1. Literary Theory & Schools of Criticism
English 101
This list of literary theories and definitions comes from the Purdue OWL.

2. Moral Criticism, Dramatic Construction
Plato: art must teach morality & ethics
Aristotle: above all a work must evoke the audience’s fear and pity; a work must have notable language, rhythm, character, plot, and spectacle
Hamlet
Source: Purdue OWL

3. Formalism
Literary qualities must be considered separately from the author’s biography, other works by the same author, social context, and historical context
Hamlet
Source: Purdue OWL

4. Psychoanalytic Criticism
Freud – people’s behavior (selective perception, selective memory, denial, displacement, projection, regression, fear of intimacy, fear of death) is affected by their unconscious
Did Hamlet revenge his father’s death or his mother’s?
Jung – collective unconscious (all stories and symbols are based on mythic models of mankind’s past). Jungian critics look for archetypes, embodiments of symbols. They frequently refer to mythology and symbolism reference tools.
Source: Purdue OWL

5. Feminist Criticism
Focused on ways in which literature reinforces or undermines the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women. What aspects of our culture are inherently patriarchal?
Source: Purdue OWL

6. Marxist Criticism
Who benefits from the ____? Are lower class or working class characters in the text repressed?
Source: Purdue OWL

7. Postmodern Criticism
Structures, definitions, and words themselves are unreliable. Nothing traditional is reliable. All previous definitions, assumptions, formulas cannot be trusted.
There are many truths, not just one.
Using language to reach truth is not logical since language itself is unreliable. Consider puns, sentences that communicate multiple ideas within otherwise simple wording, and other word play.
Non-traditional plot structure and content that critiques.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead – “The old man thinks he loves his daughter.” What from Hamlet and/or theater does R&G take a shot at?
Source: Purdue OWL

8. Reader-Response Criticism
Uses a psychoanalytic, feminist, or structuralist lens but believes above all else that the text cannot be separated from what it does (to the reader). Readers and their interpretations cannot be separated from the analysis.
Source: Purdue OWL

9. Structuralism and Semiotics
Based on theories of language and linguistics, S&S looks for underlying elements in culture and literature that can be connected so that critics can develop general conclusions about the individual works and the systems that they emerged from.
Structuralists assert that language patterns exist, underlying elements of those patterns are common to all human experience.
Genre
Narrative versus the culture that created it
Patterns of the human experience
Cultural phenomena
Source: Purdue OWL

10. New Historicism, Cultural Studies
New Historicism/Cultural Studies tries to reconnect a work with the time period (cultural and political movements) that produced it. New Historicists believe we cannot look at history objectively but interpret history through the lens of our own time and culture. Being aware of our own biases and attempting to genuinely understand the piece’s social and historical context are paramount.
Source: Purdue OWL

11. Post-Colonial Criticism
“Post-colonial critics are concerned with literature produced by colonial powers and works produced by those who were/are colonized. [They look] at issues of power, economics, politics, religion, and culture and how these elements work in relation to colonial hegemony [authority].”
Post-colonial critics critique the terms “first-world,” “third world,” etc. because they “reinforce the dominant positions of western cultures populating first world status.”
While Heart of Darkness criticizes colonial behavior, it also portrays Africans as ignorant savages, so its place in the canon is suspect.
Check out the “typical questions”
Source: Purdue OWL

12. Gender Studies and Queer Theory
“Gender studies and queer theory explore issues of sexuality, power, and marginalized populations (woman as other) in literature and culture… the manner in which gender and sexuality is discussed.”
Traditionally gender studies were discussed in binary opposites (masculine vs feminine, vs active, etc.) but today’s gender studies critics are interested in breaking down the binaries (and perhaps many labels).
Typical questions
Source: Purdue OWL

13. Ecocriticism
“Ecocriticism is the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment…. Ecocriticism asks us to examine ourselves and the world around us, critiquing the way that we represent, interact with, and construct the environment, both ‘natural’ and manmade.”
Ecojustice. “The ecojustice movement, one of the more political of ecocriticism branches that is ‘raising an awareness of class, race, and gender through ecocritical reading of text.’”
Pastoral. “Pastoralism is a general idealization of the nature and the rural and the demoninzation of the urban.”
Wilderness. “Old World wilderness displays wilderness as a place beyond the borders of civilization, wherein the wilderness is treated as a” place of threat or exile.
Ecofeminism. Positioning women as closer to nature than men are reinforces them as less civilized.
Source: Purdue OWL

14. Paraquoted from Source: Purdue OWL
Critical Race Theory
CRT examines the appearance of race and racism across dominant cultural modes of expression and attempts to understand how victims of systemic racism are affected by cultural perceptions of race and how they represent themselves to counter prejudice. Scholars treat literature and other cultural works as evidence of American culture’s collective values and beliefs.
Paraquoted from Source: Purdue OWL

15. Hamlet Moral Criticism, Dramatic Construction Formalism Psychoanalytic
Feminist
Postmodern (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead)
Source: Purdue OWL

16. Poetry “kitchenette building” Marxist
“The Pomegranate” New Historicism
“Julia” Critical Race Theory
“Prayer to the Pacific” Ecocriticism
“The Butcher’s Wife” Feminism
“Coal” Critical Race Theory
Source: Purdue OWL

17. The Little Prince Chapters 1-5: ecocriticism [one page]
__________ = take notes as you read and think about whether a specific school of literary criticism “calls out” to be used on that set of chapters
Moral criticism
Formalism
Psychoanalytic
Marxist
Reader-response
Structuralist
Postmodern
New Historicism
Post-colonial *see blue
Gender studies
Chapters 1-5: ecocriticism [one page]
Chapters 6-9: feminism [one page]
Chapter 10: ____ [one page]
Chapters 11-12: ______ [one page]
Chapters 13-14: ______ [one page]
Chapters 15-16: Critical Race Theory (subtle racism)
Chapters 17-19: _____ [one page]
Chapters 20: _____ [half page]
Source: Purdue OWL