emptiness of life in bourgeois society? • Are characters from all social levels equally well sketched? • What are the values of each class in the work? • What is valued most? Sacrifice? Assent? Resistance? • Does the protagonist defend or defect from the dominant values of society? Are those values in ascendancy or decay? (Bressler 173-4)