1. English A: Language and Literature Reading 1
Miss Dermont

2. What is literature? Not just anything using letters
Meaning changes over time
Entertainment or instruction?
Definition: Highly developed use of language in that it is the stylized manipulation of language for larger effect (purpose) and/or affect (emotional response)
Not just so-called ¨high art¨
Can also be tv shows, movies, graphic novels, etc

3. What is literature? For the most part in this course… Poetry
Short stories
Novels
Graphic novels
Plays
Films
Nonfiction texts

4. Historical Literary Study
Greek philosophers Plato and Artistotle debated literature (poetry and drama)
These philosphers introduced the concept of systematic literary criticism
Debated philosophical concerns such as ¨truth¨, ¨beauty¨and ¨love¨ and literature as instruction on how to behave in civil society

5. 18th and 19th century
18th century valued order, reason and appropriateness of literature
19th century literature begins to focus on the role of intuition and imagination, evolving better futures (result of political and social upheavels and revolutions)
19th century associated with Romanticism (beauty of nature, imaginitive encounters with the world)

6. 19th century Romanticism
The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth
Behold her, single in the field,
Yon solitary Highland Lass!
Reaping and singing by herself;
Stop here, or gently pass!
Alone she cuts and binds the grain,
And sings a melancholy strain;
O listen! for the Vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound.

7. 19th Century Romanticism

8. Late 19th century
Publications of Charles Darwin´s The Origin of Species in signals change from Romanticism to scientific determinism of the Victorian era
Science is the answer to all questions
Literary texts became objects of scientific study

9. New Criticism 20th century Text itself becomes main focus
Focus on close reading with little to no concern for history, ideology, politics, or factors outside of the text
Text is self-contained object that exists independently from outside forces including author

10. Reader-response criticism
Becomes widely used in 1960s and 70s
¨Moves emphasis of textual analysis from a singular focus on the text to one where the reader works in concert with a text to produce an interpretation¨
The reader´s experience affects interpretation allowing for various readings that change over time and across cultures
Interpretive communities have general trends of interpretations.

11. DISCUSS: What is more valuable
DISCUSS: What is more valuable? New Criticism (focus purely on text) or Reader-response Criticism (readers experience affects interpretation)?

12. Review of Wed. Class
Highly developed use of language in that it is the stylized manipulation of language for larger effect (purpose) and/or affect (emotional response)
Poetry, short stories, novels, films, non-fiction, plays, etc.
Literature reflects social and political climate
1700s: Literature values rules, order and appropriateness
1800s: Literature values human experience, imagination and awe of nature
Early 1900s: New Criticism (focus on pure text)
Later 1900s: Reader response criticism (readers´experiences and input are important in analyzing a text)

13. Critical Approaches
Developed throughout 20th century as offsets of reader- response criticism
Structuralism
Post structuralism
Marxism
Feminism
Post-colonialism
Think of the critical approaches as LENSES through which you see literature

14. Structuralism Ferdinand de Saussure
Before Saussure, it was commonly accepted that each word was related to a ¨thing¨
Saussaure claims all language is arbitrary and there is no inherent connection between a word and its referent
We see the world for how it has been organized through our systems of naming-our language

15. Poststructuralism Continuing evolution of arbitrariness of language
Because language is so arbitrary, we must manipulate language through a complex understanding of differences to make ourselves understood
Language lacks absolute meaning
More focus on readers´different perspectives

16. Feminism, Marxism, Post-colonialism
Schools of literary criticism, lenses
Marxist criticism: assumption that all texts contain subtexts which are extensions of historical and ideological conflict
Root of conflict anchored in social class and economic differences

17. Feminist Criticism Interpreting women´s experience through literature
Challenge patriarchical cultural values
Uncover essential differences between men and women using literature

18. Postcolonial Criticism
Approach to texts produces in colonized countries
Offer a perspective on the clashes between cultures and suggestion for a possibiity of reconciliation or working across cultures

20. Critical Lens Activity
Analyze the children´s book you are given using one of the following critical lenses:
Marxist Criticism
Feminist Criticism
Post-colonial Criticism
You will present your critical lens analysis to the class on Friday. You will have all of the class on Thursday to prepare your presentation. Presentations should be approximately 5 minutes long and all group members should participate.