Critical Theories and Literary Analysis: A Historical Overview, Quizzes of English Language

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TERM 1 Plato DEFINITION 1 Did not use literature to evoke emotion (reader-response criticism) TERM 2 Aristotle DEFINITION 2 Saw importance in organization and style and the emotional impact a work can have on the audience (reader-response criticism) TERM 3 Jacques Derrida DEFINITION 3 Founder of deconstruction, believed that the inflexible structuralist readings were caused by their acceptance of a transcendental signified TERM 4 Jacques Lacan DEFINITION 4 Built on Freuds work (psychological criticism), believed that the ego is only an illusion produced by the unconscious and that the unconscious is structured like a language; beliefs are popular with poststructuralists; created the ideas of Real Order, mirror stage, Imaginary Order, other, and Symbolic Order TERM 5 Karl Marx DEFINITION 5 Author of The German Ideology, argued that the means of production controlled a societys institutions and beliefs, Marxism was not intended to be a method of literary analysis; believed that the moving force behind human history is its economic systems, established ideas of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat TERM 6 Elaine Showalter DEFINITION 6 Divided womens history into three phases, the feminine phase, the feminist phase, and the female phase; believes there is no single strand of feminism or feminist criticism, that French feminists are primarily psychoanalytic TERM 7 Ferdinand de Saussure DEFINITION 7 Regarded as the father of modern linguists (structuralism), used a synchronic approach to language (a more scientific study); argued that language is a system that has its own internal rules of operations (langue, parole), explains language as a system of signs composed of signifiers and signifieds; believes language constitutes our world and structures our experience TERM 8 Sigmund Freud DEFINITION 8 Theorized about the workings of the human psyche, its formation, organization, and its maladies; created concepts of the unconscious, tripartite psyche, importance of dreams, and the significance of sexuality and its symbols (psychological criticism) TERM 9 Fredric Jameson DEFINITION 9 One of the best known Marxist critics, used Freudian ideas in his practice; discussed the political unconscious, the exploitation and oppression buried in a work, believes the critic seeks to uncover those buried forces and bring them to light TERM 10 W. E. B. DuBois DEFINITION 10 Author of The Souls of Black Folk, created double consciousness to describe the perception of oneself through the eyes of others (multiculturalism) TERM 21 Feminism DEFINITION 21 Purpose: 1) To read with heightened awareness of the nature, social roles, and treatment of female characters, 2) To recognize ignored and undervalued female writers, 3) To explore more sexual identities than the traditional male/female binary; Assumption: 1) Because society is and has been basically patriarchal, the talents and products of women have been undervalued, leaving them without visible power, 2) Sexual orientation is central to critical analysis and understanding TERM 22 Marxism DEFINITION 22 Purpose: To reveal how those in control of the means of production manipulate the rest and thereby change the system; Assumption: economics controls all aspects of a society, the material (not the spiritual) is all important TERM 23 Postcolonialism DEFINITION 23 Purpose: To examine the literature of colonized people and that of the descendants of their colonizers, featuring what happens when one culture is dominated by another; Assumption: Physical conquest of a culture leads to loss or serious modification of it, resulting in uncertainty of identity for both the conquered and the colonizers, who live in a mixed culture often marked by contrasts and antagonisms, resentment, and blended practice TERM 24 African-American Criticism DEFINITION 24 Purpose: To identify and analyze the literatures of racial and ethnic minorities in order to discover their unique characteristics and worldviews; Assumption: The literature of historically marginalized groups provides a rich source of works for analysis TERM 25 Binary opposition DEFINITION 25 Paired opposites in which the first named is the dominant figure (male/female, white/black), making the dichotomy an evaluative hierarchy. Such opposing elements are always unstable because they can be inverted. The term is important to structuralists and deconstructionists TERM 26 Black aesthetic DEFINITION 26 Methods of literary interpretation that are concerned with the materials black artists work with the purpose of their work, and how they go about doing it TERM 27 Bourgeoisie DEFINITION 27 The name given by Marx to the owners of the means of production in a society. It is a term taken from French, used to refer to members of the middle class TERM 28 Collective unconscious DEFINITION 28 The inherited experience of the human race that resides at a deep level of the psyche. Its contents come from recurrent life situations that are common to all human beings. They take the form of archetypes and are revealed in images and symbols that appear in dreams, literature, religions, and mythologies. The concept of the collective unconscious is one of the major differences between the theories of Freud and Jung TERM 29 Colonialism DEFINITION 29 The subjection of one culture by another. It may involve military conquest but also extends to the imposition of the dominant powers values and customs on those of the conquered peoples. It usually suggests some form of exploitations of the colonized peoples TERM 30 Commodification DEFINITION 30 A Marxist term referring to the attitude of valuing things not for the utility but for their power to impress others or for their resale possibilities TERM 31 Conspicuous Consumption DEFINITION 31 The obvious acquisition of things only for their sign value and/or exchange value TERM 32 Cultural colonization DEFINITION 32 The imposition of the beliefs and social practices of a dominant power on a subjugated one, resulting in loss or change of the native culture. Cultural colonization often follows political or military colonization TERM 33 Demonic other DEFINITION 33 The view that those who are different from oneself are not only backward but also savage, even evil. The term is frequently used in postcolonial studies TERM 34 Diachronic DEFINITION 34 An approach to the study of language that traces how and why words have evolved in meaning or sound over time. Saussure sees it in opposition to a synchronic approach that studies the state of a language at one particular stage of its development TERM 35 Difference DEFINITION 35 The term Jacques Derrida used to indicate that meaning is based on differences and is always postponed. If language and meaning have no origin and no end, it is ultimately undecidable TERM 46 Hegemony DEFINITION 46 Dominance of one state or group over another TERM 47 Hybridity DEFINITION 47 A postcolonial term referring to the quality of cultures that have characteristics of both the colonizers and the colonized. Marked by conflicts and tensions, they are continually changing and evolving. Hybridity challenges traditional identities based on class, race, and gender and offers a release from singular identities TERM 48 Id DEFINITION 48 An unconscious part of the psyche that is the source of psychic energy and desires. It operates for the sole purpose of finding pleasure through gratification of its instinctual needs. Part of the ego merges with the id, drawing energy from it through sublimation TERM 49 Ideology DEFINITION 49 A belief system. It is a set of values and ways of thinking through which people see the world they live in and explain why it exists. Two principal elements of the ideology of Marxist theory are expressed in figurative terms as a superstructure and a base that generates it TERM 50 Imaginary Order DEFINITION 50 A term used by Jacques Lacan to refer to the prelinguistic psychic stage at the beginning of which the infant is unaware of its separateness from the mother or any other objects that serves its needs. It includes the mirror stage, during which the infant begins to recognize its separateness from other objects and to develop a sense of self, which is actually illusory since it is based on an external reflected image. The other two developmental orders, according to Lacan, are the real order and the symbolic order TERM 51 Interpellation DEFINITION 51 A term used by Louis Althusser to refer to the process by which the working class is manipulated to accept the ideology of the dominant class TERM 52 Material circumstances DEFINITION 52 The economic conditions underlying the society. To understand social events, one must have a grasp of the material circumstances and the historical situation in which they occur TERM 53 Mimicry DEFINITION 53 Imitation of the dress, manners, and language of the dominant culture by an oppressed one. The term is found in postcolonial criticism TERM 54 Mirror stage DEFINITION 54 A term used by Jacques Lacan to refer to an event that occurs between the ages of six and eighteen months involving an infant seeing him or herself in a mirror and identifying with the image that appears there. The reflection signals a functional unity that the child has not yet developed. Since the child is not an image in a mirror, the experience begins a life-long misrecognition of identity that eventually leads to alienation TERM 55 Misogyny DEFINITION 55 The hatred of women, especially by a man. Feminists critics are quick to note its presence in works of literature TERM 56 Mytheme DEFINITION 56 Claude Levi-Strausss term for the smallest elements used in the analysis of myths. They are used to reveal larger, more universal structures. He chose the name for its reference to phonemes, Saussures term for the smallest phonological unit. Mythemes are analogous to the functions named by Vladimir Propp in his study of Russian folk tales TERM 57 Neocolonialism DEFINITION 57 Domination of a developing nation by international corporations attracted by cheap labor and manipulable political and legal systems. It is the modern version of colonization in which militarism has been replaced by economic forces TERM 58 Oedipal complex DEFINITION 58 Sigmund Freuds theory that around the age of five a boy perceives his father to be a rival for the love of his mother. The desire to possess the mother and to be rid of the rival father can be repressed but continue into adulthood, leading to aberrant behavior. The term is drawn from Sophocles tragedy Oedipus the King TERM 59 other DEFINITION 59 Jacques Lacans term for referring to the reflection an infant mistakenly takes to be the self during the mirror stage of development. The infant thinks the reflection is real and uses what it sees to create the ego, the sense of I. It is only an illusion, however, and we are, in actuality, not complete selves. Lacan refers to it because it is not the actual self, only an image outside of the self. The term is used by postcolonial theorists to refer to the negative view of subjected peoples held by their colonizers. TERM 60 Patriarchy DEFINITION 60 A term describing an institution or social system that is headed and directed by a male. It can also refer to someone who approves of such a system. The patriarch, usually an older, venerated person, may be the founder or current ruler of the group. Feminists regard it as being synonymous with male domination TERM 71 Symbolic Order DEFINITION 71 A term used by Jacques Lacan to refer to the psychic stage of development in which an individual learns language and it shapes his or her identity by taking the place of what is lacking and giving the speaker the capacity to name the self as I. The Symbolic also initiates socialization by setting up rules of behavior and putting limits on desire. It is ruled by what Lacan calls the Law of the Father, because it is the father who enforces cultural norms and laws TERM 72 Synchronic DEFINITION 72 An approach to the study of language that searches for the principles that govern its functions by examining a language at one particular point in time. Saussure sees it in opposition to a diachronic approach, which traces the changes that have taken place in a language throughout its history. Most schools of modern linguistics are synchronic TERM 73 Transcendental signified DEFINITION 73 A fixed, ultimate center of meaning. It provides human beings table, unchanging, ongoing meaning that grounds belief and actions. Over the ages it has gone by many names (God, truth, essence). Derrida denies its existence TERM 74 Unhomeliness DEFINITION 74 The sense of being culturally displaced, of being caught between two cultures and not at home in either of them. The term was devised by Homi Bhaba to refer to the condition felt by those who lack a clearly defined cultural identity TERM 75 Unity DEFINITION 75 The coherence of the elements of a work that creates a sense of an organic whole. It is created when all the various parts of a work (diction, images, symbols, etc.) interrelate with each other to make a statement. The Formalists looks for a works unifying elements TERM 76 Universalism DEFINITION 76 The belief that a great work of literature deals with certain themes and characters whose significance and appeal are not limited by time or place. They are thought to be common to people in all civilizations regardless of geography or era. In actuality, the themes and characters alluded to are common in European literature, making universalism Eurocentric in nature TERM 77 Yonic symbol DEFINITION 77 A feminine symbol, particularly significant for Freudian critics. It is recognizable because it is concave